heavyweight while Rotherham Titans and Bedford have recent Premiership experience. What everyone in England hopes is that a restructuring will pull down the barriers to investment. Clubs like London Welsh, Rotherham and Bedford will no longer be purely vanity products, but...

AS THE audience streams out of a Beverly Hills cinema showing Robert Altman's new film, "The Player", one woman whispers nervously to her date: "That could have been you, Lionel." "Could have been . . .?" the would-be mogul in the armani suit...

Authorities have charged two women and a man with a weekend attack on three North Carolina football players, which police said was motivated by robbery and included the sexual assault of at least two players.Police said the players were attacked early Sunday at their off-campus...

NHL Players' Association executive director Ted Saskin and senior director Ken Kim, accused of monitoring player e-mails, were placed on paid leaves Sunday night following a vote by the 30 players representatives.The players also voted to seek independent counsel to help guide them through an...

In the following interview, which took place in July, 1993, Altman and Gallagher discuss the adaptation of Raymond Carver's short stories in Altman's film Short Cuts.

In the following essay, Sugg traces the role of the writer in Altman's The Player as compared to his role in the novel of the same name.