Principal photography recently began on Wall Street for a new independent film called Margin Call, a reportedly sympathetic chronicle of the first 24 hours of the global financial crisis. Kevin Spacey is one of the biggest names involved; he plays a veteran trader, and has an interesting objective. “I am trying to humanize bankers,” he told the New York Times. “Everyone talks about facts, figures and debt. I was more interested in what they were feeling.” But do the still-sulking real Americans on Main Street want empathy, or BLOOD? Spacey seems to think these guys need a good hug, not a stoning. “I listened with some degree of surprise about the weight of having knowledge that others don’t, how that shifted relationships—what guys couldn’t even tell their wives at the height of the turmoil." Your heart just bleeds for them, doesn't it? more ›

Start sharpening your spurs, gays and gals, because Jake Gyllenhaal is coming to Broadway! If director Mike Nichols has his way, you’ll soon have your chance to stalk the sensitive heartthrob as he flees through the stage door of Farragut North, a new play about presidential campaign hardball penned by a former Howard Dean staffer. According to today’s Post, Gyllenhaal (who made his stage debut in a Maggie Gyllenhaal-directed production of Cats in their parents’ living room) is all-but-confirmed for the cast. But before that, Nichols will shepherd other boldface names to Broadway with a spring revival of Clifford Odets’s The Country Girl, about a washed up wino actor and his beleaguered wife. With Morgan Freeman and our personal favorite Frances McDormand rumored to play the couple, this has Compelling Theatrical Event written all over it. more ›

If you detected a frisson of fabulous excitement scorching the air this morning, it’s because the 61st annual Tony award nominations were announced! (For those who may not fathom the awesome significance of the Tonys, the awards are the Broadway theater world equivalent of the Oscars and named for Antoinette Perry, an actress, director, producer and who passed away prior to the first award show in 1947.) more ›

Kevin Spacey is coming back to Broadway with the acclaimed London production of A Moon for the Misbegotten. (Spacey last appeared on the Stem in two other Eugene O’Neill plays, Long Day's Journey Into Night and The Iceman Cometh.) A Moon for the Misbegotten will begin previews on March 29th at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, which was recently befouled by the Twyla Tharp/Bob Dylan catastrophe The Times They Are A-Changin’. more ›

The Devil may wear prada and Superman may wear tight red briefs but what's really should get you hot and bothered on a long holiday weekend is Amy Sedaris in prosthetic teeth and high rise pants. Wooh-wee, that's some sexy stuff. more ›

Mark Kassen, writer and producer more ›

Trojan Condoms is breaking through to primetime television with an ad that will air on tonight's Law & Order. Adweek is told this is the first condom ad to ever air on a Big Three network during primetime. Hmm...is it a coincidence that Joe Piscopo is featured in this L&O rerun? more ›

Leary is also premiering his new TV show about life in the FDNY, Rescue Me, which tomorrow night on FX. Naturally, there's been a lot of NYC press coverage of it, with a fat feature in the Daily News and Leary told the NY Times in an interview:

There's a backlash in New York right now with firefighters getting arrested for drunk driving and testing positive for drugs. The spotlight was shone on these guys and we thought they were so heroic. But they're just human beings and the tendency for them is to self-medicate rather than go see a psychiatrist so that they can keep going into these buildings and saving people. This is something we're going to deal with in the course of the show.

Gothamist could say so much about this item from The Sun but decides to let it speak for itself: more ›

Kate Betts, late of Harper's Bazaar, tackles and reviews the eagerly awaited (eagerly awaited by a small but influential cartel of media and fashion types) book, The Devil Wears Prada. The Devil being Anna Wintour, Vogue editor, the author being Lauren Weisberger, a former Anna assistant. more ›

Stephanie Zacharek, you're so cool: From her review of The Life of David gale, "Does Kevin Spacey have a weird secret? Um, yeah, as always. But this death-penalty fable is so overwrought, no one will care." more ›

, which starred Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, and Frances McDormand. In David Gale, Kate Winslet is the journalist who tries to save him before "it's too late." Ahem.
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