The over three year long saga behind Kirsten Dunst's stolen Balenciaga bag is finally coming to an end! In 2007 the actress was staying at the SoHo Grand hotel during the filming of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, when the bag and some other items went missing. James Jimenez and Jarrod Beinerman were pinned for the crime, and Beinerman has been paying the price behind bars, while Jimenez was only sentenced this week, after years of courtroom drama. more ›

Dun Dun Dunst! James Jimenez has been found guilty of burglary and trespassing. He was convicted by a Manhattan jury earlier today after a star-studded retrial centered around some stolen goods from a SoHo Grand suite back in 2007. more ›

Can we all just agree that Kirsten Dunst does, or has at one point, dabbled with a little doobie? And that even if she does, or has been in possession of a little pot, that the Hollywood starlet is going to have a team around her wiling to take the fall? And that even if she was caught red-handed with it, that she'd suffer nothing more than a slap on her dainty wrist? more ›

Today Kirsten Dunst got her day in court, testifying in a retrial of James Jimenez, one of the men accused of stealing a Balenciaga bag and some other goodies from her penthouse at the SoHo Grand in 2007. Since that time the other man involved, Jarrod Beinerman, has been sentenced to 4 years behind bars, and Jimenez has claimed that Beinerman (a known drug dealer) was there selling the starlet and her pals some drugs for a wrap party. more ›

Yesterday Kirsten Dunst's personal assistant, Liat Baruch, testified at the retrial of James Jimenez, who is accused of stealing the starlet's Balenciaga bag, amongst other things. His lawyer is claiming Jimenez was just tagging along to Dunst's SoHo Grand penthouse with Jarrod Beinerman, a known drug dealer who may or may not have been dealing Dunst & Co. some goodies for a film wrap celebration. Beinerman is currently behind bars for four years, and now Jimenez is fighting a similar fate. more ›

Kirsten Dunst's purse was stolen from her suite at the SoHo Grand Hotel... remember that? It was back in 2007, yet like a movie franchise that keeps churning out sequels, the drama continues today. Three years later, we've seen one of the thieves—Jarrod Beinerman—sentenced to four years behind bars, and another—Jim Jimenez—fight for his freedom. more ›

Actress Kirsten Dunst's purse gets stolen, and now an entire drama has unfolded. Back in 2007, James Jimenez and Jarrod Beinerman were accused of swiping the starlet's purse and iPod from her SoHo Grand penthouse — the latter was sentenced to four years, and Jimenez has been out on bail awaiting retrial. more ›

There was never going to be a real winner in the Kirsten Dunst vs. alleged burglar case. Either millionaire starlet Dunst was going to send someone to jail for 15 years for stealing a purse, or a thief was going to get off with a slap on the wrist. The NY Post is now reporting that 35-year-old Jim Jimenez has been acquitted after playing what they call an "I'm too stupid" card; reportedly submitting letters and grades from his former Special Ed program that backed him up. more ›

The day after actress Kirsten Dunst testified about the dastardly theft of her purse from her Soho Grand hotel room back in 2007, the man accused of swiping the Balenciaga purse took the stand. The Post reports that James Jimenez tried "to convince a jury that his buddy told him it was OK to go up to Dunst's empty penthouse suite" and "claimed he had no idea Dunst's purse was inside the white shopping bag that the same buddy gave him to carry out of the hotel." He even said it was a favor for the pal's mom, but the prosecutor asked, "At four in the morning?" more ›

Earlier we noted that actress Kirsten Dunst was heading to the courthouse today to testify against a Manhattan mechanic accused of stealing the actress's handbags and whatnot, while she was stationed at the SoHo Grand hotel penthouse. 35-year-old James Jimenez now faces 15 years in prison if convicted; his accomplice, Jarrod Beinerman, was already sentenced to 4 years. more ›

The man who broke into Kirsten Dunst's hotel room in the SoHo Grand last August, Jarrod Beinerman, is now headed for jail. The NY Post reports that he's been sentenced to 4 ½ years in prison after being arrested on burglary and larceny charges, though "he was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of attempted burglary." All in all Dunst had her iPod, cameras, wallets, purses and cash taken from her. Since the news broke last summer, Beinerman's MySpace status has gone from "worried" to "miserable." But like a trouper, he's still got the marijuana avatar up there (declaring "Just Do It") even though he faces separate drug charges in Brooklyn next week. more ›

During the 80s golden era of Late Night With David Letterman, Chris Elliott was one of the people most responsible for the show's distinctively bizarre style. Playing characters like "The Guy Under the Seats" and "The Regulator Guy," Elliott's contributions were sometimes hilarious and sometimes baffling, but always memorable for their absolutely unadulterated weirdness. He went on to cultivate his peculiar "Chris Elliott" persona in cult classics like the TV show Get a Life and... more ›

Toby Young's tome on Graydon Carter and life at Vanity Fair, How To Lose Friends & Alienate People, is hitting the big screen just like its female counterpart The Devil Wears Prada. more ›

Anna Wintour, Balenciaga's Nicolas Ghesquière, and Cate Blanchett hosted last night's annual Costume Institute gala, which was a celebration of Paul Poiret, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Poirot was the pioneer in modern fashion, and freed women from petticoats and corsets - though many, even those in attendance last night, aren't familiar with him. Everyone did their best to dress "in the spirit of" the King of Fashion however, including: Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kirsten Dunst, Renée Zellweger and many other bold-faced names (photos here). more ›

• Name a new commissioner for the Department of Transportation (it's Janette Sadik-Khan - check out Streetsblog's suggestions for her)
• Cancel an appearance at a big GOP fund-raiser, which the Post's Fred Dicker thinks fuels further "speculation that he'll run for president"
• Continue to be mad at a Kansas TV station for not airing one of his anti-illegal gun ads

At the end of this month, your friendly neighborhood Spider Man will be all over New York for...Spider Man week! A five-borough-wide celebration (marketing ploy) featuring a ton of live events, screenings, parties and exhibits. The city has been central to the Marvel Comics legend since Spidey's beginning in 1962, so it only makes sense to launch the latest movie here. more ›

7:06PM First thoughts: Gael Garcia Bernal is so cute. Ryan Seacrest is an idiot, as are Joan and Melissa Rivers. But we want to know what Jennifer Lopez is wearing! (It turns out to be Marchesa.) more ›

The New York Film Festival winds down this weekend, and what a wonderful, strange trip its been. We've been to late '90s Britain, modern day Korea and the rural area outside Madrid, but still have yet to wing our way to pre-revolutionary France and fascist Spain. Thrilling, n'est pas? Here's a few thoughts on some of the films from the 44th annual that we've sampled. more ›

Sofia Quintero, Author, Divas Don't Yield, Activist, Co-Founder, Chica Luna more ›

JC: ALL RIGHT! I just took extra Vitamin C - I'm waiting for some food delivery. more ›

short, to being "above the fold" on the NYTimes.com website is nine days! We doubt The Lonely Island/SNL gang was up at 8AM to see the "Lazy Sunday" article, "Nerds in the Hood, Stars on the Web," take the prime position on the Gray Lady's Less Gray Website, but Gothamist did. And we love the internet. Apparently the Lonely Island guys, Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone, along with Chris Parnell, wrote the sketch together and shot it all over West Village and Chelsea in the week before it aired. Parnell takes the time to tell the NY Times that his raps about crushes on Britney Spears, Kirsten Dunst, and Jennifer Garner have been mostly well-received by the stars, though he hasn't heard from Britney Spears. The article does not, however, mention the short's impact on sales of Magnolia Bakery cupcakes, Mr. Pibb's, Red Vines, or the Chronicle of Narnia movie tickets (or the chronic, for that matter). more ›

You know it's the Oscars when P. Diddy busts out the velvet suit! Gothamist loves the Oscars, and we're going to attempt to do a little liveblogging. We might need to order a vat of caffeine and an EMT team at the ready; not because Chris Rock will be boring, but because we think that Gil Cates might kill us with his newfangled ideas and because we're meh about this year's nominees in the big categories. Anyway, onto the show. more ›

Kiki's Delivery Service is available on DVD from Amazon and Netflix. If you happen to listen to the English version (vs. Japanese with English subtitles), enjoy Phil Hartman as Kiki's cat Jiji! (And Kirsten Dunst supplies the voice of Kiki.) And other great Miyazaki movies will be issued on DVD in the States soon: Porco Rosso, Nausicaa Valley of the Wind, and The Cat Returns. More about Miyazaki and his oeuvre from Nausicaa.net. And we wish that Margaret Talbot's New Yorker profile of Miyazaki was online, but it isn't; there is an interview with Talbot on the interview, though (super meta-ness from The New Yorker). more ›

But what we really want to know is what author Muriel Spark thinks. Read her Slate diaries from July 1996 and December 1996. more ›

So far, the work of Charlie Kaufman has only been adapted by two directors: Spike Jonze, with Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, and Michel Gondry, whose Human Nature was tepidly received but has directed the eagerly awaited 2004 release, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Eternal Sunshine stars Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson, Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, and Mark Ruffalo, with Carrey as a man trying to erase memories of ex-girlfriend Winslet from his mind. And by the looks of the trailer, it looks like vintage Kaufman AND Gondry, with tiny human bodies in normal size enviroments.
more ›