In "Redbelt," acclaimed playwright/filmmaker David Mamet attempts a thinking-man's martial arts movie.

A gleaming, six-ton steel bank vault door built into the entryway is the first clue. Then follow strings of faceted crystals, suggestive of diamond necklaces, suspended from the dining room's soaring two-story ceiling; yards of polished stone and custom fabrics, including the sumptuous silken upholstery of deep banquettes; dramatic modern sculptures backlit in the copper and green of money.

Somewhere, two copywriters from R&R Partners (the ad agency responsible for the initial promotion) are laughing -- all the way to the bank.

In the Wings:News about Theater of the American South's Lee Smith stage adaptation, a new Charles Mee adaptation, director Karen Dacons-Brock and DSI Comedy Theater.

The puppets of Broadway's Tony-winning "Avenue Q" may look like "Sesame Street" Muppets, but they don't act like them. They curse, drink, surf for Web porn and have one-night stands. The irreverent but tender show is in Raleigh through Sunday.

Sunday night is getting less steamy.

Nielsens:The May "sweeps" is precisely the wrong time to hit low marks in the ratings. But several big shows did last week.

The latest releases.

A book about the rise and stunning decline of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is being published by Penguin Group (USA).

On the same page in Barbara Walters' big, bean-spilling memoir there are photographs of Walters, the undisputed queen of the television interview, and Cha Cha Walters, her dog.

The challenge was to come up with an idea that can transform public education, particularly in poor communities. The winner: an educator with a passion for making school fun.

For a man who loves to brag on his hometown, Clay Aiken has barely seen Raleigh in recent months.

In a 1970 rock classic, Ozzy Osbourne correctly predicted what would come to pass in theaters this weekend: Iron Man would live again.

'Cranford" doesn't follow the trend to sex-up TV adaptations of British classics, and the screenwriter is proud of it.

Weekend Gourmet:Yesterday, Louisville, Ky., transformed from a city of seminaries and distilleries into the spotlight of the sports world. The Kentucky Derby, arguably the greatest horse race in the world, is just a few blinks of the eye in a weeklong celebration of horse racing and ritual. Churchill Downs, which most of the year is dressed for a quick run to the grocery store, blooms as patrons consume more than 120,000 mint juleps.

Food & Nutrition:Titina Vuotto is the Italian grandmother you wish you had. The one whose secret ingredients you long to know, whose hands you want to watch make pasta.

Peel the rigid, so-serious surface from a classical musician and what lies beneath?

Spoken Out Loud:A bibliophile can move the stacks, but she can never overcome the pull.

Creators:John Montgomery builds violins from maple and spruce, shaping the belly, the back, the ribs and the neck into an Audrey Hepburn of an instrument -- graceful, elegant and full of mystique.

Heroes don't come much more unlikely than Leo Demidov, the investigator at the center of Tom Rob Smith's debut thriller "Child 44." Sure, plenty of detectives drink, or sleep around, or get a little rough with a suspect. Demidov is in a class all his own among unsympathetic heroes, though: As a fast-rising officer in the Soviet Union's state security force, the NKVD, Leo has arrested and sent to death scores, perhaps hundreds, of innocent people.