(ROBERT R.) PROVINE, CURIOUS BEHAVIOR — Emperor Nero..., an avid actor and student of... theater, ... brought his own personal cheering section in the form of five thousand Roman soldiers to applaud his performances, for which the wise judges always awarded first prize.
| A. | Applicator in many a dressing room (2 wds.) | POWDERPUFF |
| B. | Take cost-saving measures; scale back | RETRENCH |
| C. | Topic of introspection | ONESELF |
| D. | Term with a crude or uncouth quality | VULGARISM |
| E. | So-called "Queen of Heaven" in ancient Babylon | ISHTAR |
| F. | Seek to impress, in a way (hyph.) | NAMEDROP |
| G. | David Lynch's debut feature-length film | ERASERHEAD |
| H. | Herb used in pho and salsa | CILANTRO |
| I. | Off-the-cuff, impromptu | UNSCRIPTED |
| J. | Barbed sally, clever comeback | RIPOSTE |
| K. | "Exit the King" playwright | IONESCO |
| L. | "That colossal wreck" in a Shelley sonnet | OZYMANDIAS |
| M. | Plain-spoken, mincing no words | UPFRONT |
| N. | Action sequence in "The Princess Bride" (2 wds.) | SWORDFIGHT |
| O. | "Cave" in the Senate long ago | BEWARE |
| P. | Oscar winner who was once mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif. | EASTWOOD |
| Q. | Deliver a long speech, bloviate (2 wds.) | HOLDFORTH |
| R. | Aristophanes or Euripides, e.g. | ATHENIAN |
| S. | Dematerialize, cease to exist | VANISH |
| T. | Bandleader who composed "It Had to Be You" (2 wds.) | ISHAMJONES |
| U. | More than compensate for | OUTWEIGH |
| V. | Like light that's gone through a prism | REFRACTED |