The scandal around the memoir-turned- fake-recalled- from-bookstores memoir Love and Consequences continues to embarrass the book publishing industry. Writer Margaret Jones, who told her publisher she was a half-white, half-Native American raised by a black foster family in South Central L.A. and former Bloods gang member, was exposed as Margaret Seltzer, white private school graduate from Sherman Oaks, California. Her real (white) sister called the publisher Riverhead Books after reading a lengthy NY Times feature......

Fox’s New Amsterdam (Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., WNYW 5) sounds like a mashup of Pocahontas and Forever Knight, but with out the animation or the vampires. The story for this new series starts in 1642 when a Dutch soldier (Danish import Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) saves a Native American girl and is given the gift/curse of immortality and not ageing until he finds his true love. Fast forward to today and that soldier is now NYPD homicide detective......

New York may have a casino in Vegas, but it has never had one in...New York. Well, not in quite some time -- though it is documented that there were casinos on Broadway in SoHo in the early 1800s (and of course in the 1900s there were places like Chumley's that secretly served as gambling dens). To legally gamble within city limits these days you only have a couple of options: OTB or the......

"I have an inborn hatred of injustice and tyranny that I cannot express." It is ironic that the speaker of these words, former President Millard Fillmore, was himself the victim of great injustice at the hands of tyranny. But this tyranny stemmed from the most unexpected of places: academia. For too long truth and liberty have stood idly by as one of their greatest crusaders had his name maligned by historians and layman alike. It......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: 2007 ESPY Awards (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., ESPN) Jimmy Kimmel co-hosts with basketballer LeBron James this sports awards show which only exists to give ESPN some programming and some overpaid athletes another trophy. Victoria Beckham: Coming to America (Monday, 8:00 p.m., WNBC 4) Thankfully this is a one shot deal since the 6 episode fakeality show deal fell through. The show itself chronicles the Victoria Beckham's move to......

When I think of the word clown, I think of Krusty, not a small theater in West Chelsea, but that's exactly where one of the premiere clowns of our time, Eric Davis , works as a teacher at The PIT . Davis, who was recently hired by Cirque Du Soleil, discussed what clowning means to him, how he became the clown he is today, and what he expects of clowning in the future. What does......

The Met just opened a new exhibit called “Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall: An Artist’s Country Estate” on Tuesday. Many aspects of Tiffany’s home (which took 3 years to build, from 1902 to 1905) are represented. The 84-room, eight-level house was nearly 600 acres overlooking Long Island Sound, was in Oyster Bay, New York. Tiffany himself designed the home inside and out, and this exhibition is a window into his art, through design, furniture......

For those who plan on commuting to or from the Upper East Side many years from now, you have something to look forward to - oh, and those of you living along Second Avenue, you might be annoyed - the MTA is getting ready to award a tunneling contract for the Second Avenue Subway's first phase this year, with digging actually starting in 2008, which means there's still time to relocate! Phase 1 of the......

Via Kottke: AssembleMe put together a nice set of NYC population graphs for the NYC Demographics page on Wikipedia. What impressed us what how dominant Brooklyn has been in population for the last 90 years-- although it looks like Queens is closing in, having passed Manhattan in the late 1960s. Even Staten Island is closing in on Manhattan-- maybe it's the rent prices! Another interesting data set from the Wikipedia page: "The racial makeup......

We've done tons of census race-data maps before, but this one at Webfoot is particularly well-built. One thing we learned right away: not too many Native American neighborhoods in the five-boroughs. There are, however, at least six high-density Asian spots. We've identified three-- can you name the rest? [Related: if you have Google Earth, Goth reader Phillip Gross suggests this cool census data overlay for similar information goodness.]......

It's Oscar Night and Gothamist is here. Tonight, it'll be a joint effort, from our resident film guru Karen Wilson and our resident Oscar freak Jen Chung. We hope you weigh in with what you think! KW: I have my popcorn, my diet coke -- I am ready for the spectacle and the excess. JC: ALL RIGHT! I just took extra Vitamin C - I'm waiting for some food delivery. 6:36PM Isaac Mizrahi has NOT......

With fallen DC lobbyist Jack Abramoff's plea deal freaking out the Beltway, people would expect him to turn over Republican congressmen Tom DeLay and Bob Ney. But Gothamist wondered if any of our area politicians were involved. And, naturally, some were, which isn't surprising given money Abramoff had at his disposal (through Abramoff's organization, about $915,000 went to Republicans in Congress, while $770,000 or so went to Democrats; however, Abramoff's personal contributions seem to be......

Fred Armisen is familiar from Saturday Night Live, where he plays Native American comedian Billy Smith on Weekend Update or the geriatric, three steps behind Vegas drummer, Mackey (he's also been a real drummer). Gothamist, in search of more things Fred, found this hilarious site on HBO that has clips of Armisen doing wacky comedy bits, like posing as a foreign tourist and asking people questions ("Am I a taxi?") and bringing a stuffed dog......

Taking a play out of fashion industry's notebook, the U.S. Mint continues its effort to sex up its image by introducing not one but TWO new nickels next year, one for the spring, the other for fall. The nickels will still have Thomas Jefferson's profile, but the backs are new, both with events from Jefferson's presidency. The Spring Nickel celebrates the bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States......

Tonight marks the premiere of Comedy Central's new show, I'm With Busey, where a Busey fan hangs with Gary Busey. Phil Gallo of Variety says it might be addicting: "In the first two episodes, much is made of Busey's fascination with Native American culture and eating foods that leave drippings on one's face (oysters, ribs and, what else, roasted donuts). He also gets in touch with his feminine side when he goes clubbing in......