"Star Trek Into Darkness" is like fan-boy fiction on a $185 million budget. It's reverential, it's faithful, it's steeped in "Trek" mythology.It's also an excessively derivative what-if rehash. In short, the new chiefs of Starfleet aren't coming up with much to call their own.

ABC is cutting its aging "Dancing With the Stars" back to two hours and one night next season, creating a slot for a new drama series based on the Marvel Comics world that's aimed at expanding the network's audience, its programming chief said Tuesday. Condensing the celebrity dancing contest on Monday night "opens up Tuesday for a pretty aggressive play," said Paul Lee, ABC Entertainment Group...

Annie Overboe spent time at the Gluten-Free and Allergen-Free Expo and noticed brownies and flourlesscake desserts seemed to be popular items offered by baking vendors. When she asked people attending the expo what dessert they missed most due to their gluten-free diet a simple chocolate cake emerged as a common answer. So she set out to create one.

Shutting off the heat and switching on the air-conditioning? Plants at Morton Arboretum in Lisle tried to fight off a freeze early Monday morning but will bask in 80-degree temperatures today. "All those hanging baskets people get for Mother's Day, if they were under an eave, they are probably OK. But if they got frosted, you're going to see it," says Kris Bachtell of the Morton Arboretum.

The Adler Planetarium presents the new show "Cosmic Wonder" that tells the story of how humans have pieced together an understanding of the cosmos. Also make plans for the big tulip festival in Orange City, Iowa, that celebrates the community's rich Dutch heritage.

Chinese author Anchee Min, whose first memoir, "Red Azalea," told the story of her youth in China growing up under the leadership of Chairman Mao and introduced many to the true horrors of that regime, picks up here where she left off in "A Cooked Seed." It's 1984, she's 27 and on a plane bound for Chicago with a $500 loan in her pocket, no understanding of English and only a vague plan to study...

George Strait is amid a two-year tour before retiring from the road, but new album "Love Is Everything" proves he still has plenty of great new country music in him. As usual, he proves he can stay contemporary, nicely handling the modern romantic ballad "I Believe," with its orchestrations and organ accents, and the tricky melody of "Give It All We Got Tonight," his current hit.

Eight times a week, Rob Colletti goes down to the Bank of America Theatre in Chicago, warms up his vocals, sits in the dressing room while the hit musical "The Book of Mormon" is performed, and then goes home. Colletti, a Wheaton native, is the standby for the lead role of the nerdy but lovable Elder Cunningham. And, "it's been incredible," he said.

Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie announced on Tuesday that she had a preventive mastectomy after learning she had a gene that significantly raised her risk of breast cancer. Here's a crash course in the procedure Jolie had and why.

When Jeff Cadwallader moved back home from Colorado to help his mom Jeanne with her business, he became a third-generation Realtor. On this Mother's Day weekend, Jeanne and Jeff are one of many mother-child Realtor teams working in the Chicago suburban market.