NBC's decision to cancel Law & Order doesn't just mean that we'll no longer get to guess which headlines were ripped (Hookergate! The Taconic Wrong Way Crash! Hipster Grifter!) on the latest episode, it also means that $79 million will not go towards NYC businesses, actors, and interests. That's the amount that NYC Film, Theater and Broadcasting Commissioner Katharine Oliver estimates the productions spends annually—and she also told the NY Times that the show employs about 4,000 people, each year, including one-day parts. Oliver said Law & Order producer-mastermind Dick Wolf "really proved that New York City is an affordable place to shoot." more ›

If you've got theater tickets for tonight, you'll want to dig your snowshoes out of the closet and brace yourself for adventure. At this moment, there is not a single performance canceled. (Check these sites for updates.) And because many ticket-holders won't have what it takes to make it to the theater, Charlotte St. Martin, Executive Director of The Broadway League, says, "It's a great time to get good seats to the hot musicals and plays currently playing in our theatres." (All three TKTS discount booths are open as usual.) If you're willing to trudge to the theater district, A Behanding in Spokane, starring Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell, sounds promising. If you're near the East Village, you can't go wrong Radiohole, and if you're snowed in in Williamsburg, we highly recommend You're Welcome.! more ›

Okay, for those theater aesthetes who wouldn't be caught dead attending one of those big-money, lowbrow Broadway spectacles, be advised that as of 2 p.m., there were no known cancellations of Off Broadway shows tonight, either. So go see Circumcise Me or something! (Still waiting on word about Off Off Broadway, but we'd be mighty disillusioned if stalwart companies like The Debate Society let a little blizzard stop them tomorrow night.) more ›

As quickly as you can say nuke-yu-ler, the hotly anticipated debate between George W. Bush and Bill Clinton has been called off! At first we assumed it was because when Bush agreed to the debate, he thought he'd be going up against George Clinton, the brain-fried frontman for Parliament-Funkadelic, not Bill Clinton, world-renowned master debater. But turns out, it's Clinton who's withdrawn. more ›

Remember that big 'ol winter park that was opening to the public alongside the East River next week? There's good news and there's bad news. The good news is the weather is warming up! The bad news is it melted the park. The press release we received states: "The East River Snow Park is cancelled for Winter Break on Monday, February 16 through Sunday, February 22. Spring came early and unseasonably warm temperatures mean no snow, but stay tuned for more opportunities for winter fun." This is just like when Frosty melted, but Chuck did predict an early Spring. more ›

Every year the real life Fame kids of Fiorello H. La Guardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts put on a musical, but now the NY Times delivers some sad news: "amid serious budget cuts from the city and the state, the bright lights have dimmed...For the first time in recent memory, the school postponed its annual musical this fall and is now considering canceling it." With a normal production budget that can reach up to $70K, it's not all that surprising with massive budget cuts slicing through the system; one teachers' union head at the school commented on the extreme measures, saying: “Forget about cutting to the bone, we’re talking about full-level amputations now.” Now parents are left trying to raise money for a possible springtime production. Their kids want to live forever after all, and can't be expected to without their lifeblood being cut off. Perhaps the school should get a cut from the new movie remake. more ›

Bad news, art nerds. The weather forecast for tomorrow is so bad that this year's Art Parade—always an eye-popping explosion of bizarre costumes, imaginative floats, and paper mache—has been canceled. A spokesperson for Deitch Projects, which puts on the annual event, tells us that normally the parade is "rain or shine, but the forecast is so bad and they're predicting such high winds we have to cancel." Deitch is discussing the possibility of getting a parade permit for next spring instead. In the meantime, savor our photos from last year and try not to dwell on what Hanna hath taken away. (Like the Ferris Bueller float!) more ›

The Brooklyn Paper announces that the Columbia Heights soapbox derby has hit the finish line before the race even began. It appears that founder John Mejias's master plan of getting a city permit via a friend, who would be filming the derby for a documentary, garnered too much press and eventually led his decision to cancel the event. The paper reports that "once the news broke about Mejias’s permit, he faced renewed scrutiny from the city. Fearing too much attention to his formerly under-the-radar event, Mejias said he capped the field at 12 — then cancelled the event altogether." Or did he. In the past he's moved the location, and taken it off-the-radar again by doing so. more ›

An influential group of rabbis have put the kibosh on a concert planned for next Sunday at MSG’s WaMu theater. Billed as The Big Event, the show was to be headlined by popular Hasidic pop singer Lipa Schmeltzer and raise money for an Israeli charity that finances weddings for orphans. But after an edict was issued against the event, Schmeltzer dropped out, saying, “I have to get out of the fire.” more ›

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay doesn’t give a damn about you, your girlfriend, or the special Valentine’s Day dinner you had planned – so drop your fork and get the hell off his set! That seems to be the way things went last Thursday night when diners at New Jersey’s fancy Hannah and Masons restaurant were summarily evicted – mid-meal – to facilitate production on Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA series. No matter how romantic the rabble, it just wouldn’t do to have them cluttering up Ramsay’s frame – one only hopes the cameras were rolling when the guests were asked to leave. more ›