Comedian Kevin McAleer, author Susan McKay and columnist David Quinn.

'Borat' or, to give it its full title - ''Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan' - is the latest incarnation from British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, better known as Ali G. Minor Kazakh celebrity, TV journalist Borat Sagdiyev, manages to offend most PC sensibilities in the name of satire on his road trip across America. Redefining the benign concept of multi-cultural exchange, Borat and his producer travel from New York to LA, like some kind of latter-day Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, creating comic chaos, making their documentary about life in the US as the TV star pursues his dream woman, Pamela Anderson's 'Baywatch' babe CJ Parker. 'Borat' opens nationwide this Friday.

A huge hit on Broadway, John Patrick Shanley's play 'Doubt' swept the boards with everything from a Pulitzer Prize to an armful of Tonys, including the one for Best Play. Now on at the Abbey, directed by Gerry Stembridge, 'Doubt' is set in a Catholic School in the Bronx in 1964. It's a story of difficult decisions, uncertainty and endless doubt. 'Doubt' runs at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin until 25 November.

Also set in school, 'Black Girl/White Girl' is the new novel from Joyce Carol Oates. Fifteen years after the death of her roommate in 1975, Genna Meade looks back to her freshman year - reconstructing the time when her black roommate first took up her scholarship at an exclusive liberal college in Pennsylvania. It's an American tale - black and white, in a sense - set against the backdrop of Vietnam and the fall of Richard Nixon. 'Black Girl/White Girl' is published by Fourth Estate at €27.

New work from Willie Doherty at the Kerlin Gallery in Dublin centres around a run down and extremely menacing looking office building. Entitled 'Empty', the piece is a film made over the course of a day. It is accompanied by two photographic collections, 'Local Solution' and 'Show of Strength'. 'Empty' is running at the Kerlin Gallery until 10 November.

The soprano Laura Mitchell, one of the rising stars of the English choral scene, will be performing with Mexican guitarist Morgan Symanski in a Music Network tour starting tomorrow night in Listowel. Then they're off to Bray, Clifden, Castlebar and New Ross. Here with Ponce's 'Estrellita', Laura Mitchell and Morgan Symanski.