Jessica Harper is an actress who has appeared in more than 40 movies and television shows in her career. In the 1970s, she appeared in such films as the horror classic “Suspiria” and the controversial “Inserts” with Richard Dreyfuss. In 1980 she played Woody Allen’s love interest in his ode to Federico Fellini, “Stardust Memories.” More recently she played Anne Lively in Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report.”

But since her marriage to Fox CEO Tom Rothman and subsequent motherhood, she has changed her focus. Harper has recorded seven children’s music albums and written eleven children’s stories (including “Nora’s Room.”) Her latest endeavor is “The Crabby Cook Cookbook,” is filled with anecdotes from her family life, along with simple, easy to make recipes for any “crabby cook” with limited patience for the kitchen.

Jessica recently sat down with Blast Magazine during her book tour.

BLAST: When did the transition happen between your movie career and writing music and books for children, then writing this cookbook?

JESSICA HARPER: It came when my first daughter was born in 1989. I kept working, doing mostly TV in the ‘90’s because it was easier to manage. I did the Garry Shandling Show. But I mostly wanted to be home raising the children. So I pulled back from acting and started writing and doing these things that I wanted to do that actually involved the children and was about the children. All this music that I wrote and the books all came out of the love of being a mother and being with my kids, and at the same time it gave me a creative outlet so I wouldn’t jump out the window (laughs.)

BLAST: Did you also go into all these different mediums to challenge yourself?

JH: Yeah, I start to think “Well, I did that why don’t I try something else?” For example,

I was writing this children’s music and I said to myself “Why don’t I take a little story out of this song and see if I can make it into a book” and then “well I published this book, why don’t I see if I can publish a book for adults?” I constantly want to do new things all the time and keep evolving. I mean, I have that luxury, partly because my husband has a good day job, I have the ability to try new things. I like to keep things fresh.

BLAST: What are some of your favorite recipes and stories in this book?

JH: I love the one about dinner with the fake grandmother. It’s a story about my childhood and going to visit my grandfather and my poor fake grandmother. She was fake because wasn’t the original grandmother, she was the young second grandmother. I love the story because it tells a lot about my childhood. There is a story connected to a story about tomato sauce which I like because it says so much about my husband and me. In it our car breaks down on the freeway because he is someone who will not stop and get gas until the car stops, and he won’t ask for directions. So he gets in the car with this guy named Louie who was driving by to get gas and Louie tells him in the car that he has just broken up with his wife and he also tells him he is going home to make tomato sauce. As my husband is telling me this and I said, “You didn’t ask him for the recipe for tomato sauce?” Which is the absolute last question on earth my husband would ever ask anybody. Then there is a story about how Richard Gere came over for an impromptu dinner with Cindy Crawford and I made this horrible chicken pot pie.

BLAST: The book is filled with many stories that go along with the recipes. Did you write this book as something that people could use in the kitchen and just simply read on the train or before bed as entertainment? Also, the book is written in a very relatable way. Did you consciously avoid coming off as the stereotypical Hollywood family?

JH: Yeah, I really meant it to be as a book you could read and ignore the recipes if you want to. A lot of crabby cooks, they don’t want to deal with recipes. I’ve talked to many people who told me they just read it as a novel, and that was definitely my intention.

As far your other question, I come from the Midwest, my husband comes from Baltimore. We’re just not those types of people. We try to keep our children’s feet firmly planted on the ground. I have a friend who is the wife of a studio head and she will fly to the spa and go hang out on a yacht with the other wives of studio executives. I just don’t do that, I try to shy away from that stuff. I didn’t want the book to be driven by celebrities, though there are a few stories about celebrities, I wanted it to be about family life. Here are these characters and a lot of people can relate to it.

BLAST: What was your motivation behind writing this book?

JH: Well my children were grown, and what I do creatively usually reflects what’s going on in my life. I was feeling a little crabby and I just started writing these stories about food events and my family life, and the one about the famous wife that came to dinner. All these stories that were related to family feed and I got such a kick out of writing them I thought that maybe this could be a book if I could get together all these recipes. I just kept writing them and putting together an idea for a book and I wanted to tell the story of my family life, but from a funny perspective that would resonate with people and avoid the style of a memoir. It was moving on from the world of young children and motherhood into where I am now in relation to my family and reflecting on where we have come as a family.

BLAST: Do you plan on writing more cookbooks?

JH: Right now I’m so busy doing promoting this book I don’t know what I’m doing next. I have thought about writing a sequel to this, which would be similar in format, but I’m not entirely sure what is happening. I have a couple things percolating that might pull me in a certain direction. I have a TV possibility. There’s a new food magazine The Parade is publishing called Dash, and I’ll be writing a blog for them as “The Crabby Cook.” It’s going in the direction of my being known as “The Crabby Cook” and it’s just a question of when I will get to the point where I say, “Well now I want to do something else?”

The movies destined to make the biggest splash at Cannes this year aren’t even competing for the Palm d’Or.

In what has become a tradition, the opening night film is an upcoming summer blockbuster. The premiere of "Robin Hood," Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe’s return to the summer action epic 10 years after "Gladiator," will kick off this year’s festival.

Hopefully, "Robin Hood" will prove to be a better film than past opening night films- "The Da Vinci Code" opened the festival in 2006 and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" had the honor in 2008. While both were blockbusters, neither was particularly well received critically.

Other high profile film’s screening out of competition include Oliver Stone’s "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps." The hotly anticipated sequel features Michael Douglas returning to his Oscar-winning role as Gordon "greed is good" Gekko. The film also stars rising stars Shia LaBeouf and Carey Mulligan. Woody Allen’s newest "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is also screening out of competition. While not much is known about the plot, Allen’s latest features an all-star cast including Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins and Naomi Watts.

Speaking of Watts, she is the star of the only American film that was accepted into main competition. She stars as outed CIA agent Valerie Plame in Doug Liman’s "Fair Game." Sean Penn co-stars as her husband, Joseph Wilson. This is the second time Watts and Penn have worked together. They previously appeared together in

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s 2003 film, "21 Grams." "Fair Game" marks an interesting shift to the serious for Doug Liman. The director has become known for making fun, breezy action films like "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and "The Bourne Identity."

Other notable films showing at the festival include, Mike Leigh’s "Another Year," Stephen Frear’s "Tamara Drewe" starring Gemma Arterton, and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s "Biutiful" starring Javier Bardem.

Director Tim Burton is heading up the juror’s panel. Fellow judges include actors Benicio Del Toro and Kate Beckinsale

Annabelle Gurwitch got fired by Woody Allen.

She realized that getting fired and canned was more common than she thought when she started talking with friends about her unfortunate and humiliating experience,

Gurwitch, most recognized for co-hosting Dinner and a Movie on TBS, is also a contributing writer for “Day to Day” on NPR, and appeared in the film, The Shaggy Dog, among many other appearances on TV and the big screen. She recently added a brisk dismissal from Woody Allen’s much anticipated off-Broadway play to her repertoire.

To make herself feel better, Gurwitch set off to find other stories of getting fired. The compilation of stories was turned into a play and a book. Since both were such a hit, there were more shows added to the schedule, and the idea of the documentary, Fired!, was born.

The comedy, written and produced by Gurwitch, herself, features interviews with her celebrity friends, her gynecologist, rabbis, various CEOs’, as well as the average person’s tales of getting the boot.

The independently produced film includes the interviews and stories of celebrities such as Tim Allen, Sarah Silverman, Fred Willard, Ben Stein, Illeana Douglas, Andy Dick, Paul F. Tompkins, Tate Donovan, Judy Gold, former White House Chef Walter Scheib and more, as they all tell their experiences about getting fired.

The film offers an interesting perspective on jobs. If you have ever been fired or if you’re interested in soaking up tales of how celebrities probably get fired more times than you have been, than this flick is for you.

Overall, Fired! is an entertaining look at real life that’s smartly done.

Fired! is a Shout! Factory production, which premiered on Showtime Network March 29. To contribute your story to Gurwitch, click here.

Puccini for Beginners is a witty romantic comedy that borrows heavily from the Woody Allen-type, offbeat humor. The title speaks to the fact that the main character, Allegra, (Elizabeth Reaser) is a lesbian opera fan who finds herself getting into overly dramatic situations that are commonplace in opera.

Allegra, whose girlfriend had recently broke up with her due to Allegra’s unwillingness to commit, is depressed until she ends up spending an evening with a man named Philip, (Justin Kirk). She and Philip surprisingly hit it off immediately, and he drives her into a sexual identity crisis. She also happens to meet a girl named Grace, (Gretchen Mol) to whom she finds herself attracted. She starts seeing them both, and if that wasn’t enough, the kicker is that Grace and Philip are recent ex’s.

The movie starts with the ending scene, and the rest is a re-telling of the story with a narrative by Allegra. Even though we already know what will happen in the end, the journey is an entertaining trail of situational comedy supported by a well-written script. Through the telling of the story, we find out what is going on long before any of the characters find out, which makes for some entertaining encounters and humorous stories.

Another great point to the movie is that the minor characters are absolutely hilarious. These characters include the sushi chefs at Allegra’s favorite restaurant, who would give their input on the situation in Japanese while looking in on the situation, as well as Allegra’s friends who, with their quick humor, manage to make every situation into an enjoyable time.

One problem with the film is that the main characters are very shallow. Not much is done to develop them and because of this, it’s hard to feel sympathetic for their situations. The good thing about this, however, is that it’s very easy to find humor in their misfortunes. Because of the lack of character development, Puccini for Beginners feels like a sitcom where instead of focusing on characters, every scene tries to milk out as many laughs as possible. Fortunately, the film is very good at this and will keep you laughing.

It is very easy to recommend people to see Puccini for Beginners. This romantic comedy will keep you laughing from beginning to end with its sharp humor. If you are a Woody Allen fan it really is a must see. However, Woody fan or not; see this movie and enjoy.