Last night was the star-studded, couture-clad Costume Institute Gala at the Met; the theme was "superheroes," to accompany the museum's latest Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy exhibit. J. Lo commented on her own superhero ensemble, saying, "the only thing I could think of was Wonder Woman with my cuffs." Scarlett Johansson sort of showed off her rock, Beyonce paraded her independence -- coming without a wedding ring or Jay-Z, and Gisele Bündchen expressed her desire to......

PM Update: The jury has found Braunstein guilty of 14 of the 15 charges. He was acquitted of the arson charge (the fire he started in order to convince the victim to open up her apartment door as he posed as a firefighter). Earlier: Yesterday, the prosecution and defense gave closing statements in the Peter Braunstein trial. The Daily News succinctly sums it up as: "Is he fiend or nut job?" Lawyers for Braunstein do......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a body was found at Schenk and Livonia Aves. in Brooklyn that was initially reported as body parts, a shooting on Prospect Ave. in the Bronx, and there was a police car multi-vehicle accident on the Henry Hudson Parkway near 79th St. A daycare cries child abuse as the artists who share their space are attempting to throw the tots out on the street. The head of neuropsychiatry at......

The trial of Peter Braunstein reached another pinnacle of weirdness as some new revelations were made. First, the defense team of the journalist, accused of the sexual assault, kidnapping, burglary and more of a former co-worker at Women's Wear Daily, argued that certain passages from Braunstein's diary - or "personal manifesto," as he called it - shouldn't be read to the jury. The prosecutors, though, wanted to get all the mentions of "serial killer......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on Lafayette and Broome in Manhattan, a missing child on Rochester Ave. and President St. in Brooklyn, and a shooting on East 183rd St. and Crotona Ave. in the Bronx. A self-admitted alcoholic gave shaky and erratic testimony this afternoon, but was positive that he never would have given his beneficiary a stupid name like "Rafra" in the trial of two men who were accused of......

The Peter Braunstein trial finished the week with the defense reading parts of the journalist's diary, written while he was on the run after attacking a co-worker. The Daily News excerpted many parts yesterday, including:"There are no 'innocent people,' God tells me repeatedly. 'There are no victims.' Either we're all victims, or none of us are. And none of us are. "I'll be in Heaven along with Joan of Arc, BioHazard's mom and Aaron Spelling......

Seems like the Hotel Chelsea residents have long been at battle with the clubs that open in the basement of the building. This used to be the case with Serena (which was owned by Anna Wintour's stepson/Minnie Driver's cousin) and now with Star Lounge (which has opened in its place). The basement lounges seem to draw a posh crowd that's the antithesis of who the Hotel was founded upon: starving (or at the very least,......

Anna Wintour, Balenciaga's Nicolas Ghesquière, and Cate Blanchett hosted last night's annual Costume Institute gala, which was a celebration of Paul Poiret, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Poirot was the pioneer in modern fashion, and freed women from petticoats and corsets - though many, even those in attendance last night, aren't familiar with him. Everyone did their best to dress "in the spirit of" the King of Fashion however, including: Mick Jagger, David......

Mayor Bloomberg has stepped in and ensured Olympus Fashion Week will be at Bryant Park next February for the fall fashion shows. During Fashion Week in September, it turned out the Bryant Park wanted the fashion tents out so the skating rink could stay open - not to mention that the non-public tents take up a lot of the public's room. And even though fashionistas, like Diane von Furstenburg and Anna Wintour, were trying......

Interesting - the Post has a sorta followup to yesterday's Daily News story about Fashion Week being tents non grata at Bryant Park next February. Though yesterday's Daily News article had Vogue editor Anna Wintour saying that Mayor Bloomberg would support fashion - and tents in Bryant Park - in spite of the park's desire to keep the ice rink up, the Post says Diane Von Furstenberg couldn't convince Bloomberg to keep the tents......

It's Bryant Park-going plebes versus the fashion plates! The Daily News has an article about how Bryant Park wants the fashion shows out (or auf, if you like) this February, so the park can keep its free skating rink, The Pond, open. Dan Biderman, the head of the Bryant Park, says, "The public hates the [fashion] shows, except the public who goes to them, and they want the ice rink in the winter and......

Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Creator, Post Punk Kitchen, Author, Vegan With a Vengeance...

Andrew Krucoff, beloved former-Gothamist interviewer, media maven and dark-horse candidate for the Media Bistro editor's job, was just fired from his research job at Conde Nast. His crime? Conde's servers went down last week, and Kru leaked the tech email to Gawker. They report: Andrew Krucoff, the well-known blogger whom we often jokingly — lovingly, even, we’d say — refer to as Gawker’s mascot, has worked as a freelance research analyst at Conde Nast for......

- It's the first day of school for NYC public school students, teachers and parents - One death and many injuries at a four-alarm fire on the Upper West Side - Anna Wintour had trouble figuring out how to sit while at the U.S. Open last night; maybe she was enjoying the $10 beers! - Chelsea Piers is sinking, which alarms Gothamist greatly: Law & Order films there! - All we want for the Armageddon......

Finally, after months of waiting, the Jacko-inspired Anna Wintour & the Chocolate Factory finally hits theatres and we strongly suggest seeing it at the IMAX, on Broadway at 68th St. For those of you embracing procrasination and wasting more time at work, have fun with the Trailer Crashers - The Wedding Crashers' promotional tool in which you can easily insert you and a friend in the trailer (last week we substituted Krucoff and Lockhart......

The Hollywood Reporter says that Meryl Streep will be playing the Anna Wintour-inspired devilish boss in the movie of The Devil Wears Prada. Streep has already played another Conde Nast employee, New Yorker writer Susan Orlean, in Adaptation, so we can't wait until she plays Graydon Carter or Jeff Jarvis next (hey, she played a rabbi in Angels in America - she can probably do it!). We think that someone like Lara Flynn Boyle, with......

You can tell a lot about a year by seeing which posts were popular, and from Gothamist's standpoint, it's been a banner year for our readers who are perverts or nerds (we're hoping the loyal readers are both). Here are a few of our most popular posts: Thoughts on the Matrix Reloaded; 100 Best Songs; when we pretended to know all about friendster messages; Paris Hilton sex tapes and her SNL appearance; Nicole Richie's racial......

With flusher economic times in most sectors, the power lunch booms once again. The Times' David Carr does his media thing, but now with a side of food, as he examines the restaurants where the powerful tend to eat. The hot restaurants are The Four Seasons, Michael's, DB Bistro Moderne (deemed downtown, even though it's only on 44th!), and newcomer Lever House, where the booths are tables du jour. Other restaurants include Eleven Madison......

Mayor Bloomberg liked Old School? We knew there was a reason Gothamist had a soft spot in our hearts for our tiny, billionaire mayor, in spite of some silly decisions and awkward public demeanor. The Post looks at the Mayor's private schedule which reveals various appointments and plans. For instance, he spent an hour with Anna Wintour when Vogue was profiling his girlfriend, Diana Taylor, and he scheduled a re-shoot of photographs with city employees......

According to the Times, the college graduating Class of 2003 is complaining about the lack of jobs available these days. Well, Gothamist is sure the Class of 1992 or 1993 has some advice for you. But don't fret, Gothamist (Class of 1998) has some suggestions for you: Gothamist intern Crack whore intern Anil Dash's intern Assistant to Anna Wintour Person who throws rose petals on the floor of J.Lo's dressing room The Times also notes......

When Spiers didn't post on Gawker until noon today, most of her readers jumped to the logical conclusion that she was dead. I was just dialing in to send flowers to Nick Denton when miraculously she reappeared and posted a few items. Apparently the Gawker laptop died. Note to Spiers: get a Thinkpad- you can drop it off a roof on to Anna Wintour's head and the thing will keep ticking. The upside of Spier's......

While Gawker will most likely have more intense coverage, check out pictures of arrivals to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Party of the Year" - the Costume Institute gala - at WireImage, like these of Best Acting Oscar winners Nicole Kidman and Adrien Brody. Got love synergistic publicists. The Times on Goddess, the theme of the Party of the Year. The article also has a picture of Anna Wintour in a Dior gown. Mainly she......

The Devil Wears Prada author and recent favorite Gothamist punching bag Lauren Weisberger must have gotten the memo from her publishers about toning down the "ungrateful brat" element of her shtick because her appearance on the Today Show showed a humbler, gentler Weisberger for our times. Campbell Brown asked if the editor in The Devil Wears Prada was really based on Anna Wintour; Weisberger demured and, taking a piece of Kate Betts' advice, said......

Gothamist Hates Lauren Weisberger
It's official: Gothamist thinks Lauren Weisberger is dumb as a brick....

Kate Betts, late of Harper's Bazaar, tackles and reviews the eagerly awaited (eagerly awaited by a small but influential cartel of media and fashion types) book, The Devil Wears Prada. The Devil being Anna Wintour, Vogue editor, the author being Lauren Weisberger, a former Anna assistant. From what Gothamist can gather, Weisberger suffers from young-New-Yorker's-syndrome: thinking she's the first person to have a shitty boss. We applaud her ability to parlay that into cash money,......