In the midst of the most important story of our time, Alec Baldwin's spokesman wants us to know that getting the boot from an American Airlines flight was just Alec being Alec. "Alec loves Words With Friends so much that he was willing to leave a plane for it," flack Matthew Hilzik tells the Daily News. And fellow famous-person Oscar De La Hoya, who was on the flight from LAX to JFK, tweeted "I think the flight attendant over reacted…@AlecBaldwin was doing nothing wrong but playing 'words' on his phone." But couldn't this just be some celebrity Omertá? According to American Airlines, Baldwin was acting like a thoughtless little pig. more ›

Kevin Smith is dragging New Jersey further into the reality television vortex, with a new reality show set in his comic book shop, The Secret Stash. According to the Hollywood Reporter, "the project will focus on fans and revolve around the two guys who work at the New Jersey store." more ›

Oh goody, it's another entertaining flight story from filmmaker Kevin Smith, who really needs to do a movie about commuter air travel, and call it I Can't Get Up in the Air (or Aircomplane?). You may recall that the husky director (or, in his words, the "big fat-ass") previously slammed Southwest as "size-ist" for removing him from a flight because he was a "safety risk." Today's story doesn't directly relate to Smith's size, but with Virgin's refusal to let him on a flight at JFK yesterday because he arrived at the gate ten minutes before his scheduled departure. In a detailed blog post, Smith explains how he flies in the wake of the "Southworst" debacle: more ›

A 34-year-old man was killed after a road rage confrontation in Long Beach that saw the 22-year-old driver of the other vehicle strike the victim with his Nissan Altima and continue driving right over him before fleeing the scene. Evan Potts was arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter after onlookers say he panicked when the driver of a '78 canary yellow Porsche got out of his car and began yelling at Potts after the two had been in an ongoing confrontation behind their respective wheels for over a mile. Nassau County Police spokesman Kevin Smith said, "We believe he extended his arms and said something to him. We believe it was a profanity. We don't know the exact phrase that was used, but at that time the driver stepped on the gas, struck him, might have dragged him for a short period of time." A witness described it, "He went right over him like he was a cat in the road...I heard his head rattling in the undercarriage." Potts claims that he was trying to get away fro the driver for five minutes and had been attempting to call 911. more ›

Joel Siegel, perhaps best known as Good Morning America's film critic (a program he was on weekly since 1981), died yesterday in New York at the age of 63. Siegel had been battling colon cancer, though many didn't even know he was sick as he stayed positive until the end and kept working until just two weeks ago. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a missing child report at Fulton and Warwick Sts. in Brooklyn, a shooting on 143rd St. in the Bronx, and an overturned auto at Kent and Flushing Aves. in Brooklyn.
• Some high-profile bloggers are calling for an online code of conduct. Not us! Did you see that graphic of Sponge Bob and KY?
• "Dashing Diva" nail salons are inflicting NYC-homegrown retail standardization on the rest of the country for a change.
• The jealous butcher who stabbed his wife to death in the street is sentenced to 23 years to life.
• Tim Montgomery, the one-time WR holder in the 100m, plead guilty in a $5 million NYC bank fraud case. His plea means he won't have to testify against his former coach and may avoid jail time.
• New York State moves to steal New Hampshire's electoral thunder by joining "Super Duper Thursday." Because NH already has too much power vis a vis New York and the U.S.'s electoral politics needed more Duper in its Super.
• Illegal loft squatters are political pawns in Albany. Someone's bound to be rooked.
• Sharpe James, the former Mayor of Newark and current NJ state senator, isn't running for re-election because he wants to win a seniors national tennis championship and forget all about that federal investigation.
• Shartpon calls Imus "diabolical" in the latter's media auto da fe, a spectacle wherein one redeems onesself via public torture or self-immolation.
• No one's verifiably sighted one yet, but a porcupine-eating ferocious hunter with sharp teeth and amazing speed is proliferating in NJ; and Kevin Smith's probably already optioned its story.

wherein Paul Giamatti discovers someone mysterious in the pool of the apartment complex he manages. The trailers want it to be both a horror story and an eerie children's fable, but it doesn't seem like it could really be both simultaneously. more ›

And, also, from the Publisher: With the addition of Torontoist, Gothamist is now in seven cities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. We have received many suggestions on what cities to target next, and we wanted to share some plans with you. When we consider a new city, we look at regional population, internet penetration, age demographics, and strength of media community (as measured by the number of newspapers, magazines, and blogs). more ›

Meow Mix was immortalized in Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy as being just a club to two clueless Jersey boys. Read the script, via Drew's Script-o-Rama. more ›

Watch Jennifer Lopez at the Golden Globes this Sunday in her first post-Bennifer appearance. And somewhere, Matt Damon and Eva Mendes are glad to be the beta couple in that circle of celebrities. And somewhere else, Kevin Smith gets a phone call from Harvey Weinstein about the fate of Jersey Girl (straight to video or is it saved?). more ›

Anyway, one reason to watch The Tonight Show would have to be Jay's correspondents, who include director Kevin Smith and Fred Willard, but the correspondent I will watch the Tonight Show for is intern Ross Matthew, aka Ross the Intern. Incredibly gay and smarter than he is gay, his celebrity interviews are maybe the best in the business today - especially in this age of panderers on Entertainment Tonight, E! News Daily, and Access Hollywood. (When trying to get George Clooney's attention, he yelled "Jorge!") If you're stuck inside because of the weather, check out Ross's escapades. The video of him and Gwyneth Paltrow is killer. And yes, he really is an intern.
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