A pingpong hall was a Chinatown brothel's way into the wallets of public high school students. The Post reports that a brothel at 39 Eldridge Street was shut down after parents of Pace High School students realized the brothel owners were targeting their sons. Benjie Zheng and Ming Liuchang are accused of promoting the Robo-Pong Training Center with business cards that had a "contact number, an image of a topless woman - and a word,......

Broadway star Michael Cerveris (Hedwig, Sweeney Todd, 21 Jump Street) has joined the already exciting cast of King Lear, which opens next month. He’ll be squaring off in the role of Kent across from Kevin Kline’s hotly anticipated Lear. But according to Isaac Butler’s Parabasis, the production’s real star is “genius-level Shakespearean actor” Philip Goodwin in the role of the Fool. But that’s not all! The Public Theater is giving a young upstart named Stephen......

The Post reports that crime along the "club row" of West 27th Street has jumped since last year. With the bouncer shooting club patrons incident on West 22nd Street in May and last week's murder of a NJ teen who had been clubbing on West 27th, there's a lot of attention on the nightlife ways of Chelsea. In July alone, there was a 58% increase in assaults inside or right outside clubs, and 200 summons......

There is an awesome NY Times story about how the police "covertly join in" various city protests, possibly to rile things up. Gothamist knew that those ads for NYPD recruitment were to attract a hipper, younger force, sort of like a 2005 version of 21 Jump Street! It seems that the operation has been to surveil crowds ever since the start of the Republican National Convention, back at the end of August 2004. The......

Julia Diaco, who was busted for selling drugs, including cocaine, as an NYU freshman earlier this year, received 18 months probation from a State Supreme Court Justice. The terms of her probation are that she must complete a 10-month residential treatment program at Clear View in Sandpoint, Idaho and then an 8-month vocational program. The ruling gives clues into what happens with offenders who get probation: If she completes the Clear View residential program, Diaco's......

Candice Holmes, Recent Grad...

Gothamist doesn't know what to make of Johnny Depp's gold teeth. A Johnny Depp fan says that Depp "forgot" to take out the teeth which were put in during the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean. We know that Johnny Depp is pretty Method-y and a somewhat grungy Johnny is cute, but this might be too much. And keeping in teeth from the making of a movie based on a Disney ride? If he had......

This is like Jump Street, the Pick Pocket Division. Law and Order: Anti- Pickpocket Unit.Watching Your Back as You Watch the Back Pocket......