Yesterday, the Post revealed the season premiere of Law & Order (Friday, September 22 - new night, people!) would center around "a wannabe rapper - who happens to be married to a wealthy young starlet with a reputation for being careless with her newborn baby - becomes the prime suspect in the killing of an NYPD detective." Ah, it is so great when it's so obvious who they are ripping from the headlines. more ›

While we're not thrilled that the movie version of the musical Rent was shot mostly in San Francisco, Gothamist strongly urges you to go to Bryant Park at lunchtime to hear the cast members of the movie sing songs from the musical in a Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS event. Most of the musical's performers are reprising their roles - Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Idina Menzel, Wilson Jermaine Herredia, Tracie Thoms, Taye Diggs, Jesse L. Martin (we love you, Detective Green) - plus Rosario Dawson (playing Mimi, the role originated by Daphne Rubin-Vega). They performed on the Today Show, and damn it, we get tear up when we hear "Seasons of Love." more ›

- And possibly the best weather post ever. more ›

Gothamist thought that Detective Green's shooting in tonight's episode of Law & Order was just a neat way to let Jesse L. Martin leave the show temporarily while he shoots Rent, but someone on Flickr says that tonight will be his last episode. The episode features a shocking crime, which is a bullet to the chest of Detective Green. Say it ain't so! It's not like L&O producer Dick Wolf would want to show his hand, but this is too obvious. When Jill Hennessy's Claire Kincaid died at the end of season six, we didn't know. And while we knew Serena Southerlyn was leaving, we didn't know she would be a lesbian! Gothamist doesn't want to see Detective Green in a bodybag. And we don't want a Paul Sorvino/Phil Cerreta-like shooting in a buy-and-bust, where he ends up deciding to leave homicide investigations. No! more ›

Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes sure does have a lot of enemies. One of his rivals is pointing out many of his top assistant DA's don't live in Kings County, which might violate their "duty as public servants to live in the city where they work," as the Post puts it. John O'Hara filed a complaint with the Conflict of Interest Board; the Post notes that O'Hara has been "prosecuted three times for the felony crime of voting from an address that wasn't his primary residence," so it's a tit-for-tat deal. O'Hara hopes that many defense lawyers will try to get non-Brooklyn-residing assistant DA's recused from cases. As for the other boroughs, both Bronx and Staten Island ADA's live in their boroughs while Queens and Manhattan ADA's can live outside the city. Manhattan DA's were given an exception to the rule that says "at face value...assistants should be living in the five boroughs," according to the Staten Island DA's office. Interestingly, there was an interview with Annie Parisse about playing new assistant D.A. Alexandra Borgia on Law & Order. Parisse's backstory for Borgia is that she's "...unmarried...I live by myself in Brooklyn. I have a cat. I think my family is maybe a little hoity-toity and that I didn't want anything to do with that. A loner, who's maybe even socially defensive and not trusting." No word on if she's a lesbian; we'll probably find out on her last episode. Anyway, who knew that top ADA's made over $100,000? We always thought Jack McCoy made less than that for some reason. more ›

In other Law & Order news, Michael Imperioli, aka "Christufuh" on the Sopranos, will be guest-starring three of the last four episodes of the season. He'll be playing a detective who Detective Fontana, played by Dennis Farina, is paired with while Detective Green is filming Rent in San Francisco (yes, yes, it's actually Jesse L. Martin). This is the first time on Law & Order that there's been a guest detective (Law & Order: Criminal Intent did have a guest second banana detective to Vincent D'Onofrio's Detective Goren when Kathryne Erbe was pregnant), and we'll have to finally summon up the courage to bug Imperioli the next time we see him in TriBeCa. more ›

Chung chung! It's the moment Gothamist has been waiting for - at least since May 20 - it's the season premiere of Law & Order. And since it's the much ballyhooed CSI:NY vs. Law & Order smackdown on Wednesday at 10PM, NBC is rolling out TWO episode of L&O tonight, starting at 9PM. The first episode is "Paradigm":

Dennis Farina joins the cast as Detective Joe Fontana, a stylish veteran uneasily paired with Detective Green (Jesse L. Martin) when a former female Guardsman from the second Gulf War is found murdered -- and evidence points to the vengeful Iraqi sister of a an ex-inmate at infamous Abu Ghraib prison. However, when D.A.s McCoy and Southerlyn begin to prosecute, they discover that the suspect's lawyer boldly plans to defend his client as an "enemy soldier" -- subject only to the terms of the Geneva Convention. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg guest-stars as himself. .

What about the show, you ask. There is speculation that Detective Green will get promoted and will take on the "wise veteran" dynamic of the group. While Gothamist has utmost faith in Dick Wolf and his producers decisions (even though we don't forgive them for giving us Serena Boring Bones Southerlyn), we foresee a rocky start for the newbie to fill Lennie's shoes. more ›