Who’s Wearing What:

Two stars of Little Black Book have selected to walk the red carpet at tonight’s premiere in “little black dresses” by Monique Lhuillier. Holly Hunter:This Academy Award-winning actress will be wearing a black tropical floral chiffon halter dress with a flirty handkerchief hem. Josie Maran:Maran selected a sexy black Alencon lace bodice dress with tulle ballerina skirt. Josie will polish off her look with a black crystal clutch by Daniel Swarovski Paris.

Sharon Lawrence plans to wear an outfit by Pamella Roland to the New York premiere of her new film, Little Black Book. She’ll wear a flattering beige silk dress with a black scroll print from Pamella's Spring 2004 Collection.

Marlee Matlin walked the red carpet at the "So the World May Hear" awards on Tuesday night in a gown by Toronto-based designer Sunny Choi and handbag by Daniel Swarovski Paris. She wore a lavender silk cowl neck gown with tiers of chiffon ruffles and crystals at the bottom. Her look was topped off with a vintage pink and crystal silver satin handbag with a beaded strap.

Could She Just Tell the Truth?: When Barbara Walters asked Martha Stewart about the image-damaging effects of her decision to carry a $6,050 Birkin bag to her trial, Stewart replied: "Do you know that is my only handbag? Do you know that? Do you know how many handbags I own? And that I bought that handbag, I think it was 12 or 14 years ago." But the New York Daily News is running a series of photos of Stewart arriving at court carrying other expensive totes. "In the eight months from pre-trial hearing to final sentencing, Stewart carried four different Hermès bags, worth at least $16,000 in all," reports the paper. Oops! (N.Y. Daily News)

Gang Bangin’: It’s been almost a decade since Marc Levin and Daphne Pinkerson exposed gang warfare in the heartland with the 1994 HBO documentary “Gang War: Bangin’ in Little Rock.” This August, the filmmakers return to Little Rock to update the stories of several gang members when the America Undercover documentary BACK IN THE HOOD: GANG WAR 2 debuts THURSDAY, AUG.

26 (10:00-11:00 p.m. ET), exclusively on HBO.

Other HBO playdates: Aug. 30 (1:50 a.m.) and Sept. 8 (12:30 a.m.), 13 (midnight) and 16 (3:10 a.m.).

HBO2 playdates: Aug. 31 (11:15 p.m.) and Sept. 11 (10:00 p.m.), 15 (2:30 a.m.), 19 (4:05 a.m.) and 28 (1:50 a.m.).

BACK IN THE HOOD: GANG WAR 2 follows Leifel Jackson, onetime leader of the OGCs (Original Gangster Crips), as he is released from prison after almost a decade behind bars for drug trafficking. Jackson was one of the targets in the 1993 drive-by shooting captured in the first “Gang War” documentary. Now he is trying to live straight and make a positive difference in his neighborhood, but every day is a struggle.

“I think it’s a lot easier doing time than it is out here struggling to make ends meet,” explains Jackson. “I’m going to have to make an example, and my example is that you can come home, regardless of how long you’re gone, and make it.”

Jackson runs Our Club, a city-funded after-school program, in addition to working other odd jobs to provide for his family. Even though the city government honored Jackson with a Juvenile Justice Worker of the Year Award, he is not on its payroll, and does not have health insurance.

Although it’s a violation of his parole to associate with gang members. Jackson is convinced that he has to stay connected to the streets, because those are the people he needs to reach. However, there is little incentive for the disaffected youth in the neighborhood to break free of the fast-cash, drugs-and-guns gang lifestyle in an area with few alternatives.

At his community center, Jackson delivers a cautionary message about the perils of his former life to a group of young kids, illustrating points through his own example and by showing scenes from the original HBO documentary. As Jackson explains, in 1993 (when he was 31), a war raged in Little Rock, one as real as the ones going on today in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Crips (who wore blue) were the sworn enemies of the Bloods (who wore red), and violence spread over turf wars. Established leaders like Jackson recruited young kids in their early teens or even younger. Since 1993, more than 400 people have died from gang-related violence in Little Rock.

Jackson invites one of his former rivals, Marvin Weathersby, a onetime leader of the West Side Bloods, to speak to the kids in his program.

The two former enemies have put their deadly rivalry behind them to try and save the next generation. To his young audience’s amazement, Weathersby displays some of his gunshot wounds, encouraging the kids to feel the bullets still lodged beneath his skin.

“ ‘Gang War: Bangin’ in Little Rock’ received great response when it premiered ten years ago on HBO,” comments director Marc Levin. “Since then, people have been wondering what happened to the original gang members interviewed. I stayed in touch with Jackson during his prison term, and my response to their inquiries was to return to Little Rock and chronicle the lives of those we profiled. I wanted to show Jackson’s journey from then to now. He’s changed his life, but is still a prisoner of his past.”

While the original documentary exposed the growing problem of gang violence in America’s heartland, BACK IN THE HOOD: GANG WAR 2 shows the struggles people face when they try to overcome the difficult circumstances in their communities and go straight. Notes activist and hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons, “ ‘Bangin’ in Little Rock’ blew my mind. The sequel, ‘Back in the Hood,’ broke my heart. The war at home continues until we stop it.”

Marc Levin and Daphne Pinkerson have produced numerous America Undercover films for HBO, including the recent “Heir to an Execution:

A Granddaughter’s Story,” plus “Mob Stories,” “Prisoners of the War on Drugs,” “Execution Machine: Texas Death Row,” “Soldiers in the Army of God” and “Gladiator Days.” Their HBO documentary “Thug Life in D.C.” won the 1999 Emmy® for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special, while “Gang War: Bangin’ in Little Rock” won the CableACE Award for Best Documentary of 1994, as well as a Silver Medal for Best Documentary at the Houston International Film Festival.Eluto, A.C.E.; director of photography, Matthew Akers.

Understanding Schitzophrenia; In fifth grade, John Cadigan was voted the most popular, athletic

and artistic student in his class. In college, he became antisocial, paranoid and, eventually, catatonic. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Cadigan could have completely retreated into his own world. Instead, he decided to try to come to terms with his condition by documenting the process on film. The CINEMAX Reel Life documentary PEOPLE SAY I’M CRAZY tells the autobiographical story of his struggle when it debuts WEDNESDAY, AUG. 18 (7:00-8:30 p.m. ET), exclusively on CINEMAX.

Other playdate: Sept. 16 (9:00 a.m.).

The first documentary filmed and directed by someone living with the

disease, PEOPLE SAY I’M CRAZY chronicles the intimate details of Cadigan’s decade-long battle to recover from schizophrenia. Cadigan was assisted in making the film by his sister, documentarian Katie Cadigan, and Academy Award®-winning documentarian Ira Wohl (“Best Boy”).

In 1992, 22-year-old John Cadigan asked his sister to help him record his daily battles with mental illness as a way to “force me to examine my life, and maybe accept what was going on with me.” Together, they photographed his routine activities in and around Palo Alto, Cal.

In

1997, Cadigan got his own camera and took over the principal photography.

The result is a portrait of a brilliant but tormented man pushing himself as an artist, despite ongoing battles with his inner demons.

PEOPLE SAY I’M CRAZY captures intimate moments in his life, both setbacks and triumphs, both personal and creative. Through Cadigan’s example, his courage and his cathartic honesty, the film sheds light on the overwhelming challenges facing people with severe mental illness, while poignantly underscoring the importance of family and friends in providing help and encouragement.

As Cadigan recalls, he had his first psychotic break at age 21 during his senior year at Carnegie Mellon University, when he was living “like a mole” in a basement apartment. “I had stopped going to classes because I was too afraid,” he says. “I thought they were all out to get me, all out to mess with my mind and drive me crazy.” This behavior landed him in a doctor’s office and eventually in the hospital, where he stayed for two weeks.

“That was the beginning of the labels,” he says. “First it was depression. Then I had some psychotic features. Then it was schizoaffective. Then the possibility of mania. Then it was paranoid schizophrenia, which is probably the worst of them all.”

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, one in every

four Americans will have mental illness in their lifetime; one in 100 will be diagnosed with schizophrenia. Soon after his diagnosis in early 1992, unable to finish college, he moved to California to be close to his family.

Over the next four years, he was hospitalized three more times and his diagnosis was confirmed: schizoaffective disorder - a combination of schizophrenia and depression.

From 1991 to 1994, Cadigan’s doctors tried every antipsychotic, antidepressant and mood-stabilizing drug on the market, as well as electro-convulsive therapy (ECT), but nothing worked. In 1994, he found a different doctor and took advantage of the first new drugs for schizophrenia in more than 25 years, including Clozaril. This new medication slowly helped Cadigan become more functional, though with an unfortunate side effect: He gained more than 100 pounds.

As the film progresses, Cadigan develops as an artist with the loving support of his family. His work, which sells consistently, is inspired by mythological images and “is a spiritual quest to find the divine.” His woodcut prints have toured galleries and museums around the United States, and most recently were exhibited in the Stanford University Art Spaces.

“Making art is like breathing - a necessary part of my life,” he says. “The more I work, the more I am healed, and the images become a deeper expression of my interior world.” Cadigan also overcomes many personal obstacles through his art. Exhibiting his work at the Capitol Hill building in Washington, D.C., he is able to overcome his stage fright to speak on his art and his illness.

PEOPLE SAY I’M CRAZY won the Best Documentary Award Silver Plaque at

the Chicago International Film Festival and the Chief Dan George Humanitarian Award at the Vancouver Film Festival. It has also screened at the HBO Frame-by-Frame Documentary Film Series, the American Psychological Association Annual Conference in Toronto, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill California Conference in Long Beach, the 2003 Boston International Film Festival, and the 2003 Denver International Film Festival.

PEOPLE SAY I’M CRAZY is directed by John Cadigan with Katie Cadigan;

produced by Katie Cadigan and Ira Wohl; edited by Laura C. Murray; director of photography, John Cadigan with Laura C. Murray and Katie Cadigan;

music

by Evelyn Glennie.

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