One more reason not to watch television, coming soon to a TV near you! amNewYork is reporting that "two of television's most recognizable voices (to put it very, very, very mildly and kindly) are coming together: Rosie O'Donnell and Fran Drescher." more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck on East 112th St. and 3rd Ave. in Manhattan, shots fired at 132nd St. and Madison Ave. in Manhattan, and a commercial burglary on 4th Ave. and 90th St. in Brooklyn.
• Page Six lists its top ten scoops of the year. #1 is about Rosie O'Donnell's writer being escorted from The View offices for drawing magic marker mustaches on pictures of Elizabeth Hasselbeck, and rumors that O'Donnell might quit the show.
• James Colliton, the lawyer who pleaded guilty to having sex with two underage sisters and served 18 months in jail, is suing the 188-year-old law firm Cravath, Swaine, and Moore for $1.45 million he feels the firm owes him after he was fired. Colliton's lawsuit was handwritten on notebook paper.

MOVIE: Somewhere between Han Solo and Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford (pictured) starred in Ridley Scott's 1982 cult classic Blade Runner, which has been screening over at the Ziegfeld. This director's cut version includes more fights! And more special effects! And way more cyberpunk attitude! more ›

Margaret Cho returns to the stage in a whole new way with her stage show The Sensuous Woman. The production is at the Zipper Theater starting tomorrow (more details here) and is bringing burlesque back. The variety show will feature some famed burlesque performers, along with stand-up and sketch comedy acts. And of course, Margaret -- who we had a few questions for recently. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a possible abduction at 39th St. and 4th Ave. in Brooklyn, falling debris from 820 Columbus Ave. in Manhattan, and a stabbing on East 214th St. in the Bronx.
• Queens Councilman James Gennaro was fined $2,000 after admitting to the Conflict of Interest Board that he asked a staffer to volunteer on his campaign, although he says he has no recollection of the 2003 incident
• MTA CEO Elliot Sander has instructed his division heads to only cut costs by 1.5% next year, after concluding that there is no more fat to trim or inefficiencies to reduce at the agency.
• Madonna spent two hours at Bill Clinton's Harlem offices yesterday, possibly discussing an endorsement of his wife's run for President. She has yet to visit Hillary Clinton's offices.
• A GoogleMaps mashup illustrating the geography of Seinfeld.
• Free alt-weekly New York Press changes ownership hands again. It was sold by Avalon Equity Partners to Manhattan Media for an undisclosed sum.
• Whoopi Goldberg was chosen as Rosie O'Donnell's replacement on the female chat-show The View.
• The New York Times looks at bad behavior at four star restaurants, when well-heeled diners can't wait until they get home to vomit, get naked, or have sex.

Earlier this year reality television and Broadway collided in the form of "Grease: You're The One That I Want". The show aired on NBC and documented a trip down memory lane with a troupe of wannabe Sandys and Dannys all vying for the coveted roles. By the end, two were left standing, and tonight they make their debut in Grease at the Brooks Atkinson Theater. And now, with Xanadu, Broadway is hosting two movie-to-stage Olivia Newton-John vehicles. Can Two of a Kind be far behind? more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a large snake was reported on West 118th St. in Manhattan, an assault in transit on the Brighton Line in Brooklyn, and an armed robbery on Whittier St. and Lafayette Ave. in the Bronx.
• The Splasher's identity is revealed! Scroll down to the bottom of our post on the anti-street art vandal for his name and picture.
• Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro wants security cameras installed at a World Trade Center memorial after it was damaged by one or more vandals.
• PETA released the results of its poll ranking the hottest vegetarians. Musicians swept the top spots this year, with Tonight Show band leader Kevin Eubanks and country musician Carrie Underwood claiming the sexiest male and female designations, respectively. Gothamist on New York's sexiest vegetarians.
• With its return to a rock format, radio station K-Rock is evaluating on-air talent and looking for deejays.
• Licensed NYC tour guide Adrienne Onofri has published a guide to seeing Kings County on foot called Walking Brooklyn.
• Anti-gun activist Rosie O'Donnell still likes to dress up her daughter as a pint-sized commando.
• More swimming and wading pools in NYC for those looking to cool off.

The State Legislature's regular session is supposed to end today, but Governor Spitzer is trying to orchestrate a deal with something for everyone: Congestion pricing (which the State Senate seems to approve but the Assembly hates), campaign reform (Spitzer's pet project, which the Senate hates), and raises for lawmakers (which the Assembly and Senate love). more ›

Barbara Walters may not have the controversy-ratings dervish Rosie O'Donnell on the roster of The View anymore, but what she does have is her reputation as the go-to interview for many celebrities. Last week, it was announced that Paris Hilton would be giving her first post-jailhouse interviewed with Babs. One release and re-jailing later, Hilton called Walters collect. more ›

Rosie O'Donnell made an appearance at BEA this past weekend, though her involvement with the expo was toned down significantly after The View fued. Variety reports: more ›

After Wednesday's blow-up with Elizabeth Hasselbeck, Rosie O'Donnell made today's show her last day on The View. Originally, O'Donnell's exit was planned for June 20, but it seems like she wanted out early. Here are some statements via ABC News:

Brian Frons, the president of Disney-ABC's Daytime Television Group, said, "We had hoped that Rosie would be with us until the end of her contract three weeks from now, but Rosie has informed us that she would like an early leave. Therefore, we part ways, thank her for her tremendous contribution to 'The View' and wish her well." more ›

• Cabbies are worried about their safety after robberies on the Lower East Side
• The city's problem-laden high schools for pregnant girls are closing; check out this article about how one student was facing the difficulties of her school, which included teachers not showing up and student fights
• Culturegrrl speaks with William Griswold, the future head of the Morgan Library, who actually left the Morgan a few years ago, with stings at the Getty and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts
• Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village has become a symbol of the high cost of living in NYC and the place for people to join hands in protest
• Green thumbs in Red Hook and plans are not yet approved for Whole Foods in Gowanus
• The end is nigh: Donald Trump agrees with Rosie O'Donnell regarding Lizzy Hasselback
• A baby was found wandering around Staten Island; an elderly couple took care of the baby until the police arrived, and the baby has since been identified
• After their hostess kicked them out of her apartment, two people beat her up in Central Park
• When it smells like vomit but it's really just the crap rotting in a vacated apartment

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a double shooting at Belmont and Christopher Aves. in Brooklyn, a body was found on Otis Ave.on Staten Island, and there was a jumper up on the Brooklyn Bridge this afternoon.
• The Gotham Book Mart is closing and having a going-out-of-business sale.
• There's a new Subway Idol. American Idol is in America's hands now with a slight NYC vote for Staten Island-born Jordin Sparks necessitating our regional favor.
• If one is dumb enough to write in for "apartment therapy", one is dumb enough to paint over exposed brick. We hope this couple's ouija board doesn't recommend installing wall-to-wall shag carpeting, because we will go over there and exorcise the place ourself.
• Pictures of New Yorkers getting tattooed at last weekend's TattooCon.
• Rosie O'Donnell was bilked out approximately $70,000 by someone passing stolen checks from her production company account. It was nearly a non-story until we read the culprit's Mom's reaction: '"He's a very good boy," Mitchell said. "This is out of character."'
• A portion of the East Village was left waterless after a water main break flooded 2nd Ave. Do you live on 7th St. between 2nd and 3rd Aves.? Send us your pics!
• The NY Post can only pray so hard: are Amy Fisher and Joey Buttafuoco back together as a couple? Shot-in-the-face-former-wife Mary Jo doesn't care and we applaud her indifference.

Time announced its second Time 100 list of influential people. (For whatever reason, Time doesn't provide a full list with separate links to all the influentials, so here's a list from FishbowlNY.) Based on our reading, the New Yorkers (and we're including some people who live in Westchester, but work in the city) who made the list include 30 Rock's Tina Fey, subway superhero Wesley Autrey, Senator Hillary Clinton, banker Stephen Schwartzman, director Martin Scorsese, Yankees pitcher Chien-Ming Wang, actress-comedian-talk show host Rosie O'Donnell, the American Museum of Natural History's Neil DeGrasse Tyson, actor and stem cell research advocate Michael J. Fox, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who appears in the upper right corner of the cover. more ›

The search is already on to replace Rosie O'Donnell on The View. Rumors are that Rosanne Barr may be first choice to fill the seat. Though Barr was on "Larry King Live" recently and said that she was "not looking for the job," on KVVU-TV in Las Vegas Monday, she seemed to have a change of heart. She told the station, "I'd love it. Yeah, definitely. I think I would do a real good job," adding that she would "stir up some real good controversy." And undoubtedly, some crotch-grabbing. more ›

After the hearing the crazy voicemail Alec Baldwin left for his daughter, it's nice to hear some refreshing news about him. In a taped segment for tomorrow's episode of 'The View', Baldwin says that he asked NBC to let him out of his contract for '30 Rock' so he could spend his time working on "parental alienation" and that if he "never acted again I couldn't care less." On the show, Baldwin plays a meddling network executive that oversees the live variety show. more ›

It looks like Rosie O'Donnell is leaving daytime television yet again. No, it's not because of her attempts to speak Chinese, but because of contract issues. How mundane. TMZ first reported last night that O'Donnell, the co-host and moderator of ABC's morning talk-show, was set to announce her departure from the show. This morning, ABC News confirms the story in an "exclusive" (side note - shouldn't ABC break news about its own show before TMZ?). more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A large fight in the Bronx, an unusual MVA in Manhattan and a "Jet Blue aircraft disturbance" at LaGuardia - Gate B5
• Promises from the Department of Transportation mean nothing, even after two children die
• Activists want tax-paying immigrants to have the right to vote; immigrants did vote in national elections between 1776 and 1926

It's no win for Donald Trump on two counts - and we bet Rosie O'Donnell is cackling. First, the Department of Buildings has rejected a permit for the Trump Soho Hotel- for the third time! Apparently Trump's contractors can't issue plans for the 40-floor tall hotel and residence that are compliant with zoning laws. It's unclear what the issue with the last set of plans was, but there have been claims that the property isn't enough hotel and it's too much residence. more ›

A look at some noteworthy programs this week:
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- Parents who have a sever facial deformity. No guidance on how this might be judged. more ›

Gothamist was hoping we could end the week without another peep out of Donald Trump, but Rosie O'Donnell just ruined it for us! Yesterday, she slammed him over the Miss USA Tara Conner scandal (Gawker has a clip), and then he fired (heh?) back hard. From The Insider:

"(He) left the first wife -- had an affair, left the second wife, had an affair, but he's the moral compass for 20-year-olds in America," she said from her perch on "The View." She added that personally she has "never enjoyed" watching The Donald and in a final challenge, said to the cameras, "Donald, sit and spin, my friend!" more ›

This was not a very happy week for the -ist network as one of our own, more ›

A week after her spectacularly failed attempt at the Chinese language, Rosie O'Donnell apologized for reducing Chinese to "ching chong" on The View this morning. From People:

After running a clip of the offending segment, which originally ran Dec. 5, she said, "This apparently was very offensive to a lot of Asian people. So I asked Judy, who's Asian and works here in our hair and makeup department. I said, 'Was it offensive to you?' And she said, 'Well, kinda. When I was a kid people did tease me by saying ching-chong.' more ›

is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuTspbPmV_g. more ›

EVENT: “Solstice in Times Square” is a celebration of the Summer Solstice which began at 7am, but you still have time to partake. The dawn til dusk event includes a “Mind Over Madness” yoga-thon and live music. Doing yoga in Times Square seems like it might be the worst idea ever, but if you're up for a challenge, go for it. more ›

Last night, two was the loneliest number, or that's what Fernando Ferrer and Thomas Ognibene would argue as they debated without Mayor Bloomberg. Granted, Mayor Bloomberg was busy getting on CNN and all the other channels by telling everyone that there was a subway terror threat but things are okay and he was riding the subway so don't you worry. Ferrer and Ognibene spent quite a bit of time blasting the Mayor for passing up the debate, calling him arrogant, which excited the crowd. And debate organizers thoughtfully left the middle podium empty, which was a nice way to balance the two debaters, versus putting them in podiums alphabetically, leaving an empty podium on the left. Among the things voters learned during the debate: Ferrer has smoked pot, while Ognibene hasn't; Ferrer thinks starting teacher pay should be more than starting cop pay while Ognibene disagrees; and they both think people should be allowed to drink coffee in the subway. more ›

Randy Cohen, The Ethicist more ›