The following post is from our advertiser, This American Life on Showtime. This American Life, the Showtime Original Series based on the celebrated Ira Glass radio show, is back with an all-new season. Funny, dramatic and surprising real-life stories from the most extraordinary ordinary people in America come together in what Newsweek proclaims “a jewel of a TV series.” From a stand-up comedy camp for kids, to riding stables in a North Philly ghetto; from......

Anthony Lappé is a writer, blogger, television producer and executive editor of GNN.tv, the web site for the Guerrilla News Network. He's written for mainstream press like the Times and was the National Affairs Editor for Black Book, and in 2003 he collaborated on the award-winning Showtime documentary about Iraq called BattleGround: 21 Days on the Empire’s Edge, which covered the front lines of the simmering guerrilla war in Iraq in 2003. Part of what......

READING: It's another First Tuesday event at McNally Robinson, and this time around author and activist Mark Crispin Miller invites Anthony Lappe to center stage. The executive editor of the Guerilla News Network also produced an award-winning documentary on the war in Iraq for Showtime. More recently, he's created a graphic novel called Shooting War with illustrator Dan Goldman, which is "a spoof of the network news, the war in Iraq, and the burgeoning 'citizen......

In Los Angeles, LAist most definitely celebrated Thanksgiving like no other. After all, one has to keep up all the energy to keep on walking the line at the Writers Strike and fighting the unfortunate return of the wildfires in Malibu, which single handedly destroyed over fifty homes within the first 24 hours. National outlets may be covering the fires, but CNN also found it is easier to buy a gun than fruit and......

Ira Glass is the brains, heart and larynx behind the wildly popular program This American Life; each show employs a theatrical, multiple-act structure to carve strange slices of life out of a unique thematic pie. The show began almost 12 years ago as a Chicago public radio program but has since mutated into an Emmy-nominated TV series on Showtime – a leap that prompted Glass and his team to relocate to New York City, bringing......

This week, Phillyist saw the waters of a landmark fountain run red for a Showtime marketing stunt, the Phils pull ahead, and some serious nostalgia. They also got a chance to review an awesome tribute album, reminded folks to see the King, and appreciated their beautiful skyline. Chicagoist knows what it's like to like the Cubs. But naming your kid Wrigley Fields? At least they can breathe a little easier now that Grossman's out and......

Concluding an 18-month police operation named "Operation Dumbbell," police arrested two dozen people in a steroid peddling ring that operated out of two Queens gyms. Among the arrested was a female professional boxer who fought under the nickname "Checkmate." 25-year-old Cindy Serrano is awaiting arraignment along with her husband Jordan Maldonado, who is a manager and trainer at the Envy Us Gym. That gym and the Powerhouse Gym allegedly made thousands of dollars a week......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Hell's Kitchen (Monday, 9:00 p.m., WNYW 5) Gordon Ramsay makes his choice in the season finale. The World According to Google (Monday, 10:00 p.m., WNET 13) A Dutch documentary about the Google empire and the social and ethical practices of the company. Weeds (Monday, 10:00 p.m., Showtime) The third season starts with the looming problem of a new mega church in the neighborhood. Californication (Monday, 10:30 p.m.,......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

A look at some noteworthy programs this week: Mystery: Foyle’s War: Invasion (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13, Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., WLIW 21) The fourth series of this great British World War II period mystery drama makes its way to this side of the pond. The first of four episodes has Detective Foyle and his team investigation a murder on an American base. The 4400 (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., USA) This sci-fi series about people who were......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Drive (Sunday and Monday, 8:00 p.m., WNYW 5) Sunday has the two hour debut of Drive crossing the starting line. The show is a drama that follows the participants of an illegal cross country road race who aren't like those you would find in The Cannonball Run. One of the forces behind the show is Tim Minear who has worked on shows like Firefly and Wonderfalls, which......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Iraq War Begins: Four Years Later (Monday, 9 a.m. MSNBC) MSNBC's looks back on their coverage of the start of the Iraq War all day. Dancing With the Stars (Monday, 8:00 p.m. WABC 7) This year's D-List celebs trying to defibrillate their careers by dancing are: Laila Ali, Billy Ray Cyrus, Clyde Drexler, Joey Fatone, Shandi Finnessey, Leeza Gibbons, Heather Mills, Apolo Anton Ohno, Paulina Porizkova, John......

Dana Gould wrote for seven years for The Simpsons, starred in the NBC sitcom Working opposite Fred Savage, and has performed stand up on HBO, Showtime, and Comedy Central. He is considered, by many, to be the originator of the alternative comedy movement and is, without a doubt, one of the strongest comedic talents working today. Here he is, for the first time in NYC in seven years, Mr. Dana Gould! What are your......

Patrice Oneal appears frequently on Comedy Central and VH1, has his own HBO half hour comedy special, a Comedy Central half hour comedy special, a Showtime half house comedy special, and is a nationally touring headlining comedian. I wanted to ask you about the time you spent writing for the WWE. I was a big fan of wrestling as a kid so writing for them was one of the pinnacles of my career. I got......

A couple weeks ago, an episode of Penn & Teller's Bullsh*t! centered around the many fights at Ground Zero. The show criticized the slowness of bureaucracy (hello, PatakI) and the designs selected for Ground Zero, including the memorial. The show also filmed one of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's Family Rooms, where victims' families members can "observe the site in quiet contemplation." Well, this upset other victims' families who have besieged the LMDC with complaints.......

- Eliot Spitzer's ex-girlfriends - now we can better imagine the TV movie of his life - Tar caused the crazy fire at the FDNY/NYPD building in Brooklyn yesterday (in all tarnation?) - When it's getting tough to pay private school bills, who ya gonna call? Grammy and Grampaw! - Ooh, Penn & Teller will take on Ground Zero in tonight's episode of Bulls*&^! on Showtime tonight - Giuliani hits Iowa, Pataki just went to......

- Check out DogSeat's amazing Phagwah set-- great Holga work. One example is above. - Guess there's no one left to mess with on Wall Street: Spitzer is going after spammers! - We love musical theater, but this is ridiculous! - Here's a smart idea: tracking ACS cases using the Compstat system. - Garth loves these Ansel Adams pix-- but they're of Los Angeles, so we remain unimpressed. - Kottke turned us on to......

Gothamist was a bit underwhelmed by this year's Golden Globe nominees, and we were thinking of not liveblogging. But, gosh darn it as we watched the E! preshow and saw the starlets sparkle their way down the red carpet, we realize it was hopeless, so here we are. Let it be known that: - Keira Knightley looks gorgeous in her white Valentino - and there's something surprisingly youthful about the dress, even though there's that......

So we've finally entered Halloween season and we can expect a flood of scary movie reruns as well as magazines competing for best horror film list. Not suprisingly, both Total Film and Giant Magazine hail The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as the top terror title, with Halloween and The Exorcist in at second, and Suspria and The Night of the Living Dead vying for third (interestingly, The Fly came in at #7 on Giant's list).......

You can pretty much guarantee a fun night when giant hip-hop superstars headline a stadium. They'll be theatrics, hit-after-hit, lots of hand wavin' and crowd sing-alongs (and lots of police). If you check out the Eminem, 50 Cent, Lil Jon, D12, and G-Unit show at Madison Square Garden Monday or Tuesday night, you'll also be on TV. It's being taped for Showtime. If that's too mainstream for you, the place to be is Knitting......

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. The premise of the show is simple: Mary-Louise Parker is a suburban......

Excellent news: Dave Chappelle will be working on a film with director Michel Gondry! Variety reports that the film is inspired by Wattstax, a documentary about a musical event hosted by Richard Pryor, and will combine music and comedy. And since Chappelle will be starring (as well as producing), Gothamist imagines he'll be the event's emcee, and perhaps have other roles as performers. The idea of Dave Chappelle and Michel Gondry, who directed The Eternal......

Earlier this week, Gothamist caught 18 minutes of Gubernatorious, a documentary in progress about the Califonia recall made by our good friend, Jayson Haedrich, partners Nick Regalbuto and Robbie Stauder, and executive producer Nigel Noble. Jayson, Nick, and Robbie shot over 300 hours of footage following candidates running for Governor of California last summer and fall and are in the process of weaving together a number of candidates' campaign trail stories, but shared what......

The Hollywood Reporter says that Showtime has ordered a pilot for a show called, Make Me Cool: [A] squad of hip African Americans helps terminally uncool individuals -- not just Caucasians -- overcome their obstacles. Though a reality show, this sounds more like a public service, although there actually needs to be a S.W.A.T. team that stops white teenagers from copping too much hip-hop style, like Seth Green in Can't Hardly Wait. Fo' shizzle, my......

Blaise K....

• New SARS cases are called milder, and not (Bette) Midler (damn our dyslexia) • Alessandra Stanley says, "Except for the politics and soft-core pornography, "The L Word," Showtime's new series about lesbians that starts on Sunday, is old-fashioned fun." Hey now! • Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston will give moviegoers heat rash; decorating tips for "surly" 6 year-olds abound in Torque. • People are shelling out cash money to have boot camp vacations (you're......

The Fox cartoon, The Family Guy, which ran from 1999-2002, will be coming back. According to the Post, production on new episodes will start very soon. Fox is reviving the series because the DVDs have been selling extremely well. When the new shows will air or what channel (Fox, Cartoon Network, both?) they will air on is to be determined. The Family Guy is shown on the Cartoon Network at 11PM and 2AM during Adult......

Showtime has announced that a movie called "The Jayson Blair Project" will air next year. Yes, based on former Newsweek writer Seth Mnookin's stories about lying and plagiarizing former Times reporter Jayson Blair. The Daily News talks to writer-producer Jon Maas about the black comedy: Maas yesterday said he has more interviewing to do before writing the screenplay. "I don't want to pull a Jayson Blair on Jayson Blair." Showtime's president, Robert Greenblatt, tells the......

The Post's Keith Kelly has a scoop on Jayson Blair's first piece of writing post-Times: His Jane magazine article is about mistakes he made and suggests readers not repeat them. Like getting ticketed for speeding in the company car, and not paying the ticket, only to have your company crack down. In the scheme of things, that's pretty ho-hum. He also says, as Kelly puts it, "wait a few years and build up some good......

You have to hand it to Sharon Stone. She might be crazy, she might be annoying, she might make really stupid movie decisions, she might be emasculating, but she is a dame through and through. Like wearing a dress to throw out the first pitch for a Dodgers game. She knows how to work the press, and for that, we applaud her. When Gothamist worked on a press junket with her, where various press outlets......