The Manhattan DA's Office says an accountant stole over $1.5 million from celebrity clients, including a Law & Order: SVU star, and used the money to invest it in the Broadway musical Spring Awakening. ADA Pierce Moser said, "This is a case about a man so desperate for celebrity that he ripped off his entertainment industry clients in an effort to become just like them." more ›

After twelve years, 5,124 performances and a haul of $280 million, Rent's Broadway run has come to an end. The musical closed yesterday after a final sold-out performance packed with diehard fans (the "Rentheads") and a smattering of celebrities (a couple Gossip Girl cast members). Just before the curtain came down for the final time, members of the show's original company joined the current cast on stage to "Seasons of Love," one of the show's most famous songs, the Associated Press reports. more ›

My endorsement of this measure, issued in blue covers, first referred to as the “blue Bills”, have come to be known, on late night Talkshows, as “The Blue Balls.” This, while accurate, is disrespectful to my Office. more ›

RENT, the surprise smash hit musical that premiered in 1996 and went on to become the seventh-longest-running Broadway show in history, will close June 1st, producers have announced. Over the years the show cultivated a fanatical army of young repeat viewers (“Rentheads”) whose ardor has translated into profits of $280 million on Broadway, four Tony awards and a Pulitzer. Productions have been mounted on six continents, while an ill-conceived movie version of the show, filmed in San Francisco, opened in 2005 to widespread derision. And the musical was also famously parodied by the South Park creators in their film Team America, which depicts the faux-hip cast of the Broadway show LEASE belting the show’s climactic chorus, “Everyone has AIDS!” more ›

NY Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni, he of the fast-food cross-country road trip (he swears by Chick-Fil-A, which has but one local outpost in NYU’s food court), has revealed more of his inner workings in a recent interview with website Refinery 29. For starters, Bruni eschews a big breakfast because of all his professional eating burdens throughout the day. On most mornings he strolls over to Levain Bakery and picks up a baguette with butter... more ›

Yesterday's lovely weather made the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a big crowd pleaser. An estimated 3.5 million spectators watched as giant balloons, floats, and hundreds of parade performers sauntered from 77th and Central Park West to Herald Square. Some people waited since 4AM in hopes of catching a glimpse of their favorite performers, who included Dolly Parton, Wynonna, the cast of Legally Blonde, American Idol winner Jordin Sparks, Good Charlotte, Menudo (really!), the Rockettes... more ›

For the first time since November 8th, Local One, the stagehands’ union, is meeting with the Broadway producers’ league to talk it out. (Local One has been on strike since last Saturday over proposed changes to their contracts.) Insiders are expressing guarded optimism about the talks because they’re proceeding with the help of Disney’s senior V.P. of labor relations, Robert W. Johnson. Disney is not a member of the producers' league and thus not directly... more ›

Having already seen one of this season’s most anticipated Broadway plays, Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll, we haven’t been yet been personally disappointed by the Local One stagehands’ strike. While we sympathize with the union and the theatrical community that’s now out of work, we’re not exactly losing sleep over tourist tweens missing out on Legally Blonde for a few days. Now, however, we’re really starting to sweat it: though talks will resume this weekend,... more ›

Local One, the Broadway stagehands’ union, has never struck in its 121-year history. Since salaries for stagehands – who handle lighting, props, sets and, yes, even Tarzan's vine – currently top off at 100K, who could blame them? But The League of American Theatres and Producers, who control 22 of 39 Broadway houses, are now wringing their hands after the union’s unanimous vote on Sunday to strike. (Last week the Nederlanders, the producers who represent nine Broadway theatres, seemed to distance themselves from the League’s stance and drift toward the union’s side.) more ›

Aha! We were right when we suggested that August 8, 2008 might be another coveted wedding date to consider, now that July 7, 2007 has passed. The date 08/08/08 is considered very auspicious by Asian cultures (in fact, the 2008 Olympics in Beijing will start on that day), and some weddings planners who specialized in Chinese weddings are seeing a big rush. One told LJWorld, "We like to do three weddings max a day, but we might end up doing four to five because of this hot date." 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 ›

Mr. Berloni, who has trained animals for 42 Broadway shows, began his career more than 30 years ago, when he reached instant fame just out of high school with an Airedale Terrier mixed breed who played “Sandy” in the Broadway hit “Annie.” The terrier performed for the show’s entire seven-year run — 2,377 performances, the longest for any animal in Broadway history. more ›

The Sanitation Chronicles, a new play by and about New York’s Strongest, premiered on Wednesday. Actor/playwright Paul Brno, who’s been moonlighting for the Department of Sanitation for the past 17 years, says “every day is still a great day to be on a garbage truck.” The “slice of life” play explores the daily prejudices, anger and violence faced by “Sanmen”, all of which is exacerbated when one of the guys shows up for work dressed as a lady. [Tickets.] more ›

• Today on Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery at East 238th & Katonah Ave. in the Bronx, a triple stabbing on 34th Ave. in Queens, and a Fire Dept.-involved multi-vehicle accident at Utica & St. John's in Brooklyn.
• Officer Jarred Barretti talked a man perched on a midtown Manhattan ledge out of jumping. They had a sort of rapport as Barretti had arrested the same man in Queens three months earlier.
• Mayor Bloomberg doesn't know if metal bats are more or less dangerous than wooden bats, but he's going to veto the City Council's ban on them. The City Council appears to have more than enough votes to override the Mayor's veto.
• Matthew Titone, the newly elected and first openly gay Assemblyman from Staten Island, has a construction worker boyfriend who's still in the closet as far as his hardhat co-workers know.
• No need to wait for "Legally Blonde" to open on Broadway, its giftshop is open and selling LB yoga pants.
• Why does Dan Doctoroff hate the children? Plans being discussed for 35-story tower to replace a playground.
• NY vs. NY in '08? Rudy and Hillary outperforming respective rivals in early polls of "Super Duper Tuesday" states.
• Bello the Ringling Bros. clown got his bike back from good samaritan Ricky Robinson, who found it on the street.
• A paraplegic man charged with assault who broke his hip when guards let his wheelchair tip over during transport is suing the city. Also, a paraplegic man was charged with assault in 2004.
• They Might Be Giant's performing two nights at Joe's Pub in May during "secret warm-up tour" for their new album.

voice. Gothamist can’t remember such a wacky review since she favored us with her thoughts on Candace Bushnell’s Trading Up, said thoughts taking the form of a memo from Elle Woods to Bushnell’s protagonist. (Seriously, read it. It’s crazy.) While it’s hard to say that Michi’s grasp of voice is absolutely secure—however many tokens of authenticity are included to assure you that yes, like you, Michiko Kakutani has totally seen Legally Blonde and knows her Catcher in the Rye—we do like seeing things mixed up a bit. Especially since this treatment seems to be reserved for drubbings, it’s less dreary than a full-on dismembering of the book (though probably no more pleasant for the author). more ›

These days, reading a Hollywood trade is like seeing a TV Guide grid from the 80s - it's all about making movies from 80s TV shows. Today, Universal announced they are remaking Miami Vice, ideally with Colin Farrell and Jamie Fox as Crockett and Tubbs. Earlier this week, Stephen J. Cannell said he's going to go forward with the long-awaited A-Team movie! And Robert Luketic, best known as the director those canonical films, Legally Blonde and Win A Date With Tad Hamiltion, is going to direct the Dallas movie. There's already the Dukes of Hazzard movie in the works (Seann William Scott, Johnny Knoxville and Jessica Simpson), and there were rumors of a Dallas one. What's next? Remington Steele? Moonlighting? Murder, She Wrote? Magnum PI? Clearly, the cheesier and campier the show was, the more remake potential it has, so no Hill Street Blues or St. Elsewhere. But The Greatest American Hero - why not? more ›

If trying to get advance tickets for T3 or Legally Blonde just becomes boring, go see The Whale Rider. The lyrical movie with a more powerful female empowerment theme than Charle's Angels is about a young girl, Pai, whose mostly absent father, mourning the death of her mother and twin brother, has left her grandfather, a Maori tribal chief, to search for the next male chief. Pai wonders why she can't be in line, as she is descended from a line of chiefs. It may seem like a sentimental story, but it's gorgeously and intimately told. Roger Ebert says "The genius of the movie is the way is sidesteps all of the obvious cliches of the underlying story and makes itself fresh, observant, tough and genuinely moving." Elvis Mitchell suggests "Bear with ''Whale Rider'': once the picture kicks into gear, it has the inspiring resonance of found art." more ›

Hellfire and damnation, Michiko Kakutani reviews Candace Bushnell's new book, Trading Up. As Elle "Legally Blonde" Woods. No joke. Kakutani, as Elle, writes a memo to the book's main character, Janey Wilcox: more ›

The Post turns the summer movie season into a battle of the sexes, or at least a dilemma for couples, with counterprogramming of Terminator 3 and Legally Blonde 2 one weekend, The Hulk vs Alex and Emma another. A little of the article, which makes Gothamist a bit batty: more ›