Television coverage of Governor Spitzer's scandal has been relentless. From extra newscasts from most of the stations and WNET/ Thirteen's special Monday night report (the only one that seemed to gauge statewide reaction) to leading all the local newscasts, but the networks, local stations throughout the country and even the BBC World News. When the BBC leads with an American governor’s prostitution scandal on its international news channel, it shows how big the story......

Before going for the gold, French actress and Oscar winner Marion Cotillard made some remarks in a 2007 interview regarding 9/11, and some aren't as charmed by her words as they were by her Oscar speech. Nonetheless, Cotillard sides with the conspiracy theorists when it comes to 9/11...and the moon landing! BBC News has a partial transcript:"We see other towers of the same kind being hit by planes, are they burned?" she asks. "There was......

Photograph of Fidel Castro from 2006, proving he was alive after intestinal surgery and wearing an Adidas tracksuit Cuban president Fidel Castro resigned his position after nearly 50 years of rule. The 81-year-old Castro has been battling illness since 2006, notably turning over power to his brother Raul and other ministers temporarily. Though he was still ruling after his 2006 surgery, Castro was little seen. Now it is expected that Castro's resignation positions Raul......

We already covered the Super Bowl half time show alternatives, but what if you're not a football fan or your team didn’t make it? What if you don’t want to sit through a football game to watch commercials or if you hate Joe Buck and Troy Aikman? Well, don’t worry, there are some television alternatives for you if you don’t want to watch either the game or the countless hours of pre-game shows. If crime......

If you are looking for some good television (you know, the kind with actual scripts), BBC America delivers a one-two punch on Saturday night with the season debuts of two British sci-fi shows – Doctor Who (8:00 p.m.) and its spin-off Torchwood (9:00 p.m.). The episodes of Torchwood are a bit fresher, airing a few weeks ago in the UK, while the Doctor Who episodes aired last spring over the pond. Now, if your only......

We can’t get excited about or honestly recommend any of the rubbish spewed forth by the WGA strike-hurting networks in place of actual scripted programs. At this point, we would like to never see the Endemol logo on air again. (Apparently Endemol is Dutch for “mindless garbage television.”) So we were a bit surprised when we heard that NBC actually was importing a version of one of our favorite British programs, Top Gear. Top Gear,......

A look at some of this week's noteworthy television: 60 Minutes (Sunday, 7:00 p.m., WCBS 2) Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez is interviewed by Katie Couric in the wake of the baseball steroids scandal. Extras: The Extra Special Series Finale (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., HBO) The Ricky Gervais series concludes its run with an 80 minute special episode. Duel (Monday-Friday, 8:00 p.m., WABC 7) No, it isn’t Steven Spielberg’s 1971 feature length film debut made for......

A look at some of this week's noteworthy television: Spike TV's Video Game Awards 2007 (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., Spike TV) It is the fifth annual outing for this awards show for video games. Live From Lincoln Center: Red Hot Holiday Stomp (Monday, 8:00 p.m., WNET 13) Jazz at Lincoln Center is highlighted with this special hosted by Glenn Close. There will be a program of holiday music and jazz, plus it also features the broadcast......

This weekend Kanye West's mother (and manager), Dr. Donda West, died after surgery - which the BBC is reporting was cosmetic (UPDATE: she was warned prior to getting the surgery). West was very close with his 58-year-old mother, often speaking publicly about their bond and even writing a song for her. Just this summer the two were at Borders to promote her new book, Raising Kanye. Kanye was in London when told of the death,......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Art in the Twenty-First Century (Sunday, 10:00 p.m., WNET 13) Four artists - Robert Adams, Mark Dion , Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle Ursula von Rydingsvard – who explore the intersection between nature and culture. Billy Crystal: The Mark Twain Prize (Monday & Thursday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13; Saturday, 7:30 p.m. WLIW 21) Billy Crystal receives the tenth annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center in......

The Willamette Meteorite, originally from Oregon but residing at the American Museum of Natural History since 1908, was sent to auction Sunday (well, 30 lbs of its 15.5 tons was). How much did it, and another famous meteorite (the Brenham Main Mass), get when they took their place on the auction block? Zero, zilch...nada. Though WCBS reports that "an ordinary metal mailbox zapped by a falling space rock in 1984 was sold for the unearthly......

A look at some of this week's noteworthy television: Desperate Housewives (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WABC 7) A homosexual male couple moves into Wisteria Lane and wackiness ensues. Masterpiece Theatre: The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13) In this 6 part series, Jane Horrocks plays a British supermarket manager who is dissatisfied with the political hacks who are gunning to be Prime Minister and decides to mount her own campaign. BBC 1 aired it......

Jonny Greenwood was named the BBC’s composer-in-residence in 2004; during this time he debuted "Popcorn Superhet Receiver", a twenty-minute work for string orchestra inspired, in part, by the phenomenon of white noise and Penderecki’s "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima". Tickets are on sale for a two-night performance of the composition at The Church of St. John the Apostle in January as part of The Wordless Music Series; works by John Adams and Gavin Bryars......

A look at some of this week's noteworthy television: The Next Iron Chef (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., Food Network) Alton brown hosts this new reality series which searches for the chef for the next season of Iron Chef America. Life Is Wild (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WPIX 11) A widowed doctor moves his family to South Africa and family friendly programming ensues. Mystery!: Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Series 6: Chinese Walls (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13; Tuesday, 9:00......

For American News the BBC is Best We have been quite happy with the first week of the BBC’s newest newscast BBC World News America, which airs at 7 p.m. on BBC America, as well as around the world on BBC World. (The half hour BBC newscasts that air on WLIW and NJN at the same time are tape delayed from an hour before.) The newscast is unlike any of the American networks and since......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: The War: A Ken Burns Film (Sunday - Tuesday, 8:00 p. m., WNET 13; Sunday - Tuesday, 10:00 p. m., WLIW 21) The Ken Burns World War II documentary wraps up this week. Top Gear (Monday 8:00 p.m. & 9:00 p.m., BBC America) We recently stumbled onto the insanely brilliant BBC 2 show which is in theory about cars, but is really about three crazy Brits going......

What’s worth watching on food-TV this week? Tonight on No Reservations (10pm on the Travel Channel), Anthony Bourdain goes to Tuscany. Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (the US version of his BBC show) is on Wednesday at 9pm (Fox). This week, Ramsay makes over Dillon’s in NYC—this is the makeover over which Ramsay was sued (and charges were subsequently dismissed). Want your restaurant Ramsified? Go to the show’s website for a downloadable application form. On Top......

The season really gets underway this week so a lot of old favorites like The Simpsons, Heroes, and Boston Legal (along with some that shouldn’t be like The Batchelor) are back so you do know what to expect with them. Here are some noteworthy and mainly new picks for the week: The War: A Ken Burns Film (Sunday - Wednesday, 8:00 p. m., WNET 13; Sunday - Wednesday, 10:00 p. m., WLIW 21) All you......

THEATER: In November, Tom Stoppard’s latest smash hit Rock ‘n’ Roll will transfer from London to Broadway (delighting Rushmore fans by bringing Brian Cox – AKA Dr. Guggenheim – in tow.) In the meantime, fans of our most intellectually dazzling living playwright can plug into Stoppard Goes Electric, an evening of three short teleplays that Stoppard penned for BBC early in his career. According to the Boomerang Theatre Company, which is producing the program, some......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: The 59th Primetime Emmy Awards (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WNYW 5) All you have to know is that Ryan Seacrest hosts this years awards. Your decision to view is based on your personal Seacrest tolerance and your need to watch the Yankees vs. Red Sox over on ESPN. Plus you can find out the results on line, so you don’t really have to watch. Mystery! - The Inspector......

Last night, President Bush addressed the country, and the world, with a speech that said American troops in Iraq could be start to be withdrawn gradually: "The principle guiding my decisions on troop levels in Iraq is 'return on success' -- the more successful we are, the more American troops can return home." In other words, there is no, as the NY Sun puts it, "no dramatic change in course." Bush also asked the......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Wide Angle: Dishing Democracy (Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13) Imagine "The View" in Arabic being beamed via satellite television throughout the Middle East. This documentary gets behind the scenes of the show, "Kalam Nawaem" which just may bring about some revolution. P.O.V.: Following Sean (Tuesday, 10:00 p.m., WNET 13) At the height of the hippie movement in San Francisco, filmmaker Ralph Arlyck was a graduate film student......

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? ">Martha Stewart has all new episodes this week (10am Monday-Friday, NBC). Monday her guests are Mario Batali, Michael Schulson and Scott Conant; on Wednesday it’s Rick Bayless, Sue Torres and Tom Douglas. Fox has Episode 7 of Hell's Kitchen on Monday at 9pm. Melissa’s gone, and six contestants remain. Read the latest episode roundup in the LA Times here. Gordon Ramsay has also adapted his BBC show......

Extras: Season 2 On British television an average series may run only six or so episodes, but for the program's fans on this side of the super-sized pond that can seem piddly indeed. Fortunately for followers of all things Ricky Gervais, the new DVD version of his HBO series Extras, which is out this week, contains over 100 minutes of additional material to enjoy. If you missed the initial airing, the second season of Extras......

Daljit Dhaliwal is currently the anchor of the PBS international documentary series Wide Angle, which starts its new season on Tuesday (9:00 p.m., WNET 13). A native of London, she got her start with the BBC reporting from Northern Ireland, then moved to ITN where in 1996 she became the anchor for ITN World News for Public Television which was produced for PBS. The newscast raised her profile on this side of the Atlantic and......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

Yesterday, an out-of-control car crashed into a crowded Popeye's Fried Chicken restaurant at Frederick Douglas Boulevard and 145th Street. Police say that the driver had a leg cramp, which made he "stomp on the gas pedal." A witness told WNBC, "(It's) something I don't want to see again. She came down the hill and went straight into the window." WNBC has pictures of the scene, complete with half-eaten meals. The NY Times reported that the......

Last week the television networks had their upfronts previewing their fall lineups. So will your favorites be back and is there anything new that at least sounds good on paper? CBS Gone from the CBS fall line up are The Class, Close to Home, Jericho, and The King of Queens, but returning at mid-season are The Amazing Race and The New Adventures of Old Christine. The first new thing we will be seeing from CBS......

Last month we posted on our special relationship with Britain. With the British pound recently topping $2 in exchange for an American dollar, England is maybe entertaining a slow and gradual do-over of 1776: suggesting that a slice of the West Village be renamed Little Britain. Damn the Britons if they didn't do it in a fashion that we didn't find encouraging. The video above is fairly persuasive. Our only reluctance lies in the......

As the Virginia Tech story broke last Monday, cable news, as always, took the lead with their normal oversaturated speculative coverage transferring the energy and resources normally reserved for non-story stories like the Anna Nicole Smith saga into covering a real story. Some observers complained that the broadcast networks didn’t go with wall to wall coverage of the story. It is good that they did not last Monday afternoon, since all it does is......