Photograph of Queens native Amy Ryan, nominated for best supporting actress for her role in Gone, Baby Gone At 8:30PM (following a half-hour red carpet special), the 80th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will begin, finally putting an end to the "There Will Be Oscar" or "Oscar Country for Old Men" type headlines. You can prep yourself with the Oscar nominees list as you watch (or avoid) red carpet coverage. You could read NY Times......

Cartoons just got a little more real with The Three Thug Mice, an online series set in New York City. The 35 animated shorts follow the tales (and tails!) of three rodent crooks named Vic, Tik and Brik. Described as an "ongoing ghetto saga" set in some of the seedier sectors of the concrete jungle, the trio's home turf is light years away from Disney World. (Though that is the Hotel Chelsea in the......

Listening to Philadelphia duo Pattern is Movement for the first time can perhaps best be described as taking a ride through Disney's "It's a Small World After All", with each country representing a different period of music. It's a lot to take in, as sounds of the past are layered upon each other to create modern arrangements unlike anything you've heard before, while somehow remaining distantly familiar. The band will bring their unique sound to......

As we mentioned yesterday, the writers' strike may be coming to an end. Michael Eisner leaked that we'd be hearing news of it this weekend, and the former Disney CEO was right. Today Variety reports that "the WGA has finalized its tentative agreement with the majors and will present details of the pact to members today in meetings in Los Angeles and New York." The New York meeting is taking place at the Crowne Plaza......

Last year Bloomberg announced the "first-ever global multimedia communications campaign to promote New York City," with efforts to bring in more tourism through television, outdoor advertising, internet and everything in between. The mayor is now getting some unsolicited help from some New York comedians. The troupe got together to film their own NYC Tourism ad, which includes a unique explanation of the city's homeless problem. Their version of our history explains that NYC was founded......

CNBC reported last night that the WGA strike may be over! Their source is former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who now hosts a show on the network. When asked on the show Fast Money where the WGA strike stands he replied, “It’s over. They’ve made a deal, they shook hands on a deal. The deal is going on Saturday to the constituents (for a vote)… I think it’s impossible that they turn it down. A......

When They Might Be Giants released their twelfth album, The Else, over the summer, The Village Voice called it “as tuneful and rockin' as all the rest, from the withering ‘I'm Impressed’ to the female-empowerment anthem ‘Take Out the Trash.’” Keeping it fresh is no small feat for a band with such an impressive body of work, accumulated over the course of the past 25-plus years. But a listen to The Else or, even better,......

Tim and Nina Zagat, whose eponymous ratings guide started in 1979 as a two-page typed list of New York restaurants, are putting their baby on the market. Insiders peg the company’s worth at $200 million; the Times thinks the brand will prove attractive to companies like AT&T;, who could use it to build exclusive mobile phone content. Sources tell the Times that the Zagats would like to see their “fabulous brand” expand further beyond what......

On January 2, after seeing a young man have a seizure and fall into the 1 subway tracks at at the 137th Street station just as a train was entering the station, construction worker Wesley Autrey jumped in and covered the other man's body with his own. The train passed over them and a hero was born. Autrey repeatedly told the media that he didn't want his two young daughters to see the man,......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Lincoln Center Tree Lighting 2007 (Monday, 5:30 p.m, WABC 7) Good Morning America’s Sam Champion and WABC’s Sade Baderinwa host the first televised tree lighting of the season. There will be some performances by Lincoln Center’s resident companies and some guest’s from channel 7’s owner Disney on hand for entertainment for the 8th annual Lincoln Center Holiday Tree lighting. America at a Crossroads (Monday, 9:00 p.m &......

Thanksgiving officially marks the start of the holiday movie season, and this weekend, one film seems poised to make a run for the box office crown. Enchanted, the Disney film that mixes animation and live-action to spoof its classic fairy tales, received some pretty stellar reviews. It's 92% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and most reviews are calling this the star-making performance of Amy Adams, who was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar for Junebug......

Broadway’s blackout grew blacker still Sunday night when talks between the stagehands’ union and producers broke down again. Around 9pm, after two days of negotiations averaging about 12 hours a day, the league of producers reached the end of their patience. A spokesman for the union, Local One, issued a statement saying that “producers informed Local One that what Local One offered was not good enough, and they left.” This despite the intervention of Disney’s......

For the first time since November 8th, Local One, the stagehands’ union, is meeting with the Broadway producers’ league to talk it out. (Local One has been on strike since last Saturday over proposed changes to their contracts.) Insiders are expressing guarded optimism about the talks because they’re proceeding with the help of Disney’s senior V.P. of labor relations, Robert W. Johnson. Disney is not a member of the producers' league and thus not directly......

Members of the Writers Guild of America have been striking in Los Angeles and New York this past week over details of a basic contract between writers and producers - one of the biggest sticking points is the amount of residuals writers get from DVD and new media distribution. The NY Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd asked Seth Meyers (who we spoke to on Tuesday) to give her a weekend update about the strike:......

18 years after its big screen release, and 171 years after Hans Christian Andersen penned the fairy tale...The Little Mermaid is ready for Broadway. Ariel & Co. will take the stage in New York starting November 3rd, and since mid-summer the musical has been out in Denver for a pre-Broadway engagement. The Colorado show took much criticism, however. With shots at the stage design ("visual incoherence"), choreography ("uninteresting"), song composition ("compromised with chaotic presentation"), costumes......

Just after Ethan Hawke declared more love for the Hotel Chelsea and more fear about the changes there being the final nail in the coffin of "old New York," The Observer suspects his exes ex of helping to hold the hammer. Earlier this summer hotel developer André Balazs was spotted in the lobby of the hotel once it was under management of his pals Richard Born and Ira Drukier of BD Hotels (together the trio......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Hell's Kitchen (Monday, 9:00 p.m., WNYW 5) Gordon Ramsay makes his choice in the season finale. The World According to Google (Monday, 10:00 p.m., WNET 13) A Dutch documentary about the Google empire and the social and ethical practices of the company. Weeds (Monday, 10:00 p.m., Showtime) The third season starts with the looming problem of a new mega church in the neighborhood. Californication (Monday, 10:30 p.m.,......

If you watch the reality shows, you probably wonder at the random, more boring, points of your day: Whatever happened to so-and-so from Project whatchamacallit? Or more likely, you don't. NY Mag examines the sad, "near-fame experience" of being a Bravo reality star. Somewhere right below the D-list is the space the not-quite almost-famous Bravo TV stars occupy. Though the Bravo competition reality shows generally rely on actual skills, the article's first cautionary tale is......

Last week, reputed Bonanno crime family boss Vincent Basciano - aka "Vinny Gorgeous" - was upset about not having a proper dress shirt to wear during his racketeering trial, only for the judge to step in and lend him a shirt and tie. This week, Basciano is complaining to Brooklyn federal judge Nicholas Garaufis about how prison life is cramping his style. According to Newsday, the court released Basciano's two-page letter that details his issues......

During a board meeting to present the MTA's 2008-2011 financial plan, MTA executive director Lee Sander confirmed yesterday that, yes, fare and toll hikes would be needed in the future because of looming billion-dollar deficits - even in spite of a current billion dollar surplus. And though some politicians were quick to criticize potential hikes (no pol wants fare increases on their watch), the Straphangers Campaign's Gene Russianoff told the Times, "[The MTA has] good......

Animal rights protesters held a rally outside the National Football League's Park Avenue headquarters yesterday to ask for quarterback Michael Vick's suspension from the league. Earlier, the Atlanta Falcons star was indicted on federal felony charges for dogfighting. Here's what the Department of Justice's press release (PDF) said:According to the indictment, the defendants were involved in an ongoing animal fighting venture based out of a property located in Smithfield, Virginia, from early 2001 through......

Ratatouille (directed by Brad Bird) For fans of animated movies, the work produced by the Pixar studio hold a prominent place in our hearts. Pixar and their often rocky involvement with the Disney Company was back in the news a year and a half ago, when Disney (who had previously released a number of Pixar projects like Toy Story, Monsters Inc and The Incredibles) purchased Pixar to the tune of $7.4 billion in stock and......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: History Detectives (Monday, 8:00 p.m., WNET 13) The PBS show where a team of experts look into the history of the objects of ordinary people returns for another season. Shaq's Big Challenge (Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., WABC 7) Yet another fakeality show, this time with Shaquille O'Neal as the star of what can be best described as "The Biggest Looser, for Kids" or let's exploit some fat kids......

Times Square has always offered a nice dose of "weird," whether it be in the pre-Giuliani days or its now more Disney-fied incarnation. Now some more strange will be saturating the area, in the form a famous Odditorium. Yes, tourists will be able to see things like locks of Abe Lincoln's hair after having a nice meal at the Olive Garden. Ripley's Believe It Or Not! is back, for a third time, in Times Square.......

Jill Cunniff keeps a blog (a "MamaLog") about being a mom and a musician in New York, but you probably know her best as the lead singer and bass player of early-90s band Luscious Jackson. The band broke up in 2000, but Jill is still creating and performing music - all while being a mom, a wife, and doing her part to clean up New York's beaches. This weekend she'll perform at the Mermaid Parade......

On Sunday we posted about the Bard Family being all but dismissed from their post at the Hotel Chelsea. As the interrogation spotlight continues to shine in the faces of the faceless "Board" that made the decision, a press release was sent out to explain what's going on behind the famous doors. The Bard Family, who have run the hotel from Mark Twain to Nancy Spungen to now, have been replaced by a new regime......

In this week's New Yorker, Lauren Collins has a funny bit on the popularity of "Fuck Frank Gehry" T-shirts. Popular, that is, with Frank Gehry himself! The T-shirts first were a hit with Europeans who opposed the Bilbao project. Then they were sought after by critics of the Atlantic Yards. Then Gehry's driver saw the T-shirt at a super bowl party and soon a sample batch landed at Gehry's office. The architect explained, "Somebody......

Oh dears. We certainly hope that The New York Times posed its photo for today's article about hyper-mature young girls, because the prospect of a gaggle of seven-year-olds perusing "People", "US", "Star" and "InTouch" while skipping lunch to browse adult-oriented gossip mags on their lunch break seems a little depressing/upsetting(?). The New York Times examines youngsters' familiarity with adult-oriented material from an early outset. When kids like the Olsen twins and young adults like Lindsay......

After Wednesday's blow-up with Elizabeth Hasselbeck, Rosie O'Donnell made today's show her last day on The View. Originally, O'Donnell's exit was planned for June 20, but it seems like she wanted out early. Here are some statements via ABC News:Brian Frons, the president of Disney-ABC's Daytime Television Group, said, "We had hoped that Rosie would be with us until the end of her contract three weeks from now, but Rosie has informed us that she......

We read the headline "5 New Yorkers detained in Disney World brawl" and thought, "Uh oh." Then it turned out that the five people were from Long Island! (Shirley, NY, to be exact.) Authorities told the AP that five people, ranging from 14 to 20 years old, were spitting and swearing at Walt Disney World patrons and were detained on Sunday after causing a scene around Space Mountain. Then the group got into a fight......