Diddy—aka Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Sean Combs—has previously run the city (in a marathon) but now city officials are embarrassed that the rap entrepreneur got some sort of NYPD assistance to rush from the Hammerstein Ballroom to his NJ post-concert party last week. The NYPD basically admitted it (see its hedging below) and Mayor Bloomberg said, "The bottom line is the police department should treat everybody exactly the same. If you don't get a police escort, P. Diddy shouldn't." more ›

Diddy, aka Puff Daddy, P.Diddy and Sean Combs, managed to get $75,000 for hosting his post-Hammerstein Ballroom show party at 4Sixty6 in West Orange, NJ last week. The deal was supposed to have included a helicopter ride from New York to the Garden State, but the pesky FAA didn't grant him permission in time. So Diddy got the next best thing: A NYPD and NJ cop escort. more ›

The rapper Shyne, who served nine years for an infamous 1999 nightclub shooting incident, is making a media splash with big interviews on his new turn as an Orthodox Jew. That's right—born Jamal Barrow in Belize and raised in Brooklyn—Shyne has legally changed his name to Moses Levi and is living in Jerusalem. He told the NY Times, "My entire life screams that I have a Jewish neshama [soul]," and said to the Jerusalem Post, "I’m a guy that has simcha [joy] and kedusha [holiness] in a prison cell with rats running - and walking - around." more ›

Sean "Diddy" Combs, having dodged his fake wife in East Hampton, is headed to Brooklyn. And he's making such a big deal about it! The rapper will be hosting a party in the borough on Tuesday night for Notorious B.I.G. on the 13th anniversary of his death (he's also trying to make March 9th "Biggie Day"). Brokelyn reports the invite-only extravaganza will be held at the Lab, a Bed-Stuy club. Diddy told MTV News, “I’m going to Brooklyn. It’s gonna be the first time I’m throwing a party in Brooklyn. I’m from Harlem. Everybody in Harlem knows you don’t usually go over the bridge to Brooklyn. It’s a big, big deal.” more ›

Diddy better not drink too much Ciroc lest he wake up next to his fake wife and real life stalker. According to 1010Wins, a 35-year-old woman claiming to be his wife (he's not married) was arrested after she attempted to visit his East Hampton house twice. more ›

Staten Island Roman Catholic parishes are hoping to encourage Catholics to come back to the church in a borough-wide "parish mission." The Staten Island Advance reports that 35 "priests from the Redemptorist order, and one Augustinian, have taken up residence at two dozen parishes for the mission." They are trying to remind Roman Catholics that in spite of "sins," they are not "unforgivable." This includes women who have had abortions and people who get divorces; one priest explains, "Say you have a Catholic celebrity who gets married before a justice of the peace and then divorced. There is no need to annul that marriage because it did not take place in church. So even if that celebrity remarries, he is still welcome to receive communion." Well, that clears everything up! Semi-related: P. Diddy was seen dressed as the Ponitff for Halloween at Pacha. more ›

What story ranks as high as, oh, the United States nationalizing financial institutions' debts, essentially privatizing profit but socializing risk? Why, P. Diddy stepping into dog poo! more ›

Last week's LA Times article about the Tupac shooting of 1994 (occurring just two years before his murder), led to a lot of chatter about the rapper's death and those who may have been involved. The finger was now being pointed at Sean "Diddy" Combs, who maintained he was not involved. more ›

Though the mystery has never been solved, many have attached Sean "Diddy" Combs and Christopher Wallace (Biggie Smalls/The Notorious B.I.G.) to the 1994 attack and 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur -- sparking an East Coast/West Coast rap war, leading to Biggie's 1997 murder and escalating the "no snitching" policy into law. The accusation even came from Tupac himself after the attack in 1994. more ›

A 25-year-old man was stabbed to death inside the Flatiron club Duvet early Friday morning. Shamel McKinsey stumbled outside and collapsed outside on West 21st street, "blood gushing from his wounds, just after 3:30 a.m.," according to the Daily News. McKinsey, who had an arrest record for drug possession with intent to sell, was pronounced dead at St. Vincent's Hospital. Police suspect that McKinsey may have been partying with the rapper Fabolous at Duvet,... more ›

Anyone looking for closure in the Diddy SoHo slapfest case, look no further. Reports are that prosecutors aren't pursuing criminal charges against Mr. Combs anymore because "Stephen Acevedo appeared to stop cooperating with police - after accusing the rap star of sucker-punching him inside the exclusive SoHo club on Oct. 13 after the two quarreled over women." Of course, Acevedo's lawyer says he is taking the "high road" and declining to talk further about the... more ›

It's more like "will he or won't he"...yesterday we heard about a scuffle between Sean Combs (aka P. Diddy) and Steven Acevedo (aka someone we've never heard of), and today there are conflicting reports about what has happened since the dust has settled. more ›

After claims that his G-Unit associate Tony Yayo beat up the son of a rival music management company for him, 50 Cent is talking. Well, his lawyer is talking. Benjamin Brafman, familiar for having defended P. Diddy and DJ Star, fired off a few words at the child's lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman. more ›

Blame it on Diddy. Crain's reports that after Sean "P. Diddy" Combs opened his Sean John store at Fifth Avenue and 41st Street, building owners have been looking to make that stretch of Fifth more upscale (more than the Best Buy) and the owners of 500 Fifth Avenue is "forcing out" tenants, such as tobacconist to the world Nat Sherman. The owners are hoping to get a luxury retailer to pay $425 per square foot (pricey, but probably much less than whatever they pay on Fifth in the 50s or 60s). Anyway, we almost can't imagine Nat Sherman at that corner. Nat Sherman told Crain's they "are close to signing a lease at 12 E. 42nd Street," because their "roots are in this neighboorhood." more ›

It's nothing like what the weather will be like in November, but it's never too early to train for the NYC Marathon. Deena Kastor, who won a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics for the marathon and who happens to hold the American record for the women's marathon - 2:19.36 - after running this year's London Marathon, is in New York to train. And even in this gross weather, she's out running and talking to the NY Times about strategies, like breaking up the marathon into eight parts because there are eight water stations and just knowing as much about the course as possible. Kastor finished sixth in 2001 and dropped out at mile 16 in 2004, but she's training hard for this year's race. And in case you were wondering, people running on November 5's race should have started training already (Runner's World has a 16 week plan), although P. Diddy only trained for 8 weeks before the 2003 race and finished in under 4 hours. more ›

- "Not a day goes by that I don't think of Ming. I'm still hurting, hurting everyday." So says the man, three years later, who used to keep a 400-pound-tiger in his Harlem apartment. more ›

If you're going to do an issue about the 100 People Who Shape Our World, you might as well have a big party, right? Time magazine rolled out the red carpet last night for people on its list, their friends, and the press. Gothamist stopped by the party just ahead of Stephen Colbert. We were not wearing a bear costume, so he wasn't that afraid of us. And perennial favorite, Rachael Ray, showed up all glammy, alternating poses with and without her A.C.H.M. (Arm Candy Husband Meat). more ›

This a very good day in the Daily News newsroom, while it must be more of a bummer at the Post's offices. News that a NY Post gossip writer has been investigating for trying to extort a billionaire mentioned in Page Six has turned into Christmas in April for the Daily News. (You can read the NY Times' article, as they are somewhat less invested in the story.) According to the Post's statement on its website, Jared Paul Stern (called a "freelance reporter who sometimes worked two days a week" by editor in chief Col Allan) tried to extort over $100,000 from Ron Burkle, investor, big time Democratic party donor and friend of Bill Clinton, in exchange for not featuring stories about Burkle in the paper; according to the feds' tapes, Stern even tried to get Burkle to invest in his clothing line! That's Page Six chutzpah right there. more ›

been singing extremely off-key lately.) But now it seems like it's safer that we don't have a Bad Boy lifestyle - last night, at a party the former Puff Daddy had for a posthumous Biggie Smalls album, three people were shot and three other people were stabbed. Yup - the police found three men bleeding at a parking garage across from Club Exit, where the party was being held, and then a 911 call alerted them to the fact that three men were stabbed in the Club Exit's VIP lounge. It's unclear why the shootings occured, though the police did see a car with a bullet hole leaving the scene. And the stabbings seem to be motivated by a partygoer upset that he lost "a flashy bracelet." Ah, "flashy bracelet" - the third reason for club violence, after "Skank ho poured beer on my weave" and "What are you doing with my man/woman?" And P. Diddy was only at the club for fifteen minutes, none of them during the crimes (and neither was Shyne!). All six men are recovering at area hospitals.
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We're happy to announce, in the throes of a hurricane bearing down, the launch of the newest addition to our network of sites, Miamist, your friendly blog in Miami. Edited by JR Biersmith and Rachael Bohrer, there are already suggestions about how to hold a Hurricane Wilma Party, signage problems for restaurants when the signs say "go to hell" in Spanish, and how the University of Miami has invaded Hollywood. We are sure that the Miamist staff will be able to bear through Wilma in order to give us local color on what P. Diddy was wearing at the Shore Club and how the Miami Heat are dealing with the new NBA dress code in the coming months. more ›

The stories coming out of the courthouse where lawyers are trying to select jurors for John Gotti Jr.'s trial continue to be amazing. Apparently, the potential jurors have been less than smart, with Judge Scheindlin saying about one juror, "He wasn't the brightest bulb." And then Gotti's lawyer said, "We've had that a lot." There there was the juror, a "self-taught criminologist," who collected gangster memorabilia - he got bumped. Judge Scheindlin has been upset because on the questionnaire, potential jurors are asked to list three people in the history of the world they admire...and many people listed no one, arguing, "I'm not into that. I'm a working person. That's pretty much it." more ›

Trojan Condoms is breaking through to primetime television with an ad that will air on tonight's Law & Order. Adweek is told this is the first condom ad to ever air on a Big Three network during primetime. Hmm...is it a coincidence that Joe Piscopo is featured in this L&O rerun? more ›

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that is the relationship between P. Diddy and Farnsworth Bentley? Has he not see OutKast's The Way You Move? Or even the Chappelle Show spoof of Making The Band? more ›

You know it's the Oscars when P. Diddy busts out the velvet suit! Gothamist loves the Oscars, and we're going to attempt to do a little liveblogging. We might need to order a vat of caffeine and an EMT team at the ready; not because Chris Rock will be boring, but because we think that Gil Cates might kill us with his newfangled ideas and because we're meh about this year's nominees in the big categories. Anyway, onto the show. more ›

The NY Times on Guy Velella. And Gothamist wonders if Shyne will incorporate Velella into his next album. more ›

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New Yorkers have definitely been trying to cast their vote, given reporst of long lines and broken machines. Some of us at Gothamist have been able to vote and prove it, while others faced long lines of New Yorkers and made silent vows to leave work early and vote then. And if you were voting on the Upper East Side and had to deal with long lines, Gothamist says blame P. Diddy for bringing his media circus with him to vote so he doesn't die. And the media circus at P.S. 321 in Park Slope? It was to capture Senator Schumer, who will probably be re-elected. more ›

South Park is back tonight with new episode called "Douche and Turd":

When PETA demonstrates against the use of a cow as South Park Elementary’s mascot, the student body is forced to choose a new one. As the election approaches, Kyle tries to convince everyone that his candidate, a giant douche, is better than Cartman’s nominee, a turd sandwich.

Gothamist is excited about Team America, the marionette movie from Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park that will spoof both left and right wing Americans, as well as world leaders in rude and hilarious fashion (purposefully bad accents for Kim Jong Il, for starters, let alone the marionette sex issue). But we don't know exactly why composer Marc Shaiman left the film Or that's what we thought we heard. Marc, a film and musical composer (he won a Tony for Hairspray and kissed his partner on live TV), was working on Team America and actually was blogging about working on the film's score. It's not up anymore, but Gothamist had the foresight (okay, we were going to do a post ages ago but never got around to it) to copy one entry:

But on TEAM AMERICA, I finally got them to write MY titles on the music, so, taking important lines of dialogue from the movie, I had the joy of watching these virtuosic musicians see they were playing a piece of music entitled "SURPRISE, COCK FAGS!" or "HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A MAN EAT HIS OWN HEAD?" some bowed their heads in shame, while others played with a brand new intensity!! On this score, I have gotten to write a much more muscular score than I am usually given the opportunity to do. And none of the usual kooky comedy flourishes. There has not been one measure of pixilated pizzicato strings or wacky woodwind passages. Oh no, it's all low brass and blaring horns here today. And banging ethnic and techno drums. And even better, NO PRODUCER or DIRECTOR!! They're too busy elsewhere!! Whheeeeeee!!!!