One of the Wall Street Journal's favorite hypocrites, The NY Times, has an interesting column from media reporter David Carr that brought up News Corp.'s newspaper insert business, News America, and how the company has "has paid out about $655 million to make embarrassing charges of corporate espionage and anticompetitive behavior go away." In particular, Carr recalled a detail from a Forbes profile of former News America head—and current NY Post publisher—Paul Carlucci and how he would motivate the sales team:
Video: Violent Clip From The Untouchables Was Used To "Rally" News Corp Sales Force
Sleep Next Door To Where Al Capone Received His "Scarface"
"You've dreamed about it..." the Grand Prospect Hall hotel! The 118-year-old Park Slope banquet hall is currently most famous for its amazing commercial (below), but its history is one of a kind. More on that later, but right now the owners hope to expand with a luxury hotel next to their current space. Owner Michael Halkias says it would be an 11-story, 150-room hotel, and told the Daily News, "The Marriott killed me. I have a gorgeous, spectacular space. I have more space than most hotels in the city... But I don't have sleeping rooms."
Hailing Webster Hall
These days people tend to complain about Webster Hall more than they praise it. The drinks are expensive (even a water will set you back 4 bucks), the shows are too early and the nightclubs below the venue's main room are hopping with the B&T crowd. On the other hand, the stage has hosted some great bands, and the lighting always looks nice...so it may just be time to pay some respect to the place as it gets one step closer to being Landmarked.
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-verse
Gothamist posts on the capture of a NYC perv thanks to Little Brother and a camera phone. They also scour the city for vodka martinis and Shamrock shakes and spot the friend from the Wonder Years at a city law firm. New York police think that Littlejohn is their man.
Events Leftovers
We hear about a lot of events each week and we can't write one post about each of them, because then you'd be here all day. So we're going to sift through and pick out some gems for the weekdays, here are some of the highlights for this week...
Scottish Brogues Aren't Irish?
He may have won an Oscar for it, but Sean Connery's performance as Jim Malone in The Untouchables has been called the worst movie accent of all time by Empire magazine. Awww, maybe, but it's got one of the best explanations of how to fight your enemies ever, when Malone tells Elliot Ness how to get Al Capone:

