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Louise Bourgeois
The Tate Modern welcomes Louise Bourgeois's giant spiders once more in a retrospective exhibition of her work. Featuring over 200 sculptures and paintings from a career spanning seven decades, the exhibition seeks to explore the wide range of materials used in the artist's work and features a room dedicated to a collection of over 60 small sculptures arranged in a 'cabinet of curiosities'.

Louise Bourgeois is at the Tate Modern in London until 20 January 2008.

The Almost Moon
The heroine of Alice Sebold’s new book murders her mother in the first sentence of the novel. The story unfolds in the 24 hours after the killing and explores the lifetime of love and hate between the Helen Knightly and her mother.

The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold is published by Picador.

Ratatouille
There's a rat in the kitchen in Pixar's new animated film Ratatouille about a rodent who loves to cook. Staring Peter O'Toole as a restaurant critic and featuring a cameo appearance from Jamie Oliver as a health inspector, the film charts the unusual friendship between a garbage boy and an ambitious rat who dreams of becoming the greatest chef in Paris.

The Country Wife
Wycherley’s Restoration Comedy was banned from 1753 to 1924 for its sexual explicitness and frank depiction of an amoral and sex-obsessed society. Audiences were given a cleaned-up version written by David Garrick. It tells the story of Horner, a handsome and sexually voracious man-about-town who spreads the rumour that he’s impotent in order to gain access to everybody’s wives without any suspicion from their husbands. His latest fancy is the attractive young country bride of Squire Pinchwife, but she is kept under lock and key by her husband much to her frustration and dismay as she longs to go to London and meet society gentlemen.

The Country Wife is at The Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London, until 12th January

Television on television
Three new television comedy series are set in the world of television themselves and the panel discusses why television comedy shows set in the world of television are proving so popular at the moment.

The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle on ´óÏó´«Ã½2 is written by and stars Jennifer Saunders as Vivienne Vyle, the unpleasant host of a hugely popular daytime talk show.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is an American comedy series, created by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) and is centred on a fictionalised version of America’s famous comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live. It is now being shown on Channel 4.

30 Rock is an American series created by and starring Tina Fey and loosely based on her experiences at Saturday Night Live as a writer and performer. In 30 Rock Tina Fey plays the head writer of a sketch comedy show called The Girlie Show and co stars Alec Baldwin as the brash new network executive who meddles with everything and Jane Krakowski as the attractive and ditzy host of the comedy show.

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