John Brown's Body

This is Beth Hinshaw's first puzzle in the times, and it's an interesting debut. Not only are the main clues interesting, but a lot of interesting cross words too.

Noted actor's writing implements - seanpennspens
Noted actore's sons - alanladdslads
Noted actor's underarms - bradpittspits

The two interesting clues she go in were :
Workweek letters - mtwtf
'Wheel of fortune' purchases - aeiou
I love serial abbreviations like this. Another one I can think of was the lines on staff, the strings of a guitar.

Things to know:
Peter Yates - director of Breaking Away, Bullitt
Garman Spa - Ems (such as Bad Ems)
Clifford Odets - author of Golden Boy, Waiting for Lefty