Does the man who once sat on Cloud 7 believe there's something to Building 7? On Howard Stern's radio show last night, Tony Bennett questioned who was really to blame for the September 11th attacks that killed 2,996 Americans. "They flew the plane in, but we caused it," Bennett said. "But who are the terrorists? Are we the terrorists or are they the terrorists?" Bennett was alluding to the imposing presence of the United States in the Middle East prior to the attacks, but the damage had already been done. Look for his new single, "Who Can I Turn To (When People Find My Views On 9/11 In Poor Taste)," this fall. more ›

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has returned a handful of odds and ends found in King Tut's tomb to their home in Egypt, after the museum determined that it had no rights to hang on to the antiquities. more ›

Although we thought that everybody and their grandmother's cousin had a chance to see the Alexander McQueen "Savage Beauty" exhibit at the Met this summer—why else would there be three hour lines every day?—apparently they have not, and so the museum is extending hours for the exhibit. Again. more ›

One of the greatest things about this city is that, despite the occasional $135 bowls of soup, priceless works of art are on display basically for free every day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which charges a "suggested" donation of $20. But now the museum, facing "a number of daunting, ongoing budgetary challenges," is raising its pseudo-admission fee for the first time in years. The question: will anyone bother? more ›

In the wake of this week's highbrow bedbug attack on Lincoln Center, the Wall Street Journal freaked out over the bedbug epidemic. They started asking questions like: "Level with me. Can a bedbug crawl from a theater seat into my coat?" So they sat down with entomologist Jeff White of BedBug Central to ease their nerves. He told them that yes, bedbugs can crawl into your coat, but "there’s a little bit of a hysteria associated with these types of situations." They forgot to ask the most imporant question: Can I be infected if I share my espresso with a Puccini-lover? more ›

Yesterday news broke that classy bedbugs with a craving for blue blood had infiltrated a dressing room at Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater, which is used by the New York City Ballet. Well hold onto your monocles, people: Not content with the gossamer blood of ballerinas, the parasites have branched out to the Metropolitan Opera House, where corpulent divas await. Late yesterday the Met issued a statement confirming that "bedbugs were discovered in some isolated locations but not in any public areas. There was no evidence of infestation. Those areas identified will be treated this afternoon." And we're sure that's the end of that! more ›

After nearly two years of haggling, the board of directors at the Whitney Museum have approved plans to begin construction on a new building in the meatpacking district in Manhattan, to be completed by 2015. “Downtown is a new city, a new nation. Why shouldn’t the Whitney be the museum of record there?” said Leonard Lauder, the Whitney’s chairman emeritus and largest benefactor. more ›

A generous donor has taken big steps to close the Metropolitan Opera’s $4 million budget gap, cutting the operahouse a check for $30 million. The donation—which sets a record as the most generous in the Met’s history—comes from Ann Ziff, widow of publishing exec William Ziff and daughter to soprano Harriet Henders. It couldn’t come a at a better time, since the concert hall was beginning to look a bit desperate—implementing high-tech, though questionably appealing, measures like beaming its performances into movie theaters worldwide. Ziff told the Times she’ll forgive the Met its little experiments. “Whether I like a new production or not, I don’t feel is important,” she said. “To get these new audiences, we need to try new things.” Now if only someone would extend the same generosity towards the MTA. more ›

The Metropolitan Museum of Art chose Fashion Week to announce their upcoming exhibit, titled American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity (brought to you by The Gap! No, not kidding.) The major exhibition, opening in early May, will focus on the American woman's wardrobe from 1890 to 1940. more ›

Colorful and controversial former Metropolitan Museum of Art director Thomas Hoving died in his Manhattan home yesterday of cancer; he was 78 years old. Hoving headed the museum between 1967 and 1977 and wrote in his memoir, Making the Mummies Dance that he had to be "a gifted connoisseur, a well-trained scholar, an aesthete, a patient diplomat, a deft fundraiser, an executive, and a conciliator" as well as “part gunslinger, ward heeler, legal fixer, accomplice smuggler, anarchist, and toady." more ›

A disabled Vietnam veteran who defied the city Parks Department by setting up a hot dog stand on prime real estate outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art was carted off in handcuffs yesterday. Dan Rossi, 69, was charged with obstructing traffic and disorderly conduct after he refused to relocate his stand during an enforcement sweep. The area outside the Met has been a lucrative location for the Parks Department, which leased the space to one vendor for $642,000 a year. more ›

Back in August photographer Zach Hyman brought one of his muses to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for some naked time. The 26-year-old model, Kathleen Neill, stripped down in the Arms and Armour exhibit, only to be arrested shortly after for public lewdness. Just a few days later she said: "I want people to have the freedom to express themselves. I want the city to drop the charges. I would love to be able to go to museums and see stuff like this happen on any scale." more ›

The Met opened its season last night with Puccini's Tosca, by risk-taking Swiss-born director Luc Bondy. But opera is no place for risks, and according to the Times, the well-heeled audience booed the hell out of Bondy when he emerged at curtain call. The message from the Met audience was clear: Mess with our favorite classics again, and we will cut you up like Gilda in Rigoletto. more ›

Zach Hyman's latest nude subject is stealing the headlines from him. Today the NY Post talks to the 26-year-old Kathleen Neill, who was charged with public lewdness when she stripped down in the Metropolitan Museum's Hall of Arms and Armor. She wants the prudes in this town to lighten up, and told the paper, "I want people to have the freedom to express themselves. I want the city to drop the charges. I would love to be able to go to museums and see stuff like this happen on any scale." Since it's already legal for women to walk around topless in New York, maybe next year's topless march should focus on the full monty. more ›

Not too long ago there was some pole dancing for arts sake on the L train. Well, yesterday photographer Zach Hyman (he's like the one-model-at-a-time version of Spencer Tunick) brought his nude subject to a museum. Surprisingly, it seems the MTA is cooler with the naked human form than the Met is! more ›

The recent eviction of Pasang Sherpa—the hot dog vendor who was booted from outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art after refusing to pay the full $643,000 a year rent to the Parks Department—got us thinking: Why didn't we major in hot dog vending? The previous permit holder outside the museum paid $415,000 annually and didn't go under, so one imagines there's a tidy profit to be made there or other tourist magnets around town. But street vendor advocacy groups tell Slate that selling dogs isn't as glamorous as it might seem, and most food vendors make just $14,000 to $16,000 a year after they've paid for permits (and, inevitably, a few tickets). Vendors on city streets (not the ones at or near park areas) pay $200 a year for the permit, but the city caps the number of permits at 3,100, creating an extensive black market. Some unscrupulous companies buy up permits for dozens of carts and then lease them to individual vendors at highly inflated prices. And now there are these fancy new food trucks horning in! Kenny Lao, an owner of the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck, says his life was threatened by other vendors he opened flast year, telling the Times, "The old vendors are edgy." more ›

Back in the summer of 1991 a Florida college student, Lynne Ronning (pictured), was working as a counselor at a camp in the Poconos. On a day off, the 24-year-old walked to a waterfall, where she was shot in the head "at point-blank range" and raped "as she lay dying," the NY Post recalls. Police found her body the next morning, "posed in a degrading sexual position" with "numerous defensive wounds." It was long suspected that Jeffrey Plishka, son of Metropolitan Opera star Paul Plishka, was guilty (the family had a home nearby the Pennsylvania camp), but it wasn't until now that DNA evidence has connected him with the horrific crime. The paper reports that the 46-year-old has been getting around courtesy of his dad's help, moving to the various family homes around the country for 18 years—one friend says, "The family has done everything it can to keep him off the radar"—which made the investigation more difficult. Plishka, who maintains his innocence, is being held without bail in Pennsylvania, jailed "on multiple counts of murder, as well as attempted rape and deviate sexual intercourse." Prosecutors are considering whether to ask for the death penalty. more ›

Hot dog vendor Pasang Sherpa made headlines a few months back for his big six-figure bids to guarantee lucrative space slinging franks outside the Metropolitan Museum, paying out $643,000 annually to the Parks Department for his spots outside the Met. At the time, he said that he didn't want to pay the city his big rent bills because he contended that nearby construction was having too negative of an impact on his business. Now after following through on his threat to hold off rent, the city has responded by evicting him. A Parks Department spokesman says Sherpa had fallen $310,000 behind in rent. Sherpa told the News that he was "going crazy" and didn't know what to do or where to go. Even more lost though were some Rhode Island tourists outside the Upper East Side museum, one of whom told the paper, "We don't know the area or where else to eat but here. There's no other place to eat around here." When Sherpa's original beef was reported in January, the Post said that another nearby vendor on 5th Avenue was set up and operating without permission or paying anything because of "a regulation that lets veterans like him bypass the bidding process." more ›

Tomorrow evening Nelson Diaz's exhibition, The Isolated Christ, will travel through the streets of New York (it's likely the least controversial Christ piece to hit NYC in recent memory—remember choco-Jesus?). The work is described as "a pictoral study where Da Vinci meets Einsteinian Math, endorsed by master artist Francis Bacon." Perhaps that's why the four paintings will journey towards the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where there's currently a retrospective of Bacon's work. more ›

The long holiday weekend is here, and what better way to spend the sunny hours than with an escape into the demented mind of Francis Bacon? The Metropolitan Museum of Art has just opened their Centenary Retrospective on the artist, the first major New York exhibition on him in twenty years. The NY Times notes that it "won't do much to alter the polarities of opinion around Bacon" but it does dispute the belief that his art declined throughout the years, "indicating that it often improved as his colors brightened, his paint handling gained muscularity. It was equally important that he began to focus on people he knew and cared about, giving them faces that seem simultaneously masked, gouged out of wet clay and recognizably individual." It may be a good opportunity to reevaluate his work, which the museum notes has been seen in a new light following his death in 1992. more ›

While Barack Obama hasn't visited New York since becoming President, First Lady Michelle Obama has returned time and again. She was just on Sesame Street earlier this month, and now she's back with a few cultural stops on her schedule today. "This visit is crafted, according to East Wing guidance, to allow Mrs. Obama to continue to demonstrate her interest in and support for the arts by attending the ribbon cutting for the Metropolitan Museum of Art American Wing. In the evening she will attend the American Ballet Opening Spring Gala at the Metropolitan Opera House." Doesn't sound like she'll be visiting the portrait of her at the New Museum, but expect high security in those other areas today and tonight! [via Mrs. O] more ›

The Met sure is having a big week! First their Costume Institute Ball brought all the big names out, and then the NY Times reported on their recent renovation. They explain that in the 1970s the museum "unveiled a plan to create its own Crystal Palace in Central Park—a glass-enclosed, glass-roofed space to house its expanded American Wing—Community Planning Board 8 voted 24 to 1 against the proposal, and one board member called it a rape of the park." That board member was likely feeling violated around 1980, when the American Wing opened, and perhaps even more so now, following two years of construction and renovations it will open up to the public on May 19th. more ›

Last night the rich, famous, recession-proof and beautiful came together under the roof of the Met for the annual Costume Institute Ball, in celebration of the museum's new exhibit called Model as Muse. While last year the theme was superhero, this year's was supermodel, and Style has a thorough rundown of the glamorous night (that the NY Post thought was more Zoolander-inspired). The evening wasn't without some drama, of course, the NY Times reports that designer Azzedine Alaïa wasn't included in the exhibit, so some of his muses, like Naomi Campbell, refused to attend. There were still plenty of best and worst dressed to gawk at, however. more ›

With the Met Museum announcing a series of layoffs, it's not surprising to hear that visitors of the establishment aren't paying the full recommended admission fee. The NY Post reports that folks aren't willing to fork over the dough during the tough economic times, and many are just giving $1 (of the suggested $20) for their visit. For the Met and other NYC museums that have long shunned a set admission price, there's probably nothing they can do if they don't want to see a decrease in visitors. One recently laid off art lover told the paper, "If they didn't do it, I'm not sure I would come. I really appreciate that they allow me to pay on a sliding scale." There is one museum that hasn't taken a hit yet, the Museum of Natural History is still getting their $15 suggested price from visitors. A spokesman confirmed, "For the time being...people are paying the suggested donation." Survival of the fittest? more ›

Yesterday the Metropolitan Museum of Art sent out a statement announcing 74 layoffs at its stores (following 53 layoffs last year) with more to come from the museum's overall staff. The NY Times reports that as many as 250 full and part time jobs may be lost before summer. While the cuts will hit every department, including curatorial, Met officials have declared the changes won't affect the museum's hours, exhibitions or standards. On top of endowment losses, "the museum will receive $1.7 million less in operating help from the city this year and has been told to expect another cutback that could be as high as $2.4 million in the next fiscal year." With the recession hitting even the most prestigious of institutions these days, the paper notes that the layoffs are also in part due to problems that its merchandising arm have been facing. If you'd like to help, they also shared that membership renewals have been on the decline (wink wink, nudge nudge). more ›

Sometimes budget cuts fall in the forest, so while you are all worked up about the plants and animals on Paterson's chopping block, we're betting you turned a deaf ear to the opera's budget drama. The NY Times reports that "the Metropolitan Opera has been bludgeoned by the recession and now faces a 'disaster scenario' unless the company finds major cost cuts, including concessions from its powerful unions." more ›

How many more hot dogs can a vendor outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art sell at the north side of the museum entrance, as opposed to the south side? First-time vendor Pasang Sherpa is betting he can unload at least $81,701 more lips and assholes, because he's coughing up that much extra for the north location, even though the southern spot is only 100 yards away. Sherpa paid $362,201 to the Parks Department for rights to vend at the north side and $280,500 for the south, but now he's fuming because the more heavily-trafficked north entrance has been blocked by construction won't be done until May. "I don't want to pay them now," he tells a Post reporter, who theorizes that this might be the most expensive retail space per square foot in all the land. more ›

The Brooklyn Museum has become nothing more than a storage closet for its "storied couture clothing collection," but now the Brooklyn Paper explains the "cash-strapped" institution is "unloading" the 105-year-old cache to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The BMA, which hadn't displayed the clothing since 1991, won't receive any money, but it's saving some, since it will no longer pay for the storage and care. The Met, with its funding (not to mention 10 times the BMA's visitors) can mount a proper exhibition of what's being called "one of the world’s best collections of American fashion" (the NY Times reported that its "largely assembled from the closets of grand ladies of Brooklyn and Manhattan"). The paper also notes that while the "Met’s Costume Institute will own, curate and preserve the pieces, the two museums will collaborate on a bi-borough costume show in 2010." more ›