Uh oh - there's definitely a little drama for five well-known performers as the Albany DA's office continues its probe into steroid trafficking. The Times Union reported yesterday that Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, Timbaland, Wyclef Jean and Tyler Perry were "among the thousands of customers of the pharmacies" DA David Soares' office has investigated. Oh. In other words, the celebrities are just the bold-faced names, and the sources say there isn't evidence that they......

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire. LAist continues to cover the......

If you’ve ever spent a day working in an office, you'll immediately recognize Beverly Wilkins, the titular character in The Receptionist, Adam Bock's darkly comic study of corporate culture in the age of Cheney. Beverly, played here with spellbinding hilarity by Jayne Houdyshell, is the polite but potentially nasty gatekeeper for the "Northeast office" who, when she's not gossiping with friends and her coworker Lorraine (Kendra Kassenbaum), puts callers through to her boss's (Robert......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a burn victim on East 3rd St. and Beverly Rd. in Brooklyn, a shooting on Francis Lewis Blvd. in Queens, and a burn victim on 103rd St. and Park Ave. in Manhattan. Reps for the New York Philharmonic are investigating a planned appearance of the symphony in North Korea. Those excited by news of a George Clooney sighting in Brooklyn Heights yesterday can just go ahead and get giddy......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a confined space rescue at The Beverly Hotel on 50th St. in Manhattan, a pedestrian struck on West 145th St. and 7th Ave. in Manhattan, and a fall victim on West 24th St. in Manhattan. Former NY State chief judge Sol Wachtler got his law license back, 14 years after pleading guilty to being a stalker. Some Jewish leaders are angry that Mayor Bloomberg met with London mayor Ken......

A two-alarm fire in the Kensington section of Brooklyn Three people died while another was taken to the hospital in serious but stable condition. The house on East 19th Street near Beverly Road is described as a two-and-a-half story house. The fire started in the attic and moved very quickly. Two adult women, ages 76 and 50 years old, were pronounced dead at the scene, and a 12-year-old boy died at New York Community Hospital.......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

This Sunday Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Metropolitan Opera, and New York City Opera will hold A Tribute to Beverly Sills. The event is open to the public, free, and will be dedicated to the sopranos life -- which ended in July. Sills was more than just a singer, she held many prominent positions, including General Director of the New York City Opera; Chairman of Lincoln Center; and Managing Director, Chairman, and Chairman......

There was very little else for Londonist to be concerned with when the threat of a Tube strike became a very unpleasant reality. The inconvenience was extreme: there aren't many alternatives to the Tube in London despite the best efforts of the Londonist team to get everyone from A to B. Brighter news came in the form of the first ever female Yeoman Warder, or Beefeater as the position is more commonly known, and......

Yesterday Merv Griffin lost his battle to prostate cancer at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles at the age of 82. He received his first treatment for this in 1996 and in late July of this year it was publicized that the cancer had come back. In a statement on Merv.com his son Tony said: "My father was a visionary. He loved business and continued his many projects and holdings even while hospitalized. We take......

As of last night Jerry Hadley, known as a top tenor at opera houses worldwide, was on life support after shooting himself. This morning it's being reported that he isn't expected to survive. Last year the 55-year old was arrested on Riverside Drive in Manhattan for driving while intoxicated, and even though the case was dropped - he had other problems to deal with. More recently, despite his success, Hadley had been filing for bankruptcy,......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a fatal fall victim at Clove Rd. and Hillcrest Terrace on Staten Island, a severed finger on East 38th St. and Madison Ave., and an animal rescue at 173rd St. in Queens. Sirius satellite radio (channel 85) will feature tribute broadcasts of performances by the recently deceased Beverly Sills tonight and tomorrow evening, at 9 pm and 8 pm, respectively. Shooting of the film adaptation of Jerome Robbins' ballet......

Last night Beverly Sills lost her battle with lung cancer, she died at her home in Manhattan at the age of 78. While she was a lifelong non-smoker and only found out about the cancer a few weeks ago, this wasn't her first experience with it - she underwent a successful surgery for cancer in 1974. Sills, born Belle Miriam Silverman (and called "Bubbles" in her youth), was a Brooklyn-born soprano, and one of the......

Langston Hughes came to New York to study at Columbia in 1921, but after a year he left due to racial prejudice at the institution. He aimed his focus towards Harlem, becoming a large influence on the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, even when he was physically worlds away. Famously saying, "I would rather have a kitchenette in Harlem than a mansion in Westchester," he spent the last twenty years of his life living in......

Trading Places & Coming to America (directed by John Landis) Norbit (directed by Brian Robbins) After Eddie Murphy's Oscar nomination for his supporting role in Dreamgirls last year, there was a long (and seemingly unauthorized) profile on Murphy's career in Entertainment Weekly. Looking at the whole span from the highs of his days on SNL to his mega-fame from 48 HRS and Beverly Hills Cop to the lows of Vampire in Brooklyn and that ill-conceived......

The Peter Braunstein trial finished the week with the defense reading parts of the journalist's diary, written while he was on the run after attacking a co-worker. The Daily News excerpted many parts yesterday, including:"There are no 'innocent people,' God tells me repeatedly. 'There are no victims.' Either we're all victims, or none of us are. And none of us are. "I'll be in Heaven along with Joan of Arc, BioHazard's mom and Aaron Spelling......

April 14: Denise Landis at Broadway Panhandler Join Denise Landis, recipe tester for The New York Times, as she shares recipes and expertise from her newest cookbook, Dinner for Eight. Free tasting and book signing to follow the demonstration. Broadway Panhandler, 65 East 8th Street (between Broadway and University), 3 PM, free. April 16: A Menupoems Reading April is National Poetry Month and Alimentum is joining in the celebration with Menupoems. During the month, participating......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an unusual rescue on Beverly Rd. in Brooklyn, a car vs. building incident at Myrtle Ave. and 74th St. in Queens, and a shooting at 125th St. and 1st Ave. in Manhattan. Matthew Goldstein, a CUNY alumnus and present chancellor of that school system, won the Carnegie Corp.'s Academic Leadership Award and will receive $500,000. Queens state assemblyman Rory Lancman wants an appointed member of NYC's Human Rights Commission......

Ruth Ann Swenson, who just six weeks ago finished chemotherapy for breast cancer, has begun a six week run of Handel's “Giulio Cesare." She's been a mainstay soprano at the Metropolitan Opera, yet after this run - the Met may be letting her go after more than twenty years of performances there (her debut was in 1988). Swenson told the NY Times, “It’s hurtful. I’m a New Yorker. I’ve sung here for many, many years.......

Charting the New York Times bestseller list for the third consecutive week is a memoir by the 42 year-old Las Vegas chef Jeffrey Henderson. Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, from Cocaine to Foie Gras, is Henderson’s tale of becoming a teenage drug dealer in South Central Los Angeles, getting caught and going to federal prison, and of how Henderson ultimately flourished in restaurant kitchens as a chef, something that changed his life. When......

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't officially start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to... Over at Sampaist, spring has more than sprung: it's sweltering! But, as everyone knows, museums are an ideal......

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association voting pool for the Golden Globes only consists of 83 members, but every year their mainstream tastes become one of the potential early prognosticators for the Emmys and the Oscars. Over in Beverly Hills today, the stylists are putting the finishing touches on the stars' couture, that long red carpet is being laid and some assistant is double checking the seals on the envelopes. Here in New York of course,......

If you’ve ever tried to convince your parents that the bong they found hidden in your closet was an abstract sculpture, The Bong Show, or This Is Not a Pipe will be right up your alley. For her first curatorial project, Beverly Semmes “wondered what would happen when serious artists contemplated a culturally marginal object (a bong, for example).” Semmes’ colleagues turned in tongue-in-cheek paraphernalia—an assortment of artworks designed in various media that straddle “the......

Yesterday, MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow revealed the 2007 $10 billion MTA budget, confirming that there will be no fare hikes in 2007 and 2009. But some transit advocates think that Kalikow's strategy of implementing hikes every other year (one is expected in 2008) is just delaying the inevitable given the crippling deficits expected. Beverly Dolinsky of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA told the Post, "[Kalikow is] putting it in the lap of......

Family members protested at Ground Zero, asking that Mayor Bloomberg involve the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in the renewed search for remains from September 11, 2001. Local politicians like Representative Carolyn Maloney and City Councilman Alan Gerson support the families, but Mayor Bloomberg feels it's the "city's responsibility. We're not going to walk away from our responsibility and let somebody else bear the pressure of the work." The families argue that in spite......

READING: The New School's wonderful public lectures and reading series are back in swing as the school year revs up, and tonight, the ethereal Mary Gaitskill will discuss her book Veronica (a National Book Award finalist) with moderator Jeffrey Renard Allen. - Krissa Corbett Cavouras 6:30pm // The New School [66 W 12th St, room 510] // $5 THEATER: The Soho Think Tank is legendary for nurturing some of the freshest new work in town.......

Reviewing shows in the very first days of the Fringe Festival is always a little hazardous, what with so many kinks that need to be worked out (if not in the show itself, in the Fringe management). But we wanted to report to you early on about what to see and what not to see, overlooking glitches as best we could, at least as far as they appeared to be early-run problems rather than real......

We just came across a video that's a part of the T-Bird Show (which appears to be a lot of, "What is the deal with Hipsters?") The host ran into Adrian Grenier on the street in Williamsburg and gave him a little impromptu interview, which you can watch above. Best quote from Grenier on how Williamsburg differs from Hollywood, "...no manicured lawns, things are a bit more grimey, a little more real. I was......

Aaron Spelling, one of TV's most influential producers, passed on yesterday. Holding the world record for most prolific television producer, he was 83. Though he was hardly a critic's darling, Spelling managed to produce some phenomenally popular and lucrative television series including, but by no means limited to, "Dynasty," "The Love Boat," "Fantasy Island," "Charlie's Angels," "Melrose Place," "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "7th Heaven." At one point it was joked that ABC might as......

Newsday has feature about a new book that looks at set designs of favorite TV shows - Sitcom Style by Diana Friedman. Apparently Friedman was obssessed with the Bradys' California split level as a child - the same way everyone else probably was (for instance, why were there only two bedrooms for the kids - and Greg's attic bedroom doesn't count) - and pulled together facts and trivia about the sets for lots of show,......