First NBC announces it's starting a 24-hour local NYC news channel yesterday--a possible competitor to NY1-- and now Matt Lauer is invading the turf of NYC TV's Kelly Choi by heading to the "secret subway station" under the Waldorf-Astoria! In the Today's show "Access Granted"series, the Today show personalities are getting behind-the-scenes looks at private places (Meredith Vieira visited the Vice-President's mansion yesterday and Al Roker visited the Malstrom Air Force base on Tuesday).......

This morning, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama appeared on the Today show, an early morning pre-primary day media blitz, as it were. While it's unclear which Democratic presidential candidate will be victorious this fall, one thing was clear: Obama kept calling Matt Lauer "Tim." The first time Obama appeared, he did greet Lauer as "Matt," but then he refers to him as "Tim." Lauer ignored Obama's gaffe the first two times, but by......

Photographs outside Broome Street The NYC Medical Examiner's office says Heath Ledger's autopsy is inconclusive, citing the need to more tests. Spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said, "The autopsy is inconclusive and we have to do further testing which includes toxicology and tissue testing. We expect to have results in about 10 days to two weeks." Initial reports suggested pills were found scattered around the actor's body, prompting speculation that Ledger could have committed suicide. Ledger's......

NBC News to Cover Golden Globes To plug the giant hole in the network’s schedule this Sunday, caused by the WGA not giving a waiver to Dick Clark Productions for the Golden Globe Awards, NBC has handed the whole thing over to its news division. First at 7 p.m., there will be a two hour Dateline NBC filled with interviews of those actors will ignore the Screen Actors Guild’s request to boycott the show (to......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an injured firefighter at Ave Y and Knapp St. in Brooklyn, serious trauma at the Bryant Park ice rink in Manhattan, and a stabbing at 169th St. and Linden Blvd. in Queens. The New Yorker collects quotes from striking writers and their supporters regarding the strike beard phenomena. Conan O'Brien, on perhaps the only physical feature that will ever help him resemble a lumberjack: "I’m the only guy chopping......

Isn't the Internet wonderful? It lets baseball fans vote in an All-Star game player and now it lets people around the world decide what to do with a historic ball. After purchasing the ball that Barry Bonds hit to break baseball's all-time home run record, fashion designer Marc Ecko has decided to give the public a vote on what to do with the ball. On the website Vote756.com, Ecko gives voters three choices, "Bestow......

Miss New Jersey Amy Polumbo made a repeat appearance on the Today Show this morning to share her "racy" photographs with Matt Lauer. This is how the Today Show website describes the photographs, which are apparently the ones someone took from Polumbo's Facebook profile and mailed to pageant officials:The photos really aren’t that bad, by contemporary standards, but they aren’t necessarily good for the 22-year-old theater major’s public image, either. One shows a smiling......

If you're still reading the paper version of The New York Times, get ready to spend a little more. Cover prices will go up to $1.25 from $1 starting July 16th. Sunday prices will increase on July 15th, going from $3.50 to $4.00. The last increase for The Times in the New York area was in 1999. The increased prices are projected to add $7-8 million in revenue this year and $14-16 million in......

Sure, the Yankees have lost their fifth game in a row and are 14.5 games behind the Red Sox, but know what's more interesting: Alex Rodriguez's off-the-field activities in Toronto! The Post puts A-Rod on cover, calling him "Stray-Rod," and wondering why he was hanging out with a "mysterious, busty blonde" at a strip club AND his hotel. Apparently he went to the strip club with two other guys, but he was seen going into......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Nature - Dogs That Changed the World: Dogs by Design (Sunday, 8:00 p.m. WNET 13; Wednesday 9:00 p.m. WLIW 21) The second and final part of the story of the dog looks at how humans created the various dog breeds and the modern day consequences. Today (Monday, 7:00 a.m., WNBC 4) Another outing of Where in the World is Matt Lauer starts Monday morning. The Mormons (Monday......

Radio shock jock Don Imus was suspended for two weeks by CBS, which owns WFAN and Westwood One (the radio outlets his show is broadcast and syndicated on) and MSNBC, which broadcasts a televised simulcast of the radio show, over remarks he made towards the Rutgers women's basketball team. MSNBC announced that Imus would be suspended first, then CBS announced a similar suspension. The suspension will begin on Monday, as Imus has a series......

This year, the Today Show's tradition of testing its hosts' fortitude by giving them nutty Halloween costumes did not disappoint. Matt Lauer and Al Roker were Jack Sparrow and Captain Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean. Yes, that is Al as Captain Davy Jones - he is squidalicious! In years past, Matt and Al have dressed as famous pairs, like Siegfried and Roy, Batman and Robin, and J.Lo and Puffy. We're surprised......

NBC will officially announce that Meredith Vieira will be the new Today Show co-anchor, filling Katie Couric's 7AM to somewhere in the 9-10AM area shoes, later this afternoon, though Vieira announced the move during The View this morning. Newsday's Verne Gay says that Meredith Vieira might be the most perfect replacement for Couric ever, which could be good or bad. But the biggest fun is asking people what they think of the move. Should Katie......

- Regular lofts are for poor people: Diane von Furstenberg is building herself an entertainment complex. - Nutmilk, "you-Rhine", and severe dyslexia: the world of subway-masturbator Dan Hoyt. - A donor with baggage is causing a $200m headache for NYU. - Don't cry Matt Lauer! They'll find you a new best-friend - We tried tip #1 from this list today, and happiness continued to elude us-- but soaking-wetness did not. - Spring in the......

Now that the snow is a slushy, disgusting mess, Gothamist has distance from this morning's troublesome commute (note to self: Wear wading boots and carry snow boots). But Toby at Random Observations has amazing analysis of the local news' weather coverage. Crazy graphics? Check. Maps of snowfall? Check. School closing alerts? Check. Not only did CBS take honors for being in "Weather Orgasm mode," "Dave Price made an appearance making a fool out of himself......

Gothamist was very excited to see that Matt Lauer was in Shanghai, for his November sweeps month get-me-away-from-Katie working vacation/ biological clock experiment, Where in the World is Matt Lauer? To make scary, Communist China accessible to the West, Matt explained that Shanghai is growing so fast, and referred to a graphic showing that there are twice as many skyscrapers in Shanghai than New York, 4000 to NYC's 2000, even though Shanghai is a......

God, we love Fox 5! After 20 years, they are still the place to turn for hilariously low-budget local news. Example: yesterday, while Matt Lauer was galavanting around on Easter Island (today, he was in Panama), they sent weatherman Mike Woods to the glamorous and mysterious destination of Fort Totten, Queens (via Random Observations). Where should they send Mike next?......

As the Michael Jackson not guilty verdict was announced yesterday, crowds gathered in Times Square and gasped, cheered, or just were dumbstruck. Many New Yorkers seem to believe he was guilty of something, and were surprised that he was found not guilty on all counts, but not that surprised that a celebrity was found not guilty. Some thought that the trial was a witch hunt, and one Bronx woman told the Daily News, "Michael, if......

The Statue of Liberty reopens today after being closed since September 11, 2001. City and state officials have been working on upgrading the security of the monument, which will now allow visits to the statue's pedestal but no further. On the Today show, Matt Lauer mentioned that Senator Charles Schumer said that opening only part of the statue is a half-victory for terrorists and Mayor Bloomberg said that the space in the statue is small......

The New York Times Weddings section proves that magazine features as well as tons of money and fame can fan the flames of marriage - especially when the famous millionaire is an old/fat/bald man and the woman is much younger and hotter than the man (yes, Gothamist knows the women are accomplished, but let's face it, they're also really attractive). The featured Vows column was about the marriage of famed writer, Salman Rushdie, and model-cookbook......

Paris Hilton is speaking publicly about the sex tape for the first time since returning from Australia (and hanging out with sea life which can't hold video cameras). The Daily News reports Paris as saying "I feel embarrassed [and] humiliated," and that she regrets the tape "especially because my parents and the other people who love me have been hurt." The DN also details her family's reaction to the situation (support, via crisis management......

I did see J. Lo perform on the Today Show, I missed Mariah's interview with Matt Lauer. . I didn't watch the Diane Sawyer interview with Whitney Houston, but I did glean from Saturday Night Live (Robert DeNiro sucked, by the way, or at least the skits did) Weekend Update when Maya Rudolph and Tracey Morgan spoofed Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, that Whitney: 1) called Diane Sawyer, "Diane Swyer"; 2)Bobby Brown was profusely sweating;......