The first time that Pauley Perrette excused herself from the room during our interview, she said, "The best thing to do is sit her on my chair. As long as you don’t stand up while I am gone, you’ll be fine." She was talking about her Chihuahua, Cece. I had been warned. When we were arranging a time and place to talk, she told me that she would be bringing her two dogs along. "One of them bites," she said. "I just wanted to let you know."

"Turn right here," Mr. Estevan says, directing the driver of his newly purchased 1962 Lincoln Continental into one of L.A.’s burned out backstreets, where the old heart of the city can be traced by following its veins, the streetcar tracks, which once pumped blood in and out of a thriving downtown. Here, too, is where Estevan intends to photograph his subject, Academy Award winner Adrien Brody.

Adrien steps out onto the pavement and click, click, click, in under an hour, the shoot is complete, cover and center spread accomplished, using one or two lenses, no lights, no assistant.

Venice Beach, California, isn't the first place you usually go to find out what's next in hip-hop. But when the summer airwaves are crackling with "Kick, Push"—a laid-back rap ode to skateboarding—what better place is there to investigate than Dogtown?

It's here that we're going to meet the man behind that song, a young Chicago rapper named Lupe Fiasco (born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco). "Kick, Push" is the first single from Lupe's rookie release, Food & Liquor—so named as a nod to the ubiquitous corner stores that are the staple of Chicago's inner-city neighborhoods.

Billy Bob Thornton has a child's heart, a truck-driver's mouth and a William Faulkner brain. His pal Robert Duval has dubbed him the hillbilly Orson Wells, but he could have just as easily called him the Socrates of the South. He is far more philosophical and complex than he lets on. That famous, which smile burns about as hot and long as a flashcube, does not appear to come from happiness. Still, it seems authentic enough—maybe something he learned as a kid to get out of washing the dishes.