It may be hard to believe, but tonight’s episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (10:00 p.m., WNBC 4) is the 200th episode for the first of the Law & Order spin-offs. One big difference between SVU and the mother ship is how the show over nine seasons has gone though only minimal cast changes, with the four regulars - Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler, Mariska Hargitay as Olivia Benson, Richard Belzer as John......

Last week everyone from writers on the picket line to bored couch potatoes were abuzz with news that the late night heavyweights would be returning with all new shows. Last night was the big night (Letterman, O'Brien, Kimmel, Ferguson and Leno all returned), and both Conan O'Brien and David Letterman took the stage showing solidarity with strike beards intact. Letterman threatened to shave his later on Conan's show, saying that he'd probably be helping his......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on 20th Ave. and 37th St. in Queens, a hate crime on East 9th St. and Ave. H in Brooklyn, and a missing child on Decatur Ave. in the Bronx. Hyperactive performer Robin Williams is David Letterman's guest tonight, in his first new show in weeks. Letterman, as well as Craig Ferguson, have worked out pacts with the Writers Guild of America, allowing writers to come......

Members of the Writers Guild of America have been striking in Los Angeles and New York this past week over details of a basic contract between writers and producers - one of the biggest sticking points is the amount of residuals writers get from DVD and new media distribution. The NY Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd asked Seth Meyers (who we spoke to on Tuesday) to give her a weekend update about the strike:......

You may recognize Jon Glaser from his appearances on Conan, Wonder Showzen, or Cheap Seats. You may have even heard his track on the Invite Them Up CD compilation, where he reads a series of letters written by his recently deceased father to the band ZZ Top. By the track's end, one thing is certain: Jon Glaser is a comedic genius. What are your earliest memories of seeing or hearing things that made you laugh?......

This week, Sarah Michelle Gellar is back for more creepy girls hiding in her hair in the new sequel, The Grudge 2. Amber Tamblyn plays her sister, who also travels to Tokyo and is also infected by the grudge inducing curse. While both American versions of the Grudge movies were directed by their Japanese creator Takashi Shimizu, it would seem that the better material would be in the originals, so we suggest renting those instead.......

Looking ahead to this week's movie options, there's a few indie-sized pics and one massive, Super Big Gulp-sized car racing comedy. Ordinarily Gothamist is all about championing the cinematic little guy, but when it's this goofy, yet earnest we say go for the excess. But to the small fish first: Quinceañera is a Los Angeles coming of age story centering around one Mexican-American girl, Magdalena and the traditional celebration which marks her 15th birthday. A......

This week, the film festival that Bobby De Niro and Jane Rosenthal built after September 11th has taken over most of downtown New York and some of uptown with its eclectic programming line-up. But there's more to do in town, movie-watching wise than just at Tribeca. So get out your TFF schedules, some snacks and some comfortable shoes to walk between screening spaces, there's movies to be seen this weekend. United 93, the narrative retelling......

In this heartily American week some of the most appealing things to see are foreign, at least in part. For a more delicate food-related experience than Thanksgiving usually turns turn out to be, consider Lao She’s Teahouse, set in a Beijing establishment over the course of some fifty years that encompass three important moments in modern Chinese history, beginning in 1898. Sixty-plus characters that embody the vast changes in China come to life via the......

Day 2 was significantly busier than Day 1. All in all, we made it to 12 different shows between 10:00am and 2am, we'll highlight the highlights here. Bright and early yesterday morning we shot uptown to The Museum of Television and Radio for a KEXP in-studio performance by The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers. Due to some wretched midtown traffic, we didn’t get there until they were halfway through the set, but we......

Gothamist once had big dreams of being a surfer and/or skateboarder (...seriously). Alas, we live too far away from a beach to wake up at 5am and check the local surf report (please note: taking the F train to surf was not a part of the dream)...so the closest we ever got was watching Kate Bosworth's breakout film Blue Crush. Moving on, on May 26th (that's tomorrow!) Style Sessions begins a nine-day art exhibit (through......

Yes, we've seen trailers for it. Yes, we've read about it in magazines. Yes, we've seen David Duchovny do the talk show rounds. But Gothamist always knew we were never going to see his writing-and-directorial debut, The House of D, because, well, the idea of seeing Robin Williams play a mentally disabled janitor felt masochistic unless we were seriously medicated. And we think many people would agree with us - the people who cringe when......

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association awards their 62nd annual Golden Globes this Sunday, a sure sign that the season of gowns, the buzz and the surprise upset is upon us. Unlike the Oscars though, the Golden Globes covers television and film, so we get to see the disjointed mingling of the stars on the red carpet from both genres. Speaking of the red carpet, this year look out for the gossip and designer name dropping......

It's no secret that Gothamist is excited about Anchorman, considering that we lurve Will Ferrell. But we must say, regular non-costumed Will Ferrell is just as awesome, as proven by this clip of Will Ferrell ambushing the CNBC anchors during Power Lunch. Will seems to have been taping an episode of John McEnroe's new show, but he got loose and went to bother the anchors. It's amazing, especially with Will asking Sue Herera if they......

Jeffrey Abramson, Gen Art...