Every year, we look forward to Groundhog Day for the appearances of Punxsutawney Phil, Staten Island Chuck, and the inevitable multiple screenings of the movie Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray. But we also love Groundhog Day because it means that WNBC newswoman Sue Simmons is prodded into doing her impression of a groundhog. We love a beautiful woman not afraid to make herself look ridiculous--like when she fell off her chair and recovered somewhat......

Ghostbusters has been in the form of a videogame ever since it hit the big screen in 1984, and since then it's been through many versions and platforms. Seems it has taken nearly 24 years to perfect it though, as it's just been announced the movie will haunt us til the end up time with a series of top-notch videogames to come.First title in what the publisher hopes will be a series of Ghostbusters games......

COMEDY: This weekend marks the 9th Annual Del Close Marathon. Del Close, if you don't know by now, "was the driving force behind improvisational comedy in Chicago for over 30 years influencing Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Mike Myers, John Belushi, Chris Farley and the Upright Citizens Brigade to name a few." The annual weekend began after Del's passing in 1999. All Weekend // Various Times // UCB Theater [307 W 26th St] // $10 shows,......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a partial roof collapse on Union St. in Brooklyn, a person under a train at Coney Island and Brighton Beach Aves. in Brooklyn, and a slashing at Dyckman St. and Broadway in Manhattan. Artie Fufkin speaks! Paul Schaffer, who was the musical director of the Blues Brothers, keyboardist for Bill Murray's lounge singer character on SNL, and the bandleader for David Letterman's "The World's Most Dangerous Band" since 1982,......

Just a thought as we look ahead to this week's new releases. Someone should really take Diane Keaton aside to tell her that this series of increasingly painful looking romantic comedies where she plays an over-the-top meddling mom aren't good for her cinematic legacy. The newest installment is the Mandy Moore romantic comedy, Because I Said So, where Keaton plays a mother desperate to marry off her headstrong youngest daughter. Please Diane, after loving you......

Letterman is celebrating his 25th anniversary of being on the air as a late night host tonight. Today in 1982 Letterman launched his "Late Night With David Letterman'' show on NBC (which has since moved to CBS). His guests on that show were Bill Murray, Warren Zevon and ongoing character Larry Bud Melman. Paul Shaffer led the band (which at the time was called the World's Most Dangerous Band). There hasn't been much going......

COMEDY: The Del Close Marathon is happening this weekend, the full schedule is here. "Del Close was the driving force behind improvisational comedy in Chicago for over 30 years influencing Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Mike Myers, John Belushi, Chris Farley and the Upright Citizens Brigade to name a few. After Del's passing in 1999, the UCB started the Del Close Marathon to celebrate their mentor and keep alive his name and teachings for future generations"......

Breakups are hard, but when animals are involved, fuhgeddaboutit. The Post reports that two good friends and roommates are now in the middle of a $4 million squabble that involves "$1 million in monetary damages and $3 million in punitive damages" - and the ownership of a West Highland terrier named Ollie Pablo. After two years of sharing a Tribeca apartment, Alexis Carroll and Michelle Clarity, both 26, went from being BFF to BEFN (Best......

Jim Jarmusch’s latest, Broken Flowers, has been described as his most commercial project yet -- and that just makes the so-indie-he-just-can’t-indulge-the-masses director “cringe,” as reported by Newsday. “I almost feel like if too many people like the film, it might freak me out. I might think I did something wrong,” said Jarmusch. “I don't think too many people will like it because it's too open-ended, it doesn't resolve, there's no pyrotechnics, it's very slow moving...I'm......

A Talk With Wes Anderson...

Gothamist has loved Wes Anderson and his films even since we saw Dignan's Five Year Plan in Bottle Rocket, so we're happy to announce that Touchstone Films has given us twenty-five tickets to a screening of Wes Anderson's new film, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, starring Bill Murray. And we're holding a contest to give them away!! Enter at Gothamist Contest: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Each of the tickets (which are......

Wendy Mitchell, indieWIRE...

For all you kiddies going to see Bill Murray's talk at BAM tonight, Gothamist wants to let you know this isn't the first time that Bill Murray has chatted with Times film critic Elvis Mitchell. If anyone watched Mitchell's old IFC program, Independent Focus, where he would interview directors and actors (watch David Lynch smoke like a chimney...see John Sayles make Elvis Mitchell cringe!), you might remember an episode with Jim Jarmusch and Bill Murray,......

If you wondered how Bill Murray was doing after not getting the Oscar for Best Actor, well, the mystery is over. Murray appeared on Late Night with David Letterman...or, rather, he was discovered in a gutter by Late Night's camera crew. Gothamist didn't catch this bit, so thank you, Movie City News, for the .avi file of it. We like how Murray says the Oscars are a popularity contest and that Sean Penn won because......

Gothamist wants to be one of the first to say what everyone will be uttering tomorrow with more frequency than usual: Why does Melissa Rivers persist? Joan, we understand, because she can be funny, though lately it's been more outrageous than incisive. And we understand nepotism and accept Tori Spelling's wooden acting...but Melissa...she must be stopped. And when she tears into some poor, celebrity with a bad stylist, no stylist at all, or her/his own......

The Post comes up with a few ideas for Oscar drinking games during the ceremony: • An award winner forgets to thank his or her significant other. • An award winner says the words "blessed," "humbling" or "my agent." • The orchestra cuts off an acceptance speech. • Host Billy Crystal makes a Mel Gibson joke. • A camera cuts to Jack Nicholson. Gothamist would like to add someone saying "Oh my God" (we want......

To continue along Gawker's P.R. fiend theme at the Martha Stewart trial, is it really a good idea for Martha's defense team that Rosie O'Donnell is at the trial, trying to bribe prosecutors with M&Ms;? She was there yesterday, as Sam Waksal's secretary testified that Martha called Sam to demand what was going on with ImClone. Today, things will get more sensational, Rosie O'Donnell with a big Taboo poster or not: Key witness Douglas Fanueil,......

Our commenters make it into the Times! In Motoko Rich's article about cliches about Japan and the Japanese coming from Hollywood films, one of Gothamist's posts about Lost in Translation becomes a rich resource of quotes. Debate broke out over whether or not the film is racist or on the nose. There is a murky area between what would be acceptable if it came from an American/white director versus a Japanese/Asian director (the latter......

If it's movies awards season, it's time for Gothamist to be both excited and angry (basically an average day, just amped up a bit). The Golden Globe Nominations for 2004 were announced and there were the expected nominees ("Lord of the Rings," "Cold Mountain," for film; "Sex and the City" for TV) as well as happy news (Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannssen nominated for "Lost in Translation"; we'd like to see Murray win, but he......

The New York Film Critics' Circle has announced its picks for the year in film, with many smaller films getting kudos, but studio epic Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was called best picture. Lost in Translation was recognized with Sofia Coppola as best director and Billy Murray as best actor (from indie major Focus Features), and indie Secret Lives of Dentists emerging with best actress Hope Davis (earning the award for......

–Paris Hilton double entendres on SNL; also on SNL: Pimp Pimp –Bill Murray, godlike –Pictures of New York City snow –Cure song + Fortune 500 company = iffiness –Shallowness on Average Joe –God bless young science nerds –Maximizing your gift giving and receiving with online regifting –Gothamist tries to graph Outkast –More pets than kids in the city –WTC tower design smackdown –Angels in America's Justin Kirk's fondness for Mandy Moore –NYC tap water suggestions......

While Alex Kuczynski's examination of the fondness for the film, Groundhog Day by Jews, Christians, and Buddhists alike is interesting, Gothamist found a major flaw in the article. In the film, arrogant weatherman Phil Connors is faced with living February 2 over and over again, and goes from grumpy and frustrated to slowly living his days more constructively once he realizes he's caught in February 2 forever, thus different religions alight to the concept: Buddhists......

The best thing about Virginia Heffernan's New Yorker profile of Tina Fey, besides feeding our Tina-Fey-starved minds, is the breakdown of the different comedy styles of SNL performers and writers: Second City (Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Rachel Dratch, Amy Poehler, Horatio Sanz) - known for their aesthetic perfectionism Groundlings (Laraine Newman, Chris Farley, Will Ferrell, Julia Sweeney, Maya Rudolph, Chris Kattan) - creation of vivid and eccentric characters Harvard Lampoon (Dennis......

Two great appreciation pieces about Bill Murray: - Andrew Sarris' review of Lost in Translation, bringing up two of our favorites, Tootsie and Groundhog Day - Fametracker's Fame Audit of William James Murray: We second their thought, "Anyone who will go into detail, on the record, about how much he loathes Chevy Chase is someone whose friend we would like to be." All things Bill Murray on Gothamist (except for the noir thing...silly search,......

One of the most hilarious scenes in Lost in Translation (Gothamist's favorite movie this year, thus far) is when Bill Murray's character, Bob Harris, gets direction from a Japanese hipster director. The director rattles off instructions in Japanese for a while, only for it to be translated back to Bob as "With more intensity." The Times ends speculation from all non-Japanese-comprehending folks by giving transcription of the exchange; Gothamist loved that the director was saying,......

Gothamist's pick for any kind of moviegoing this weekend is by far, Lost in Translation, the best movie we've seen in a very long time. We were struck by it when we first saw it, and may have to see it again soon as it opens today. It has a brilliant performance from Bill Murray, who is being talked up for an Oscar nod at the very least (let's hope, unlike when he was......

Cate Blanchett and Willem Dafoe are joining the cast of Wes Anderson's next movie, The Life Aquatic. Bill Murray stars as an oceanographer, who will be the center of the film, as he and his crew go on "a series of wild deep-sea adventures, including the search for a shark" (Hollywood Reporter). The rest of the cast includes Anjelica Huston, Owen Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, Peter Stormare, and Gothamist's favorite Anderson regular, Kumar Pallana ("Man, I......

- Cheating the MTA - Red wine helps you - How to make an egg cream - Learning to drive at 43: The Suzanne Vega Story - Hot police fashion - Excellent ideas on how to save the movies from themselves - Will Ferrell in tights: Comedy gold - Bill Murray's Oscar movie? - No more TVs in city taxis - Airport screening tries to show its worth - Gothamist's next food field trip Or......

Lost in Translation, the upcoming film directed by Sofia Coppola, might be one of the loveliest movies you see this year - it certainly is for Gothamist. Also written by Coppola, Lost in Translation is the Tokyo story of the new friendship between two Americans; Bill Murray plays an American movie star shilling for Japanese products and Scarlett Johanssen is the lonely young wife who tagged along on her photographer husband's business trip. A valentine......

With last week's release of Seabiscuit, the Palm Beach Post's sports writers come up a list of the best sports movies ever made. Not surprisingly, the list skews towards more recent films, but Gothamist was surprised to see how much we agreed with the selections. We were especially glad that Hoop Dreams, one of the best films ever made, period, made the list, thereby not getting the short shrift for being a documentary. The top......