The Hollywood Reporter has news that Beastie Boy Adam Yauch will be expanding his music and film production operation, Oscilloscope Laboratories, into indie film distribution. Under the nom de plume Nathanial Hörnblowér, Yauch has orchestrated many of the Beastie Boys videos, as well as the hip hop group’s inventive full-length concert doc Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! Oscilloscope also shot and produced live concert videos for Beck and Ryan Adams. more ›

The producer of Pan's Labyrinth, the Oscar-winning film that partially delves into the world of abuse, may in fact have done some abusing of her own. A lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court yesterday against Frida Torresblanco. Her nanny, Angelica Hernandez, claims she was treated like a virtual slave. more ›

We've been monitoring how I am Legend, the big budget post-apocalyptic zombie movie set in New York, will be portraying the Big Apple ever since filming took place on the Brooklyn Bridge (it eventually gets blown up). Now, with reviews starting to pop up, we're hearing mixed things about the movie but raves about how a futuristic people-less New York City looks. The Observer's Sara Vilkomerson was freaked out, noting how the city is... more ›

Some folks were mighty disappointed when a Daisy May's BBQ cart on Park Avenue and 52nd Street turned out to be a tease. According to Midtown Lunch, the cart was set up outside the Seagram Building for the filming of the next Adam Sandler movie, You Don't Mess With Zohan. more ›

Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore and his distributor, Harvey Weinstein, appeared at a press conference yesterday to question why the government is investigating Moore's trip to Cuba for his upcoming film, Sicko. The film, which premiered at Cannes and is scheduled to open in a few weeks, questions the American health care system and, at one point, Moore takes three September 11 rescue workers to Cuba to get health care treatment for them there. more ›

As of last night, Pier 54 became a temporary home for the band Cartel. Haven't heard of them? That's probably why they opted for this reality show/publicity stunt thing. more ›

It's December today and you know what that means...let the rampant awards season speculation commence! As the year comes to a close, it's that magical time when all of the movie studios begin unloading their most precious commodities into our theaters, making sure things come out in New York (and LA) before Dec. 31 so they'll be eligible for this year's Academy Awards. But of course, we're still weeks away from any nomination announcements for the Oscars. Heck, even the Golden Globes noms are still but a fantasy of a date marked with a big red X on the calendar. (Okay, fine they'll be broadcast on December 14th. It's closer than it seems.) more ›

Last night, Katie Couric made her CBS Evening News debut. Overall, the newscast was perfectly fine - no banter, a long Lara Logan feature on going in Taliban-run Afghanistatn, an interview (sorta like The Daily Show, just without the humor) with the NY Times' Thomas L. Friedman, a segment from Morgan "30 Days" Spurlock, and what the public has really been waiting for, pictures of baby Suri Cruise (she has a crazy head of hair!). Sure, people tuned in for last night's broadcast, but will they tune in every day? Are you going to watch? And are you going to help Katie pick a sign-off? more ›

as Law & Order SVU used to be on then (and we remember the good ol' Fridays when The X-Files was on at 9PM and then Homicide was on at 10PM). And maybe Govich's ADA character, Jessica "From the wrong side of the tracks" [the elevated train tracks?] Rossi, won't be that lucky - the lady ADA's have a mysterious way of leaving every so often. more ›

It's been oh, about five million, thirty-one thousand, three hundred sixty minutes since the musical Rent premiered on Broadway, and Gothamist must admit that because Seasons of Love has been playing over and over again thanks to the ads for the movie Rent, we're tempted to see it in order to get the song out of our head. Some early reviews are out (Variety thinks it's very Chris Columbus, very lame but the Hollywood Reporter is much more positive), but we have enjoyed Perptually Nauseous's take on the film, after seeing it with "with five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred homos." Mainly, it's about realizing that Father Time has truly done his job:

And when the big "La Vie Boheme" number came on, I know, without a doubt, that if I were to be put in that situation, I would be the one saying... more ›

Once upon a time in 1999, a book of short stories titled, The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing, came out and captured the hearts of female readers, many of them single, New York women looking for love and career fulfillment (much like the main character in most of the stories, Jane), as the Bridget Jones/Sex and the City zeitgeist started to take hold. And Gothamist thought, "This should be a movie!" And a year or so later, we heard that Reese Witherspoon had optioned the book. Then nothing. Last year, Marc Klein, who wrote Serendipity, was charged to adapt two of the stories and later direct it. And this year, Sarah Michelle Gellar was announced as the lead. Finally, yesterday, the Hollywood Reporter announced that Alec Baldwin was cast at the older man that Jane falls for. Which threw us for a loop, because we usually think about his as Frank The Cucumber or as whoever he is playing on Will & Grace these days (we don't really know, as we only see the previews and think, "Hell, that show is like the comedy Love Boat with all those guest stars"); Archie always seemed to be more Waspy and destructive. But maybe Alec Baldwin is right for the role, as he was brilliant as a Wasp in the classic Saturday Night Live sketch, Greenhilly. Clearly, we'll need to reread the book this weekend. more ›

Mick Stingley, Low-Rent Rock Critic more ›

Starting today, the Reverend Billy Graham will be preaching in Flushing, Queens in what it seems like everyone is excitedly calling "his last crusade" because he's old and seems to be ready to die. The "crusade" is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of people, and it'll be a big media event, too - Brian Williams anchoring the NBC Nightly News tonight from Flushing Meadows Park tonight; the Hollywood Reporter points out that Graham's 1957 sermon at Madison Square Garden was televised by ABC. The 86 year-old preacher even visited Flushing Meadows Park last night, to check out the site and thank workers. Gothamist hopes there's an extensive air-conditioning system onstage, as it's supposed to be humid, hot, hazy, and yes, hellish, this weekend, though TV producers might think a fainting Graham would make good TV. This weekend's event is an expensive $6.8 million, with all sorts of Grahamites available (the NY Times has one of their trademark fun graphics of what's where). more ›

Gothamist did not need to check Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, or Defamer to know that Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith would become the most popular movie across America this weekend. Gothamist knew it the moment we overheard a neighbor playing a DVD of the movie very loudly on Saturday afternoon. Said neighbor purchased the DVD in Chinatown, and while he missed the group experience of being around tons of people dressed up like beings from the five other Star Wars films, his surround sound system made us feel like we were in the theater. The NYPD, however, has been cracking down on counterfeit DVD sellers, with a raid on a Harlem storage unit revealed that counterfeit Sith DVDs were stacked "nearly to the ceiling." One counterfeit DVD buyer explained to the Daily News, "I can't even afford to go to the movies nowadays. It's $35 after a ticket, soda and food." Another possible explanation not offered that Gothamist will introduce is that the first two Star Wars prequels sucked so bad that people deserve to see Revenge of the Sith however they want. more ›

The Hollywood Reporter says that Meryl Streep will be playing the Anna Wintour-inspired devilish boss in the movie of The Devil Wears Prada. Streep has already played another Conde Nast employee, New Yorker writer Susan Orlean, in Adaptation, so we can't wait until she plays Graydon Carter or Jeff Jarvis next (hey, she played a rabbi in Angels in America - she can probably do it!). We think that someone like Lara Flynn Boyle, with aging makeup, would be more physically like Wintour, but these are the movies and Streep can play insane well (see Manchurian Candidate, She-Devil, and Death Becomes Her). Streep does have experience playing people in journalism - she was a thinly veiled Nora Ephron (who wrote for Esquire) in Heartburn. more ›

The reviews are out, and Chris Rock is getting a mixed bag of feedback for his duties as the MC of the Oscars. The NY Daily News' David Bianculli says he wasn't edgy or funny enough, Variety says his opening monologue was great (subscription required), the Hollywood Reporter says that Rock wasn't on a roll, and the Washington Post's Tom Shales says Rock was strangely lame and mean-spirited. Gothamist wonders if there's a generational divide between the reviewers, because we thought Rock was the best thing about the Oscars. It's like some of these reviewers weren't familiar with Rock's material before. At least Tim Robbins (left, photo AP), whom Chris Rock made fun of, could take a joke ... we think. As for the show, sure, it seemed to move quickly and was "well-produced," and, yes, we were happy certain people won, but since there wasn't much enthusiasm for any one nominee, the whole show was boring. And Gothamist doesn't care what Gil Cates's "producer's blog" says! more ›

One of the great uncles of the reality TV genre, Taxicab Confessions, has its 11th season premiere tomorrow night on HBO. The NY Times had an Arts & Leisure feature about the show last weekend, noting that most New Yorkers ignore cab drivers, which could be partly due to some cabdrivers' chats on the cellphone, but, yeah, New Yorkers will conduct all sorts of strange business anywhere. Most of the other seasons of Taxicab Confessions were filmed in Las Vegas, because HBO couldn't get a permit to film here; HBO Documentaries president apparently made a new pitch to film in NYC by sending Film & TV Commissioner Katharine Oliver the Emmy that Nevins received for the first TC, but not as a threat, sort of as an enticement. The Hollywood Reporter gives a synopsis of the first episode, in a disappointed review:

The nine segments featured here include a skinny white guy and an extremely large black woman sharing the cab on their first date while he addresses his "big black woman" fetish; a guy and his blonde transsexual girlfriend boasting about their steamy sex life; a gentile guy discussing how the Jewish woman whom was once his girlfriend would take phone calls from her mother during sex; a young tattooed rock 'n' roll couple getting physical in the back seat, complete with her performing fellatio; and a couple of party girls and their male companion vividly demonstrating the "If you get naked, you get a free drink" policy of the karaoke bar they just left.

Norman Mailer told USA Today Gary Gilmore has no relation to the Gilmore Girls. And GG creator Amy Sherman-Palladino explained how she got Mailer to the Hollywood Reporter. Gothamist has loved The Executioner's Song, and we also really enjoy his commentary in When We Were Kings, the documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle. more ›

Terrence Winter's bio notes that he's from Brooklyn, went to NYU and got his law degree from St. John's. He also co-wrote the Pine Barrens episode with Tim Van Patten. more ›

The Chappelle Show at Comedy Central has a new sound board where you can mix beats and sound clips: Example, Tron saying "banana" over a Latin mix or the Player Haters saying "reach for the sky" over hip-hop. And, of course, there are Rick James clips. Which brings us to Maddox's hilarious analysis of people who have co-opted "I'm Rick James, bitch!" more ›

IMDB's listing on the Police Academy and its sequels; Sharon Stone was in the fourth one. And Gothamist must say G.W. Bailey is one of the archetypes for movie villains with his great 80s performances in Police Academy movies and Mannequin. more ›

The Hollywood Reporter is running a series of articles about how great New York is for film and TV production. One of them, Location report: New York, gives us some interesting information: "The original "L&O" has contributed more than $650 million to the city during 672 weeks of regular production spanning nearly 15 years." Wow! And that's just ONE of the Law & Order shows. Katherine Oliver, the Film, Theatre and Broadcasting Commissioner, says that L&O is a "repeat customer" coming into for permits "every single day." Commissioner Oliver will also help out films that are shooting entirely in the city: "[Stay, an Ewan MacGregor-Naomi Watts film] was a $50 million-budgeted film, and they shot the entire film in New York City," New York film commissioner Katherine Oliver says. "We diverted Manhattan-bound traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge for 10 nights; this is not something easy to do, but the message was that if you're going to spend that kind of money, do the entire project here and employ New Yorkers, we will give you the Brooklyn Bridge." There are you go: You get the Brooklyn Bridge for 10 nights, at a cost of $50 million. more ›

The Smoker can also be found in Kissing in Manhattan, a collection of Schickler's stories. Here's what looks like Schickler's website for Kissing in Manhattan. And Gothamist is excited about Linklater's sequel to Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, which comes out on July 2. more ›

Sassa worked for Ted Turner, so he's certainly familiar with manic personalities that will be Friendstering him now - he's user 6,724,953! And just out of curiosity, how many people out there check Friendster on a daily basis? These days, Gothamist seems to use it to see if the random, unwitting names du jour, like the girl who crapped her pants at the Fox upfront, are on Friendster. more ›

There's voting for a Guilty Pleasure Movie to be screened at Pier 25 on Friday, May 7. Included are A Clockwork Orange, Evil Dead 2, Fletch, Re-Animator, Rushmore, The Jerk, and more. While Gothamist loves Rushmore, Dazed and Confused is our guilty pleasure movie of choice. more ›

There's an excellent unofficial Amy Sedaris page that links to a Time Out interview with some choice Amy quotes ("I didn't even know it was the Year of the Monkey—I'm just a year-round monkey gal. Monkeys are the best, right?") Season Two of Strangers for Candy is out on DVD. Gothamist previously on Strangers with Candy. more ›

Jayson's book, Burning Down My Masters' House, is on bookshelves March 9. more ›

Some "hip" African Americans we'd like to help Gothamist over our obstacles: Samuel L. Jackson, Dave Chappelle, and Tracey Reese. more ›

This has to be a joke, right? Because it's basically just like the jokey The Graduate, the Sequel, premise that The Graduate screenwriter Buck Henry faux-pitched in The Player. Man, next we'll be seeing Habeas Corpus. more ›

Cheap flights to London: $199, from Intratours.
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