Saturday Night Live is back! Wasting no time digging into primary season, the opening skit was a debate between Hillary and Barack, immediately answering the big question posed this week: who will be our Fauxbama? The answer: Fred Armisen! The Huffington Post raises the controversial points of this decision, given the previously-noted lack of minority players on the show (Armisen is not black - he's Venezuelan and Japanese - but has played Prince on......

READING: Steve Martin proved he could write with Shopgirl, and now he's come out with a much more intriguing tale called, Born Standing Up. This is his memoir, which traces his life from an employee at Disneyland to an employee of Lorne Michaels and beyond -- tonight he'll regale you with some of these stories. 6:30pm // The Times Center [242 W 41st St] // Free PARTY: Before you warm up by a Thanksgiving meal,......

Being funny is a very valuable skill. Think about it, do you think Jerry Seinfeld's ever going to find himself lost in the woods with nothing but the stars and his wits to guide him to safety, or that Steve Martin's ever going to have to worry about not having enough money for the meter? No, of course not. And neither will if you read and memorize all of the comedy secrets contained within Comedy......

Frank Santopadre and Jim Pharo are Comedywise, a service that provides humorous speeches for CEO's, jokes for award shows, copy for advertisements, and things of that nature. So what exactly is it like to work in an office where your job is to write jokes? How do you even get the word out about such an endeavor? What's the dress code? How did the two of you meet and how did your partnership come......

It's that time of the year again: When Hollywood honors its moviemaking the way it knows (and not always in equitable ways, given that Alfred Hitchcock nor Robert Altman, to name a few, have never won Directing Oscars) and America gets to watch hours of pre-show hosted by idiots. Giving commentary for Gothamist this year, Karen Wilson, Margaret Harper, and Jen Chung. 7:06PM First thoughts: Gael Garcia Bernal is so cute. Ryan Seacrest is an......

Gallery-goers may have shown up at Julie Saul Gallery for last Thursday’s opening reception of Brian Ulrich’s Copia—stunning photographs that show how mass production permeates the everyday life of pop princesses and counterculture teens alike—but it was Roz Chast’s Theories of Everything series that sideswiped the show. Originally scheduled to close last month, the exhibit has been extended to February 10. And with good reason. People at the gallery were nudging their dates to take......

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?......

Maria Bamford is in town to tape her second Comedy Central Presents special. She discusses her years doing mall openings as a Star Trek character, her forthcoming CD and DVD, and putting on comedy shows in her house. What sort of place is Duluth, Minnesota? It's like Canada, but without the metric system. What sort of role did comedy play in your life growing up? My dad, sister, and I used to listen to Steve......

It's Oscar Night and Gothamist is here. Tonight, it'll be a joint effort, from our resident film guru Karen Wilson and our resident Oscar freak Jen Chung. We hope you weigh in with what you think! KW: I have my popcorn, my diet coke -- I am ready for the spectacle and the excess. JC: ALL RIGHT! I just took extra Vitamin C - I'm waiting for some food delivery. 6:36PM Isaac Mizrahi has NOT......

Remakes and sequels and genre formula, oh my! February is a great month for releasing exactly what the studios think the people will pay to see and this week's release schedule is a textbook example of this development by marketing focus group strategy. Oh well, doesn't mean Gothamist is ready to give up on moviegoing quite yet. Here's a few suggestions to guide your weekend viewing. Of the offerings that are new in wide release......

Jason Schwartzman, Actor, Shopgirl...

Over at Beatrice, Emily Gordon is blogging about this past weekend's New Yorker Festival. She puts Jonathan Franzen and Zadie Smith into the high school popularity paradigm, hears Steve Martin play banjo with Earl Scruggs and gets to revel in a Tom Cruise as dog impression. Gothamist didn't get to make it to this year's festival (we were a little slow to pull the intellectual cognoscentic trigger), but we will try to right that by......

It’s that time of the year again – that special time you brave New York’s notoriously humid and sticky summer to battle for one more blanket inch on a crowded park lawn. This year’s free outdoor movie festivals – RiverFlicks, Riverside Park Movies Under the Stars, Brooklyn Music & Movies Series, and HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival–offer a wide range of musicals and old favorites, from The Sound of Music to The Big Lebowski......

Today kicks off the New Yorker Festival and if you haven't snagged your tickets for some of the events yet, here's our list of last minute events we think are more than worthwhile...that still have seats left! Friday (night) Seymour M. Hersh interviewed by David Remnick Hersh has been writing about foreign policy and politics for decades and will be discussing the aftermath of 9/11 and the Bush administrations actions since then. Saturday (day) Literature......

Weekends are great, but Gothamist too often has the tendency to turn on the TV and be sucked into a spiral of six hours of TLC. In case any of you are the same way, we have some suggestions from our friends:- Watch the Buick Open at the Westchester Country Club, a tune-up for the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills and marvel at the logo (there must be a Steve Martin joke in there somewhere);......

The New York Times Weddings section proves that magazine features as well as tons of money and fame can fan the flames of marriage - especially when the famous millionaire is an old/fat/bald man and the woman is much younger and hotter than the man (yes, Gothamist knows the women are accomplished, but let's face it, they're also really attractive). The featured Vows column was about the marriage of famed writer, Salman Rushdie, and model-cookbook......

Benjamin Bratt will be playing Detective Tom Lone to Halle Berry's Catwoman in the upcoming Catwoman film; Sharon Stone is still slated to be play the villainess. While Gothamist is disappointed Owen Wilson won't be in the role, Bratt is a good choice, as he's had experience playing a detective as well as dealing with one of the biggest actresses in the world, whereas Wilson probably would have stolen the film. Note to director Pitof:......

Dave Barry, the funny every-man (but I've never really been that into him), writes about his experience at the Academy Awards as a writer for the show: I was there for the Academy Awards. The host, Steve Martin, had asked me to be on the team of writers working with him; apparently he felt that what was needed, to lend just the right tone to Hollywood's most glamorous night, was booger jokes. So I went......

Oscar Commentary
Oscar is celebrating its 75th anniversary, I'm celebrating my 25th anniversary of watching Oscar....

The show is far from over, but Michael Moore's acceptance speech for Bowling for Columbine will be replayed from now to eternity. Here is a play-by-play, updated with Michael Moore's acceptance speech: - Presenter Diane Lane excitedly announces Moore has won. - Audience gives him a standing ovation, obviously hungry for him to give a crazy speech. - Moore brings the other documentary feature nominees onstage with him. He says they are onstage with him......