Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian was struck on Wythe and Metropolitan Ave. in Brooklyn, an overturned police car on Gun Hill Rd. in the Bronx, and a bank robbery on Austin Rd. in Queens. Joseph Jirovec, one of the teenagers accused of the Hannukah Q train hate crime, says that he and his friends were the victims. He said the fight began only after a racial slur was directed at one of......

Jaded gourmands looking to spice up their New Year’s Eve dining experience might be interested in the Dark Dining event at the West Village French bistro Camaje. The four course dinner is designed to accommodate a small gathering of guests who, upon arrival, don featherweight blindfolds for the duration of the prix fixe meal, which features wine pairings and mysterious performances between courses. While you surrender to the dark side, a team of attentive servers......

It's all in an Upper West Side day for the Material Girl! The tabloids have reported that Madonna is suing her co-op, claiming the board blocked her attempt to buy a neighbor's apartment. Madonna has a 6,000 square foot apartment at Harperley Hall at 41 Central Park West - a duplex with hair salon and gym. The summons filed in Manhattan Supreme Court accuses the board and Midboro Management of "breach of contract...and orders......

The reviews are in for the $180 million production of The Golden Compass, and they’re lackluster at best, which is a pity not just for fans of the novel from which it’s adapted but for New Line Cinema, which was banking on another Lord of the Rings cash cow. Times critic Manohla Dargis calls it flawed and cluttered, although her description of Nicole Kidman ought to sway any dudes reluctant to see a movie starring......

NY Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni, he of the fast-food cross-country road trip (he swears by Chick-Fil-A, which has but one local outpost in NYU’s food court), has revealed more of his inner workings in a recent interview with website Refinery 29. For starters, Bruni eschews a big breakfast because of all his professional eating burdens throughout the day. On most mornings he strolls over to Levain Bakery and picks up a baguette with butter......

If you were going to read about the fatal stabbing of a 30-year-old Brooklyn man in, say, the NY Times, you'd only learn that the suspect was a woman with a history of mental disturbances. But if you read about the killing of Aleksey Kats in the NY Post and Daily News, then you'd know that Kats' wife Elina and the suspect, Anastasiya Andreyeva, were lovers and that the three had been engaged in an......

We knew open houses were fun for some people, but they offer goods ripe for the stealing. Last weekend, an Upper West Side apartment, where a real estate broker was holding an open house, was robbed by a pair of thieves posing as potential buyers. Prudential Douglas Elliman vice president Heddings posted about the devious crime on Monday on TrueGotham, noting that when the broker confronted the pair, they panicked and dropped "most but......

Photo via Hamevugar's Flickr. The Brooklyn Museum housed a Ron Mueck exhibit that we pointed out last year and CubeMe just reported on. The exhibition, now closed, included "about 15 mixed media works on loan from the artist’s collection, major museums, and private collections..that explore the ambiguous relationship between reality and artifice, creating figures that express the contradictions between the real world and the imaginary. The figures seem to be alive: every detail -......

In Ryan Seacrest is Famous, his debut collection of pop-culture enthused short stories, Dave Housley makes you think, makes you laugh, and, if you're a writer, inspires you to run to your computer and get started on that premise you've been putting off. Whether it comes in the form of an alcoholic clown, people obsessed with Fight Club, or a DJ hiring a prostitute in an attempt to win back his old flame, Housley's stories......

Linda Stein's daughter says that her mother had been recently diagnosed with a brain tumor and was, according to the Daily News, "taking medication that caused severe mood swings." Stein was found bludgeoned to death on October 30, and her personal assistant Natavia Lowery was arrested for her murder on Friday. Samantha Stein-Wells said, "My mother didn't deserve this.... They had just found a brain tumor a couple of weeks before she was killed. Everyone......

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......

Bartelstein is Back Steve Bartelstein will be back on anchoring starting Saturday morning on WCBS alongside Mary Calvi. It was back in September when he revealed to the Post’s Cindy Adams that CBS made overtures to him on the day he was fired from WABC - and that he had testicular cancer. He’ll also be doing some reporting for the station as his health permits. Bartelstein made his first appearance on the station on yesterday’s......

Cops have a suspect in the shooting of orthodontist dad Daniel Malakov and released a sketch of his playground shooter. Malakov was killed by a gunman who shot him at point blank range with a pistol; the shooting left a handmade silencer fashioned from a bleach bottle wrapped in duct tape. The killing is believed to be related to a bitter custody dispute between Malakov and his ex-wife Mazoltuv Borukhova. Because the murder took place......

Sometime before 8 this morning, Patrick Moberg and Camille Hayton introduced themselves to Good Morning America viewers, Diane Sawyer and hopeless romantics everywhere. The Subway Cyrano met up with his mystery lady last night for dinner, where they said they "clicked." Hayton suggests the subway moment was serendipitous because she wouldn't have been on it (going to a friend's place) if her house hadn't just burned down. Moberg is compared to a Hollywood leading man,......

What can you say about the Vernon NJ Police Department except that they like Hanna-Barbera? Because they created a "WANTED" poster with Yogi Bear's likeness, after discovering a black bear had stolen a minivan. Well, maybe "stolen" is overreaching, but Patrolman David Dehardt noticed that a Mazda minivan was parked in an odd spot, and when he approached the car, it had the classic signs of bear presence: "mashed window, paw prints, smudge marks on......

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!)......

Well, that didn't take very long. Turns out New York's Subway Cyrano, Patrick Moberg, has found his lady love. Or rather, Blackbook outed her as one of their very own interns. Patrick apparently got a tip from a friend of hers prior to that, and updated his website with a big 'ol "FOUND HER!" illustration. A little about the girl: she's an Aussie, her apartment burned down a few days ago, and she's currently on......

Good pork, whether it's bacon or whole roast pig, always whets our appetite. So when we heard of Hakata Tonton, a new Japanese spot specializing in pork, we couldn't wait to head to the West Village. What sets Hakata Tonton apart from the city's ever-growing roster of porcine temples is a cultlike devotion to feet. Save for dessert and a few other dishes, the menu's all about pig feet, or tonsoku. It’s as if chef/owner......

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......

The Red Sox has permeated nearly every facet of Bostonist's lives. When they're not live-blogging the games, waxing poetic about the games, thanking Curt Schilling for his splendid work, or telling Dane Cook to watch his hair, they're watching certain presidential candidates hop on the Red Sox bandwagon (sorry, Gothamist). The Sox are so branded on the local brain that people are using the Series to spice up their sex lives. Speaking of spice, Bostonist......

Need a last minute costume idea and in a New York state of mind? Here are a few NYC-themed ideas for your Halloween fête... R.I.P.ped from the Headlines • Thor Equities Need: Winged Thor helmet and hammer, brochures or maps (which can be printed out) of Coney Island -- and something to destroy them with. • The Staten Island Ninja Burglar Need: Ninja outfit, complete with nunchucks. Fake stab wound to the chest. Map......

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? We’re pretty hooked on The Next Iron Chef (Sundays at 9pm on the Food Network. Bourdain likes it too: “I’ve scoured both episodes with increasing frustration, trying to find something bad to say.” He also says “After the humiliating public clusterfuck of Next Food Network Star, it’s nice to see [the Food Network] doing something right.” We agree. Of episode two, in which Chef Davie was eliminated......

Madison Square Garden will be purring with excitement as the annual CFA-Iams Cat Championship opens its doors tomorrow and Sunday. Hundreds of cats from 41 breeds will be competing for Best of Breed and Best in Show prizes, and there are a number of other events, like watching cats compete in the Feline Agility Competition course and seeing the Parade of Breeds. You can buy purebreds or adopt some shelter kitties, too! We met......

Police arrested the principal of Eastside Community High School yesterday after getting in a confrontation with school security officers who were attempting to arrest an honors student. The incident began when a 17-year-old Isamar Gonzales entered the school early (7:55AM) and school security officers told her to leave. She refused and was eventually arrested for hitting one of the officers in the face. Principal Mark Federman asked that the student be led out of a......

We've made it through 10 days of this year's New York Film Festival, and it's been a great run so far. As usual, the selection committee has picked stellar films and we've sat in on some star-studded Q&A; sessions at Lincoln Center. Here are a few thoughts at the midpoint. Local boy Noah Baumbach presented the follow up to his Oscar-nominated and former NYFF favorite The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding at......

A Columbia Law grad is suing a cabbie for grabbing her by the hair and bashing her head against his cab's partition after calling her and her friend "bitches." According to The New York Post and court papers filed by 25-year-old Mei Ying Lai, cab driver Fazal Wali picked up the young woman on West 51st St., but became impatient when asked to wait for her friend, Nancy Hon, at West 29th St. Hon reportedly......

Some readers have wondered why people are tuning into Gossip Girl on Wednesday nights at 9PM, not only because the CW repeats its shows later on. The other 9PM television draw is Kitchen Nightmares on Fox. The show is the American version of chef Gordon Ramsay's British show named Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. In the show, Ramsay goes to struggling restaurants and whips them back into shape, alternately browbeating, inspiring, turning his nose up in......

Black Book (directed by Paul Verhoeven) Growing up in Holland during their occupation by the Nazis, it's no surprise that Dutch director Paul Verhoeven would want to revisit that chapter of his country's history on film. But seeing as it is Verhoeven, director of such hilariously trashy and provocative films as Showgirls and Basic Instinct, he's not going to make a tame, reverent movie about the heroic Resistance. Black Book is a sexy, in-your-face Resistance......

"I have an inborn hatred of injustice and tyranny that I cannot express." It is ironic that the speaker of these words, former President Millard Fillmore, was himself the victim of great injustice at the hands of tyranny. But this tyranny stemmed from the most unexpected of places: academia. For too long truth and liberty have stood idly by as one of their greatest crusaders had his name maligned by historians and layman alike. It......

The Observer revisits The Hotel Chelsea in a piece about a long-time resident who runs a salon out of the building. April Barton cuts hair out of Suite 303 in a salon that fits right in at the legendary building, and the cachet of running her business there isn't something she necessarily wants to give up. Recently, however, new management told her that she may be facing a massive rent hike. An otherwise “gracious” representative......