'Superman' torch is passed

Singer says he plans to use the late Marlon Brando in the new film. Brando, who played Superman’s father, Jor-El, in the 1978 Superman and died in 2004, will return in the same role. Singer says he found stock footage of Brando shot by director Richard Donner in 1978, which will provide Brando’s voice. Special-effects…

The Time of Dead Grandmothers

“Oh, no,” I exclaimed several years ago, when a student in a composition class stepped out afterwards to explain that she had been absent because her grandmother had died. “Another dead grandmother!” The girl immediately burst into tears. Of course I wished I was dead. The student’s grandmother really had died. Or else her granddaughter…