Overwhelmed by her endless throngs of visitors, Lady Liberty is indeed closing down this fall for renovations, right on schedule with the announcement made last year. more ›

Sexual proclivities are what they are—some people really do fall in love with the Eiffel Tower, or are sexually attracted to their car. But that doesn't mean that it's cool to repeatedly expose yourself and masturbate in front of a woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty. Some patriotic displays are best left to the imagination. more ›

Lady Liberty is selling herself! A 2-foot chunk of her nose, one of four crafted during the 1980s restorations, is being auctioned off next month. A rep from Guernsey's Auction House told the NY Post, "It's the tip of the nose with the area around the nostrils. It doesn't sound like it would be, but it's fairly attractive looking." One of the four is owned by a private collector, while another was destroyed, and another replaced her old nose. The auction is on September 24th at the Park Avenue armory. Any bidders? more ›

And just like that, Lady Liberty's crown will be closed to the public again—along with the rest of her! The crown just reopened again last year, after being closed off since just after 9/11. According to the NY Post, the Statue of Liberty will be closed for security upgrades starting starting sometime next Fall, meaning no visitors will be allowed in the crown, base or pedestal for up to 12 months. The park surrounding the statue will be the only thing visitors can access during the time—which happens to be the Lady's 125th anniversary! Guess she deserves a vacation. more ›

For Independence Day the city of Seattle placed this 30-foot replica of Lady Liberty's decapitated head in Gas Works Park for the long weekend. You've been on planet Earth all along, citizens of Seattle! [via Animal] more ›

Nearly a year after the Department of Interior reopened access to the Statue of Liberty's Crown, we finally made our ascent to the crown last month. While you can visit Liberty Island on a whim, visitors to the Crown and the pedestal must have tickets in advance. Right now, the earliest date available (including weekdays) is August 29th. Tickets include a ferry ride, access to the pedestal and museum. If you're up for it, the ticket also includes a ferry trip to Ellis Island. more ›

Seeing images of a dismantled Statue of Liberty always invokes apocalyptic feelings. Even these shots of Lady Liberty before she was standing tall have a Planet of the Apes feel. These are all images before she was fully assembled in 1886 — Scientific American explained at the time how the ol' gal arrived from France (with assembly instructions that read like an IKEA instruction manual!). All in all she consisted of 350 individual pieces, which were all shipped to the States in 214 crates. More facts about the Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi statue can be found here. more ›

After years of being out of tourists' reach, the Statue of Liberty's crown will reopen tomorrow. Groups of 30 people at time will be able to travel all the way to the top of the landmark, and two of the people in the first group are Aleyna Bartnick and her father Chris. The Merrick 8-year-old, whose mother passed away a year after her birth, is fascinated with the Statue of Liberty and her nanny April Shrader snagged tickets, thanks to two phones and the redial button. Shrader told Newsday, "If I told her I'd gotten Jonas Brothers tickets, she could care less. But when she found out she was going to the Statue of Liberty, she was jumping up and screaming like most kids do for Hannah Montana." Aleyna excitedly said, "I've only seen pictures of it, and I know it's special because it welcomes the people who come to America," and showed off her knowldge—"The seven points on the crown represent the seven continents and the seven seas." Awww. Also: The Daily News had an essay contest, picking five kids (one from each borough, natch) to visit the crown tomorrow—the kids met Rep. Anthony Weiner, who said their essays will be printed in the Congressional Record. Nice! more ›

The Statue of Liberty's crown is getting some finishing touches before a grand re-opening on July 4th. It's been closed since 9/11, and now the Daily News' Michael Daly takes a look inside what they dub "New York's attic." The biggest difference for visitors will be the 10 person-at-a-time limit (though previously it was reported that groups of 30 would be allowed), giving you more space and time to enjoy the visit. more ›

Last July 4th word came out that the Statue of Liberty's crown may have a shot at reopening, after being closed off to the public following 9/11. Now the Daily News reports that, according to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar (who visited the crown in January), the grand reopening could take place on America's 233rd birthday. more ›

Representative Anthony D. Weiner long advocated re-opening the Statue of Liberty's crown, which has been closed since the 9/11 attacks. Partly due to terrorism fears, the National Parks Service also noted the narrow staircase "violates every fire code in the city of New York and the state of New York and the state of New Jersey." However, Weiner blamed the park service for "a failure of creativity" by not solving the issues through renovation and evacuation plans. more ›

Troy Landwehr, a champion cheese carver (who knew there was such a thing?), took four days to create this lovely Lady Liberty out of what started out as a 1,200 pound hunk of aged cheddar. more ›

Say, did you hear anything about this movie that opens today, Cloverfield? No? Yeah, it’s kind of a [Spoiler Alert!] obscure art-house thing, all shot with a camcorder from the perspective of a few friends fleeing a massive monster smashing Manhattan. We attended a screening earlier in the week and deemed it top-shelf disaster porn; though the main characters are rather annoying and the apocalypse takes a little too long to blast off, “by the time that massive beast slouches toward lower Manhattan, bowling the head of the Lady Liberty with a nonchalance befitting the Bush administration, you’ll be almost as bloodthirsty as the monster.” And blood you’ll get, along with spectacular special effects and almost relentless suspense. more ›

The last sentence uttered before all hell breaks loose is, “Forget about the rest of the world and hold onto the ones you care about.” Though probably unintentional, those words of brotherly advice – spoken to a lovesick young yuppie named Rob – perfectly sum up the prevalent attitude in fin de siècle New York: the world’s spinning into a cataclysm of total war and catastrophic climate change, but fuck it; let’s party and get ours. And in Cloverfield, the well-connected young Manhattanites at the story’s center do indeed get theirs, just not the way Gossip Girl said they would. more ›

The mystery surrounding the new J.J. Abrams movie, which tore up the LES last year, will soon be in the past as it finally hits the big screen this week. Cloverfield (long thought to be just a code name for the movie) will be unleashed this Friday, and is getting some great reviews. But what everyone wants to know is: what does the monster that's responsible for decapitating Lady Liberty look like? One description from that review: "He's a fiend that a heroin addict might see in his sleep during his first night in rehab." more ›

The new trailer for Cloverfield (the JJ Abrams movie due out in January) has been released, and only proves a tad more revealing than the first. With a giant monster destroying New York City, this movie will certainly be for those who like "destruction porn," because nothing really beats the Statue of Liberty being decapitated... Abrams turned the Lower East Side into a war zone earlier this year, but he's been hush-hush about any details... more ›

The Smashing Pumpkins have officially made their return. The comeback (yeah, we're gonna call it a comeback) appears to be met with little fanfare. The new album, Zeitgeist, came out Tuesday - and was met with a lack of good reviews. The cover art is what we're concerned about here though. more ›

There is a competition to name the new seven wonders of the world, and the Statue of Liberty is the only NYC mention out of the 21 finalists. Run by New 7 Wonders and with experts like Cesar Pelli and Zaha Hadid on its panel, the finalists are quite a bunch: Stonehenge, the Pyramids of Giza, the Sydney Opera House, Easter Island statues, the Kremlin, the Eiffel Tower, and the Colosseum are just some. Which makes us wonder if the Statue of Liberty will make it to the final seven. more ›

What is Bastille Day and information about the holiday from the French Embassy. more ›