America's Next Top Model is back in New York and in its second episode, which airs tonight, things are getting a little bit real. The episode brings the fourteen newest model wannabes to the not always fashionable streets. After the troupe mingles with the tourists at their fashion show in Times Square, it's off to their first photo shoot. For regular watchers of the show you'll know there's always a theme to the shoots, well......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: The 59th Primetime Emmy Awards (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WNYW 5) All you have to know is that Ryan Seacrest hosts this years awards. Your decision to view is based on your personal Seacrest tolerance and your need to watch the Yankees vs. Red Sox over on ESPN. Plus you can find out the results on line, so you don’t really have to watch. Mystery! - The Inspector......

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big -- really freaking big -- so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city's San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA......

The incident where a 14-year-old boy was allegedly assaulted by rapper Tony Yayo for wearing a Czar Entertainment t-shirt (Yayo's management company's rival) has now entered the third phase. The first phase was outcry and denial from both sides. The second phase was a press conference held by the Reverend Al Sharpton decrying the violence of the rap industry. And the third phase is the inevitable rap song. The Game, who is managed by Czar......

A look at some noteworthy televison shows this week: Live From the Red Carpet: The 2007 Academy Awards (Sunday, 6:00 p.m. E!) The traditionally absurd Oscar pregame of celebrities arriving at the Oscars. 2007 Joan & Melissa at the Academy Awards (Sunday, 6:00 p.m. TV Guide Channel) Joan Rivers and daughter Melissa do their yearly schtick during the Oscar arrivals. An Evening at the Academy Awards: The Arrivals (Sunday, 6:30 p.m. WABC 7) Channel 7......

Tonight is the reunion episode for season 3 of Project Runway, but we must relive last week's episode first. - Model "stealing" - Fair is fair, so we can't really fault Uli for choosing Nazri as her model (after all, she took her after winning the dog challenge). We're just surprised Michael didn't choose Amanda (we find Clarissa a little cross-eyed). Then again, maybe Michael didn't want to hear about Amanda's boyfriend not buying her......

Okay, we are admittedly not on the cutting edge of fashion or style, no matter how many 10 pound fashion magazines we read, no matter aware we are of the cool people we see around town, no matter how many episodes of America's Next Top Model we watch. But we just do not understand why the pretty models in Kimora Lee Simmons' Baby Phat show for Olympus Fashion Week had to wear teeth bling.......

The upside to a three day weekend is that waiting for the new Project Runway goes back so much more quickly. The downside? Not being able to write about it till the day of the new show. So to prepare you when you watch the rerun of last week's jetsetting episode: - All the designers have been very loyal to their models - yet they don't get to use them this episode! (And, Lord, do......

Gothamist understands that it's great for sports fans to see a hometown team in the playoffs. And we love Vince Carter. But WWORTV 9 aka, "My 9," is seriously killing us during the end of the traditional TV season by screwing over us Veronica Mars fans. With three episodes to go, My9 pre-empted VM for a Nets playoff game last week. Instead of replaying VM after America's Next Top Model on Wednesday (and this is......

- Overgadgeted kids beware: your iPods are not welcome at school - Hilarious: Former NY Governor Hugh Carey endorses Eliot Spitzer in Brooklyn, but not without accidentally calling Eliot "Charles Schumer" - Central Park mall will be closed till the mid-summer for repairs - Why Carroll Gardens needs historic districts - Ooh -- Janice Dickinson in the East Village... now, get her back on America's Next Top Model (Twiggy bores) - The Jets may......

Clothing entrepreneur Marc Ecko is suing the city once again. Ecko who found himself pitted against the city when a permit for a party to celebrate his new Atari game about graffiti taggers was revoked last summer- only for a judge to rule that the party had to go on after Ecko sued the city - is battling a law that makes carrying broad-tipped markers and spray paint illegal for people under 21. The......

Truth be told, this past season of America's Next Top Model hasn't been doing it for us, because it pales after Project Runway (and we think most of the wannabe models are not that good-looking). So we're super excited that on Thirteen tonight, there will be a program that goes undercover into the world of cat shows: The Standard of Perfection "Show Cats". It's supposed to show "the training, pampering, bathing, grooming and fussing that......

Rejoice all you fans of Gilmore Girls / Veronica Mars slash fiction! Your dreams of saphic teen-friendly erotica are one step closer to fruition with the merging of the WB and UPN networks. CNN reports: Warner Brothers and CBS Corp. announced plans Tuesday for the creation of a new broadcast television network, called CW, that would replace the WB and UPN networks in the fall of this year. The new broadcast network will draw......

What's your New Year's resolution? Is it to check out more live music, perhaps, and not be such a couch potato? Dance more, drink more, veg less? You have come to the right place. Here's some of what's happening around town this week: Not much going on in the early part of the week, as several clubs are closed. Maybe Monday is the night to check out former America's Next Top Model contender Shandi Sullivan......

Project Runway has a couple of its season two dresses for sale on various auctions at the PR website. They are winning dresses from Santino and Chloe, plus that terribly-fitting Daniel Franco muslin dress and Diana's deconstructed prom dress. Naturally, Santino's and Chloe's dresses are in the $300+ range, while Daniel's and Diana's dresses are at about $55. Gothamist really loves Santino's dress (right), and maybe, if we removes some ribs and about a third......

Wednesday is now most definitely the new Must See TV night. Not only is there Law & Order, Lost, and CSI: NY on the big networks, there's America's Next Top Model, Veronica Mars, and now Project Runway on Bravo. It is the only night of the week that requires a seriously souped up TiVo set-up, but luckily the UPN and Bravo replay their shows. Project Runway's new season starts with two hours of annoying new......

- The wake for slain police officer Dillon Stewart was held today; his funeral is tomorrow (we thought it was interesting that Stewart had responded to Mark Fisher's shooting and testified during that murder trial) - The Double Dutch Holiday Competition was yesterday and we missed it! But the Columbia Spectator covers it, thank goodness - Snow snow snow? - Murder Inc. cofounder Irv Gotti goes to church with a juror from his money laundering......

Tonight is the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting ceremony, which is why today is a gridlock alert day. The WNBC Channel 4 Christmas Tree page and tree cam now has music, as they count down till 7PM. We're sure crowds are already at Rockefeller Center, breathlessly awaiting Al Roker, Sheryl Crow, Il Divo, Carrie Underwood, Il Divo and the Goo Goo Dolls, but the other way to watch is to tune in at 7PM and......

It was only a matter of time before the reality TV craze hit our little plush friends. Variety reports that ABC has ordered five episodes of America's Next Muppet, a "reality" series parodying American Idol and America's Next Top Model in which viewers choose a new colleague for the now Disney-owned Muppets. While some remain skeptical about the Muppets' new venture, we're excited that our childhood favorites will be back on air for, of......

- Gas and oil heating prices are going to go up 50% this winter - start saving up, all of you who have to pay the oil and gas! - The Fire Department recalled the safety ropes that were ballyhooed as being the best - Flood watches and screwed up air travel - thanks to the rain... reservoir, we expect to see you more filled up by the end of the week! - The City......

- Junior Gotti gets a mistrial! What is going on with the criminal justice system? - The NY Times is laying off 500 more people (160 from the New England operations); hey, isn't Times Select supposed to pay for some of that? - Some animal victims of Hurricane Katrina came to New York to hopefully find themselves suddenly adopted by people with too small apartment but way big hearts; see more here at Animal Haven......

The NY Times Business section has an article about how video stores have been predicted to fail ever since the mid-1980s. And then Gothamist wondered how much longer the video stores in the city would last. Ever since we had that incident with some small children and their parents at the local Blockbuster (those were our Twizzlers!), Gothamist has been Netflixing (when we get around to it) our DVD rentals or buying them on impulse......

Desperate Housewives and Will & Grace both received 15 Emmy nominations today, proving that like every other awards organization, Gothamist just doesn't jibe with the voters. Sure, we're happy that Arrested Development, Scrubs, and Lost got some recognition. But there is no love for programs we'll actually stay at home to watch: Veronica Mars, Nip/Tuck, Gilmore Girls. Even The O.C., which faltered last season - you have to give Peter Gallagher some credit. And why......

There are so many reasons why this season's America's Next Top Model has helped secure its place as one of the greatest shows ever (fainting spells! questionable mental capacity from contestants! Janice Dickinson telling a would-be model that it looks like she has a penis!), but last night's episode, The Girl Who Would Be Contagious, was incredible. The pandemonium caused by admittedly disgusting skin sores was amazing: A bunch of overreactive, stupid girls deciding not......

Yes! The New York Observer has TWO articles about how The O.C. is kind of over right now - and they are front page stuff! Gothamist's take on the show right now is that there are good parts (Summer, Julie Cooper, Peter Gallagher's eyebrows) but too many bad (Caleb's illegitimate daughter Lindsay? BORING. Kim Delaney? Yikes. And we want the old Seth Cohen back). Yet we still watch. Anyway, the Observer's Charles Taylor charts......

Gothamist is happy for evergreen NYC topics that everyone can revist over and over again: What the MTA can do better, what the Mayor can do better, when is a NY team going to win a championship, and what is a great slice of pizza. Newsday chats with the cutting edge of pizza conoisseurship. Experts include Ed Levine (whose book, Pizza: A Slice of Heaven, is just out), Long Island pizza chef Geof Grayson, Audrey......

A widow in a wheelchair is suing the Waldorf Towers, the residential part of the Waldorf-Astoria, for discrimination, claiming the WT did not accomodate her disability. Rose Gutmacher is suing for $8 million, with the thinking going that $37,500 a month should bring a little more service than what was offered, but the WT, perhaps fed up with her requests, raised rent to $63,500. What Gothamist found interesting is that the Post mentioned old school......

One of Gothamist's guiltiest pleasures of late has been watching America's Next Top Model. So, after many weeks of stupidity, terrible clothes, and awesome put-downs from Janice Dickinson, we were both sad and excited to watch the finale last night. Down to the final three of Amanda, Yaya, and Eva, we were happily shocked when Eva, the 5'7" "tomboy" from California won. Shocked because she wasn't as chic as Yaya or as potentially editorially glamorous......

Macy's in New York has welcomed "big-bottomed mannequins" to show off fashions, and this warrants a Reuters story. In the photograph above, Ecko Red jeans are one of quite a few brands that are part of this "serious sociological trend that is positive for retailers and customers in that the tyranny of the undernourished perfect model is over" (quote from Rich Rollison, whose company Lifestyle Forms and Display created the mannequins). Of course, there......

Gothamist is pretty tired after staying up last night. So, in trying to make it through the day, we've come up with some things to keep in mind: - The make-fun-of-NY-Times-weddings-announcements blog, Veiled Conceit - America's Next Top Model - it's the perfect night for a drinking game! - Claire Zulkey's suggestions - The Onion, especially yesterday's article about the election - Second season of SCTV on DVD - Croxley's Wings Night tonight -......