It's been an incredible success, yes? He's gone to Israel in order to (allegedly) build a bridge between the Bay Area and Israeli business leaders. (See what you've wrought, Rainbow Groceries?) And according to his schedule, Newsom started out in NYC today, but will be in WeHo later this afternoon to accept some silly award. Behold: 9:45 AM (EST) Mayor Newsom to be interviewed by Dana Goodyear for New Yorker magazine's conference: "Stories from......

Well, this should be exciting, hateful. This Sunday at 11 a.m. at 701 Montgomery Street in San Francisco, there will be a protest over that religious sect those zany Hollywood types know and love so well. You know, the one where you can't take Prozac, or call you Jewish children, or....whatever. (For a map of the SF branch, go here.) It sounds like it will be a Sunday afternoon well-spent. Instruction are as follows:......

Although most of us are giddy that Hollywood has come to our little town to film a moving picture show, others are less than gay about it. Namely, a few Castro merchants who have seen business drop since production began late last month. According to the BAR: "It has really impeded on my business. We are losing $400 to $500 a day," said Cecil Russell, the owner of Always Tan Skin and Body at......

SFist interviews Jeff Ross, founder of Indie Fest...

Christian Brando, the troubled son of legendary actor Marlon Brando, died from pneumonia early this morning at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital. Christian Brando, an actor like his father, was known less for his movie roles and more for the trouble he found himself in. In 1990 he pled guilty to the charge of manslaughter in the death of his sister Cheyenne's boyfriend, Dag Drollet, at his father's Mulholland home. In 2001, Robert Blake accused Christian of......

Jesus, have you seen those ads for this movie "Hancock"? Is it us, or is there something insaaaaaanely racist about them? Let's break it down: Will Smith plays an African-American superhero -- the first big-screen African-American superhero since, um, Robert Townsend in 1993's Meteor Man? Oh, that's right, there was that black sidekick in "The Incredibles." And Halle Berry as Storm. And Wesley Snipes as Blade ... so, okay, there've been four black superheroes in......

Gus Van Sant isn't the only one who might make you a shiny, coke-addled star here in San Francisco. Take, for example, MTV and NBC who want to use you for their up-and-coming reality programming....

While walking along Post Street this morning, we came across the above "mysterious" sign at Taylor Street and wondered where the film shoot was. Then we happened to turn down Mason and encountered the film crew at Geary and Mason, as an SFist tipster noted earlier. The set-up was all still there on our walk back home this evening. We're guessing it was for a commercial of some sort. They filmed a Quaker Oats......

Previously on "Project Runway," Chris March made the cut, while Elisa "My Skull!" Jimenez was out. Heidi met the designers on the runway and told them they'd be making dresses for one of the most important days in a woman's life, and you could tell the designers were fearing a wedding dress challenge. We were all prepared to fast-forward through the boring choosing-of-the-models segment, but were pleased to see it wasn't the usual batch of......

Due to the continuing WGA strike, the Golden Globes look like they might - might - get the ax. (For all of you book-reading intelligentsia who claim to have TV sets only so that your can watch your Netflix DVDs of The Sopranos and The Wire, you can read more about the strike here.) While not necessarily Bay Area-related, this deeply affects all of us who look at awards season at something holy and......

Well, this is some depressing news. Marin's very own Hollywood transplant power couple, Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn, are getting a d-i-v-o-r-c-e. At least according to People Magazine they are. The couple, chained together in varying levels of wedding bliss for over 11 years, have two children. The two appeared together in two flicks: the film adaptation of Hurlyburly and Nick Cassavetes' She's So Lovely. (We love the latter. A lot.) And if......

We came back from taking down the recycling yesterday evening to find we had locked ourselves out of our apartment. "Noooo!!" [Insert Emo Darth Vader ballad here. Warning -- audio.] We dialed the apartment manager on the call-box but got his voice mail. Lucky for us, the manager, who wouldn't be back until 10:00, called our s.o., who wouldn't be back until 8:00, and our s.o. called our friend who lives a few blocks away.......

Oh la la. The reportedly very prickly Reese Witherspoon and rubenesque Vince Vaughn -- whatever, we'd hit it. Hit it hard -- are in town filming their new divorce-themed romcom, Four Christmases. (According to IMBD, it's about a "couple struggle to visit all four of their divorced parents on Christmas Day." If you're not in tears already, then clearly you have no soul.) And here they are at a....downtown locale of some sort? We......

The cold weather - and holiday festivities - descended upon Gothamist. The Rockefeller Christmas tree was lit, Broadway stagehand finally ended their strike, and NASCAR decided to run their victory lap through Times Square. There were disturbing photographs revealing the working conditions in which many city manholes are produced and ninjas were also a hot topic, either robbing homes or entering into alibis. But the city was really rocked by how Rudy Giuliani's visits......

-- Completely Hollywood (abridged): The Reduced Shakespeare Company's latest stage play skewers "Tinseltown's most lauded stars and starlets" ranging from the silent era to today's most beloved and pretentious independent films. The curtain goes up at 8 p.m. at Marines Memorial Theater; $45-60. -- Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (1973): David Bowie's swan song as Mr. or Miss Stardust screens tonight at 7:15 p.m. and 9:15 at the the Red Vic. --......

Phillyist prepared to party by doing the hustle, lighting the lights, shopping up a storm, and... visiting Khrushchev? LAist continues to cover the Hollywood Writers Strike with visiting guest "strikers" such as KT Tunstall and Presidential candidate John Edwards. To celebrate Veteran's Day, they visited a Civil War reenactment and to celebrate Geography Week, they asked all the Los Angeles City Councilmembers about the districts they represent finding that LA's 180+ official neighborhoods are......

The new Maltese Falcon at John's Grill is less "pigeony" (Image: The Colbert Report). Applause to John's Grill owner John Konstin, who decided to put some money into the arts. When the Maltese Falcon replica displayed in the restaurant was stolen earlier this year, Mr. Konstin offered a $25,000 reward for its return. The heartless culprits were never found, however, and Mr. Konstin decided against buying an inexpensive replica or "fake," as the momentarily-panicked......

So...ugh. Birds died, gastronomic seasons were delayed. What's more, it hasn't even been a week, and already some of your favorite local and national politicos are personalizing the spill, more than ready to point old, spotty white fingers elsewhere. (RIP, acts of God.) How very helpful. Except not really. Anyway, oil-spill points of interest that happened over the weekend: -- ^&*#%^&*#!: Crab season delayed. -- "Something went terribly wrong," obvious'd Senator Barbara Boxer (Can......

Anyway, the real story here is that it's an uninteresting race, but that that shouldn't matter. With Gavin Newsom running unopposed in the minds of many a San Franciscan, the city sheriff having no serious challengers, and the district attorney running unopposed, we can see why. And according to Alex Clemens in today's Examiner (AP), "[w[]"ithout a good fight at hand, a lot of people are worried that many San Franciscans will opt out of the process and just go to work instead." (That what they want you to believe, man! Wheels within wheels.)...

Londonist got the big scoop of the week with what may be the first images of notorious street artist Banksy in action. They also got on a runaway train without an operator provoking a response from the transport authorities. Elsewhere, London's answer to Central Station is about to open for business, and Londonist got a sneak preview. Meanwhile, spooky goings-on beneath London Bridge, where a cache of skeletons provided an apt story for Hallowe'en.......

We picked up on this over at All Shook Down today. It seems that a San Francisco convenience store cashier (or practical-knee slapper actor) received neither credit nor pay for his appearance in Will Smith's Oscar-baiting tear jerker The Pursuit of Happyness (2006). In this Daily Show segment ripoff, he goes into detail about being chewed up by the big, bad Hollywood machine. Also, anyone forced to appear in a scene with Mr. Smith's......

Ah, beautiful Diviz. Is there no boulevard more perfect, more blissful? When we think "nice places to take an afternoon constitutional," we are drawn instantly to its divine charm. It is, simply put, an Eden. To alter it would be to play God. But SOME PEOPLE want to change all that. The out-of-touch bureaucrats in City Hall think that the stretch from Haight to Geary needs to be improved. Strange terms like "greening" and......

-- Black Francis: Hefty former lead signer of the Pixies gets the Gen Xers up on their feet tonight, along with Eastern Conference Champions, starting at 9:30 p.m. at Cafe Du Nord; $20. -- Push It!: Rock 'n' roll aerobics care of DJ Spike. Starts at 6 p.m. at Thee Parkside; $5. -- Mulholland Dr. (2001): This different kind of love letter to Hollywood is one of the best moves made, ever. Yes huh.......

This week, Phillyist saw the waters of a landmark fountain run red for a Showtime marketing stunt, the Phils pull ahead, and some serious nostalgia. They also got a chance to review an awesome tribute album, reminded folks to see the King and appreciated their beautiful skyline. Chicagoist knows what it's like to like the Cubs. But naming your kid Wrigley Fields? At least they can breathe a little easier now that Grossman's out......

Seattlest watches as a S.L.U.T. is born and Seattle Flickr users go nuts over a local art installation. A restaurant critic demands a Diner's Bill of Rights over a gnat next to her drink, and, in lieu of a Portlandist, Seattlest debates with itself over the identity of the Northwest's crown jewel. Seattlest also joins the guys from Fantagraphics for an ill-fated gun party in the woods. LAist saw national headlines soar this week with......

That's a yearly total of $704,990.44ish (we don't have numbers for January). Will we break a million in 2007? Oh the suspense. There's only three claims being paid off this month, none of which are particularly tantalizing. Some Muni person dropped something on someone's foot, and they're getting $15,000 -- that sort of thing. The one interesting detail is the bizarre writing style employed by one of the lawyers: Victor Lipovesky, Esq, of Velan......

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom......

Pardon our absence last week, but we were on vacation along with, apparently, every other nerd in the world down at Comic-Con. We have a lot of local reality contestants to catch up with! First and foremost, the dread "Pirate Master" was cancelled by CBS, although they will be putting up the remaining episodes on their Web site. So far we haven't felt compelled to actually watch those. We'll probably wait until the final episode......

We're still going strong on this week's ticket giveaways for the Frameline GLBT film fest! Today's giveaway is for tickets to a screening for you and a friend on Saturday night (not Friday!): it's the new RuPaul movie STARRBOOTY! And this screening is sold out, so if you want to guarantee yourself seats, you gotta go through us. Starrbooty's a modern-day blaxxploitation comedy, with RuPaul reprising the role that made her famous, supermodel/crimefighter Starrbooty,......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......