The new season of the Apprentice premiered on Thursday with its celebrity (or "celebrity" - if you consider Omarosa from the Apprentice's Season 1 a celebrity) twist. The show received its best ratings in two years, winning the 9PM timeslot for viewers ages 18-49. The Donald said, "I was really happy. I wasn't expecting this." We missed watching it, but NBC offers episodes online - you can see the premiere here - so we......

Look out, Jones Beach regulars. Trump’s moving in. The NY Post is reporting that a $40 million complex called Trump on the Ocean, will be completed in 2009. The restaurant, including a lounge and catering facility for up to 1,500 people, will replace the former Boardwalk Restaurant. It’s the developer’s first stand-alone public facility purely for events. According to a New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation press release, the lease between......

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,......

We were really hoping Trump would lose this match, which would have resulted in the long-awaited end to his haircut. Since his hair is something we could never imagine him giving up, it's not impossible that the match was rigged. Either way, he won and got to shave the head of another rich guy, World Wrestling Entertainment owner Vince McMahon. Trump and McMahon didn't go face to face in the ring of course, they......

The controversial proposal to turn the UPS lot on Spring Street and West Street into a place for 106 Sanitation trucks may align Donald Trump with critics of his planned Trump Soho Hotel. The Donald takes a break from blabbing about ladies of The View and tells the Post, "I don't like trucks, the fumes, the traffic from the standpoint of the community... If the community wanted help, I would certainly help." Still the Trump......

A look at some noteworthy programs this week: NFL Football: AFC Wild Card – New York Jets at New England Patriots/NFC Wild Card: New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles (Sunday, 1:00 p.m. WCBS 2 /Sunday, 4:00 p.m. WNYW 5 ) No matter what your New York (ok, technically New Jersey) football persuasion there is a game for you today. At 1:00 CBS served up the Jets playoff game against the Pats and Fox has the......

Midtown special on the Gothamist Newsmap: an overturned car at 11th and 44th Street, an armed robbery and pursuit on 43rd and 9th, and a hazmat condition at 47th and 9th. Noah Kalina, the oft-photographed everyman hero of Noah K Everyday, has recently expanded his self-portraiture by including a smattering of celebrities. A few days ago he discussed the project with the Washington Post: "I don't know if I would call it a catatonic......

Happy Holidays! Chances are, you're reading this the day after Christmas, back at your day job after all-too-short a holiday, and the last thing you want from us is stuff about the holidays. But that's just too bad. Because, see, here in the Ist-A-Verse, we do things ahead of time. It might be December 26 for you, but that's what you get for not checking your Favorite Local Blog on Christmas Eve. Austinist is......

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......

After a fast and furious spate of gossip about underage drinking, drug abuse, and behavior unbecoming to a Miss USA, Miss USA Tara Conner was given a second chance by Donald Trump and pageant organizers. Trump has reportedly loved the attention from the scandal (the new season of the Apprentice starts in January!) and, at the press conference, he was as grandiose as ever. Basically, he referenced how he "fired" Miss USA 2002 Oxana......

Awesome: The Post reveals that Donald Trump Jr. was fired from the condo board of his own Upper West Side building! While one might initially suspects that a Trump would have a lifetime seat on a condo board of a building with the Trump name, 220 Riverside Boulevard at Trump Place was never owned by The Donald - he lent his name out to a group of investors. It seems that at a November 8......

If you watched the finale of The Apprentice, you probably laughed when Donald Trump called SoHo an "artists' enclave" - we think the artists got edged out some time in the early 1990s. But, as both finalists showed, the chance to work on the Trump Soho, a 45-50 story hotel and condo building, was the real prize, versus a yooge building in Honolulu. Anyway, the computer graphic presentation of the Trump Soho was pretty......

- Mafia cops get life sentences! - DMX is arrested for speeding in White Plains - and what's more, he wasn't even wearing a seatbelt - Fed Chairman Bernanke causes another 200 dip on Wall Street - Baby Trump's daddy doesn't change his diapers; instead, The Donald is busy finding more hyperboles to describe his empire - Jossip has double vision over the tizzy New York Magazine's twins cover story causes (and we guess......

The always parenthetical (real estate mogul, media tycoon, friend of Regis) Donald Trump is a father again! Trump's wife Melania Knauss Trump gave birth to a boy earlier today after eight hours of labor. Already, the newest Trump is on board to help ratings for the fifth season of "The Apprentice". It is only surprising that he waited a full twenty minutes before going to the press, but no word if the baby is yooge.......

The fifth "amazing bestest yet ever most ridiculous [insert other stupid and/or hyperbolic descriptor here]" season of the Apprentice premiered last night, and boy, do the contestants get dumber and dumber! Maybe not totally dumber, because Lord knows what Gothamist would be doing if we had to work with other people handpicked by Donald Trump and Mark Burnett, but you'd think that people who apply to be on the show would have seen previous episodes......

- Accidental anthrax exposure in Brooklyn! But it came from an animal (where anthrax can apparently naturally occur), so no Hazmat teams - yet. - City Council Speaker Quinn now tries to reassure workers about her new regime - With the new Silvercup West plans, what will happen to the Terra-Cotta building? - Not a good thing for them but a good thing for us: The Donald vs. The Martha feud - The Village......

Gothamist is not spoiling last night's Apprentice: The Donald Edition for anyone who didn't see it, because what we're discussing happens in the first twenty minutes. The task was to create a potential in-store display for a new Star Wars videogame. Yes, Star Wars is so last summer, but whatever. Anyway, each team needed to meet with executives from LucasFilm and Best Buy (where the display might go). Team Excel had a 10:15AM meeting with......

First came word that Gotham was the only city in the country with a population over 1 million to record in increase in poverty. Now the Times reports that Manhattan has the biggest income gap of any county in the United States. The top fifth of earners in Manhattan now make 52 times what the lowest fifth make (that's about $7,047 on the bottom for every $365,826 on the top, or about two cents......

- An interview with Yomairo Reynoso, Dancing Queen and Teacher - People do stupid things on the Brooklyn Bridge - Why your cellphone reception may have been weird lately - Animated movie Madagascar mimics Grand Central, but not quite Central Park - Legal five minute double parking? No way - The receipe for BLT's Cheddar and Chive Biscuits - Young adult reading updated - Mayor Bloomberg makes a Spanish pitch for reelection - The Donald......

Last night, the producers of The Apprentice" href="http://www.nbc.com/nbc/The_Apprentice_3/index.shtml">The Apprentice tried to mix business with one of the most non-business forms in NYC - graffiti. The two teams were supposed to promote Sony Playstation's Gran Turismo 4 by painting a mural on a Harlem wall that would appeal to an urban, hip demographic (Sony Playstation was mentioned throughout the show, ensuring that Nintendo executives are gnashing their teeth). The team leaders were Alex for Magna (aka......

*Look, Gothamist wants to talk about The Apprentice. So there are spoilers. Stop reading.* Last night, as Gothamist watched the finale of The Apprentice, we kept thinking that both Kelly and Jen M. were complete idiots and that both should be fired. Kelly couldn't manage his employees, whereas Jen seemed to miss the big picture of being the face of the project. And we hate to admit it, but Jen did a pretty good job......

Talk about a money-making scheme that The Donald could ALMOST be proud of: A resident of Trump Palace was busted for running a high-class prostitution ring out of her apartment. The actual sex took place at another location, but who cares, because she lives in a building with The Donald's name on it. (The Daily News has pictures of the brothel on East 60th Street, including one that says "Tipping is appreciated." Gothamist is sure......

Raj, that horndog dandy, was fired last night by The Donald, signaling that while wearing bowties is different, it's not a slamdunk to become the Apprentice. Also, claiming to have a background in real estate and then turning a four-bedroom house in Long Island into a three-bedroom is a bad idea. - Long Islanders don't necessarily want "convertible" spaces. Gothamist also blames Raj (who happily accepted the blame) for the Apex team's loss last week,......

Now, with this season of The Apprentice" href="http://www.nbc.com/nbc/The_Apprentice_2/index.shtml">The Apprentice may not have captured our heart the way the first season did, but Gothamist will admit tonight's dismissal of Stacy Rotner thrilled us. This Stacy, the Jewish, short, lawyer Stacy (vs. the black, tall, restaurateur Stacie) was not as "crazy" as Stacie J., but let's face it, she was more hideously conniving and annoying. We can't believe she stayed on for so long and must thank......

The suits at NBC are realizing that when they deal with The Donald, they are dealing with this all-consuming organism (not unlike Kang, just with a combover): The Donald is looking at a scripted series set at Trump Tower. We can hear the pitch now: "It'll be like Melrose Place, but just in a shiny apartment building in midtown Manhattan. Think Peyton Place meets The Apprentice, just with actors acting crazy." Anyway, this is a......

To the sweet, evil delight The Apprentice (Again) 2: Gothamist will now be able to have more than weekly fixes of the strange power that is The Donald's hair. Truth be told, we look forward more to the disgusted looks on the faces of George and Carolyn, but there are good drinking games that involve the combover and the inevitable mix of hate-able and endearing Bill Rancic wannabes. Hell, we're sure some of them would......

Most weather sites give you easy options for adding weather to your site using some stock weather "stickers" they make available for you. Usually it's a pre-packaged piece of code they put together to simply cut and paste. You can choose the city and the type of information you want to show. It serves both parties pretty well as it adds content to your website while providing free advertising for them. Some sites that......

After fourteen weeks, America can now rest assured in knowing that Bill Rancic is The Apprentice. Even though he'll have a salary of $250,000 running the construction of the Trump International Hotel & Tower, Gothamist was hoping that The Apprentice would be a lot like the Sorcerer's Apprentice, mopping the marble floors of Trump Tower. Did "The Donald" make the right choice? His advisors, George and Carolyn disagreed on who to pick. George, who seemed......

Oh, thank you, Donald Trump and Mark Burnett - it's just like sweeps night - but in April! Tonight's finale of The Apprentice will not only that someone will get hired but also ensure that The Donald and his questoinable hair stay in the spotlight until next season. (If Donald, George, and Carolyn were basing their decision on hair, they should go with Kwame. As rachelle noted, Bill has to get rid of that flattop.)......

In the grand tradition of badmouthing former opponents/teammates on reality shows, The Apprentice's Katrina Campins went on WPLJ and was talking about how Amy Henry has been involved with two cast membersl: "My question to her [Amy] is, well, you're a 'ruthless businesswoman,' yet it seems like your emotions for two separate men are getting in the way of this job. She's denying it now, of course, and I'd be denying it if I slept......