January 30, 2007
NBA blows it with Kobe suspension
By MARC BERMANThe NBA has suspended Kobe Bryant for tonight's gameagainst the Knicks because of an accidental hit on Manu Ginobili Sunday. Maybe the league can also accidently give back...
By Any Other Name
My sharp-eyed colleague Kyle Smith noticed in Variety this week that "Fast Track,'' a romantic comedy with Zach Braff, will have a new title "The Ex,'' when it opens in...
Coming to an Xbox 360 near you
Xbox Live Arcade announced that they've got 10 new titles coming to a 360 near you, starting in February.Update: The games will go for 400, 800 or 1200 points. Screenshots...
Chilly Scenes of Winter
Opening a movie in limited release can be risky if critics don't embrace it and audiences don't come. Just ask George Clooney, whose "The Good German'' won't be coming to...
LIVEBLOG/NYC: Day 1 Finding my guide
First things first. I needed a guidebook. Just like anywhere else unfamiliar I go, its always good to get an overview before you start doing your serious research. Plus, I...
Isiah's Kobe love affair
By MARC BERMANKobe Bryant's in the house tonight and that means just one thing: will Isiah Thomas be able to coach the game or will he be in too much...
LIVEBLOG/NYC: Day 1 - Back to square one
I live in New York, but I don't, really. When I'm here, I am based, like some impoverished flight attendant, out near LaGuardia Airport. It's easier that way. Not to...
Graffiti and white shirts
Enough with the black and white already! If this week's Vintage Fashion Sale truly hearkens the return of bold '80s designer Stephen Sprouse, I say bring on the day-glo. Sprouse,...
NORAH'S AURA BRIGHTENS
KEEPING up with Joneses - Norah Jones in particular - has just gotten a whole lot harder. After the phenomenal success of her debut solo album, "Come Away with Me,"...
DAY-GLO VU
CHALK it up to the resurgence of leggings, peg-legged jeans, off-the-shoulder sweater dresses and reruns of "I Love the '80s," but fashion folk are snapping up clothes by Stephen Sprouse,...
CHILLY RECEPTION FOR CALLOUS MAN'S 'FEVER'
BEFORE he starts performing his one-man play "The Fever," Wallace Shawn invites the audience onstage for a brief Champagne reception. Proceed with caution: Those moments of hedonism are likely to...
ROBOCOP REVIEWS SELF
HERE'S how Peter Weller (succinctly) sums up several pieces of an eclectic résumé: * "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension" (1984): "I don't understand it to this...
BUILDING CHARACTER
IF you thought Peter Weller was scary in "24" - when his cold-as-ice Christopher Henderson watched Jack Bauer shoot his wife in the knee and still wouldn't talk - wait...
SCREW GUN DIVAS
MAYBE it's me - but seriously - if I have to see one more show that starts with a group of people arriving at a location one-by-one with suitcases I'm...
HATCH TO GET APPEAL
'SURVIVOR" winner turned jailbird, Richard Hatch may have had no immunity, but he's finally getting an appeal. Hatch, who claims that his trial for tax fraud was unfair and his...
USING 'IDOL' FOR HER BIG COMEBACK
ONE "American Idol" stand-out is actually using the hit show to make a comeback - at age 25. Jory Steinberg, the willowy brunette who wowed the judges at last week's...
CBS NEWSER BACK FROM DEAD
CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier, who barely survived an explosion in Iraq last May that killed two of her colleagues, walked into the CBS newsroom yesterday for the first time...
RITA LOSES RASP
RITA Cosby, the MSNBC anchor, has found her voice. Since Cosby appeared on the air last week - after a three week "enforced" vacation in Mexico - her trademark rasp...
OPRAH-NICOLE NIGHT STILL ON
NICOLE Kidman's car accident won't keep her off of the new Oprah Winfrey pre-Oscar special. "Nicole's segment was shot several days before the accident," an ABC rep says. The crash,...
ONE BIGGIE OSCAR STILL UP FOR GRABS
AFTER the SAG awards, the 300th pre-Oscar awards evening, it's a lock on Helen Mirren Best Actress, Forest Whitaker Best Actor; Supporting, Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy. Besides how Mirren...
THE LUNCHTIME FACE-LIFT
OIL changes. Eating a salad. Having a fling in a hotel. And now, joining the list of things you can do in 30 minutes over your lunch break: a face-lift....
EASY LIFTING FOR TIRED EYES
SEEMS like every other day you hear about some new body part that can be improved by plastic surgery - toes, knees, privates. But that doesn't mean that the old...
VOTERS LOVE GOV
ALBANY - New York voters overwhelmingly approve of Gov. Spitzer but hold a dismal view of the leaders of the Legislature, a poll showed yesterday. The Siena College survey found...
COUNTING HOMELESS
More than 3,000 volunteers braved the cold overnight to conduct the city's annual homeless count. The count is an attempt to find out just how many people sleep on the...
CUNY LURES COMMISH IRIS
Iris Weinshall will leave her post as city transportation commissioner to take a high-level job overseeing the sprawling facilities of CUNY. Weinshall - the wife of Sen. Charles Schumer -...
CITY DOUBLE-COVER$ B'KLYN ARENA
The Bloomberg administration is now kicking in $205 million toward Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn - more than double the amount anticipated. The mayor's preliminary 2008 budget revealed...
SPITZ STICKS TO HIS GUNS IN SILVER WAR
ALBANY - Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Gov. Spitzer, at war over the selection of a new state controller, met last night, but were unable to hammer out a deal....
HE'S ALL THE RAGE
Never say Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter is afraid to do the heavy lifting. The gray-maned magazine mogul took matters into his own hands over the weekend when workers raised...
RUDY'S GUN POLICY ON TARGET: GOPER
The Republican leading Rudy Giuliani's New Hampshire campaign said he thinks the 2008 presidential hopeful will be an "easy sell" - and that the ex-mayor "satisfied" him that he won't...
BELL'S FRIENDS AT GRAND JURY
Two eyewitnesses to the 50-bullet fusillade that killed Sean Bell hours before his wedding day last November testified before a Queens grand jury yesterday. Larenzo Kinred and Hugh Jensen were...
JUST 2 CITY HOSPS ACE 'CHECKUP'
New York's hospital industry took a hit yesterday when a report card rated only two city medical centers - New York Presbyterian and Maimonides - as among the nation's best....
BEAUTY & THE BEAST
He has been accused of taking her life, allegedly slashing her throat with such jealous ferocity that the beautiful ballerina-turned-stripper was nearly decapitated. Now, he's slashing at her reputation -...
POETIC JUSTICE
A traumatized Staten Island girl - sexually abused by a family friend three years ago - finally broke her silence by penning a heartbreaking poem and handing it in to...
HELLS-A-COP-IN'
Cops yesterday raided the Hells Angels clubhouse in Manhattan and took at least one person into custody as they investigated the vicious beating of a woman there. "Oh, my God!...
TIME AND A HALF
Ten-year-old Aziza Little got the rude awakening of her young life yesterday - when she learned the hard way that her school day would become a grueling 12-hour odyssey starting...
6-YEAR-OLD IN A SCHOOL DAZE
Six-year-old Jenny Gao has been told to take the bus to school - the city bus. The pint-sized first-grader is one of perhaps thousands of city students offered a MetroCard...
SPITZER IS ONE TOUGH CLASS ACT
ALBANY - Gov. Spitzer yesterday unveiled an aggressive education agenda that would close hundreds of failing schools and push for tougher tenure requirements for teachers. "We are poised to begin...
TOP LABOR LEADER'S NEW POST
Veteran New York hospital-workers union chief Dennis Rivera - one of the city's most powerful labor leaders - announced yesterday he's resigning to head a new national health-care union. Rivera...
'PROSECUTOR' STAR JONES IN COURT
Star Jones had a cameo role as a witness in a murder case in Brooklyn federal court yesterday. The former co-host of "The View" was subpoenaed to testify about a...
HOW TO BUY A GAVEL
When Civil Court Judge Karen Yellen sat down, hat in hand, with Brooklyn Democratic boss Clarence Norman, Jr., to ask for his support in the 2002 primary, it wasn't her...
TRANSFER COST PLAN 'UN-FARE'
Despite spending close to $900 million to link six subway stations, the MTA's planned Fulton Street Transit Center will force many straphangers to pay a second fare for transfers, officials...
'KILLER' MA BLUES
The mother of tragic Nixzmary Brown was so depressed before Christmas that she contemplated suicide - and couldn't testify in a pretrial hearing, her lawyer said yesterday. The lawyer for...
2 COPS AND TOT HURT IN QUEENS SMASH-UP
Two undercover police detectives and a young child were hurt last night in a multicar wreck in Queens, authorities said. The chain reaction began when an SUV collided with a...
PRISON OFFICER SHOT IN BROOKLYN HOLD-UP
A city correction officer was shot and wounded during a hold-up at a Brooklyn auto store last night, police said. The 32-year-old officer was inside New Horizon Automotive on Atlantic...
SURPRISE RENT AID
Thousands of poor New Yorkers who applied for federal Section 8 housing subsidies more than a decade ago got stunning news yesterday - they should come on in and get...
CITY SINKS ITS 'MOB' LINKS
The city yesterday terminated its contract to run a Brooklyn golf course with a man who has links to the mob. In December 2005, Dominick Logozzo signed a 20-year deal...
JURORS SPLIT OVER MURDER MYSTERY
Brooklyn jurors rendered a split decision yesterday in an unusual murder trial - agreeing that a Bedford-Stuyvesant man shot a love rival in the face, but failing to reach a...
WORKERS WIN $5M PAYBACK
Hundreds of employees who worked for city contractors are getting more than $5 million in back wages because they were underpaid, the city comptroller said. State law requires the private...
SLAIN WIFE: 'I WANT HIM DEAD, DEAD'
An enraged Christine Odierno wanted her wealthy husband dead - and said so loudly enough for all her Upper East Side neighbors to hear, a former pal testified yesterday. But...
INFANT'S BODY IN GARBAGE
The body of a baby girl was found in a pile of garbage in the basement of a Bronx building yesterday, police said. Authorities did not know whether the child,...
BAM BOOM TOWN
Here's a first look at what city planners hope will be a new Left Bank - Brooklyn-style. After years of delays, officials are finally ready to move forward with a...
'GIANT TEETH' $PAT
Bite me. A self-proclaimed "Dentist to the Stars" has filed a $5 million suit against the co-author of the dating book "The Rules" - who claims he gave her giant...
CABBY BEATEN ON UPPER E. SIDE
A taxi driver was beaten unconscious and robbed by two thugs on the Upper East Side after telling them he didn't know how to get to their destination, authorities said...
NAZI NOOKIE NEST ON BLOCK
The creepy country estate that Adolf Hitler's chief of propaganda used as his love shack is going on the market to help Berlin cut costs. Joseph Goebbels first took over...
GAZE IN THE MILITARY
WASHINGTON - Looks like things are getting serious in the race for the White House - seriously lovey-dovey, that is. Judging from this photo, the spirit of bipartisan cooperation appeared...
HILLARY UNDER ATTACK
WASHINGTON - The White House blasted Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday, accusing her of launching "partisan attacks" that hurt the morale of U.S. troops in Iraq. White House press secretary Tony...
BRANDY FACES JAIL-TIME RAP
Brandy, you might have to do some time, girl. The California Highway Patrol yesterday recommended that R&B singer Brandy, former star of the TV sit-com "Moesha," be charged with vehicular...
EX-KNICK ATTACK 'SPREE': GAL
Former Knick star Latrell Sprewell roughed up the mother of four of his kids and told her they had a "fake-ass relationship" in an effort to worm out of his...
NO FLIPPER RIPPER
Greasy rapper Kevin Federline, burned by a restaurant trade group over an ad depicting him as a daydreaming burger flipper, yesterday said he would never offend hardworking fry cooks -...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
Brooklyn* A man was shot by a carjacker who left him for dead on a Bedford Stuyvesant street yesterday, police sources said. The 44-year-old victim was shot in the back...
FUNNY THING IS, BRITNEY IS THE PITIFUL PARENT
HE'S the fertile layabout who won fame for giving a face to the creature he most resembles - the 6-foot sponge. Who knew that Kevin Federline would evolve into father...
MONSTER MUST DIE
IT WAS Detective Rodney Andrews' favorite leather jacket - and the bloodstains splashed across it told the tragic story of how two heroes met a sudden, violent death at the...
LOTTERY
NEW YORK Midday Numbers Mon.: 224; Lucky Sum: 8; Midday Win 4 Mon.: 0800; Lucky Sum: 8; Evening Numbers Mon.: 335; Lucky Sum: 11; Evening Win 4 Mon.: 4787; Lucky...
THE BEST OF AMERICA
Yesterday, America once again got a close-up look at the work of an authentic national treasure - the Fisher family of New York. Through the auspices of the Fisher-founded Intrepid...
UNFIT FOR THE JOB
Gov. Spitzer and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver sat down to dinner last night to discuss a topic about which there really isn't too much more to be said - the...
THE GREAT AIRPORT ROBBERY
ONE initiative the Pataki administration actually realized was the 2000 privatization of Orange County's Stewart Airport. Five years in the making, the $39 million deal gave the new operator, Britain's...
ELIOT SCHOOLS N.Y.
IN a speech that met alternatively with applause and silence from a standing-room-only crowd at Chancellor's Hall in the historic State Education Building in Albany, Gov. Spitzer yesterday outlined an...
GET IT NOW & PAY . . .FOREVER
"This generation wants everything now."- J.J. Burns, wealth manager, commenting on the soaring numbers of home foreclosures in New York state BURNS is onto something that involves far more than...
DAMNING DEM DOUBTS ON HILLARY
A NEAT bit of poll ing by the Gallup Organization shows that what's hurting Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primaries isn't so much her vote on Iraq or even...
'I REALLY RESENT'
SEN. Hillary Clinton said over the weekend that "I really resent" the fact American troops may be tied up in Iraq in January 2009 - when she hopes to be...
GAINING MOMENTUM: U.S. MUST STOP IRAN NOW
THE ISSUE: The United State's options in dealing with Iran's nuclear program. Arthur Herman is a breath of fresh air in the midst of the gloom and defeatism of the...
A GREAT JOURNALIST REMEMBERED
THE ISSUE: Deborah Orin-Eilbeck's battle with cancer and her contribution to journalism. Deborah Orin was a national treasure ("Deborah Orin-Eilbeck: 1947-2007," Editorial, Jan 29).Mary McLemorePike Road, Ala.***** Whenever I saw...
MARTHA POACHES EDITOR FROM MACBAIN
Louise T. Blouin MacBain's magazine empire suffered another blow yesterday after the editor of the startup magazine Culture & Travel bolted to take the top editor post at Martha Stewart...
TUNING IN HELP
Liberal talk-radio network Air America has been saved - again. The bankrupt broadcasting company said yesterday that Stephen Green, founder of Manhattan real estate behemoth SL Green Realty Corp. and...
WATCH S&P 500 FOR CLUES TO YEAR'S MOVE
FEW people on Wall Street would argue that this has been one heck of a boring January. There have been a few days when the stock market made a memorable...
DEMS' EXEC PAY STRATEGY DOUBTED
Although well-intentioned, the Democrats' new plan to rein in bloated CEO nest eggs could wind up awarding bosses even richer retirements at the expense of investors. Experts from two opposing...
SUPER END RUN
One Super Bowl advertiser is getting an unusually sweet deal this year by doing an end run around CBS and going straight to the National Football League. Insurance giant Nationwide,...
MARIA ANGLES FOR Q&A SHOW
The controversy swirling around CNBC host Maria Bartiromo and her relationship with a now ousted Citigroup executive isn't preventing the cable network from finding ways to strengthen its ties with...
SUITE TALKS AT PLAZA
FABLED London department store Fortnum & Mason is in talks with Miki Naftali's Elad Properties to open a food hall in the shopping concourse of the Plaza Hotel, scheduled to...
$LEAZY MONEY FOR PARIS' WEB PAIR
Two Californians who stumbled upon an embarrassing treasure trove of Paris Hiltons personal papers, sexy videos and love letters rudely rebuffed the ditzy heiress efforts to buy back the stash...
GLOBE'S RYAN 'VINDICATED' OVER JOUMANA
Boston Globe columnist and ESPN contributor Bob Ryan, who was suspended by the paper for one month in 2003 for comments he made about Joumana Kidd, said yesterday he felt...
RED BULLS SIGN DUTCH KEEPER
The Red Bulls yesterday signed former Dutch national team GK Ronald Waterreus. The 36-year-old was a former teammate of expected Red Bull captain Claudio Reyna while at Manchester City, and...
STORM SURROUNDS IMES
Rumors are swirling that David Imes, who failed out of Xaverian last year, should be ineligible at Boys & Girls this season. Xaverian head coach Jack Alesi wouldn't comment on...
IONA REACHES NEW LOW: 0-21
Before last night's game, Canisius' Darnell Wilson reminded his teammates that despite Iona's 0-20 record, the Gaels were a team to be reckoned with. "I told them [the record] didn't...
CARDS TAP EX-NYERS
Former Jets running back Richie Anderson was hired yesterday by the Arizona Cardinals to be their tight ends coach. Anderson, an assistant tight ends and receivers coach on Eric Mangini's...
HIGH PRICE OF GASOL
OVER the weekend, I heard Portland was offered Pau Gasol ($12.3 million) for LaMarcus Aldridge ($4M), Sergio Rodriguez ($760G) and Jamaal Magloire's expiring ($8.433M) contract. Without doubt, Gasol and Zach...
BATTLE TO SAVE BARBARO IS LOST
The long, valiant fight is over. Sadly, Barbaro is dead. Unbeatable on the racetrack until he fractured his right hind leg a few strides out of the gate in last...
A SAD FAREWELL
THE long vigil is over. The painful, meticulously loving struggle to save the life of the brilliant and gallant Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro has ended in heartbreak. The champ is...
BEARS QBS FALL CHI
MIAMI - There was a time when one of the great slapstick statistics in all of sports was the annual spring listing of all the men who tried and failed...
DUNGY: PEYTON'S THUMB OK
FORT LAUDERDALE - Tony Dungy last night pronounced Peyton Manning's bruised right thumb, which was banged on a teammate's helmet in the AFC Championship, in excellent condition. Manning, however, wasn't...
WE'RE VEXED ABOUT REX
MIAMI - When Rex Grossman answers a question he doesn't appreciate - he gets those quite often - there's a half-smile, half-smirk that curls up his lips, and when he...
COLTS TOUCH DOWN AT LAST
FORT LAUDERDALE - One day after the Bears had already settled into their Super Bowl digs, the Colts descended upon South Florida last night looking and sounding like a poised,...
SCRAPPY CLARK RAISES THE BAR
FORT LAUDERDALE - If you're looking for one under-the-radar player who could have the biggest impact, look no further than Colts tight end Dallas Clark. Clark blends into anonymity like...
INDY'S MR. CLUTCH AWAITS HIS CHANCE
FORT LAUDERDALE - If there is one pressure proof, weather-proof player in Super Bowl XLI, it is not Peyton Manning. It is the tough little kicker who used to be...
'O' WOES HAUNTING DEVILS
ATLANTA - One of the Devils' early-season discoveries was the second scoring line they'd so craved. They must find it again if they're planning anything better than another second-round playoff...
COUGHLIN NAMES PALMER QB COACH
Tom Coughlin ventured outside of his coaching sphere to import a defensive coordinator (Eagles assistant Steve Spagnuolo), but he did not stray far from the familiar for his new quarterbacks...
YASHIN FACTOR KEY FOR ISLANDERS
Alexi Yashin is the Islanders' captain, their second-leading scorer and their highest-paid player, and coach Ted Nolan cannot understate Yashin's importance if the Isles hope to make a run at...
FRANCIS 'STILL TWO WEEKS AWAY'
Rejoining the Knicks yesterday after nearly a one-month Houston rehab assignment, "Stevie Franchise" deserves a new nickname: "SMI." "Stephon Marbury Insurance." Battling knee tendinitis, Francis said he's still two weeks...
FULL OF BULL
A down-in-the-dumps Isiah Thomas spoke softly, almost inaudibly, and didn't smile once yesterday. Perhaps he knows - like last season - his unpredictably mediocre club still has no perimeter stopper...
ROLLING TO 300
Tom Glavine isn't sad that Barry Zito won't be in Mets' camp. Instead, Glavine is excited to see Oliver Perez, Phil Humber and Mike Pelfrey vying for rotation spots. The...
HOUSE DELIVERS IN PINCH
SALT LAKE CITY - Eddie House was on the Nets bench watching as Vince Carter got two quick fouls. He figured Boki Nachbar would get the call. But Nachbar was...
GAME VIN-NER
SALT LAKE CITY - Jason Kidd admitted the thought crossed his mind. In fact, all the Nets' minds. "You just wonder," Kidd said, "if we could win a close game,...
SECOND WIN-D
BOSTON - And so the Rangers have not only won two straight since the All-Star break, but seven of their last 11. The crisis of confidence seems to have abated....
GET COZY
I'LL admit to never having been curious about the century-old, Tudor-style country-estate-turned-hotel, Blantyre. For years, it's been the favorite base of Bostonians and New Yorkers who alight on Lenox, Mass.,...
COLD COMFORT
ROMANTIC RETREAT L'Eau al a Bouche Resort, Sainte Adéle, Quebec Back in 1979, when kids actually got jobs after college, University of Quebec alums Anne Desjardins and Pierre Audette started...
BEST OF THE BEST: THE LOWELL HOTEL
What can we say? When you get right down to it, there's really only one hotel in New York where we feel every penny paid was money well spent. Seriously...
BEST OF THE BEST: THE ST. REGIS
We've watched in disbelief as poll after poll ranks this as the city's best. Best looking from the outside, sure. John Jacob Astor's 102 year-old Beaux Arts masterpiece is just...
BEST OF THE BEST: TRUMP INTERNATIONAL HOTEL & TOWER
We spend a lot of time defending the inclusion of this Columbus Circle monolith in our top 5, where it's been for four years now. It's ugly, they say (well,...
BEST OF THE BEST: THE MERCER
It seems like so long ago that this SoHo icon opened - was it really just 1998? Then again, maybe that is a long time ago, and time is moving...
BEST OF THE BEST: GRAMERCY PARK HOTEL
Even Ian Schrager knew that Ian Schrager was stuck in a rut, joined at the hip as he was to designer Philippe Starck. And when the man behind minimalism in...
WHAT'S HAPPENING?
IT'S big, it's bad, it's back. The average room rate, that is. Up to a whopping $299 a night across the board, according to estimates for 2006 provided by NYC...
THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK
IN a town where a room rate of under $250 generally means run the other way (hello, bedbugs!) the concept of an affordable hotel room hasn't disappeared. You just have...
CELEBS AND THE CITY
JENNIFER HUDSON The Four Seasons. We call it 'home' now. RICKY GERVAIS The Mercer. It's just nice. Really cool. I turned up there last time, and there were about 20...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
An Arizona granny has landed in prison for three years after being convicted of running drugs to support her bingo habit. Leticia Villareal, 62, was busted with 214 pounds of...