While residents of Brooklyn aren't always fans of Hollywood productions taking over their neighborhood, it might be nice to know that it's not all throwaway reality television being filmed in the borough. According to the NY Post, Brooklyn is getting some bragging rights, with three films featuring the borough being added to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry. Those films are 1977's Saturday Night Fever (set in Bay Ridge), 1945's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and 1992's Malcolm X. The three were selected from over 2,000 nominees. The Empire Strikes Back will also become part of the registry—and after this week, that became an honorary Brooklyn movie. more ›

There have been countless stories to invite allusions to Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in the sixty-six years since she first published the novel. But Marion Smith's woeful tale of attempting to get a tree to grow in Brooklyn may be the ultimate reference-baiting tale. The Daily News has the account of the 79-year-old Smith asking that the city not plant a tree in the spot in front of her Park Slope apartment. She made the request because the previous tree began to wither right around the same time she lost her husband, as she tells the paper, "It died right after he died." After she was assured that her sidewalk would be kept clear, the city still went ahead and showed up to plant one. When a neighbor of the disabled Smith tried to intervene and halt the tree's installation, the Parks Department planter threatened to have the neighbor arrested! Smith is also concerned that she will be unable to clean up any leaves or possible fruit that comes of the ginkgo tree, the fruits of which have an aroma that has been compared to "rancid butter, vomit and dog droppings." more ›