Hallmark isn't the only one capitalizing on the L-word today, Hollywood has a stake in your heart as well -- invading the big screen with yet another Valentine's Day release. This time Little Miss Sunshine, Abigail Breslin, and soon-to-be Mr. Scarlett Johansson (?), Ryan Reynolds, team up for a tour de force of l-o-v-e in Definitely, Maybe (a nod to Oasis's debut album?). The romantic comedy is brought to you by the same people that......

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (directed by Steven Shainberg): Certain movies while not deserving the monetary investment in a theater viewing are worth catching on DVD, and Steven Shainberg's fictional portrait of artist Diane Arbus is one of them. Arbus's life story--upper middle class '60s housewife takes up photography and an interest in subcultures--is such a fascinating one, it practically demands a biopic. Add to that the importance of Arbus's work on the......

Nothing distracts from this sub-freezing weather like a good flick. Here's a few options out this weekend in New York Theaters. Ryan Phillippe works hard to figure out Chris Cooper's espionage secrets in the new thriller Breach. Cooper is always great and for our money, you can't beat Laura Linney so hears hoping this drama lives up to its smart cast. Someone recently told us that eventually they'll run out of comic books to turn......

It seems that alcohol and theater started off hand in hand. Just picture Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors being performed in the 1500's, audience slugging down pints (and probably chewing on drumsticks and meat pies!) - seems accurate, right? Never has a want for alcohol overcome us mid-play, but it's probably not a bad idea in some cases. Apparently there are theaters in London that serve alcohol, a growing trend of mixing pub culture with playhouse......

International cinema circles may be buzzing today about the announced line-up of films at this year's Cannes Film Festival but for those of us who won't be walking the Croisette in May, there's still plenty to be excited about movie-wise. Here's a few suggestions for your moviegoing this weekend. Mandy Moore, Dennis Quaid and Hugh Grant yuck it up in Chris Weitz's new satire American Dreamz about an American Idol type competition and the bonehead......

I’ve never been to the Hamptons. Odds are, some of you haven’t, either. But there’s a peculiar language that arises amongst the people who have, a sort of playful ennui when it comes to New York’s elite sandbox. So I approached a novel about the Hamptons with a certain sense of plebian hesitation – would it matter that I didn’t know my Sag Harbor from my Water Mill? Thank god for Roger Rosenblatt, because Lapham......

The Lutece Cookbook, by Andre Soltner and Seymour Britchky (Random House, 1995) Last Valentine's day, Lutece served its final meal. Fortunately for us, Andre Soltner, Lutece's chef for 30 years, wrote The Lutece Cookbook after selling the restaurant in 1994. While most of the book's 333 recipes are not ones that we would ordinarily cook from (or, in the case of hot souffle of sea urchins, eat!), the book itself serves as an engaging history......

In a story about the Jack Kelley possible-plagiarism-at-USA Today brouhaha (most elegantly summarized here, by Gawker), check out how the New York Times gets to spin the Jayson Blair incident as what is making other newspapers are relook their own reporters' work: It was only after the resignation of Jayson Blair, who was found last May to have fabricated or plagiarized parts of at least three dozen articles in The New York Times, that Mr.......

Stephanie Zacharek of Salon is one of my favorite film critics today. She's smart, funny, a huge Buffy fan, and incisive. I admit to being disappointed when she likes something I don't or vice versa, but she's the only female movie critic worth reading these days (well, Manohla Dargis of the L.A. Times is pretty great). What solidified this feeling my agreement with her position that she can't give up on Sandra Bullock yet and......