Just in time for the Sex and the City movie, it's the Sex and the City-inspired "Sarah Jessica Porkher" sex doll! We won't speculate how the NY Post found out about this $20 blow-up doll, but it is hilariously disturbing/disturbingly hilarious. The doll comes from Pipedream Products, which has a "Super Star Series" (there are dolls inspired by Jessica Simpson, Jessica Alba, Paris Hilton, Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera, and, uh, Tori Spelling). Their faux publications,......

A seven-part miniseries about John Adams based on the best-selling Pulitzer Prize winning book by historian David McCullough seems like something you used to find on PBS done in cooperation with the BBC, but you’ll find it on HBO, with parts 1 & 2 airing Sunday at 8:00 p.m. The miniseries tells the story of the first vice-president and later the second president of the United States. The big bankroll of HBO means this production......

Quest for the Lost Ark (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., History Channel) Tudor Parfitt looks more like Jeremy Clarkson than Harrison Ford, but he is a real life Indiana Jones. This History Channel documentary special traces his search for the Ark of the Covenant – the same thing the fictional Indy searched for in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Also of note this Weekend: George Carlin: It's Bad for Ya (Saturday, 10:00 p.m., HBO) It is hard......

Next Wednesday a cornucopia of comedians (Dave Attell, Louis C.K., Artie Lange and more) will gather at Town Hall for the The Gerry Red Wilson Foundation Comedy Benefit. Greg Fitzsimmons is one of the comedians responsible for putting together the show, which will raise awareness about meningitis (a disease that struck three people in his life, one of which was Gerry Red Wilson). You can buy tickets here. When not making one of his many......

For two weeks in the winter of 2005, Central Park was filled with 7,500 saffron-paneled gates. The project was a gift from the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who had been trying for four decades to launch the project. Their struggle - and success - comes to the the small screen with tonight's premiere of The Gates on HBO. You can remember those weeks through the second part of the documentary, with almost all New Yorkers......

Remember that introduction to HBO programming back in the 80s, the one that soared over a lavish scale model of a Gothamesque cityscape, then out above the suburbs and beyond toward a seductive glow on the horizon, before abruptly blasting up into the cosmos where the HBO logo twirled like some benevolent entertainment monolith? Well, here’s a funny short documentary about how they put together that state of the art intro intended to "tease and......

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......

In 2003, Sopranos star Michael Imperioli opened the intimate Studio Dante theater with his wife Victoria, who designed the elegantly formal space. In his capacity as director, producer and actor, Imperioli has been busy turning the theater into a well-regarded hotspot for new plays. The current production is a solo show by Glasgow native Russell Barr entitled Sisters, Such Devoted Sisters. In the largely autobiographical play, Barr plays Bernice, a drag queen who herself portrays......

The bio on Eugene Mirman's website poses the question "Who or what is Eugene Mirman?" and answers, "In 1978, at the age of four, Eugene Mirman emigrated from Russia to seek a better life in America. It fucking worked." Of course, you've probably been familiar with Mirman at least as far back as the summer of '06 when he killed at Gothamist's Laughable Hype show. For any other entertainer, that magical night would have been......

Uh oh - there's definitely a little drama for five well-known performers as the Albany DA's office continues its probe into steroid trafficking. The Times Union reported yesterday that Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, Timbaland, Wyclef Jean and Tyler Perry were "among the thousands of customers of the pharmacies" DA David Soares' office has investigated. Oh. In other words, the celebrities are just the bold-faced names, and the sources say there isn't evidence that they......

Darren Starr’s Sex in the City like Cashmere Mafia was set to debut at the end of November, but was put off due to the writers' strike. So don’t get too attached to this series, since there appears to be only seven episodes produced of the 13 ordered. Still it beats NBC’s similar Lipstick Jungle to air, which seems not to have a launch date announced yet. On its surface the show looks like a......

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 noteworthy television this week: Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., HBO) A look at America's favorite insult comic and last surviving member of the “Rat Pack”, the octogenarian Don Rickles from director John Landis. Everyone from Chris Rock to Bob Newhart to Clint Eastwood to Sidney Poitier talk about the comic. 1968 (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., History Channel) 1968 was a turbulent and tragic year and Tom Brokaw not......

Dr. Charles S. Hirsch is the chief medical examiner of New York City and has overseen the autopsies on more than 100,000 people. He would probably remain a mystery to most New Yorkers, if it weren't for his ruling on the death of Det. James Zadroga, who worked clean-up at Ground Zero after September 11, 2001. Hirsch said that Zadroga's death wasn't related to Ground Zero dust, but ground-up pills the detective was allegedly injecting.......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: 2007 American Music Awards (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WABC 7) Most awards shows are basically useless and awards shows where people vote on line are even more so. This year this awards show invented by Dick Clark in 1973 gets even more useless. Jimmy Kimmel hosts. Nature: The Beauty of Ugly (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WNET 13; Wednesday, 8:00 p.m., WLIW 21) A look at some of the strangest......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Nostrand Ave. in Brooklyn, an overturned auto on the LIE and Oceania St. in Queens, and a fall victim on 170th St. and University Ave. in the Bronx. Two NJ teenagers attempted to escape the wrath of a parent, who caught them drinking alcohol last week, by tieing together bedsheets in order to rappel down the side of their highrise building. The incident ended badly, although......

Tonight marks the beginning of the Film Society at Lincoln Center's 45th annual New York Film Festival and oh what a jam-packed fest it is. A panel of film critics chose 30 of the best new international movies to show to New York's discerning audiences and they picked hometown director Wes Anderson's newest, The Darjeeling Limited (which also comes out in theaters this weekend) to open the festival. Gothamist was pleasantly surprised at how much......

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......

We got mixed reviews in our poll about the Sex and the City movie that's coming out more than three years after the show ended its HBO series. Whether we wanted it or not, the movie is going to happen -- and film crews and cast have already arrived. Where are they filming? The Daily News reports that, toting around a bag only Carrie Bradshaw could pull off (one shaped like the Eiffel Tower), Sarah......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Series 6: Natural Causes (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13; Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., WLIW 21) The first part of series 6 of this contemporary British police series finds Inspector Lynley and his new boss searching for a killer in the English countryside. 2007 MTV Video Music Awards (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., MTV) Yet another useless awards show this time it is from MTV, which according......

Battles vs. Deerhunter by the Sea A fine way for the Seaport Music Festival to send off the summer, with two of the year's biggest breakout bands on a lovely evening. We were taking in both Battles and Dearhunter for the first time last Friday and were massively impressed by both bands. Deerhunter, down a man and with their usual shtick toned down, sounded like a young Sonic Youth or stripped down Broken Social Scene.......

I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With (directed by Jeff Garlin) While there's quite a few new releases coming out that are worth checking out this weekend (like the western and the spacemen documentary), we wanted to reserve our pick for a charming little movie you might have otherwise ignored. Written, directed and starring comedian Jeff Garlin (who we interviewed earlier this week), it's the kind of modest, looking-for-love-in-all-the-wrong-places story you don't often see these......

There's an excellent Vows column in this week's NY Times Weddings & Celebrations. It's the one for Fran Boyd and Donnie Andrews, two Baltimore residents whose difficult lives were the basis for the HBO dramas The Corner and The Wire. Boyd and Andrews were featured in a page one story in the Times last week, and the Vows column explains more of how they met and how they supported each other during prison sentences,......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: The Star Jones Show (Monday, 3:00 p.m., CourTV) Star Jones returns to the talk show racket with her own talk show focusing on pop culture, crime and law. Secrets of New York - New York Connections: The Bridges of New York (Tuesday, 8:00 p.m., WNYE 25) In light of recent events, this look at the secrets of the city's bridges should be a must watch. God's Warriors......

We all knew the real estate bubble was causing insanity, but we should have known it's encouraged people to divorce. There's a NY Times Styles section article about some who wait until the market's at its peak to divorce - that way, they can benefit from an even bigger profit when selling their homes. There are quotes from Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker, who showed that couples with a drastic rise in net worth were......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a police-involved shooting at 149th St. and 3rd Ave. in the Bronx, an attempted sexual assault on 55th St. in Brooklyn, and a bank robbery on West 52nd St. between 7th and 8th Aves. Kenneth Eng, noted earlier this year for his controversial essay "Why I Hate Blacks", was arrested again by the Feds shortly after pleading guilty to harrassing his neighbors and threatening them with a hammer. The......

Rome: Season 2 As another season of Emmy nominations show, those folks over at HBO original programming know what they're doing. Complex shows filled with meaty characters, lavish spectacle and quite a few racy scenes make those premium cable fees seem well worth the expense. However, if you missed out on the two seasons of Rome, the epic struggle of life during the time of Julius Caesar that's a bit of The Sopranos in togas,......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Secrets of New York: New York's Firsts: Pioneering Moments (Sunday, 8:30 p.m., WNYE 25) Kelly Choi takes a look at some New York firsts. White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Monday, 7:30 p.m. HBO) To commemorate the 62nd anniversary of the first bombing of civilian targets with nuclear weapons at Hiroshima, HBO airs this look at the two deadly attacks through archival footage and......

Covering Coverage Wednesday’s steam pipe burst had a bit of overkill on the coverage, especially with WABC’s decision to pre-empt ABC’s World News (they did go to it briefly during the 7:00 hour). By 6:30, when WCBS and WNBC prudently went to their respective network’s newscasts to give viewers a chance to catch up on the national and international news, the important points of the story were covered – a. it was not a terrorist......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: 2007 ESPY Awards (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., ESPN) Jimmy Kimmel co-hosts with basketballer LeBron James this sports awards show which only exists to give ESPN some programming and some overpaid athletes another trophy. Victoria Beckham: Coming to America (Monday, 8:00 p.m., WNBC 4) Thankfully this is a one shot deal since the 6 episode fakeality show deal fell through. The show itself chronicles the Victoria Beckham's move to......