Less than two weeks after the writers' strike has come to an end, and sixteen weeks after the show went dark, Saturday Night Live makes its return this weekend. Everyone is checking in with the troupe to see what they missed most, and it's no surprise that it's been the chance to chime in on the primaries (Lorne Michaels called his show's absent voice, "dispiriting"); the NY Times notes the missed opportunities (ahem, Mitt Romney).......

Say, did you hear anything about this movie that opens today, Cloverfield? No? Yeah, it’s kind of a [Spoiler Alert!] obscure art-house thing, all shot with a camcorder from the perspective of a few friends fleeing a massive monster smashing Manhattan. We attended a screening earlier in the week and deemed it top-shelf disaster porn; though the main characters are rather annoying and the apocalypse takes a little too long to blast off, “by the......

It probably sounded like a great idea over MySpace, Facebook, or whatever conniving teens are using to hatch their plans these days, but in the end the group behind the Porsche Craigslist scams were arrested by the police. Seven teens, all city residents, between 16-19 years old, were arrested. Two of the teens were charged in connection with both robberies. The two phony ads were placed by Agniesika Banach, 17, from Maspeth. Also charged in......

It's been quite some time since we hopped the virtual F train to the virtual Lower East Side (that's VLES, for those in the know), but it seems one NY Times scribe has been making some frequent visits to the online world. In fact, he may even prefer it to its real life counterpart.There were no imperious bouncers or foul odors to contend with, and no fluids of any kind expectorated on my shoes. Except......

At last night's ABC News/Facebook debate in New Hampshire, both parties' candidates held debates. After the Thursday's Iowa results presented Barack Obama as a winner and Hillary Clinton as a disappointing (to her campaign) third place, some interesting things transpired during the Democratic debate. Obama and Iowa runner-up John Edwards apppeared to team up against Clinton. The NY Times called it an "allegiance of convenience" and noted that the defining moment was when Clinton......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a missing child on 94th St. and Broadway in Manhattan, a disabled train in the Amtrak tunnel under the Hudson River, and a shooting on Mott St. and Central Ave. in Queens. Miss Subway: beautiful at any age. For environmentalism, blue may be the new green. Coal miners and New Yorkers will probably stick with black. The courts ruled again in favor of the city regarding the mandatory installation......

The following post is from our advertiser Paramount Pictures You could be the very first to see CLOVERFIELD before it comes out on January 18th! Below, you'll find a very special Cloverfield Widget, which includes an introduction from JJ Abrams, and 5 whole minutes from the film! Whoever gets the most people to "Grab" their widget will get to be the very first person to see the movie with 30 of their friends in the......

...for being totally rude! It's actually not the kind of #1 ranking Bollinger would prefer, as it's for Time's Top 10 Awkward Moments of 2007 list. As Bwog points out, Bollinger deftly bypasses "David Hasselhoff, David Vitter, Rosie, Paris, Miss Teen South Carolina, Caroline Giuliani, and (wait for it) BRITNEY SPEARS" for his introduction of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last September, calling him a "petty and cruel dictator." Ahmadinejad earns the #2 spot on Time's......

Brooklyn is all "Fuhgeddaboutit," but Staten Island can be "Hey, what about us!" at times. Take, for instance, a recent angry letter from the Richmond County Young Republicans who have asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to recognize the borough in its software. You can read the entire letter here (PDF), but check out this excerpt:We often send out event invitations to members of The Richmond County Young Republicans' Gacebook group, but we have come across......

The Post has another article about Patrick Moberg and his flower-girl Camille Hayton today. What's new to report on the two-some since they are apparently, really, for real, turning off their spotlight now? Well, not much. The two shared the B train to Brooklyn after appearing on GMA yesterday and got some underground recognition (one straphanger hollered, "You are my favorite story this year."). Beating out an awww-struck ABC anchor Chris Cuomo as their most......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: electric shock on Van Brunt St. in Brooklyn, a bank robbery on Francis Lewis Blvd. in Queens, and a shooting at 185th St. and Tiebout in the Bronx. Anyone can sound more credible with a fake NYC address. Mayor Bloomberg reportedly met with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. A British court ordered that one rich brother, Prince Jefri Bolkiah, hand over ownership of the New York Palace Hotel to his......

After making a big, illustrated statement on his website yesterday about not speaking another word about his underground love, too precious for the press -- Patrick Moberg talked to the New York Post. People read that newspaper Patrick! And word is the Blackbook employee who found her is going to be on Good Morning America tomorrow. Could Patraussie be next up to hit the small screen? (UPDATE: both are confirmed to be on GMA tomorrow!)......

The Associated Press and Ipsos asked Americans to pick which candidates would make the scariest Halloween costumes. Naturally, frontrunners Senator Hillary Clinton and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani won in their respective political parties (there were separate polls for the two parties). Clinton led Democrats with 37% while Giuliani had 14%, and no other candidates broke 6%, giving them resounding wins. And we found this interesting: "While a predictable two-thirds of Republicans picked [Clinton], she......

Probably the best way we can describe Snooth, a unique wine database that recently launched online, would be if the illegitimate web-child of Google and Facebook went to wine school. Or, more simply, it’s a ridiculously large database of wine that allows you to do really cool things and share it with your friends. Technically, Snooth is a self-described, “web based social shopping experience that is simplifying how people select, interact with and purchase their......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery at the Washington Mutual on Sheepshead Bay Rd. in Brooklyn, a worker fell into the water off Pier 11 on Governor's Island, and a bank robbery on 57th St. and Broadway in Manhattan. Additional charges could be in store for the woman who allegedly shot a Staten Island commune leader before fleeing to Philadelphia. Maya Rudolph is not returning for the new season of Saturday Night......

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad headed to New York today, but not telling Iranian state-run TV, "The United States is a big and important country with a population of 300 million. Due to certain issues, the American people in the past years have been denied correct and clear information about global developments and are eager to hear different opinions." He added that the U.N. General Assembly was an "important podium" for Iran's views to be......

As it is the week before Labor Day, many area schools are welcoming a new class of students to New York in what is generally known as an orientation week. The New York Sun reports on various efforts schools put into shepherding thousands of 18-year-olds into NYC.First-year students arriving at Barnard, Columbia, and New York University have many activities to choose from this week, including: yoga classes, exclusive tours of the new Greek and Roman......

Incoming freshmen at Wagner College got some advice about Facebook and other Internet do's and don't's from someone who knows firsthand about how things can go out of control when fun pictures posted on a website get into the wrong hand: Miss NJ Amy Polumbo. Polumbo's Miss NJ crown was in jeopardy when some Facebook photographs were sent to NJ pageant officials. Eventually, the Wagner senior was allowed to keep her crown, but Polumbo appeared......

Forbes has released the results of their 7th annual Best Cities for Singles poll, and unlike last year...NYC is in the top 3, ranking #2 overall. An unprecedented rating for us! According to their results, out of 14,104,498 -- 33% of us are unmarried. Add that to the fact that we're (apparently) the 32nd drunkest city...and voilà! We're a top city for attracting the single class. This island is not unlike Neverland, so it's not......

Former mayor Rudy Giuliani may have participated in a Republican debate last night, but all anyone wants to talk about is how his possibly estranged daughter and incoming Harvard freshman Caroline joined a Barack Obama group on Facebook, as reported by Slate. Slate explained that "she withdrew from the Obama group at 6 a.m. Monday, after Slate sent her an inquiry about it." The article's author, Lucy Morrow Caldwell, was able to see Caroline......

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a......

Miss New Jersey Amy Polumbo made a repeat appearance on the Today Show this morning to share her "racy" photographs with Matt Lauer. This is how the Today Show website describes the photographs, which are apparently the ones someone took from Polumbo's Facebook profile and mailed to pageant officials:The photos really aren’t that bad, by contemporary standards, but they aren’t necessarily good for the 22-year-old theater major’s public image, either. One shows a smiling......

The Wall Street Journal has an absolutely hysterical/mortifying column today about what happens when one's boss wants to be your "friend" on an online site like MySpace or Facebook. Normally reserved for friends or total strangers, members feel free to share compromising photos or statements on the site. So what does one do when a "Michael Scott"-like boss wants to get tight with his employees and invites you to be in his Friendster circle? Refusing......

The New York Post is loving the NJ beauty pageant story, which includes allegations that a fellow contestant may have been behind the blackmail plot to get Miss New Jersey to relinquish her crown. Someone sent pageant winner Amy Polumbo a package of photos that were lifted from Polumbo's Facebook account and doctored to include sexually suggestive captions. The Daily News says that there is no breast-baring or drug-taking in any of the photos, but......

Oh, the dangers of the interwebs. Recently crowned Miss New Jersey Amy Polumbo held a press conference yesterday to announce that she was being blackmailed into stepping down after someone sent packages of photographs where she's in possibly compromising positions to her and pageant officials. The pictures had once been posted on Facebook. Polumbo, who is a senior at Wagner College on Staten Island, said tearfully, "Being crowned Miss New Jersey was a dream come......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A serious MVA on the upper level of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, a suspicious package in Manhattan, and an overturned auto in Queens The things we learn as the Daily Intelligencer questions disclosure on Gawker... then FishbowlNY discloses some stuff about itself and Daily Intel Newly elected City Council members Mathieu Eugene and Vincent Ignizio are still not sworn in The stock market gained 0.4% today Do students really......

A reader snapped this picture from the protest against the NYU College Republicans' "Find the Illegal Immigrant" game in Washington Square Park today. College Republicans president Sarah Chambers denied the event was racist and told the Washington Square News, "The event will open up both vocally and physically the issue of illegal immigration." She added, "The media response was much larger then I expected - the NYU response was no." NYU's response was, "Our......

What happens when the NYU College Republicans plan a questionable game? Hundreds of NYU students are planning to protest! The College Republicans had planned a "mock illegal immigrant" hunt in Washington Square Park - they were going to put a tag reading "illegal immigrant" on a member and have others, playing "INS" agents, to find him/her. The reward would be $50-100, plus knowing that you can find someone in 9.75 acre mostly-paved park. NYU College......

Valentine's Day is only a few days away, and we here across the Gothamist network wanted to express would like to tell you, in the spirit of the holiday, just how much we love you, our readers. Don't let it get to your heads, though. There are plenty of things we love, you included. Just be glad you're not amongst the things we hate. SFist saw their beloved mayor enter rehab, and they loved......