In the midst of the most important story of our time, Alec Baldwin's spokesman wants us to know that getting the boot from an American Airlines flight was just Alec being Alec. "Alec loves Words With Friends so much that he was willing to leave a plane for it," flack Matthew Hilzik tells the Daily News. And fellow famous-person Oscar De La Hoya, who was on the flight from LAX to JFK, tweeted "I think the flight attendant over reacted…@AlecBaldwin was doing nothing wrong but playing 'words' on his phone." But couldn't this just be some celebrity Omertá? According to American Airlines, Baldwin was acting like a thoughtless little pig. more ›

Some 140 people applied to adopt the adorable kitten that some miserable P.O.S. tossed out of the window of a moving car on the Verrazano Bridge in July. Among the hopefuls was TV's Whoopi Goldberg, and it was announced today that Animal Care & Control has granted her wish, which we're sure has everything to do with her qualifications as a pet owner and nothing to do with her celebrity status. Animal shelter staffers had named the five-week-old Russian blue kitten Verrazano after it was rescued, but Goldberg has christened him Vinny. more ›

New York City is great, but it's even better when you have unlimited funds... we hear. Just ask the 18 celebrities on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list that live in the city—together they earned over $872 million dollars in the past year. more ›

For over two years, the city has wanted to build a sanitation garage in SoHo on Spring Street. And at every step of the way, those plans have been blocked by a ragtag cadre of downtown celebrities, a renegade group of disparate actors, musicians and personalities who were willing to fight to the last breath to prevent the common man's garbage from clogging their block. They were the Ocean's Eleven of...trash. But a court has now rejected the appeals to the project, and given the go ahead for the garage to be built. more ›

So this line at MoMA to sit in front of Marina Abramović is really long, you know, FYI. You pretty much have to clear your schedule and be prepared to wait around for at least a few hours... unless, of course, you are famous. Or so we hear. The other day James Franco was first to sit in front of the performance artist, and we're pretty sure he—or Lou Reed, or Sharon Stone—didn't stand in line like regular museum patrons. Like the Paco Blancases of the world. more ›

With all the celebrities that have made cameos on Sesame Street throughout the years, odds are pretty good that some of them have been stoned (though when we visited in 2008 it was impossible to score there). more ›

The troupe of A-listers fighting against dirty, smelly trash coming to their pristine neighborhood have hit a bump in their road to a reek-free corner of Manhattan. The group — which includes celebs like Jennifer Connelly, Kirsten Dunst, Michael Stipe, James Gandolfini, Lou Reed and John Slattery — has been fighting against a new sanitation garage in SoHo. They filed a lawsuit against the city's plan, and the NY Post reports that this week the judge has tossed it out with the trash, allowing the city to start work on the $400 million garbage garage. The residents are still deciding if they'll file an appeal, and are still hoping for a better alternative. more ›

The public will no longer be able to visit the Mayor's Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting to parse through a weekly stack of film shoot permits. Instead, those interested in leafing through the pile of city paperwork (i.e. the paparazzi) will be forced to file for the data under the Freedom of Information Law. more ›

Who wants a personal tour of Central Park from Kevin Bacon? Well, you can sort of get that, though it won't put you any degrees closer to the actor. The NY Post reports that Bacon, along with a slew of other NY-based celebs like Yoko Ono, Jerry Seinfeld, Isabella Rossellini, Alec Baldwin and Whoopi Goldberg will "share bits of history, trivia and personal remembrances about the park's many landmarks on a new audio tour visitors can access with their cellphones" (samples here). The mobile tour launched today, with signs containing the number posted throughout the park. At the Naumburg Bandshell Paul Shaffer will tell you about the strait-laced commissioners only approving of classical music, he says "It took until the 1920s for parkgoers to enjoy what today we know of as popular music." Now, if only we could add recent GPS navigator Homer Simpson to the audio. more ›

A report released Tuesday by the Food Bank for New York City has found that approximately four million New Yorkers—one in two—are having trouble paying for groceries, a 26 percent increase since the last survey in February. The Hunger Experience 2008 Update also found that college degrees are increasingly useless protection against indigence; one out of every three (36 percent) NYC college graduates had difficulty affording needed food this year, up from 11 percent in 2003. Lucy Cabrera, the food bank's president, says, "The results of this report are devastating. These numbers should be a wake-up call for all New Yorkers." The Food Bank NYC sources and distributes food to the estimated 1.3 million New Yorkers who rely on emergency food. Today you've got until noon to help the Food Bank by bidding on one of their cool celebrity decorated lunchboxes. (Just please don't outbid us on Mike D's Jacob the Jeweler box.) more ›

The third annual Lunchbox Auction to raise money for the Food Bank for New York City kicked off last night with a celebrity fundraiser at Milk Studios in the Meatpacking District. Also benefiting The Lunchbox Fund of South Africa, the auction features over 77 lunchboxes custom designed by celebrities (and/or their handlers). Among the more eye catching boxes were avant-garde Chicago chef Grant Achatz's abstract deconstruction of a lunchbox, Tony Bennett's painting of a happy pooch (see below), and Michael Stipe's three lunchboxes with bronze cassettes and a camera embedded in molds of chocolate, salt and jello. more ›

Maybe Cynthia Rodriguez did need a break. The Post spotted the long-suffering wife of Yankees All-Star Alex Rodriguez in the City of Light "beaming with smiles" and looking good, "wearing black, open-toed, high-heeled shoes, tight-fitting blue jeans and a gray hooded top." However, she was not wearing her engagement or anniversary rings. more ›

First, there was talk that Madonna had engaged a divorce lawyer. Then there were rumors Madonna's potential split with Guy Ritchie was due to an affair with Yankee superstar Alex Rodriguez. Now, things have gotten really crazy with suggestions that A-Rod's wife Cynthia has left him for...Lenny Kravitz! more ›

We know that Giants co-owner and movie producer Steve Tisch has been trying to ramp up the star power for the Giants sidelines. After Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore and Cameron Diaz were seen at a game last fall, Tisch told the NY Times, he brings "the spices, the taste, the flavor" to the Giants (if the Giants experience were a soup; the other co-owners, the Maras, would bring the meat and potatoes). more ›

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We think NYC area hospitals should be on alert: TMZ reports that Britney Spears is headed to NYC. Well, if not NYC, something close:

"Spears left Van Nuys Airport at 4:00 PM PT this afternoon. We're told Brit Brit, Adnan and one other male passenger were on the plane. The plane is about to land at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. Next stop ... unknown."

The NY Post warns the women of New York that their bag habits may be bad for them. Some women sling up to 11 lbs over their shoulder on a daily basis, and doctors warn that "Any time there's an unequal weight distribution on the shoulders or upper back, it's going to affect alignment of the spine." While we think it's more about living in New York and carrying around what you need to get you through your waking (and walking) hours -- the Post also lays blame on celebs who have made the big-bag trend popular.

Designers and fashion-forward celebrities have turned oversized totes with massive metal hardware into must-have accessories. While many start at over $1,000, they also weigh an average of 4 pounds empty.

Pint-sized celebrities and models who do cocaine on the front page of the London Daily Mirror have taken to bragging about their protruding collar bone indirectly, by sporting an extremely large bag. Seemingly, the largeness of your bag is inversely related to your smallness, thus, the greater the possibility that you could dismember yourself and stuff all of your extremities into it. The trend probably started with the Olsen twins, the originators of all things hip and extremely outsized.

During the 80s golden era of Late Night With David Letterman, Chris Elliott was one of the people most responsible for the show's distinctively bizarre style. Playing characters like "The Guy Under the Seats" and "The Regulator Guy," Elliott's contributions were sometimes hilarious and sometimes baffling, but always memorable for their absolutely unadulterated weirdness. He went on to cultivate his peculiar "Chris Elliott" persona in cult classics like the TV show Get a Life and... more ›

For the second year running, the Food Bank for New York City and the Lunchbox Fund of South Africa have enlisted over 100 celebrities in their holiday fundraiser. Boldface names like Kanye West, Elton John, Cameron Diaz, Mike Meyers, William Wegman and, um, Urban Outfitters, have created personalized, autographed lunchboxes that are now onsale via online auction. At Thursday night's kick-off event at Saatchi & Saatchi, a lunchbox by Michael Stipe was snatched up... more ›

Bon Appétit , in an attempt to appeal to a broader, younger, and theoretically "hipper" audience, has recently revamped its logo. Taunting came in full force, via Grub Street, who concluded, "[t]he truth is that Bon Appétit will never be any hipper or friskier than it is, because no magazine about upscale entertaining can ever speak to people that don’t have big houses and plenty of time on their hands." Adam Roberts, the Amateur Gourmet,... more ›