We were teased with a touch of spring last Friday, and it seems that some people went a little batshit crazy over it. Locals have complained that they've spotted people engaging in sex acts on a bench in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, as recently as last Friday. But this is no ordinary bench: it was owned by longtime resident Katharine Hepburn, and donated by her estate. And these were no ordinary sex acts: they were afternoon delights! more ›

The NY Sun reports that members of Community Board 6 have spoken, and they want the late Kurt Vonnegut to have a street named after him. The Manhattan block where he spent most of his writing career (East 48th Street and Second Avenue) may be named "Kurt Vonnegut Way." A decision should be made by October. Why that block (which, incidentally, he shared with another famous writer, E.B. White)?: more ›

Okay, we didn't write about Episode 5 of Project Runway last week, and for that we apologize because that lack of discipline simply does not work. But that meant we've had time to watch the episode, oh, about 4 times all the way through, plus various snippets repeatedly whenever we turn on Bravo, we've had time to think: more ›

Pico Iyer's essay about how Hollywood has been slowly steering away from Hollywood endings mentions recent films like Cold Mountain, Lost in Translation, House of Sand and Fog, and Mystic River as having darker or less resolved endings. But, as Iyer acknowledges, the tradition can be seen with Gone with the Wind or Casablanca. Which made Gothamist wonder what are the endings that linger more: Seeing Vincent Vega walk end Pulp Fiction alive (versus dead, had the film run sequentially) or James Stewart, left alone, the woman he loves dying twice, at the end of Vertigo? Hannibal Lecter getting away at the end of The Silence of the Lambs or Thelma and Louise getting away but not quite? Dorothy back at the farm in the Wizard of Oz or most anything Ingmar Bergman makes? For what it's worth, Gothamist loves seeing Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant get together in a romantic comedy as much as we love seeing Woody Allen and Diane Keaton fall apart. more ›

- Katharine Hepburn as Tracy Lord in "The Philadelphia Story" more ›

As a hopeless cinephile, I feel that the year I spend watching movies is like having a crush on some unattainable person. It makes me feel alive, with all the planning and dreaming and effort I put into it, and somehow, even when I see a bad movie, it’s okay, because it’s one of the knocks I take in wishing that maybe this in time, after paying $10+ for a movie, it might reward my desperate passion with an enlightening moment that can transcend time and place. (For the record, that includes Owen Wilson’s goofiness, Katharine Hepburn trying to hit Cary Grant, and the way Christopher Doyle moves a camera.)
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