We're at Columbia University for the ServiceNation Summit. Security is tight--university entrances are closed to students and Columbia employees only--and students are sitting outside to watch a livefeed of the forum in the middle of campus. The forum with Barack Obama and John McCain will air at 8 p.m. on CNN, MSNBC, and some PBS stations. You can also watch it online at the ServiceNation website. more ›

Spider-Man Week is coming to an end. What happened out there while we weren't looking? In one of the more interesting spider events this week, Tobey Maguire got a big creature placed on his arm at AMNH by entymologist and curator Norm Platnick: more ›

We're halfway through Spider-Man Week (check out this listing for the remaining events) and since it's fun to think that there really is a super hero in the city, let's see Peter Parker's places, via this map on the Spider-Man Week site. Now we know Oscorp is in the outer-boroughs and that Doc Ock's lab was in Clinton, but what about Peter's gig as a pizza delivery boy at Joe's? more ›

• Name a new commissioner for the Department of Transportation (it's Janette Sadik-Khan - check out Streetsblog's suggestions for her)
• Cancel an appearance at a big GOP fund-raiser, which the Post's Fred Dicker thinks fuels further "speculation that he'll run for president"
• Continue to be mad at a Kansas TV station for not airing one of his anti-illegal gun ads

New York is literally brimming with Tobey Maguire sightings this week. Apparently Spiderman 3 is shooting around town, and we've been receiving dozens of sightings and reports. Today, Brian Van sent in this shot, along with a report: more ›

Adam Sternbergh, Co-Founder of Fametracker more ›

Spiderman 3 Director Sam Raimi announced that lanky 70’s Show guy has just joined Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunset in the cast of Spider-Man 3. "Topher Grace is an extraordinarily talented actor," said Raimi, "and will be perfect for the complexities of the role we are developing." more ›

You know it's the Oscars when P. Diddy busts out the velvet suit! Gothamist loves the Oscars, and we're going to attempt to do a little liveblogging. We might need to order a vat of caffeine and an EMT team at the ready; not because Chris Rock will be boring, but because we think that Gil Cates might kill us with his newfangled ideas and because we're meh about this year's nominees in the big categories. Anyway, onto the show. more ›

Jina Wye, MBA Student more ›

The Washington Post's Beltway gossip Lloyd Grove gets ready for his new gig at the Daily News by going heavy on the D.C. screening circuit today. First, he leads with a screening of The Passion, with director Mel Gibson present, for insiders to quell rumors. The invitees skewed to the conservative: Matt Drudge, Peggy Noonan, Cal Thomas and Kate O'Beirne; conservative essayist Michael Novak; President Bush's abortive nominee for labor secretary, Linda Chavez; staff director Mark Rodgers of the Senate Republican conference chaired by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.); former Republican House member Mark Siljander of Michigan; and White House staffer David Kuo. Jack Valenti seemed to be the only liberal, but as he's the head of the annoying MPAA and kiss up to Mel, Gothamist is not surprised that he told audience members, "I don't see what the controversy is all about. This is a compelling piece of art. I just called Kirk Douglas and told him that this is the movie to beat." Gothamist dies a little as another spin machine starts. [Via nw] more ›

With QEFTSG breaking Bravo's rating records, Gothamist takes a look at the previously highest-rated program, Inside the Actor's Studio with James Lipton Since Gothamist is a huge movie fan, when we watched the show for the first time, we thought, "Wow, this is great, this guy talks to really interesting actors and get them to discuss their craft." See, there was a day when we were naive and hopeful. Now we realize James Lipton is peddling around the most annoying panderfest - it's like Charlie Rose plus Jay Leno without anything interesting. And we hate how Lipton tries to show off his French when he says "Bernard Pivot" when he's about to do the 10 questions, which Gothamist always felt was the poor man's Proust Questionnaire. more ›

Kim Masters is one of the best Hollywood investigative reporters today. She's been writing features for a number of publications (like the recent one in Esquire about Scott Rudin or the one on Harvey and Marty) as well as a great book about Hollywood excess in the form of Jon Peters and Peter Guber, Hit and Run with Nancy Griffin, but this past weekend's piece about what really happened with Tobey Maguire and Spiderman is amazing: She gets Tobey Maguire's first comments about his arrogance, firing, re-hiring, and subsequent humility over the experience. Tobey probably realized what an agent says about the possibility of losing the Spiderman role: "Tobey Maguire the actor would have survived. But Tobey Maguire the multimillion-dollar movie star? I don't know." more ›

As someone whose love of movies extends to how the movies get made, this excellent article in Variety by Claude Brodesser and Dana Harris about trying to get Spiderman 2, the Michael Chabon scripted sequel to 2002's most successful film, off the ground is fascinating. Though people have been hearing most recently about Tobey Maguire dumping his representation, the studio, Columbia Pictures, did in fact make an offer to Jake Gyllenhaal, because Tobey was being...might Gothamist say petulant? Below is the article, cut-and-paste for any cinephiles out there, as Variety requires subscription. Also: more ›

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