"You know what takes real courage?" Kevin Spacey as President Frank Underwood intones while flashes of his backroom dealings and press briefings dance across the screen in House of Cards' Season 3 trailer. "Holding it all together when the stakes are this high." Ooh, this looks scary!

James Lipton would already like to sleep with every single person who joins him on stage for Inside the Actors Studio, which is only one of the reasons that I think appearing on the show is probably a terribly complex feat of acting. You so have to try; and only signal the effort insofar as it makes us love you more. Or do the harder thing and become more fully yourself. (Tellingly, Robin Williams' 2001 appearance splits the partisans.)