The British motoring series Top Gear (Monday, 8:00 p.m., BBC America) has a world wide following and happens to be one of the funniest shows on television. It's sort of a combination of Monty Python, Mythbusters, Motorweek, and a talk show all rolled into one crazy hour of British madness with three crazy British hosts. This week, they add beautifully filmed travelogue and a bit of road movie to the mix as they journey to......

More Rescue Me for Next Season Cable network FX has picked up the Denis Leary FDNY dramedy Rescue Me for a fifth season. The show which films in the city and all over the tri-state area will not be getting the standard cable 13 episode season as it has for the past four seasons, but instead will be getting a 22 episode run split into two runs. Bolaris is Officially Heading South After months of......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Series 6: Natural Causes (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13; Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., WLIW 21) The first part of series 6 of this contemporary British police series finds Inspector Lynley and his new boss searching for a killer in the English countryside. 2007 MTV Video Music Awards (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., MTV) Yet another useless awards show this time it is from MTV, which according......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: The Kill Point (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., Spike TV) The debut of a hostage drama miniseries starring John Leguizamo as a leader of a group of bank robbers who’s plans went wrong and Donnie Wahlberg as the Pittsburgh Police negotiator tasked to deal with them. Saving Grace (Monday, 10:00 p.m., TNT) Another cop show with a twist, this time Holly Hunter stars as an Oklahoma City Police detective......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: American Body Shop (Sunday, 10:00 p.m., Comedy Central) A spoof of the fakeality vehicle tweaking genre with former NYC Transit cop John DiResta as part of the ensemble cast. World Series of Pop Culture (Monday, 9:00 p.m. VH1) NY1's Pat Kieran hosts this trivia battle royal show starting its second season. The Bronx is Burning (Monday, 10:00 p.m., ESPN) The first part of an eight part miniseries......

John Scurti is an actor originally from Long Island and a graduate of Fordham University. He currently he plays Lt. Kenny “Lou” Shea on FX's Rescue Me. We recently talked with him about the show, filming in the city and of course if he really does yoga. You are from the Island, is it good to be working close to home? That is where I was born and raised, but I don’t live there anymore.......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: The 61st Annual Tony Awards (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WCBS 2) If you are a theatre fan you probably know this is already on. If you haven’t seen anything this year, think of this as a highlight reel. It also appears that they have broken tradition and have gone hostless this year. The Sopranos (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., HBO) Undoubtedly this will be the most watched Tony on Sunday,......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: 2007 MTV Movie Awards (Sunday, 8 p.m., MTV) All you have to know is that Sarah Silverman hosts, so expect wackiness to ensue. Bonus: LAist will be liveblogging, from the ceremony's greenroom. Creature Comforts (Monday, 8:00 p.m., WCBS 2) An Americanized British import from the creators of Wallace & Gromit where people in on the street interviews are animated in clay in the form of talking animals.......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Gefilte Fish Chronicles (Sunday, 7:00 p.m. WNET 13; 10:00 p.m., WLIW 21) A look at three sisters as they spend weeks getting a traditional Passover seder ready. New York Mets at St. Louis Cardinals (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., ESPN 2) The Amazings start their 2007 campaign this year against the team that shouldn't have even been in the World Series. A bit of warning - the game is......

Bradford Reed is the inventor and probably the only player of the pencilina, an instrument that he describes as "an electric ten-stringed collision of the hammer dulcimer, slide guitar, koto and fretless bass with six pickups of varied types" and looks something like a surf board caught up in a fishing net. He has played with King Missile, the Blue Man Group band and has composed for film and animation. He has appeared on MTV,......

Gothamist is a big fan of the FX show, Rescue Me - it's incredibly funny, realistic, and riveting but also difficult to watch. And last week's episode was no different, as Denis Leary's character may or may not have raped his estranged wife in the final scenes. The ambiguous scene, where firefighter Tommy Gavin overpowers his wife into having sex (she protests some, but seems to have enjoyed it by the end; he leaves with......

The NY Sun looks at Lincoln Center's redesign as the arts organization broke ground on the first part of their redevelopment plans:The project is already underway, and the public will start to see evidence of construction soon. The Paul Milstein Plaza, which extends over 65th Street and is a hangout for Juilliard students, will be destroyed, and a temporary footbridge constructed between the Rose Building and the plaza level by Lincoln Center Theater. This......

Yesterday, the Daily News reported that the Fire Department was starting a new advertising campaign to attract female and minority recruits. The U.S. Justice Department has been investigating the FDNY's diversity, and at a City Council meeting, the FDNY said its 8.6% of its 11,491 members are minorities and 0.2% are women. Yeah, that's not very diverse. The NY Times reports the ads will shower a softer side of the FDNY: "firefighter in civilian dress......

A couple weeks ago, the planned renovations of parts of the Lincoln Center complex were approved by the area's resident board with construction on the $500 million project to begin this week. The project is supposed to transform West 65th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam with construction that will affect several organizations on the street. One of the biggest changes will be to Alice Tully Hall, which will undergo exterior and interior renovations. The......

Lanaird Granger is suing the fire department and city, claiming he's been harrassed and discriminated against by his fellow firefighters during his service as a firefighter. Granger, who is black, says that he found a noose in his gear last year, and his lawsuit also notes that he was told to "step and fetch it." Granger says that when he complained, he was transferred, versus the whole firehouse being disbanded. He is also worried that......

In a city that specializes in specialties, New York is a playground for those who love wine. Whether it’s an unknown Turkish wine you crave or a spicy Tinto Fino from the Ribera del Duero, we have it all. But in a place where your options are endless, the biggest challenge is selecting where to go. The good news is New York also happens to be the city that never sleeps. So with a......

So now that they caught Peter Braunstein the papers are having a field day wrapping up the case as it now stands. The Times and Newsday keep their coverage simple and to the point (Braunstein, wanted for kidnapping, burglary, robbery and sexual abuse, was arrested in Memphis after an attempted suicide and will be extradited to Manhattan upon his recovery), but the Post and the News have taken their coverage to the next level. Let's......

One would think that if you happened to have a gun with you, you wouldn't forget about it like a cellphone or housekeys. But that wasn't the case with rapper-actor Sticky Fingaz (aka Kirk Jones), who left his 9mm gun at the Flathotel in Midtown. A hotel maid later found it and the police were alerted. The Post says Fingaz/Jones surrendered and was charged with weapons possession. One wonders if hotel rooms should have signs......

The Javits Center is like the stepchild of the city's development projects: No one really cares - they want flashy architects or scary renderings of what a Jets stadium might look like. But now the Javits Development Corporation has selected an architect to design a new expansion, British architect Richard Rogers. Not only is he knighted, he designed the Centre Pompidou in Paris (with Renzo Piano) and the Millennium Dome in London, making Gothamist wonder......

While it's all about the season premieres this month, there's one season finale tonight that we're excited about. Gothamist has really gotten into watching Rescue Me, catching up on this season by watching the first season DVD, and we've been loving it. Rescue Me is profane, racist, questionable, hilarious, sweet and tragic, with characters that seem like real people and less like stereotypes networks revert to because that'll make advertisers happy (probably why it's on......

Actor and comedian Denis Leary donated a mobile command center to the FDNY Monday. Leary raised the half million dollars for the vehicle through his charity, Leary Firefighters Foundation (founded after firefighters from his hometown of Worcester, MA died, including his cousin and good friend), which donates equipment for equipment and training facilities in firehouses, and said, "Basically, people give me money because I am a celebrity. Then I turn around and say the fire......