EVENT: Earlier this year Holly Hunter encountered an interesting situation with an interviewer for a news station (we highly recommend watching the YouTube video of this). She discussed her tv series Saving Grace at the time, and she'll be doing the same tonight at the Paley Center (old Museum of TV and Radio). There will be a Q&A as well as a screening of one of the episodes. 6pm // The Paley Center for Media... more ›

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Gemma in the Bowery Hotel for Italian, awards the restaurant one star. Calls it a “cheat sheet” of a restaurant that recalls Morandi, but with a less skilled chef. “It’s also Morandi in a smarter, sexier outfit, with more charismatic, fluid service. That’s it’s saving grace,” he says. more ›

Inwood’s La Estufa (“the stove”) is a reliable restaurant destination in a neighborhood largely bereft of good food. The restaurant’s website bills its menu as “a delicious fusion of American-Italian dishes,” but it’s really more simple than that: menu items are prepared from scratch in an open kitchen, and they’re not fancy. Standing in for the traditional breadbasket are a few slices of house-made whole wheat bread, served with a shallow dish of cold, spicy tomato sauce. That same sauce comes with the small dish of perfectly fried calamari ($5.95). Airy, smooth, and well-seasoned butternut squash soup ($6.95) is delivered in a huge bowl, and a large portion of arugula salad ($7.95) with two types of apples and creamy gorgonzola dressing is a good deal. For what it’s worth, a few of La Estufa’s desserts and wine list choices are labeled “organic,” and non-alcoholic beverages include GuS Sodas, which is nice to see in a restaurant not located below 14th Street. In short, there’s a lot to love here, and that’s not even mentioning the uptempo, guitar heavy, Spanish language version Total Eclipse of The Heart that boomed through the dining room speakers at La Estufa one recent night. more ›

A look at some noteworthy television this week: more ›

It sounds like an open and shut case: A hip London theater company snatched up some funny short stories by Woody Allen and adapted them for the stage, adding live jazz to punch things up. The stories feature a private dick named Kaiser Lupowitz and absurd cases like the search for the missing Almighty and women of the night who’ll talk Proust for a price. Murder Mystery Blues was a hit when it premiered across the pond, and a transfer to Allen-town seemed like a capital idea. more ›

THEATER: One saving grace of working in midtown is that there's plenty to see on a lunchtime or late afternoon stroll, if you don't get stampeded by the crowds. And one of the best things to see, which is also away from the worst of the congested sidewalks, are Chashama's installations of window performance art. This week and next, in the 9th Oasis festival, you can catch 20-minute works from a brilliant range of over 40 choreographers chosen by Debbie Stamos and Marc Dale; with such a prime opportunity both to play the voyeur and see the next generation of artists while you're at it, maybe you should head to midtown one day even if you don't work there. - Mallory Jensen more ›

So earlier in the week Gothamist got our hands on the first five episodes of Showtime's new show "Weeds" (which has a sneak-peak tonight at 11) and our first reaction was... pretty good. While the show has lots of problems and an often uneven tone, its heart is in the right place and after the pilot it quickly starts to pull itself together. more ›

Dave Rubin, Comedian more ›

Gothamist was cautiously excited, when we learned that a brand-new barbeque joint, Pig 'n Out, was opening in Brooklyn Heights. Now that the Henry Street spot has been operational for a few weeks, it seemed time we put their 'cue to the test. more ›

Gothamist has been looking for a way to talk about What a Girl Wants, the new Princess Diaries-ish movie starring Nickelodeon star Amanda Bynes, if only to talk about Colin Firth, making the transition to playing fathers of teenage girls. Warner Bros. is backtracking and trying to eliminate the peace sign from WAGW posters according to the Hollywood Reporter. No matter that there are tons of posters that have been up for weeks. more ›