According to NBC Bay Area about 2,000 of you turned out for Steven Soderbergh's Contagion casting call at Fort Mason on Saturday. Which means a significant number of you care more about curing a fictional disease than saving an important health clinic or rallying for democracy in Egypt. (Rough numbers.) Although, if someone had told us Scott Bakula was going to be there we might have dropped everything too. more ›

Undergoing a procedure to erase 30 years from its face, the Castro neighborhood is going retro, circa 1978, for the filming of Gus Van Sant's Harvey Milk biopic, Milk, which starts shooting this week. Already the Castro Theatre, right, and boutique shop Given, formerly Milk's camera store / campaign headquarters, are being renovated to get that '70s vibe. Rumor has it that Castro Street between 18th and 19th streets (i.e., the staphicenter) will be closed on Thursday. We'll update with more info as it comes in. more ›

Local movie star, sometimes activist, and Tosca regular Sean Penn will play gay for pay in the long-incubated version of Randy Shilts' 1982 "The Mayor of Castro Street". (An amazing book for those of you who have yet to read it.) He'll play murdered San Francisco Supervisor and gay rights activist Harvey Milk, who was shot and killed along with Mayor George Moscone by Supervisor Dan White. Perma-boy Matt Damon gets to play the... more ›

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. more ›

Here's todays recap of the todays news more ›

San Francisco is proud host of a new reality show called "How to Get the Guy" that's unfortunately not a descendant of Will and Grace, Queer Eye, The L Word, American Idol etc. Also a biodefence lab is coming to the East Bay and SFist teaches wine pairing. more ›

SFist Eve gives her movie picks for this weekend. more ›

It maybe the start of the Festival of Lights, but it’s all grittiness here at This Week in DVDs as we got amnesiac spies being chased by bad guys, Columbian drug runners being chased by DEA agents, and Vince Vaughn being chased by dodge balls. Want more? How about a DVD two pack of Cannonball Run and Lightning Jack? Yep, it's for all those people who wouldn’t buy either until they were released together. This week we also have the continuing adventures of that adorable Rory Gilmore, more Matrix DVDs than you could ever possibly want to watch, and the White Stripes in concert. Aren’t Jack & Meg just the coolest? more ›