Oliver Stone's latest president biopic W. opens today, and stars Josh Brolin as 43, Richard Dreyfuss as Vice and Thandie Newton as Condoleezza. Ornery Armond White at the New York Press calls it "the best example of American filmmaking courage since Munich." Then again, here's a man who thinks that "for the past eight years, the media elite have fought back against Bush." Right! The press sure gave Bush hell when the administration was......

Today the Times’s Frank Bruni destroys Ago (pictured), the new Italian restaurant in Tribeca’s Greenwich Hotel owned by Robert De Niro. It’s a savage burn, and way more entertaining than any movie De Niro’s been involved with during the last decade. Things go sideways immediately when the bartender unleashes “the Poseidon Adventure of wine spills” on Bruni’s lady friend and his party of four has to wait almost an hour for their table, which is......

Totally Baked: Not for Atkins adherents, this sleek new Chelsea eatery is determined to put the baked potato back on top. Here the Yukon Golds are partially scooped out and piled sky high with a smorgasbord of inspired toppings, 18 in all, including wild mushrooms with shallots, creamed spinach with leeks, and pulled pork. Each potato comes with a side salad; what you see here is the “Sweet Spa Potato.” Those feeling flush will want......

Actor/director John Turturro was among the protesters assembled at City Hall today for a rally to save the Carnegie artist studios, which could soon be taken over by Carnegie Hall expansion plans. But the big star of the day was 95-year-old Editta Sherman, the building’s longest living tenant, having resided there since 1949. She’s seen here holding a photograph she took of Leonard Bernstein, a former resident; Sherman’s studio in the building was once......

Now we know why there are still people heading to The Garden. There aren't any Knicks’ fans left, they are all paid actors. At least that’s the conclusion one could draw from a story in the New York Press. It turns out that the people in the "fan ads" (like the one pictured above), are mostly paid actors and their stories are made up for the commercials. The surprising thing is that apparently the......

The Critical Mass Halloween Ride is tonight! If you go, get some good pictures! THEATER: Sam Marks’s new play The Joke peels back the thin gauze separating comedy from an open wound. Set in the last throws of the Catskills comedy circuit circa 1965, the story concerns the disintegrating comedy duo of Steady Eddie and Doug the Mug. Doug has let his envy of Eddie get the better of him and begins adding more of......

We'd expect a lack of municipal fealty from most people in show business, but we were disappointed to hear that Al Pacino and Robert De Niro would be turning up a chance to shoot in the city in exchange for a building in Connecticut with a NYC backdrop behind it. The New York Post reported briefly that some scenes of the in-production film "Righteous Kill" will be posing scenes set in NYC in Stamford,......

Mayor Bloomberg unveiled a new campaign, Just Ask The Locals, "the City's first-ever five-borough marketing and advertising campaign to make visitors feel more welcome, thank them for visiting, and help them navigate New York City." The Mayor made the announcement at the new American Airlines terminal at JFK and said, "New Yorkers have always been welcoming and friendly, but not enough people around the world know it. So now we're going the extra mile......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on 5th Ave. in Brooklyn, an electric shock at 25th Ave. and 49th St. in Queens, and a shooting on 101st St. and Columbus Ave. in Manhattan. Chazz Palminteri's stage and screen bildungsroman A Bronx Tale will appear again onstage this fall. The off-Broadway play was adapted to a 1993 movie featuring Palminteri, Robert De Niro, and screen newcomer Lillo Brancato. The latter is now facing......

We're just going to get this out of the way: Justin Timberlake is bringing deep-fried pickle-sicles back. The modern day song and dance man has gone and opened his very own restaurant called Southern Hospitality (at 1460 2nd Ave and 76th St). It opened last night to a crowd of A-listers people you may have heard of, hankering for some barbecue. Amongst the items offered are deviled eggs, pulled pork, mac-n-cheese, fried catfish, and yes...the......

You may be familiar with James Sanders' book Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies, which celebrated New York City's role in movies and is a must for any fan of New York, architecture, or film. But even if you haven't, you get a chance to experience it in beyond the pages: Starting tomorrow, Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall will be the setting for a Celluloid Skyline exhibit. There will be huge "scenic backing"......

It really seems like Robert De Niro and Al Pacino have co-starred in a lot of movies together, but they haven't. Sure, they had a couple of scenes together in "Heat", and both starred in "The Godfather 2" (though they never shared screen time) - but that's about it as far as collaborating has gone for these two legends in their own time. The good news for fans of the actors is that it's......

Has the Tribeca Film Festival been using 9/11 as way to garner publicity and interest in their event? NYMag reports that an anonymous emailer sent out a press release today "accusing the Tribeca Film Festival of lying when they claim that Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro, and Craig Hatkoff founded the festival in response to the 9/11 attacks." It's clear that the vision for the festival was imagined some time before the attacks, as the......

As the city continues to beat the drum against trans fats, Mayor Bloomberg is taking every single opportunity to tell people why they are bad for you. At a press conference yesterday, he said, "If you want to eat fries, nobody's taking away your ability to eat fries. I love McDonald's fries." It's just that restaurants should use fatty oils that just don't have trans fats! We expect McDonald's to be sending a truck of......

This week, the film festival that Bobby De Niro and Jane Rosenthal built after September 11th has taken over most of downtown New York and some of uptown with its eclectic programming line-up. But there's more to do in town, movie-watching wise than just at Tribeca. So get out your TFF schedules, some snacks and some comfortable shoes to walk between screening spaces, there's movies to be seen this weekend. United 93, the narrative retelling......

Ah January. That lovely first month of the year which big Hollywood uses as its annual dumping ground. The Awards eligibility period is over, and now is the time to catch-up on all those films being talked about that came out at the same time over the past few weeks. Still, New Yorkers are lucky as we retain many filmgoing options. Sure you can check-out the latest video game adaptation from hackmeister Uwe Boll, but......

Perhaps more distressing than his latest film roles, everyone's favorite tough guy, Robert De Niro, wept an exhibit of his late father's paintings in France. Perhaps it's a nod to Father's Day, and of course it's sweet that a son would get so verklempt at seeing his father honored...but, well, Gothamist just prefers our De Niro fix tough, crazy, or mercenary. And Happy Father's Day, to everyone out there! We hope you found gifts more......

Gothamist had a great time rubbing shoulders with the stars at opening night of The Downtown Plays, the centerpiece production of the innaugural Tribeca Theater Festival. Along with the evening's co-hosts Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese, we also spotted such luminaries on the red carpet and at the Capitale after party as Carol Kane, Michael C. Hall from Six Feet Under, Sam Rockwell, Chad Lowe, and Rachel Weisz. The Downtown Plays couldn't be more......

Gothamist is excited about the Tribeca Theater Festival, which is running now through the 31st. Yes, this is being put on by the same folks who bring us the Tribeca Film Festival. Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff are presenting, in association with the acclaimed Tribeca-based Off-Broadway theater company, Drama Dept. The two-week Festival will present a breadth of entertainment downtown, including a short play series, Stage On Screen programs, and theater panel......

New York fixture Robert De Niro may be granted Italian citizenship next month at the Venice Film Festival. The idea of De Niro becoming a citizen has drawn criticism from some Italian cultural groups. The Order Sons of Italy in America sent a letter to the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, in an attempt to change his mind. They believe that De Niro's movies damage the "collective reputations of both Italians and Italian Americans." Born......