It's that time of the year again: When Hollywood honors its moviemaking the way it knows (and not always in equitable ways, given that Alfred Hitchcock nor Robert Altman, to name a few, have never won Directing Oscars) and America gets to watch hours of pre-show hosted by idiots. Giving commentary for Gothamist this year, Karen Wilson, Margaret Harper, and Jen Chung. 7:06PM First thoughts: Gael Garcia Bernal is so cute. Ryan Seacrest is an......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A pedestrian struck at 12th Street and 8th Avenue in Manhattan, a homicide in Brooklyn, and a water rescue in Forest Park in Queens Mathieu Eugene showed NY1 his new apartment and says that he was sleeping there before the election; if that's really true, why didn't he say so earlier and why won't he show NY1 the lease? In order to avoid any parking ticket squabbles, the city......

The obvious 800-pound, 2000-pound or even 20-ton gorilla in the room is King Kong. It's all about the great ape this weekend, and rightly so. Gothamist caught a screening of Peter Jackson's epic on opening day and it is a sight to behold -- perfect popcorn fodder with some of the most amazing effects and action sequences you've ever seen. (Specifically, the royal rumble between Kong and three T-Rex's is potentially one of the great......

There's only one major wide release this weekend, and although it stars an Oscar winner, we can pretty much guarantee Paramount isn't expecting any year-end kudos for Aeon Flux. In fact, it looks like the studio is hoping to slyly score a big opening weekend on the draws of Charlize Theron in skintight rubber and fans of the old MTV animated series because they aren't letting critics anywhere near it -- apparently no press screenings......

Unlike last week, New Yorkers are treated to just nine new releases including three big titles (Prime, The Weather Man and The Legend of Zorro) that pique our interest but don't necessarily excite us, some intriguing scare-fare (we're thinking more Three ... Extremes than Saw II), and a new documentary -- New York Doll -- about the late Arthur Kane, a member of the seminal NYC glam-meets-punk rock group New York Dolls. Elsewhere … Three......