Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a ceiling collapse at Franklin Ave. and Union St. in Brooklyn, a pedestrian was fatally struck on Queens Blvd. in Woodhaven, Queens, and an unusual rescue on the south bound tower of the Throgs Neck Bridge in Queens. An undercover cop forgot to turn off the wire he was wearing while discussing 11 bags of cocaine he seized in a Brooklyn bust that were never turned in. He was......

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......

Flags of Our Fathers Letters From Iwo Jima (directed by Clint Eastwood) To tell just one side of an armed conflict isn't telling the whole story, and Clint Eastwood's companion movies released last winter in time for Oscar season expertly uses that idea to illuminate the capture during World War II of the Japanese island Iwo Jima. Even more thrilling than the movies' exploding bombs or CGI parade of tanks is the deft and sensitive......

It's that time of the year again: When Hollywood honors its moviemaking the way it knows (and not always in equitable ways, given that Alfred Hitchcock nor Robert Altman, to name a few, have never won Directing Oscars) and America gets to watch hours of pre-show hosted by idiots. Giving commentary for Gothamist this year, Karen Wilson, Margaret Harper, and Jen Chung. 7:06PM First thoughts: Gael Garcia Bernal is so cute. Ryan Seacrest is an......

Get your creepy crawly on with two potentially frightening movies out this weekend. Yet another '80s horror staple is getting the remake treatment with Dave Meyers' The Hitcher. Little do the college couple Grace (the former Mrs. Chad Michael Murray, Sophia Bush) and Jim (Zachary Knighton) know what's in store for them when they pick up John Ryder by the side of the road. Though it would seem clear from his various bad guy roles......

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association voting pool for the Golden Globes only consists of 83 members, but every year their mainstream tastes become one of the potential early prognosticators for the Emmys and the Oscars. Over in Beverly Hills today, the stylists are putting the finishing touches on the stars' couture, that long red carpet is being laid and some assistant is double checking the seals on the envelopes. Here in New York of course,......

Gothamist was a bit underwhelmed by this year's Golden Globe nominees, and we were thinking of not liveblogging. But, gosh darn it as we watched the E! preshow and saw the starlets sparkle their way down the red carpet, we realize it was hopeless, so here we are. Let it be known that: - Keira Knightley looks gorgeous in her white Valentino - and there's something surprisingly youthful about the dress, even though there's that......

Time releases its Time 100 list of influential people for 2005, and it's pretty much the snore it was last year. Much like other magazines whose "most influential list" reads more like a "Who's popular?" or "Who's pretty?" list from high school, Time focuses on names that people have heard of. Sure, some of the people truly make a difference, like Jeffrey Sachs or Javier Solana, but Jamie Foxx and Clint Eastwood? Boring. And the......

You know it's the Oscars when P. Diddy busts out the velvet suit! Gothamist loves the Oscars, and we're going to attempt to do a little liveblogging. We might need to order a vat of caffeine and an EMT team at the ready; not because Chris Rock will be boring, but because we think that Gil Cates might kill us with his newfangled ideas and because we're meh about this year's nominees in the big......

My office had a Super Bowl pool last week. Ten bucks got you a box on a grid and prizes were awarded based on the score at the end of each quarter, including the final score of the game. With the number of people in my office, the prize must have been over $500. I didn't participate because I figured gambling was illegal outside of sports books in Las Vegas or Atlantic City. I'm......

Oh, my God, this sounds just like "The Next Karate Kid" - just replacing the karate with boxing and Mr. Miyagi with Dirty Harry, and Oscarizing Hillary Swank. The trades report that Clint Eastwood will direct and star in "Million Dollar Baby," "a tragic and platonic love story involving a fighter turned-trainer and a woman in her early 30s who is determined to begin a boxing career." Okay, so maybe it's a little classier, but......

Will third time be a charm for Peter Jackson? Jackson's work for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, along with Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation, Clint Eastwood for Mystic River, Gary Ross for Seabiscuit, and Peter Weir for Master and Commander, is nominated for the Directors' Guild Award. The DGA nominees are very similar to the Golden Globe nominees, except Anthony Minghella was nominated instead of Ross. Guess the......

Opening night at the New York Film Festival is always fun in the grandeur of Avery Fisher Hall and stars in tow, and this past year was no different. Clint Eastwood began his introduction of his cast and crew (Mystic River author Dennis Lehane, screenwriter Brian Helgeland, and stars Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney, Tim Robbins, and Sean Penn) with what seems like the joke du mois - the California gubernatorial race joke: "I'm......

If it's fall, it must be time for the New York Film Festival. This year, the opening night film is Mystic River, the ensemble drama directed by Clint Eastwood. The cast is ridiculously loaded with great actors: Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins, Laura Linney, Marcia Gay Harden, and Laurence Fishburne. The story is dark, eliciting comparisons to Eastwood's tour de force western, Unforgiven, but its present day setting makes it more wrenching. Sean......

As the natural, expected follow-up to yesterday's post about Best Movie Sex Scenes, Gothamist looks bad movie sex scenes. Using The Guardian's list based on reader opinion as a starting point, of course Gothamist agrees that the love scene between Neo and Trinity in The Matrix: Reloaded is ridiculous, but the very worst scene ever? Come on, at least these two leads are sexy and appealing, even if the context and Zion is stupid. Number......

Last week... - City sales tax hike - Damn the pretty boy singers - What is pococurante - The New New York Quality of Life - Photo Blogs in the New York Times - Mermaid Inn is yummy - Andrew Giuliani is all growed up - Listening to sad music while reading depressing things - Clint Eastwood's Mystic River - Token of a memory Go see Tinkle on Sunday. We're going to the Big Apple......

Someday, Gothamist will go to the Cannes Film Festival. But until then, we will continue to get excited about films that premiere there and eagerly await for them to come Stateside. Like Mystic River, Clint Eastwood's adaptation of Dennis Lehane's bestselling novel. Gothamist had heard how wonderful a book Mystic River was ("Don't mind the 'New York Times Bestseller' and mass-market paperback size, Jen."), both in terms of the thrill and emotional story telling.......