It's been a busy day for Alicia Keys, who's in her hometown (that would be New York) to promote the 10th anniversary re-release of her debut album Songs In A Minor. First, the emerald-clad singer set up a piano in the middle of Times Square to perform "Empire State Of Mind" on Good Morning America while backed by a four-piece orchestra, much to the confusion of several cabbies. Keys Tweeted that the location was "possibly the craziest place I've EVER performed!!!," though her performance was markedly more subdued: more ›

In the best PR stunt ever (Scream drops June 22nd!), Ozzy Osbourne showed up at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum here in New York recently to give his fans and some unsuspecting tourists a good scare. It's actually pretty amazing! And maybe Miss Lohan should try this to woo back some of her fans. more ›

Paired up with the release of New Moon on DVD, Twilight star Robert Pattinson got immortalized in wax today at Madame Tussauds in Times Square. MTV braved the scene and reports back that crazed, screaming fans stood in line for hours to see the $220,000 replica. This thing isn't going to last through the week; the museum allows touching and kissing! Bring your Purell, ladies. more ›

Today Michelle Obama joined her husband, when a new wax statue of the first lady was unveiled at Madame Tussauds' in New York. The Barack figurine arrived a year ago, and likenesses of the presidential pair already stand at the London and Washington D.C. branches of the wax museum, reported AP. For the moment, both Obamas are wearing formal attire—Michelle has on the white John Wu number she wore to the inaugural ball—but in two weeks they'll swap the outfits for casual wear. According to the museum, Michelle will wear a "mint green J. Crew skirt and an embellished cream cardigan," while her husband will switch his tux for a business suit. How do you take off wax pants, anyway? We certainly can't imagine cerebral, no-drama Obama melting them. more ›

Madame Tussauds may attract a lot of tourists, but The NY Times journeys into the mostly unseen nooks of the wax museum, uncovering an oddity that locals would probably pay to see: the repair shop. This is where "unmouthed teeth and disembodied heads are strewn across the tables and the floor." The wax ER had Joan Rivers in when the paper visited, they were told people touch her dress a lot (causing frequent fix-ups), though not as much as Marilyn Monroe's! Another behind the scenes factoid: B-listers are often requesting the Tussaud treatment, wanting to live on forever in all their wax glory. For the chosen ones, they can get nitpicky; the artists are well aware of their works of art and their real-life counterparts, many of whom come back to check in on their figures. Al Roker, post weight-loss, requested a slimmer wax self...but there's no word on whether Lindsay is okay with her 2006 faux Lohan, which looks a little dated now. more ›

Seventy-three zombies came to life this morning to break the Guinness World Record for the most people simultaneously reenacting the dance from Michael Jackson's Thriller video. (The previous record was 62, set in Toronto in 2006.) The title was reclaimed by the U.S.A. today at 10:00 a.m. EST inside Madame Tussauds’ in Times Square, where the wax figure of Michael Jackson gazed proudly down upon dancing zombies who traveled from as far away as Ohio. more ›

Lance Bass took a bite of the Big Apple, only to spit it right back out. NY Mag reported that the ex-'n Syncer, who is in town starring as Corny Collins in Hairspray, said he doesn't like New York too much.

“There’s a lot of pieces of crap here for a lot of money,” he says. “And I don’t think anyone here has any style. I was looking at fully furnished places and it was like, you can either have a bunch of floral prints or some dusty couch from the 1960s.”

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an unusual sexual assault on Broadway in Brooklyn, an unstable building on Sutphin Blvd. in Queens, and a shooting on West 142nd St. and Amsterdam Ave. in Manhattan.
• Central Park's Sheep Meadow was the first park location to upgrade its wifi Internet connection to high speed. The new 15-megabits-per-second service is five times faster than the previous connection.
• Madame Tussauds wax museum in Times Square wasted no time in dressing its likeness of Lindsay Lohan in prison stripes, after the young star was arrested for drunk driving and drug posession shortly after leaving rehab.
• Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason is in talks to fill the morning time slot on WFAN left vacant by the abrupt departure of Don Imus.
• Williamsburg! The Musical will premiere August 11th as part of the 11th Annual Fringe Festival.
• Gridskipper has a guide to NYC record stores for vinyl enthusiasts.
• Turning Long Island City into a giant sundial, with the Citibank tower as the shadow-casting spire.
• The City Council is thinking of revising its cell phones-in-schools policy, to allow kids to bring them to school, but not use them there. Schools would be required to set up cell phone storage facilities to secure the devices during the day.

When asked in 2005 what train wreck of a celebrity she would give some advice to, then-Gawker editor Jessica Coen said, "Lindsay Lohan, may God help you secure a room at Promises." Lohan ended up going to Wonderland for rehab, and apparently it didn't work any wonders on her. Adding to the list of Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name is the one and only La Lohan. Recently in town for the Costume Institute Gala and the Maxim Hot List party, she managed to keep out of trouble. Perhaps that's because her car was in Los Angeles. And perhaps that's because last time she drove in New York she ran down a West Village photographer and is now being sued. more ›

Mets fans, your wait is finally over. No, not because it's Spring Training, and not because of a World Championship, but because one member of the New York Mets will finally be enshrined in...Madame Tussauds. The 204-figure museum, which bills itself as "New York's most famous tourist attraction" (get it? famous), will unveil its first wax Mets figure on April 2. The house of wax already has five Yankees figures - Derek Jeter, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle (under repair), and George Steinbrenner. more ›

Torontoist visits the site of a new Frank Gehry structure, stalks "the elusive Bahamas streetcar", and watches Tom Green get surgery. more ›

Yesterday Lindsay Lohan was the latest celeb to be added to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. This place creeps us out a little bit, but look at that resemblance - the photo to the right is of her wax statue. Is that a Balenciaga bag? Anyway, little fuss was made about this, as we can't seem to find anything in the local papers. Lohan herself didn't even show up to the unveiling (as celebs often do). more ›