Disney confused most of The Internet today when their new Joy Division/Mickey Mouse mash-up t-shirt made the rounds. According to the company, the shirt (just $24.95) is indeed "inspired by the iconic sleeve of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures album." more ›

Times Squares' costumed entrepreneurs are officially free to ply their trade without fear of retribution. According to the Daily News, the NYPD has stopped the policy of ticketing the Elmos, Hello Kitties, Buzz Lightyears and Spidermen who take pictures with kiddies for tips. The entertainers are allowed to receive tips, but not charge for pictures taken with them in costume. According Girish Dani, who dresses up as Spiderman, Elmo still gets a bad rap: "A few Elmos chase people for tips…I heard one or two Elmos drink whiskey, and this could be an issue." Ah, but Sesame Street is the type of place that drives a monster to drink. more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] We interrupt this message on why soda makes you fat to bring you an important news update: The Jonas Brothers were forcing their Korean protegés The Wonder Girls to craft delicate pop songs in a slave-labor "music mill" at their Midtown studio! And now the city has shut them down! Or so says the New York Post in a two-sentence story lacking any information or context. Are the Jonas Brothers trying to compete with the iPad or something? more ›

Back in June, triple threat Joe Jonas (musician/thespian/HOTTIEPANTS) was given a chilly reception sharing a bill with, uh, Swiss Beatz, as Williamsburg's finest pelted the Disney star with Nerf balls. But if only those evil hipsters kept their minds as open as their nostrils in the Woods' bathrooms, they'd see that Joe Jonas is totally on the level: he smokes dope! more ›

As Archbishop Dolan once eloquently said: "Last time I consulted an atlas, it is clear we are living in New York, in the United States of America—not in China, or North Korea." This means that people are free to lick their shoes on the subway or dress up in costumes of popular TV and movie characters, roaming Times Square for lucrative photo opportunities with hapless tourists. But are these freedom-loving entrepreneurs breaking the law and diluting the brands of these fine american companies? more ›

Way over on the West Coast the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Times Square's ESPN Zone (which they refer to as an "upscale eatery") is calling it quits. Allegedly Disney is shutting it down, along with most other ESPN Zones around the country. No word on when the place will go dark, but we're surely they'll stay open through the World Cup until next week. more ›

A failed coffee shop owner and his Disney secretary girlfriend have been hit with conspiracy and wire fraud charges after their dopey attempt at insider trading blew up in their faces. Up until Tuesday, Bonnie Hoxie, 33, worked as an assistant to Disney's head of corporate communications. According to prosecutors, she was confident she could obtain access to Disney's (DIS) quarterly earning report before it was publicly released, and so her boyfriend, Yonni Sebbag, 29, came up with an ingenious plan: email 33 hedge funds with the hot tip that, "I am willing to share this information for a fee... I count on your discretion as you can count on mine." But these treacherous traders weren't discreet, and instead ratted them out to the Feds! more ›

After a heated dispute over fees, Disney and Cablevision are making enough headway during negotiations for Disney to put the WABC 7 signal back on Cablevision. This happened within the first half hour of the Oscars telecast—the news was broadcast on a ticker at the bottom of the screen. more ›

After failing to come to an agreement over fees, Disney took WABC 7 off of Cablevision last night, leaving 3.1 million customers without ABC programming—including tonight's big Oscars telecast. WABC 7 and Cablevision posted angry messages blaming each other on the channel. more ›

Disney and Cablevision still haven't come to an agreement about the fate of WABC 7. The two have been publicly sparring about fees: Disney, which owns WABC 7, wants $40 million to carry the local network from Cablevision. But the cable company is balking, so Disney says it will pull WABC 7 programming from three million Cablevision homes and businesses at midnight tonight!* more ›

Move over Tiffany! After Disney swooped in with precious princess bridal dresses a few years ago, now the house that Mickey built is offering diamond engagement rings inspired by the "Disney princesses," like Cinderella, Snow White, Prince Jasmine, and Belle. more ›

At 8:30PM (following a half-hour red carpet special), the 80th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will begin, finally putting an end to the "There Will Be Oscar" or "Oscar Country for Old Men" type headlines. more ›

Cartoons just got a little more real with The Three Thug Mice, an online series set in New York City. The 35 animated shorts follow the tales (and tails!) of three rodent crooks named Vic, Tik and Brik. Described as an "ongoing ghetto saga" set in some of the seedier sectors of the concrete jungle, the trio's home turf is light years away from Disney World. (Though that is the Hotel Chelsea in the background, which isn't so seedy; wonder if that frog jumped after BD Hotels took over management.) more ›

Listening to Philadelphia duo Pattern is Movement for the first time can perhaps best be described as taking a ride through Disney's "It's a Small World After All", with each country representing a different period of music. It's a lot to take in, as sounds of the past are layered upon each other to create modern arrangements unlike anything you've heard before, while somehow remaining distantly familiar. more ›

As we mentioned yesterday, the writers' strike may be coming to an end. Michael Eisner leaked that we'd be hearing news of it this weekend, and the former Disney CEO was right. Today Variety reports that "the WGA has finalized its tentative agreement with the majors and will present details of the pact to members today in meetings in Los Angeles and New York." more ›

Last year Bloomberg announced the "first-ever global multimedia communications campaign to promote New York City," with efforts to bring in more tourism through television, outdoor advertising, internet and everything in between. more ›

CNBC reported last night that the WGA strike may be over! Their source is former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who now hosts a show on the network. When asked on the show Fast Money where the WGA strike stands he replied, “It’s over. They’ve made a deal, they shook hands on a deal. The deal is going on Saturday to the constituents (for a vote)… I think it’s impossible that they turn it down. A deal has been made and (the writers) will be back to work reasonably soon!” more ›

When They Might Be Giants released their twelfth album, The Else, over the summer, The Village Voice called it “as tuneful and rockin' as all the rest, from the withering ‘I'm Impressed’ to the female-empowerment anthem ‘Take Out the Trash.’” Keeping it fresh is no small feat for a band with such an impressive body of work, accumulated over the course of the past 25-plus years. But a listen to The Else or, even better, a couple hours spent at one of their live shows is proof enough that the Johns remain as creatively resilient as ever. They spent most of the fall 2007 on the road and have since been putting the finishing touches on their next project for Disney, “Here Come the 123s.” Oriented for children, the CD/DVD package will feature a mix of animation and music like their previous “Here Come the ABCs”. On Saturday February 2nd they play a grown-up rock show at The Beacon Theater, with horns. [Tickets.] more ›

Tim and Nina Zagat, whose eponymous ratings guide started in 1979 as a two-page typed list of New York restaurants, are putting their baby on the market. Insiders peg the company’s worth at $200 million; the Times thinks the brand will prove attractive to companies like AT&T, who could use it to build exclusive mobile phone content. more ›

On January 2, after seeing a young man have a seizure and fall into the 1 subway tracks at at the 137th Street station just as a train was entering the station, construction worker Wesley Autrey jumped in and covered the other man's body with his own. The train passed over them and a hero was born. more ›

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Lincoln Center Tree Lighting 2007 (Monday, 5:30 p.m, WABC 7) Good Morning America’s Sam Champion and WABC’s Sade Baderinwa host the first televised tree lighting of the season. There will be some performances by Lincoln Center’s resident companies and some guest’s from channel 7’s owner Disney on hand for entertainment for the 8th annual Lincoln Center Holiday Tree lighting. America at a Crossroads (Monday, 9:00 p.m &... more ›

Thanksgiving officially marks the start of the holiday movie season, and this weekend, one film seems poised to make a run for the box office crown. Enchanted, the Disney film that mixes animation and live-action to spoof its classic fairy tales, received some pretty stellar reviews. It's 92% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and most reviews are calling this the star-making performance of Amy Adams, who was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar for Junebug... more ›

Broadway’s blackout grew blacker still Sunday night when talks between the stagehands’ union and producers broke down again. Around 9pm, after two days of negotiations averaging about 12 hours a day, the league of producers reached the end of their patience. A spokesman for the union, Local One, issued a statement saying that “producers informed Local One that what Local One offered was not good enough, and they left.” This despite the intervention of Disney’s... more ›

For the first time since November 8th, Local One, the stagehands’ union, is meeting with the Broadway producers’ league to talk it out. (Local One has been on strike since last Saturday over proposed changes to their contracts.) Insiders are expressing guarded optimism about the talks because they’re proceeding with the help of Disney’s senior V.P. of labor relations, Robert W. Johnson. Disney is not a member of the producers' league and thus not directly... more ›

Members of the Writers Guild of America have been striking in Los Angeles and New York this past week over details of a basic contract between writers and producers - one of the biggest sticking points is the amount of residuals writers get from DVD and new media distribution. The NY Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd asked Seth Meyers (who we spoke to on Tuesday) to give her a weekend update about the strike:... more ›

18 years after its big screen release, and 171 years after Hans Christian Andersen penned the fairy tale...The Little Mermaid is ready for Broadway. Ariel & Co. will take the stage in New York starting November 3rd, and since mid-summer the musical has been out in Denver for a pre-Broadway engagement. more ›

Just after Ethan Hawke declared more love for the Hotel Chelsea and more fear about the changes there being the final nail in the coffin of "old New York," The Observer suspects his exes ex of helping to hold the hammer. more ›