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Denny’s says it’s closing 150 of its lowest-performing restaurants in an effort to turn around the brand’s flagging sales. About half of the closures will happen this year and the rest in 2025.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel features an all-star cast of veteran British actors, as well as young star Dev Patel. Patel plays an entrepreneur with big dreams of transforming a dilapidated hotel into a luxury resort for "the elderly and beautiful." The film opens in select U.S. cities Friday. Patel talks with host Michel Martin.

Tobias Buckell has written a thriller called Arctic Rising. Set in a period after global warming has opened the polar region to smugglers, drug traffickers and other illegal pursuits, the book is a fast paced thriller. Alan Cheuse, who teaches writing at George Mason University, thinks readers should receive it warmly.

Brad Pitt has had quite a year: Two of his films — Moneyball and The Tree of Life — are up for the Best Picture Oscar, and the baseball film earned him a Best Actor nod. Pitt says the Oakland A's manager's idiosyncrasies made the role interesting.

During this Sunday's GRAMMY Awards, genres such as Native American, Hawaiian and Cajun music are merged into one category. The decision has caused some backlash with charges of racism and exclusion. Host Michel Martin discusses the decision with Felix Contreras, a reporter for NPR's Arts Desk and co-host of NPR Music's Alt.Latino podcast.

In preparation for a book about Abraham Lincoln's life at the end of the Civil War, historian Noah Andre Trudeau is in search of witnesses. The last week of Lincoln's life in April 1865 is a largely unexamined period. Trudeau is seeking diary entries, letters or stories of people who encountered Lincoln at the time.

A preliminary investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration suggests fresh onions that are served raw on McDonald's Quarter Pounder hamburgers were a likely source of contamination.

The Grammy-nominated saxophonist brought the house down with his reflective, danceable ballads.

Academy Award-winning makeup artist Dick Smith has died at age 92. In a career that spanned more than six decades, Smith was responsible for bringing some of Hollywood's iconic characters to life.

Inductees this year also included A Tribe Called Quest and Dave Matthews Band, and posthumous recognition for Jimmy Buffett, MC5, Alexis Korner, John Mayall, Norman Whitfield and Big Mama Thornton.