Ask American Profile

Cars, Lee Marvin, Dixie Chicks, Sammy Sosa

Who are the voices of the talking cars in the new movie Cars? I've seen the previews, and some of them sound very familiar.
—Tom A., Canon City, Colo.

Cars is the latest animated movie from Pixar, the studio that made the previous blockbusters Toy Story, The Incredibles and Finding Nemo. Opening in theaters this week, it features the voices of Paul Newman, Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Cheech Marin, George Carlin, Larry the Cable Guy, Richard Petty, Michael Keaton and Paul Dooley.

My husband watches Combat in syndication. Recently I saw an actor who resembled the late Lee Marvin. Did he ever play on that series as a young man?
—Pat Thorpe, Titusville, Pa.

Yes, Lee Marvin did indeed play a character named Sgt. Turk on an episode of Combat called "The Bridge at Chalons" in 1963. He was 38 at the time. Only two years later, Marvin won an Oscar for the movie Cat Ballou. He died of a heart attack in 1987.

What became of the Dixie Chicks since Natalie got a little crazy in Europe with her comment about the president? We are huge fans and hope they will return to the scene again.
—J. Summers, Harlan, Iowa

The Chicks released their fourth album, Taking the Long Way, in May. Lead singer Natalie Maines' controversial 2003 comment—about feeling "ashamed" that President Bush was from the group's home state of Texas—and the Chicks-bashing backlash that followed are addressed in the album's first single, tellingly titled "Not Ready to Make Nice." "Everything felt more personal this time," Maines says. "Writing these songs and saying everything we had to say makes it possible to move on." The Grammy-winning trio will launch a worldwide tour this summer.

Whatever happened to Sammy Sosa? Is he still playing baseball?
—Helen Kinne, Wyalusing, Pa.

Sosa, 37, did not return to major league baseball this year after a downward spiral of professional woes closed out "a career that seemed scripted with magic as the century turned," wrote the Chicago Tribune. He became a mega-millionaire superstar with the Chicago Cubs, smacking 243 home runs from 1998 to 2001, the most prolific four-year batting binge in baseball history. But then the magic began to disappear: struck in the head by a pitch that shattered his batting helmet; sidelined by an infected toenail and an injured back; caught cheating with a corked bat; called last year before a congressional committee investigating steroid use; booed at Wrigley Field when his home runs became less and less frequent. The Cubs traded him to the Baltimore Orioles in 2005. They did not ask him to return for the 2006 season, and no other team offered him a spot on their roster. Sosa was only 12 homers shy of becoming the fifth man to ever hit 600.

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