The addition of Katie Holmes to the cast of the upcoming production of All My Sons has done zilch to boost advance ticket sales, according to the Post. "I bought 1,000 tickets to the show," says one broker. "I still have them." Another wonders, "Where are all the Scientologists? Don't they want to see her?" Sure they do, but who has money left for theater after all those expensive classes on the way to OT......

All My Sons, Arthur Miller’s tragedy about wartime profiteering, will be coming to an undetermined theater on Broadway at an unspecified date this fall. But nothing generates more buzz than when a Hollywood celebrity joins the cast – in this case that boldfaced name is Katie Holmes, who will try to inject a little integrity into her career by performing live onstage, just out of reach of her Scientology "chaperone." This year’s been tough on......

Photograph of Queens native Amy Ryan, nominated for best supporting actress for her role in Gone, Baby Gone At 8:30PM (following a half-hour red carpet special), the 80th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will begin, finally putting an end to the "There Will Be Oscar" or "Oscar Country for Old Men" type headlines. You can prep yourself with the Oscar nominees list as you watch (or avoid) red carpet coverage. You could read NY Times......

Photo credit: sniderscion Torontoist spent its week uncovering who was behind mysterious ads for a drug called "Obay" that popped up across the country (Scientology? Frank Shepard Fairey?), first tracing them to an advocacy group called Colleges Ontario and then confirming their suspicions a few days later.Phillyist learned how to put on a puppet show – it's not as easy as you might think!Shanghaiist discovers that the average starting monthly pay for fresh graduates......

Photo by Phillyist's Matt Johnson, SkyscraperSunset.com, December 19, 2007. Phillyist explored an impending implosion and lived to tell the tale.Gothamist marveled at the city's new NYC-branded condom campaign - especially the use of a Toronto landmark in the advertising. (Also, fun fact: Gothamist turned five years old yesterday.)Tired of the worldwide Scientology protests? Torontoist totally isn't: they covered the big downtown protest the day it happened, and followed up with an examination of all......

“Anonymous”, the loose-knit anti-Scientology collective, staged a demonstration yesterday outside New York’s Church of Scientology Headquarters near Times Square; it was part of an international day of protest against the church. Anonymous has been expanding rapidly since their Message to Scientology video was posted on YouTube in January; it's been watched over 2 million times in the past three weeks. Among other things, the video accuses Scientology of censorship for threatening to sue websites who......

Jen has already posted her Top Stories for 2007-- but here's the list according to you, the readers: By Comments* 1. Pet Food Recall After Cat and Dog Deaths, by Jen Chung (614) 2. Rev. John Carmichael, Church of Scientology, by Jen Carlson (312) 3. Wild Wednesday Weather, by Jen Chung (255) 4. Maple Syrup Was Better: Smell of Gas Covers NYC by Jen Chung (191) 5. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Mooninites Don't Scare......

We checked in with some folks recently for a little end of '07 "exit interview" before we enter a new year. Thomas Onorato was the subject of a tell-all titled Confessions From the Velvet Rope last year -- but what has the self-proclaimed "door bitch" been doing in 2007? What did you do last New Years Eve? What will you do this year? Last year I did the door for 8 hours to the MOTHERF*CKER......

The NY Post has another story in the ongoing ogling at Theresa Duncan's death. The East Village artist apparently "fell into suicidal depression after telling friends that oddball rocker Beck backed out of her movie project." So now we have yet another baffling peek into the paranoid mindset Duncan and her long time boyfriend Jeremy Blake were in when they committed suicide, just one week apart from each other. In the January issue of Vanity......

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire. LAist continues to cover the......

With considerably less fanfare than Diddy or Lance Armstrong, Katie Holmes ran the NYC Marathon in 5 hours, 29 minutes, and 58 seconds. She wore an FDNY baseball cap, black pants and a purple tank top - and was possibly surrounded by a security detail who might have been running alongside her. Mega-star husband Tom Cruise and child Suri Cruise, as well as her parents and mother-in-law, were on hand to give the former......

REMINDER: Don't forget about the Atlantic Antic Festival, which we wrote all about yesterday. EVENT: The d.u.m.b.o arts center (dac) presents the 11th Annual Art Under the Bridge Festival. The three-day fête takes up 30 blocks bringing together over 1500 visual artists, 250 open studios and offices, and an expected 20,000 attendees. Given much of the music biz in this city has offices in that area, they'll be taking part as well. The Deli Magazine......

Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take......

Rev. John Carmichael is the President of the Church of Scientology in New York. We recently asked him a few questions about his church, New York, Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake and the subway stress tests. We're turning comments on for this interview, which is something we don't normally do. There are a lot of myths that fly around about your religion, could you please tell us about some of the basics of Scientology?......

Just last week Jeremy Blake's body was identified after being found off the coast of New Jersey. In July he and his girlfriend committed suicide one week apart from each other, and since then stories of their lives, fears and final days have surfaced. After the LA Times extensive piece, the NY Post recently published a lengthy article on the couple, who at the time were living in a converted rectory at St. Mark's Church......

The blog Boy Culture ran into (an all too common these days) "Travolting display" in the subway system over the weekend. Scientologists! The religion cult "legendarily opportunistic Church Of Scientology" is back underground giving out free stress tests. Though police kicked them out in 2005 for violating New York City Transit rules about vending in the subways, it seems they've still had a presence down there and, from this photo (taken in late 2006), they're......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired early this evening on Blake Ave. in Brooklyn, a homicide/suicide on 225th St. in Queens this afternoon, and a sexual assault early this morning on West 120th St. in Manhattan. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn wants black activist Sonny Carson stricken from the list of nominees for proposed street names because she thinks he was divisive and anti-white. Former Black Panther and current Brooklyn Council Member Charles......

Today on Gothamist Newsmap: a barricaded emotionally disturbed person/stabbing on Parsons Blvd. in Queens, an overturned auto on Bushwick Ave. in Brooklyn, and a stabbing on Staten Island's Taylor St. City Councilman Hiram Monserrate (D-Queens) is a big fan of Tom Cruise's Scientology detox program that is being offered free to firefighters. He's done it and it made him feel "100 times better", which is pretty good. City Island residents contemplate life on the......

Have you ever wanted to rub shoulders with Tom Cruise and learn about Scientology's detox treatment for 9/11 workers? Then you'll be excited to learn that the superstar will be in town for an April 19 fund-raiser. The Post reports that while the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project hasn't been approved by the NYPD or FDNY, some swear by it. However, even those involved with the fund-raiser are conflicted. The Post spoke to......

READING: Mira Jacob and Alison Hart host yet another of Pete's Reading Series. Tonight they welcome Nell Freudenberger, author of "The Dissident" - which sounds almost like a Tom Robbins novel, with a Chinese performance artist and former political prisoner accepting teaching fellowships at a girls school. Also reading tonight will be Dana Spiotta, author of "Eat the Document", which focuses on lives in the aftermath of 1970s radicalism. 7:30pm // Pete's Candy Store [709......

The official Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes wedding photograph has been released. First thoughts: - Tom Cruise is either standing on an apple box or Katie Holmes is crouching. Or she's standing in a well. Or he has some crazy lifts in his shoes. Or did the shoes Giogio Armani make for Katie magically erase some of her height? Is she just slouching uncontrollably (she's never had good posture)? It's such a mystery. - The......

Starting yesterday at the cavernous St. Ann’s Warehouse, New York City is getting its first chance to experience “Hell House”, an interactive spectacle that is fast becoming a Halloween tradition in churches across America. Nearly all productions of “Hell House” are based on a single script sold by Pastor Keenan Roberts, co-founder of The New Destiny Christian Center in Colorado. “Hell House” visitors are escorted through a series of graphic scenes which illustrate the......

After seeing the photographs of the Family Cruise-Holmes, yesterday Gothamist tried to buy a copy of Vanity Fair. We went to three different newsstands, where the owners, after laughing at us, told us they were sold out. Apparently everyone wanted 22 glossy pages of Hollywood family values (Scientology! Children before marriage! Scuttlebutt over whether a baby looks Asian!) as soon as they hit the stands! We're sure we'll be able to get our hands on......

Aw, check it out: The MTA has removed Georgi Vodka ads from buses because they are too racy. The distributor, Star Industries, is considering suing the MTA, and its CEO, Martin Silver, says, "What's wrong with a girl in bikini? Just take a walk around New York. You see you plenty of ads that are much worse." But Silver might have another reason to be upset: The NY Sun reveals that his daughter, Laurie,......

Londonist prepares a Happy Birthday bath for Buddah this week and then things get all cliched. A madman goes on a rampage while axe-wiedling and London's mayor warns an American diplomat to avoid the kitchen if the heat bothers him so much. LAist has finally come around to purchasing tickets for Clipper Train. Hyper local dating sites are spamming L.A. neighborhoods and the fascinating Dame Darcy talks with LAist about art, the city and earthquakes.......

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Months after the poster incident, the NY Times heads to the bowels of the Times Square subway station where the Scientologists are trying to de-stress New Yorkers. Whatever you may think of the Scientologists (Tom Cruise! Aliens! John Travolta! More aliens!), Gothamist has to give it up to them for picking one of the more insane subway stations to prey upon traumatized commuters and naive tourists who think "Wow, the secrets to a stress-free life......

This weekend it's going to be cold. Again. But don't stay inside sitting on your radiators just because it's snowing, head out there and warm up in theaters! Galleries! And bars! (Oh my!) Here are some suggestions. MUSIC: Tonight in Brooklyn the Village Voice proclaimed "Best Thrower Of No-BS Far-Flung Indie Rock Shows", Todd P, will be throwing a party for Deli Magazine. Described as an intriguing, multifaceted, impossible to ignore succession of inspired semi-maniacs......

If there's going to be a big deal about Super Bowl ads and watching them and having Americans polled about which ads they like, Gothamist would at least like to see some good ads. Let put it this way: If these ads were first dates, Gothamist would never call them again. This year's ads were lame, considering that we have no idea what 90% of the ads were for. Sure, there was beer, but what......

As if they didn't have enough problems: Yet again the MTA get punk'd by its advertising. The MTA is banning ads that promote oral sex via street slang. Clothier Akademiks had ads running on MTA buses that said, "Read Books, Get Brain." Yet it turns out that "Get brain" means "Get oral sex." Kids today! The Daily News spoke with the ad designer, Anthony Harrison, who said, "We knew this. It's coded language, city slang.......