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Nightlife

The Luckiest Girls in the World: White Tie Endures at the International Debutante Ball

The Mysteries of Brooklyn

A Comprehensive List of All the Bars 'That Specialize in Beer' in Williamsburg

Comprehensive Lists

Our Gorgeous Mosaic: The Power 150

Sarah Palin.
Campaigning

Mama Grizzly Comes to New York—But Is She Eating GOP's Young?

By Reid Pillifant | February 22, 2011 | 8:38 pm

On Thursday morning, in a wooded rear parking lot cordoned off with police tape, Sarah Palin stepped out of a big black sport-utility vehicle and entered through the gaudy gates of the Crest Hollow Country Club. She wore a dour black skirt and matching blouse; a bulky red, white and blue wrist band; and a pair of leopard print heels. Ms. Palin was not in Woodbury to rally her rowdy base--in fact, her SUV had breezed by some Tea Partiers gathered at the club's entrance--but to address the membership of the Long Island Association, the state's largest business... MORE»

Editorial

Schumer Should Mind His Own Business

By The Editors | February 22, 2011 | 8:28 pm

What does Chuck Schumer know about Wisconsin? A lot, apparently. Or so he says. New York's senior senator, who rarely misses a chance to play the populist card, has seized on the fiscal crisis in Madison to raise his profile and a few campaign dollars as well. Mr. Schumer recently sent a mass email to supporters condemning Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's attempts to limit collective bargaining rights for public employees. He urged recipients to send checks to the Democratic Party to prevent Mr. Walker from taking "America back to the... MORE»

Features

The Other Controversy at Ground Zero: Church vs. State Over Tiny Site

By Matt Chaban | February 22, 2011 | 8:27 pm

A bitterly cold wind tore across the 50th floor of One World Trade Center on Dec. 5, yet the crews in hard hats kept their pace, driving the most important building in the city skyward a floor a week, putting to rest years of complaints about indecision and inaction at the world's most famous construction... MORE»

NYSE

Bells, Brokers, Blue Jackets, and Bartiromo: It's the New York Stock Exchange Show!

By Emily Witt | February 22, 2011 | 8:24 pm

Last week, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, only days after NYSE Euronext announced its planned merger with the Deutsche Boerse, three Green Bay Packers on a post-Super Bowl press junket arrived to ring the closing bell. The football players entered in suits and ties, dwarfing those around them in stature and giving All-American toothpaste grins. Posing for photographers, they acted out the role of frenzied floor specialists at a bank of telephones in the middle of the floor.... MORE»

Xavier Dolan, Niels Schneider, and Monia Chokri in <i>Heartbeats</i>
movies

Movie Review: Heartbeats Is an Affair to Remember

By Rex Reed | February 22, 2011 | 8:23 pm

With Heartbeats, French-Canadian writer-director Xavier Dolan, at the tender age of 21, follows the rocky slopes of a romantic love triangle between Montreal hipsters--a mundane theme illuminated by images and ideas that are consistently arresting. Two friends and sometime lovers--Francis (played by the director) and Marie (Monia Chokri)--meet a sexually ambiguous country boy named Nico (Niels Schneider) and fall in love. Film references abound.... MORE»

The Lunch CROWD

Gagosian, Glimcher and Boone, Oh My!

By Julian Niccolini | February 22, 2011 | 8:18 pm

On Friday, the weather was so wonderful, everyone was in a great mood. The sun filtered through the chain curtains--it was perfect! Martha Stewart came in for lunch. We had to open the restaurant early for her because she arrived at 11:30 a.m.! So it was a Martha Stewart day. She looked better than ever. Maybe it's all that... MORE»

Ms. Huffington.
Acquisitions

Huff? Nooo! As Longtime Huffington Hands Cash In, Others Wonder 'What If?'

By Mike Taylor | February 22, 2011 | 8:17 pm

A certain amount of grumbling is par for the course in the media business these days--an ambient hum so pervasive you almost forget it's there. But that disconsolate keening seems to have reached a new pitch with AOL's staggering $315 million purchase of the Huffington Post, an aggregation-loving site that, in the words of one Web editor, makes fellow page-view-hoarders Tina Brown and Nick Denton "look heroic." The deal means hefty payouts not only for proprietress Arianna Huffington (rumored to have landed somewhere around $20 million) but also for some of her minions.... MORE»

Kathy and Janet Lennon.
Interview

Living Dolls! The Lennon Sisters Do Toy Fair

By Aaron Gell | February 22, 2011 | 8:09 pm

In a booth on the third floor of the Javits Center, Janet and Kathy Lennon, the youngest two of the singing Lennon Sisters, the wholesome, bouffant-wearing quartet of Lawrence Welk Show fame (still periodically spoofed on Saturday Night Live), were recalling the shooting death of their father at the hands of a delusional stalker. "It was like a movie that you live through," said Janet, her hair pulled up and back in a platinum ponytail. "Throughout our career, we had people who we labeled 'kooks'--lots of them," explained Kathy, an elegant... MORE»

Fashion Week diary.
Shindigger

Fashion Week Crowd Skips Proenza Schouler in Pursuit of Diamonds

By Chloe Malle | February 22, 2011 | 7:59 pm

On the final night of Fashion Week, New York's sartorial royalty skipped the final few Fall 2011 shows in order to get a peek at Set in Style, the new Van Cleef & Arpels exhibition at the... MORE»

Observatory

Al Goldstein: The Pornographer in Winter

By Lili Anolik | February 22, 2011 | 7:57 pm

In April shooting will begin on Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story, starring Malin Ackerman. And last month, rumor had it that a second Lovelace biopic was in the works, this one with Kate Hudson in the lead. It's unlikely, however, that either actress would be getting ready for her money shot, Mr. DeMille, if not for a review by Al Goldstein, founder and publisher of Screw and host of long-running cable-access show Midnight Blue, in the June 5, 1972 issue of his magazine. Lovelace, wrote Mr.... MORE»

Mary-Kay Wilmers.
books

Of Pizza and Politics: Lefties Throw a Party

By Daniel D'Addario | February 22, 2011 | 7:55 pm

London Review of Books editor Mary-Kay Wilmers is looking for a new employee. The ideal hire, if an American, "would have to say all the right things about the publication-and have a knowledge of history, as we're a bit lacking at the... MORE»

Observatory

Public Access Betrayed! The Museum of the Moving Image Does Robin Byrd

By Michael H. Miller | February 22, 2011 | 7:52 pm

The 95-year-old father of public-access television sat on the stage, frowning. "I'd like to say that if what we saw on the screen tonight is all that is public access, it would never have lasted," said George Stoney. The crowd laughed awkwardly. "I think what we saw was the worst aspects of public access." There were a few scattered claps among the audience. "I thought that this show did a disservice to the whole idea of public... MORE»

Art Collector

A Strange Anomaly: David Hammon's ‘Homeless’ Art on the Upper East Side

By Adam Lindemann | February 22, 2011 | 7:49 pm

In 2003, artist David Hammons presented "Which Mike Would You Like to Be Like," three vintage microphones standing alone in a room, representing three Michaels: Jackson, Tyson and Jordan. It was an ironic commentary on role models for African-Americans, a funny play on words, a great pun, all of the above; that's the magic we've come to expect from David Hammons. He's given us several memorable art moments: shoes slung over a Richard Serra sculpture, trees decorated with winos' empty bottles; he famously sold snowballs outside an art school.... MORE»

The Wee Hours

The Wee Hours: In Tip Top Shape

By Nate Freeman | February 22, 2011 | 7:25 pm

"No, Arianna can’t make it,” said the birthday boy. “But,” he continued, sipping his whiskey, “she sent me a birthday email today.” Arianna Huffington, it seems, doesn’t much make it out to Bed-Stuy on a Sunday... MORE»

books

Pants Down on Madison: Salinger’s Slightly Salingeresque Boswell Wants to Be Left Alone

By David Freedlander | February 22, 2011 | 6:57 pm

Kenneth Slawenski has granted few interviews and doesn't care to do any more. Yet he has been swept from suburban obscurity in recent weeks by the widespread praise of his new biography, J.D. Salinger: A Life. There was a coveted cover notice in The New York Times Book Review, and three days prior Michiko Kakutani pronounced it "earnest, sympathetic and perceptive." When The Observer contacted Mr. Slawenski over email, he told us to arrange a sit-down with his Random House publicist. His publicist promptly called to say that Mr. Slawenski didn't want any more sit-downs... MORE»