Since the end of The Sopranos, actor Michael Imperioli has kept busy running his Off Broadway theater Studio Dante and working on his directorial debut, an indie feature called The Hungry Ghosts, which he also wrote. Now he’ll be joining the cast of ABC sci-fi detective series Life on Mars, which is adapted from a BBC show of the same name. Despite rumors of ABC pulling the plug, production has been moved to New York......

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......

Newspaper photographers usually tend to contribute to the story - not be the subject of them. But today there happens to be two stories about the NY Post's shutterbugs. One photographer, Jason Nicholas, who served almost 13 years on a manslaughter conviction (he was 19 when he fired a rifle at a man, who later died), was arrested last month while covering a story. Apparently the cop told him not to use his flash while......

THEATER: We like our comedy like we like our women: black and absurd. So it’s promising that the press release for a new play by Kevin Mandel uses those two irresistible words to describe A New Television Arrives, Finally. The strange story concerns “an American couple visited by a charismatic man presenting himself as a television set. Is the handsome stranger a charlatan or a guru?” Emmy award-winning actor Tom Pelphrey [Guiding Light] leads the......

It's time for the tabloids to make a number of bada-boom puns, as the police confirmed that it was a pipe bomb that was set off yesterday morning outside the West 29th Street building owned by Sopranos actor Michael Imperioli and his wife. The NYPD said there no known threats to the Imperiolis and during a press conference, Mayor Bloomberg said, "While there certainly is no evidence that this was terrorism, we are taking......

This morning, an explosion occurred on 29th Street near 8th Avenue. No one was injured, but a van was damaged and residents were evacuated during the 1AM incident. The police believe it was either a pipe bomb or another "small explosive...meant to scare as opposed to cause significant damage or injuries." The explosion happened outside a ground floor space called Studio Dante, a small theater owned by Michael Imperioli, best known as Christopher Moltisanti......

The Sopranos finale is going to be talked about until the end of time, we've come to grips with that. The open-ended ending wasn't the only mysterious part of the hour long episode, though. In the process of picking apart each and every detail of the final hour, people are now asking: "what about that cat?" Or shall we say, cats...there were three playing that one role of the stray tabby. The Daily News reports......

EVENT: FreeNYC reports on a new happening at Pete Wentz's Angels and Kings (aka: AK-47). It's Nerdnite! Tonight, "Matthew King presents a stunningly creepy visual account of the state of mental hospitals in the Northeast, and lawyerly nerd Brendan Kehoe discuss lawsuits that threaten Google and YouTube, and therefore, all of our spare time at work." 7pm // Angels and Kings [500 E 11th St] // Free, 2 drink min THEATER: Anastasia Traina’s new play......

THEATER: Obie Award winner Adam Rapp has just unwrapped (sorry) his new play Essential Self-Defense at Playwrights Horizons. Set in a mean Midwestern town called Bloggs, the play has, fittingly, been generating big blog buzz. The “grim fairy tale” revolves around a disgruntled misfit “who takes a job as an attack dummy in a women’s self-defense class and finds himself mysteriously drawn to the repressed bookworm who’s beating on him. But all’s not well in......

Aha. The Post published this photograph of Mariska Hargitay as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit's Detective Olivia Benson in a pool of blood, and it seems like Benson will be hurt in some way so Hargitay can go on maternity leave. Connie Nielsen, probably best known as Lucilla from Gladiator but will always be Dirk Calloway's mom in Rushmore to us, is going to play the detective that fills in for Benson. What's interesting......

Throughout the month of May the Food Bank for NYC is holding their annual CANS Film Festival. It's much better than Cannes (less travel and papparazzi) and of course beneficial to our city - as it's a fundraiser for their hunger awareness-raising campaign. You may have noticed some PSA's for the event by Christopher Michael Imperioli. [Sidenote: Gothamist is having some trouble even remembering what happened to him in the season finale of the Sopranos......

Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes sure does have a lot of enemies. One of his rivals is pointing out many of his top assistant DA's don't live in Kings County, which might violate their "duty as public servants to live in the city where they work," as the Post puts it. John O'Hara filed a complaint with the Conflict of Interest Board; the Post notes that O'Hara has been "prosecuted three times for the felony crime......

- Making cupcakes that look like pandas, koalas and bears - Finding out what other species there are after hipsters: Robert Lanham's Food Court Druids, Cherohonkees and Other Creatures... - An interview with comedian Dave Gorman - NYC Transit Authority wants a ban on subway photography - The hot concerts in the city this season - Partying with Penthouse Pets - 2nd Avenue Deli provides alibi for unjustly arrested man during the Republican Convention......

News that our favorite Law & Order detective portrayer, Jerry Orbach, has prostate cancer is upsetting, but we're glad that he has been responding well to treatment and we'll send him our prayers. That said, Gothamist never wants to think about Jerry Orbach's prostate again; we rather think of pithy one-liners that Lennie Briscoe would say. But if Jerry even needs some cheering up, Gothamist would be happy to gather up a crew of people......