Talking the comedy that’s overstayed its welcome and a welcome new animated film.

Memorial Day Weekend is one of the biggest movie weekends of the year. But this weekend’s biggest film – Epic – is based on a tale that’s actually smaller than life. Here’s the story of how a phone call between a couple of SMU alums launched a movie project a decade in the making.

Valencia Beach marks the fourth piece by Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida to enter the collection.

Today in the roundup: How a North Texas actor got in shape, how SMU is prepping its arts students for the arts biz and how Lance Armstrong the author is suffering for his honesty.

Today in the roundup: More on SMU’s arts research center, props for the Perot and opera’s contribution to pop culture.

Today in the roundup: Reviews of shows at the Modern and PDNB, plus two big gifts to SMU.

The Undermain is the first theater to use the City Performance Hall. It’ll be a chance for the company to show it can hold its own with the big boys in the Arts District.

The money is a gift from the Kleinheinz Family Endowment for the Arts and Education out of Fort Worth.

Diego Velazquez is one of the top portrait painters in the history of art. An exhibition of his early court portraits at SMU’s Meadows Museum offers proof. But the centerpiece of the show also let’s us in on a secret Velazquez didn’t want us to know.

Plus, a new venue. The Undermain will present a new piece by performance artist Fred Curchack and their first work by acclaimed Irish screenwriter-playwright Enda Walsh, who’ll be in residency at SMU.