Last night Radar Magazine hosted a screening of the film adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's satirical novel Choke, about a sex-addicted med-school drop-out (played by Sam Rockwell) who works as an Irish indentured servant in a Colonial-era theme park to keep his Alzheimer’s-afflicted mother in an expensive private medical hospital. The movie's creepiness gets under your skin a little bit, but it also has a lot of heart, and it's very funny and full of twisted surprises we won't spoil here. Suffice it to say that the anal bead Choke bookmark (photo after the jump) that came with the gift bags speaks volumes about this "dirty-minded, satirical-psychotic comedy." more ›

There was plenty of buzz Monday about Radar's investigative report on $2,000 an hour hipster hookers, but that wasn't the week's only close-up on the oldest profession. A bit further down market, to say the least, the Villager's Laurie Mittelmann pals around with transgender street walkers in the West Village: "While shoes may also pain the feet of males and females, underwear can present unique problems for pre-operation transgender women. They want foxy little numbers, but still need to cover bulging male genitalia." And just like the author of the Radar story, Mittelmann also turns down a paranoid john who approached her for "'rocks and sex.' Apparently, he thought there was a chance this reporter was an undercover cop. 'You’re either going to hook me up with some fun, or hook me up in cuffs,' he said, licking his lips and kneading his pants." Demonstrating enormous self-control, Mittelmann somehow resisted his charms. more ›

A.J.: I think the word needs to get out there.Like it or not, it's out there, thanks to Daulerio’s thorough reportage, in which he quotes a chief of clinical gastroenterology at the University of Wisconsin, who explains that “escolar is laden with an overwhelming amount of wax esters.” So unless your partner has a serious Cleveland Steamer fetish you want to spice up for Valentine’s Day, consider yourself warned to stay the hell away from the stuff. more ›