Diberdayakan oleh Blogger.

Popular Posts Today

Soho gets a real gem: Yurman to add Prince Street store

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 30 April 2014 | 17.08

David Yurman will soon cut a new facet downtown.

The renowned jewelry designer has just leased his first Soho store.

The new 4,200 square-foot space at 112 Prince St. had an asking rent of $1,200 per square foot based on the 2,750 square-foot ground floor. The shop also has a lower level of 1,450 square feet.

Keith Fencl of the McDevitt Company represented the jeweler.

The building owners, Bobby Cayre's Aurora Capital Associates and the Adjmi family, were representedby Jared Epstein, Aurora's veep.

The group bought the retail co-op earlier this year for $41.7 million — a record $15,175 per square foot — and landed the tenant in just four months.

Current tenant, fashion designer Karen Millen, will move out at the end of May.

The jewelry company is led by sculptor David Yurman, his painter wife, Sybil, and their son, Evan. The couple launched the company in 1980.


We just learned Harry Macklowe has signed a $100 million contract to buy the 89,480 square-foot site at 985-89 Third Ave. on the corner of East 59th Street.

This comes to $1,118 per square foot for the retail/condo development site.

Massey Knakal repped Emmes and SL Green Realty in marketing the 65-foot by 105-foot parcel, including air rights from adjoining buildings. The firms declined comment.


Atlas Capital Group and Rockpoint Group have long-term leased an old garage building at 430 W. 15th St. in the Meatpacking District, across from Chelsea Market and down the block from the High Line.

They are redeveloping the structure into a modern office building with glass elements and additions.

The 99,558 square-foot, eight-story garage was marketed by Brian Ezratty of Eastern Consolidated.

The structure is being reimagined by removing a slab from every other floor. This will give the second through fourth floors 18-to-20-foot ceilings and exposed brick interiors, while maintaining the character of the existing Carriage House.

Four new floors with floor-to-ceiling glass will then be developed as contemporary office penthouses with numerous sprawling terraces and an expansive roof deck.

Paul Amrich, Neil King, Ross Zimbalist and Steve Siegel of CBRE will lease the offices with asking rents from $90 to $110 per square foot.

The 16,275 square feet of retail with 88 feet of frontage will be handled by the RKF team of Robert K. Futterman, Jaclyn Totolo and Benjamin Zack. The ground floor will have 9,290 square feet with another 6,985 feet on the lower level.


The Times Square South building at 1441 Broadway on the southwest corner of West 41st Street is going electric with 12,000 square feet of giant LED signage and an enormous 74,686 square feet of new, multi-level retail space that is visible from Penn Station to Times Square.

Melinda Miller, Kelly Gedinsky and CEO Jeff Winick of Winick Realty will handle the retail leasing for owner Leon Charney.


It appears the sale of the 1.5 million square feet of transferable air rights (TDRs) from the Farley Post Office/Moynihan Station project is on the right track — but could still be a long ways off.

While a decision has not been made, sources say Cushman & Wakefield is likely to head the sale. But along with the Moynihan Station Development Corp., the brokers must devise a price — likely $400-plus per square foot — and a scheme to ID receiving sites able to buy the TDRs; so any plans for taller towers will need numerous approvals.

Brokerages interviewed included C&W, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, JLL, Massey Knakal and City Center with Tenantwise.

Of all of them, City Center's Robert Shapiro, the "King of Air," has the most experience with TDRs and is the go-to guy for major developers.

But C&W is also selling the MTA's headquarters, which has been stymied by the stalled Midtown East Rezoning. That's because any buyer needs the extra TDRs that were to be added through that plan. The MTA's Long Island Rail Road comes into Penn Station and will be part of the Moynihan Station plan.

The firms and ESD declined comment.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Five key questions in the aftermath of Sterling’s suspension

Adam Silver's announcement of a lifetime ban of Clippers owner Donald Sterling is hardly a conclusion to this ugly episode in NBA history. With that in mind, here's a look at five key questions as the NBA now will try to force him to sell the team:

What's next?
The NBA's Board of Governors — the league's high-falutin name for its 30 owners — will meet to vote on formally ousting Clippers owner Donald Sterling. The Board is expected to meet during the upcoming NBA Finals, although that timetable could be moved up given the severity of the situation.

Is Donald Sterling still the owner?
Technically, he is. But only until the owners vote him out, which they are expected to do. According to the NBA Constitution and By-Laws, a vote of 75 percent of the owners is required to jettison one of their own. That would require 22 of the league's 30 owners to vote in favor of Sterling's ouster. Yes, 30. The Clippers do get a vote.

Who is running the Clippers right now?
With Sterling effectively neutered, Andy Roeser, the team's president and alternate governor, is expected to take over the franchise's day-to-day operations. Roeser has been with the Clippers since 1984 and was already in charge of negotiating all contracts.

Is it realistic to believe Sterling will be completely absent if his family still controls the team?
Realistic? Hardly. Does anyone believe George Steinbrenner didn't continue his involvement with the Yankees when he was suspended in 1990? During Tuesday's new conference commissioner Adam Silver seemed to leave the door open for members of Sterling' s family, including wife, Rochelle, to assume control.

If Sterling refuses to sell the team, can the NBA force him out?
The league can try, but if Sterling resists — and initial indications are he will — the league is prepared for a long legal battle.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

The secrets of the Tony nominations

The Tony nominators are forbidden to speak to me or anyone else in the press under pain of being forced to sit through Will Eno's "The Realistic Joneses" again.

But several brave souls risked that terrifying prospect and kindly gave me some insights into how and why the nominations shook down as they did Tuesday.

The process was especially long this year because of several ties. The meeting, which took place at the Broadway League, began Monday at 4:30 p.m. and didn't let out until 11 p.m., at which point the nominators were ferried back to their homes in black sedans, so Tony officials could be sure nobody spilled the beans.

"You really feel like a captive when you enter the League," one nominator said. "You can't even go to the bathroom without an escort."

As for the ties: Take heart, Denzel Washington. The nominators thought you were just fine in "A Raisin in the Sun." But it seems you tied with Tony Shalhoub, whom everybody loved as George S. Kaufman in "Act One." Shalhoub beat you out by a whisker, I'm told, in a second round of voting.

There was no ill will against Daniel Radcliffe, the star of "The Cripple of Inishmaan" — just disappointment that he didn't make the cut. He didn't tie with anyone, but there was a sense that he was probably edged out by another fine young British actor, Samuel Barnett, of "Twelfth Night."

Marin Mazzie, as Helen Sinclair in "Bullets Over Broadway," was in the mix for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She was knocked out in a second round of voting by Adriane Lenox from "After Midnight."

There were two ties for lighting, and the balloting became complicated. But with all due respect to the fine designers who were nominated, nobody cares about this category, so let's move on.

A surprising omission for Best Musical was "If/Then," the only musical this season that wasn't an adaptation. The nominators didn't hate it; they were just disappointed in it. Of the musical nominees, the most popular by far was "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder." There was affection in the room for "Beautiful" and "After Midnight." Some thought "After Midnight" would be left out because it was a revue, but as one nominator said, "It was an elegant, very enjoyable evening in the theater."

"Aladdin" slipped in, I think, because people remember — and miss — the late great lyricist Howard Ashman.

As for plays, the clear favorite was "Act One," despite its nearly three-hour running time. (James Lapine, who adapted and directed Moss Hart's memoir, was left off the director's list because he didn't cut his own material.) Hatred is too weak a word to describe the reaction to "The Realistic Joneses." The nominators loathed it. And that loathing turned to malice when they read my friend Charles Isherwood's over-the-top rave for the play in the Times.

Said one nominator: "I nearly canceled my subscription to the paper when I read that." Another said, "We're not supposed to discuss anything, but when that play came up, people snorted."

The nominators, by the way, are annoyed that they can't debate or discuss anything. And some are going to press Tony officials to relax that rule next year. I agree. These are intelligent people. A little give-and-take would only enhance the nominating process. And I'd be happy to offer my services as recording secretary.

So now that the nominations are out, it's time to anoint the favorites. They are: "Beautiful," "Act One," Bryan Cranston ("All the Way"), Neil Patrick Harris ("Hedwig and the Angry Inch"), Audra McDonald ("Lady Day") and Jessie Mueller ("Beautiful").

Now let's see who gets knocked off the pedestal.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

‘Orange’ star will star in sex change documentary

In anticipation of the June 6 return of the Netflix prison drama "Orange is the New Black," MTV and Logo announced that it will partner with one of show's stars on a groundbreaking documentary.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, transgender actress Laverne Cox, who plays prison inmate Sophia Burset, will produce a film about transgender youths airing this fall.

The one-hour "Trans Teen" will introduce viewers to four transgender people, ranging in age from 14 to 24. These subjects will share their experiences with their families, and discuss how they dealt with intolerance as well as their own confusion about their gender identity.

Filmmakers will also delve into the medical hurdles faced by these young people.

Cox — an "Orange" fan-favorite — was recently honored by GLAAD for her advocacy on behalf on the transgender community. Upon receiving her award she said, "I am an African-American transgender woman from a working-class background raised by a single mother. We are not programmed to think we should be receiving these awards, but I'd like to think that things are changing."


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Garnett was nearly on the Clippers

TORONTO — As the Celtics, Clippers and Doc Rivers engaged in discussions that wound up sending Rivers from Boston to Los Angeles to coach and run the front office of the Clippers, the possibility of Kevin Garnett joining his longtime coach out on the left coast also came up.

That wound up not happening, and Garnett eventually was traded from Boston to Brooklyn with Paul Pierce a few weeks later. But when Garnett was asked if he had given it any thought during the past few days as the firestorm surrounding Clippers owner Donald Sterling played out, Garnett dismissed the question in his own unique way.

"I'm a Net," he said after the team practiced Tuesday before flying to Toronto for Game 5 against the Raptors Wednesday. "I don't focus on almost.

"In high school, I never dealt with the chick that almost wanted to go out with me … definites are everything in my book."

Not surprisingly, Garnett was unequivocal in his praise of Rivers and how he has handled the situation, saying the Clippers couldn't be in better hands.

"If any coach can deal with it, it's him," Garnett said. "He's one of the most resilient coaches I've ever played for. … He's a good person, and I hope he's able to spread that to his players and his organization."

Pierce also empathized with Rivers, who has declined to comment on his future in Los Angeles beyond this postseason after everything that has happened over the past few days.

"It's a tough situation," Pierce said. "Your owner is labeled as a racist. You're a head coach, [vice] president [of the team]. It's a tough situation to work for somebody like that, so it's hard to be in that situation this time of the year, so much on the line.

"But I know Doc is very headstrong and he'll work it out."


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Plane makes emergency landing after engine catches fire

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 29 April 2014 | 17.08

Plane makes emergency landing after engine catches fire | New York Post
  • Sign in / Register
  • or email tips@nypost.com

By Associated Press

April 29, 2014 | 5:29am

SYDNEY — A plane carrying 97 people has been forced to make an emergency landing in western Australia after one of its engines caught fire. No one was injured.

Cobham Aviation Services says one of the plane's four engines caught fire as it was climbing shortly after takeoff from Perth Airport.

The BAE-146 plane turned around and landed safely. No one was hurt. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Perth serves as the hub for a multinational search effort for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which vanished March 8 on a trip from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing.

With your existing account from...

{* loginWidget *}

With a traditional account...

{* #userInformationForm *} {* traditionalSignIn_emailAddress *} {* traditionalSignIn_password *}

{* traditionalSignIn_signInButton *}{* traditionalSignIn_createButton *}

{* /userInformationForm *}

Welcome Back, {* welcomeName *}

{* loginWidget *}

Welcome back!

{* welcomeName *}

{* #userInformationForm *} {* traditionalSignIn_emailAddress *} {* traditionalSignIn_password *}

{* traditionalSignIn_signInButton *}

{* /userInformationForm *}

{* #registrationForm *} {* traditionalRegistration_emailAddress *} {* traditionalRegistration_password *} {* traditionalRegistration_passwordConfirm *} {* traditionalRegistration_displayName *} {* traditionalRegistration_captcha *} {* traditionalRegistration_ageVerification *} By clicking "Create Account", you confirm that you accept our

terms of service

and have read and understand

privacy policy

.

{* /registrationForm *}

Don't worry, it happens. We'll send you a link to create a new password.

{* #forgotPasswordForm *} {* traditionalSignIn_emailAddress *}

{* /forgotPasswordForm *}

We've sent an email with instructions to create a new password. Your existing password has not been changed.

{* mergeAccounts *}

{* #tradAuthenticateMergeForm *} {* traditionalSignIn_emailAddress *} {* mergePassword *}

{* /tradAuthenticateMergeForm *}


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

City Council members set to reform discretionary funds

City Council members are set to introduce legislation Tuesday that would make the distribution of discretionary funds more equitable, sources told The Post.

The much-touted reforms are largely meant to prevent the council speaker from using the pot of roughly $50 million a year to reward friends and punish enemies.

Under former speaker Christine Quinn, some council members were given up to three times as much as others.

Quinn and her supporters denied claims she wielded the so-called member items as a carrot and stick.

Two council sources said the proposed formula calls for an equal distribution of discretionary funds, which are doled out by members to community groups in their districts.

Mayor de Blasio, a former council member himself, has recently called for abolishing the member items.

The legislation would need approval by de Blasio, unless the council has enough votes to override a potential veto.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

‘Grease’ goes lives on TV in 2015

The T-Birds and the Pink Ladies are coming to TV.

Following the success of NBC's "Sound of Music Live!," Fox announced it plans to broadcast a live production of "Grease" next year.

The three-hour "Grease Live" (working title) will feature a young ensemble cast playing the iconic roles of Danny, Sandy, Rizzo and the rest of the Rydell High crew popularized on Broadway and in the 1978 film starring John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John and Stockard Channing.

Fox's special will include live performances of popular songs like "Summer Nights," "Greased Lightnin" and "You're the One That I Want." Paramount Television is producing "Grease Live," whose cast and premiere date are to be announced.

NBC's controversial production of "The Sound of Music," which starred Carrie Underwood, Audra McDonald and Stephen Moyer, drew nearly 19 million viewers last December.

The network plans to follow it up with a live production of "Peter Pan" on Dec. 4.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

‘The Following’ producer hints at what’s in store for next season

Monday's Season 2 finale of "The Following" left fans knowing that there will be more psychological scrapes next year.

Serial killer Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) and his nemesis, Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon), teamed to rescue Claire Matthews (Natalie Zea), from the vengeful twins, Mark and Luke (both played by Sam Underwood).

Having survived Joe's threat to kill him, FBI Special Agent Mike Weston (Shawn Ashmore) was rewarded with a kiss with Ryan's niece Max (Jessica Stroup). Ryan sent Joe back to prison; Luke lost his life in a gun battle with Max; and, in a bitter pill for Ryan to swallow, Claire decided she was ultimately better off without him in her life.

The Post recently spoke with executive producer Marcos Siega to find out which characters could be the focus of Season 3.

Q: How did you decide on the cliff-hanger of Joe possibly killing Mike?
A: It was a decision I made in the cutting room, seeing it and saying, 'People are gonna hate this.'

Q: But Mike lived to share a romantic moment with Max.
A: When the idea came up, I actually cringed, like, 'Oh, how am I going to make this work?' But the two actors are so good, and the kiss is so earned that the fans who really want it are gonna love it.

Q: You shot two endings — one in which Ryan lets Joe live, and another, in which he dies. Why?
A: It's so hard in today's world with social media and everyone talking to keep any surprises, so we were able to kind of keep everyone off-balance by shooting an alternate ending.

Q: How will Ryan's choice affect him?
A: His whole existence right for the past eight years has been Joe Carroll. Maybe that's why he doesn't kill him; maybe it's not just simply that he's consciously doing the right thing.

Q: When Ryan told jail-bound Joe, "You're gonna be fading from my memory every day," Joe, replied, "Well, good luck with that." Foreshadowing?
A: Of course! The DNA of the show is these two men and that whole idea. You're not going to think of me? I doubt it!

Q: It seems key to Season 3 that after Mark escapes, Ryan tells Mike, "We'll find Mark."
A: They're certainly not going to just let him walk away; it's going to be something they need to do.

Q: What's in store with the mysterious stranger who came to Mark's aid in the final minutes?
A: We wanted to keep it ambiguous, not show the person's face, who it is or what the relationship is. We can choose to answer that a number of ways next year.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

White House releases guidelines to stop sexual assaults at colleges

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration admonished colleges and universities — "No more turning a blind eye" — as it released guidelines designed to stem sexual assaults on campuses and help the victims.

A White House task force on sexual assault recommends in a report to be released Tuesday that schools identify trained, confidential victim's advocates and conduct surveys to better gauge the frequency of sexual assault on their campuses, since these types of crimes are underreported.

It says the Justice Department will help develop training programs in trauma care for school officers and assess different models for schools to use to adjudicate such cases, since some sexual assault survivors are wary of a legal process that can open them up to potentially painful or embarrassing questions by students or staff.

It also promises greater transparency. A new website, notalone.gov, will post enforcement actions and offer information to victims about how to seek local help and information about filing a complaint, the White House said late Monday.

The task force is providing a checklist for schools to use in drafting or reevaluating sexual misconduct policies, including ideas a school could consider when defining what is or isn't sexual consent.

"Prevention and education programs vary widely, with many doing neither well," the task force said. "And in all too many instances survivors of sexual violence are not at the heart of an institution's response: They often do not have a safe, confidential place to turn to after an assault, they haven't been told how the system works and they often believe it is working against them. We heard from many who reached out for help or action, but were told they should just put the matter behind them."

The task force, appointed by President Barack Obama in January, was making its recommendations following a 90-day review that included dozens of in-person and online meetings with victims, advocates and higher education representatives. It was made up of Obama's Cabinet members, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder.

"Colleges and universities need to face the facts about sexual assault — no more turning a blind eye or pretending it doesn't exist," said Vice President Joe Biden, who was to make remarks Tuesday when the task force findings were released. "We need to give victims the support they need — like a confidential place to go — and we need to bring the perpetrators to justice."

While 1 in 5 female students is assaulted, the White House said in announcing the task force that the review was also about protecting male victims and engaging men in discussions about preventing such assaults.

Within higher education, many campuses have been working to make improvements, but the issue is complex and some college administrators have sought answers from the federal government about how to interpret federal law. Research has shown that most campus sexual assault victims know their attackers, alcohol or drugs are often involved and only 12 percent of college women attacked report it to police.

A key tool the government has against campus sexual assault is Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimination at schools that receive federal funds. The 1972 law is better known for guaranteeing girls equal access to sports, but it also regulates institutions' handling of sexual violence and is increasingly being used by victims who say their school failed to protect them. Fifty-one campuses currently have such an ongoing investigation involving sexual violence, the Education Department said.

Title IX requires that schools proactively work to prevent sexual crimes, promptly investigate complaints and discipline the accused if it's more likely than not that violence occurred. The school can't retaliate against students who file complaints and must ensure that victims can continue their education free of ongoing harassment.

Complaints have ticked up in the past couple years, after the Education Department publicized guidance on Title IX's sexual assault provisions in 2011. The department can withhold federal funding from a school that doesn't comply, but so far has not used that power and instead negotiated voluntary resolutions when they find violations.

Another law that campus sexual assault cases fall under is the Clery Act, which requires colleges and universities to annually report crime statistics on or near their campuses, to develop prevention policies and ensure victims their basic rights.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Apollo returning profits to partners in shares

Written By Unknown on Senin, 28 April 2014 | 17.08

Leon Black's Apollo Global Management will become the first private-equity giant to return profits to its general partners in the form of stock instead of all cash, The Post has learned.

The firm will pay partners working on its $17.5 billion flagship fund a chunk of their commissions — or the profits made from buying and selling companies — in Apollo's publicly listed stock.

Moreover, the stock won't start vesting until three years after the successful sale of the company that earned the partner that commission, one source said. Apollo declined to comment.

The move more closely aligns the partners' interests with those of the firm's shareholders. It also puts Apollo on the same path as Wall Street investment banks that are paying bonuses more in stock or other deferred compensation to curb the sort of short-term thinking that many blamed for the financial crisis.

The firm's three top partners — Black, Josh Harris and Marc Rowan — already own sizable slugs of Apollo stock and will not be affected by the change in compensation.

Apollo, along with Blackstone, Carlyle and KKR, is one of the few large publicly traded PE firms. Success in raising money, coupled with its strong performance, could prompt its PE peers to consider a similar move.

"I would think Apollo's competitors will definitely look at the idea now," said compensation consultant Andrew Tasnady.

Apollo's 2006 fund has a 10.5 percent net annual return as of September 2013. By comparison, KKR's 2006 fund is generating 6.2 percent and Blackstone's fund a 5.5 percent return.

Last year, Apollo raised the limit on its latest buyout fund to $17.5 billion to meet demand from investors. The fund is nearly 20 percent bigger than the 2008 fund, which hit $14.7 billion.

While earnings can be choppy for PE giants, most have done well since their debuts. Apollo shares, which closed at $28.23 on Friday, have surged more than 70 percent since the firm went public in 2011.

Apollo has made other changes to its pay structure that may not sit well with some partners. If Apollo fires a professional without cause, for instance, the payout does not automatically vest, a source said.

Since 2008, roughly 44 percent of Apollo's 27 PE partners under the age of 50 have either left or are planning to leave the firm. A source close to Apollo said some of the recent exits were involuntary.

"These people were leaving because they were told to leave," said the source. "As firms grow, a lot of guys clog up the middle. Some are performing, some are not."


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

No one is safe on ‘The Following’ finale

No one is safe heading into Monday's Season 2 finale of Fox hit "The Following."

That's the take-away from last week's episode, which included the death of Joe Carroll devotee Emma Hill (series regular Valorie Curry) and ended with gun-toting murderer Carroll (James Purefoy) threatening to kill FBI Special Agent Mike Weston (Shawn Ashmore) as the screen cut to black and a shot rang out.

"You sort of just have to accept that your fate is unknown," Ashmore tells the Post of his character's episode-ending limbo. "You always have to be a little wary."

That's seconded by actor Sam Underwood, who joined the show this season as murderous twins Mark and Luke. "In the short time I've been on the show I've learned that everything you're told you take with a huge grain of rock salt because everything can change in a second," he jokes.

However, during a season in which Weston hit new lows — including his cold-blooded killing of Mark and Luke's mother, Lily Gray (Connie Nielsen) — it makes sense that Weston would be at risk. "Let's be honest: Mike sorta has it coming," Ashmore says. "He has painted a target on himself with his actions."

Luke and Mark will drive much of the finale as they seek vengeance for Gray's death by kidnapping Claire Matthews (Natalie Zea), who was both Carroll's ex-wife and former FBI agent Ryan Hardy's (Kevin Bacon) love interest before she was presumably killed at the end of Season 1. (It was revealed this season that she was actually in witness protection.)

"From Luke and Mark's perspective, there's a reckoning to be done. Revenge has to be served," Underwood says. "But of course things don't go according to plan. For any of them."

Even the cast isn't fully sure of what's in store.

Purefoy revealed on Twitter Friday that "alternate endings" of the finale were shot. And Ashmore and Underwood both tell The Post they themselves haven't yet seen the completed episode. Underwood says they, like viewers, are waiting until air time for the final outcome.

"I'm interested to see what we do as an ending," Underwood says of the show, which wrapped filming in March. "I'm an audience member now."


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Queen Latifah aims higher with successful show

By today's TV standards, "The Queen Latifah Show" is a daytime success.

Nearing the end of its first year, it's the season's top-rated freshman talk show and will return for a second go-'round in the fall.

But its host knows there's still work to be done — especially now that expectations are higher.

"Obviously it was challenging getting a show off the ground and getting all the moving parts working … so it's been a growing experience," Latifah told The Post. "I was going through challenges with my family and balancing my personal life — my mom has gone through some physical challenges and has been with me the entire time . . . so I was going through that as well as focusing on work. "But I'm proud of what we've been able to accomplish," she says. "And I'm excited about making the show bigger and better next year — and that's the attitude I want to have."

"Queen Latifah" (9 a.m./Ch. 2) is averaging 1.5 million viewers a week as it heads into the all-important May sweeps period. Latifah says she's already thinking of tweaking the show a bit for its second season.

"I want to continue to book bigger guests and really elevate the whole production. Our set is gorgeous but I want to make it more practical," she says. "I think we've done a good job in showing people in a different way than other talk shows. And I want to have fun — a lot of our comedy sketches have worked but I want to make them even better and take everything to a higher level."

But, unlike shows including "The Talk" — whose hosts have revealed much about their personal lives — don't expect Latifah to follow suit. "I don't feel like I need to regurgitate my entire life on TV … I'm just not that kind of person," she says. "I'm not known for throwing myself out there and pandering. I have a sense of who I am outside this show and that person has to live in this show and outside this show."

Latifah's impact on entertainment will be recognized Monday when she's honored at the Waldorf Astoria with a Matrix Award as one of seven "Women Who Change the World" by New York Women in Communications.

"To be able to affect people's lives, there's nothing greater than that," she says. "It's about overhearing a conversation in a store from a young kid who was inspired by me and is living her dream.
"To be able to inspire people … is a legacy that means your life meant something."


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Don’t Miss: McHale ribs president, ‘Vikings’ finale

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Tuesday at 8 p.m. on ABC
Newly freed up from "How I Met Your Mother," Cobie Smulders reprises her role as Agent Maria Hill (from the Marvel films "The Avengers" and "Captain America: The Winter Soldier") to team up with Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) as S.H.I.E.L.D. is being destroyed around them.

Vikings

Thursday at 10 p.m. on History
In the Season 2 finale "The Lord's Prayer," Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) and King Horik (Donal Logue) return to Kattegat for the final showdown between the two Viking leaders. Ragnar, who has placed his trust in those who stood by him, finds the time has come for new alliances.

White House Correspondents' Dinner

Saturday at 6:30 p.m. on C-SPAN
"Community" star Joel McHale will skewer President Obama, Republicans and the media at the centennial edition of the annual dinner, which attracts an audience of senior government officials, celebs and the DC press corps.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Women mag rivals play for keeps

The recent shake-up in the women's magazines' creative and editorial posts may be a signal that some of these aging, tired names need a facelift. Cosmo is making the most changes, hiring a new creative editor and a slew of others while losing its executive editor to Self magazine recently. A look at this month's issues gives a hint as to what all the commotion is about.

Marie Claire, the French magazine that has teamed up with Hearst in the US, is miles ahead of everyone else — even after losing two editors to Cosmo recently. There is a certain Je ne sais quoi that makes you want to spend hours reading it through and through. First off, the design is spectacular and the paper stock is super glossy — what a magazine is supposed to be. A Mondrian-inspired beach theme page and one called "Violet Femmes" are just two fabulous items in the May issue. Unlike other women's mags, Marie Claire does not talk down to its readers. Its features on the Netflix hit "Orange is the New Black" and the feminists trying to shake up politics in Texas are just two cases in point. We're not crazy about the multiple covers, or the upside-down "beauty" issue. That may be taking creativity a bit too far.

Cosmopolitan Editor Joanna Coles admitted to The Post that "The hardest part is the visual, and now we have that piece of the puzzle in place" after hiring Theresa Griggs from Women's Health as its new creative director. If Cosmo wants to tackle Marie Claire, it's got a long way to go in the looks department. But it's the content that is lacking, as it's hard for Cosmo to keep upping the sexual ante. Features like "Sex it UP: 24 Big Bang Moves You've Never Thought of" sounded enticing, but was total cornball. A photo of reclining nude legs entwined is the closest it gets to porn, and the directions for massaging and "Sliders" as a form of foreplay fall in the eye-rolling category. Still, the mag gets high marks for a piece on the suicide of a Florida teen and the complicated case of what is — and isn't — cyberbullying.

Lucky's May beauty issue is 99 percent product placement, and frankly we had no idea how many female beauty products were on the market until we flipped through it. Aside from a boatload of skin potions, lip gloss and hair saviors, Lucky offers up the usual star tips. Kate Moss tells us that "jewelry is one thing worth splurging on" while Karlie Kloss fixates on nail polish. Meanwhile, a photo spread on design sneakers was really the worst excuse for fashion we've seen in a while. The magazine is full of such mindless, harmless fluff.

Glamour seems to have a bit of an identity crisis. Does it want to be serious, like Marie Claire, or mere fashion fluff, like Lucky? Occasionally it gets something amazingly right, like an exclusive interview with Elizabeth Taylor's granddaughter, Naomi DeLuce Wilding, now 39, who's not nearly as pretty as her grandmother but charming nonetheless. Doesn't every girl want to know what it was like to play dress-up with the most glamorous movie star of her era? The obligatory celebrary profile — this one of Scarlett Johansson — falls flat. But Saudi princess Ameerah Al-Taweel's efforts to bring women's rights to the kingdom, including the right to drive, inherit property and gain custody of children after divorce, give an unexpected cosmopolitan twist to Glamour. Elsewhere in the issue, it's bikinis followed by the diets to get you in shape for them.

The New Yorker, for some reason, seems to have drugs on the brain this week. Inside, there's a riveting lead story on the capture of Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman Loera, better known as "El Chapo," who teaches a lesson on how to evade law enforcement for decades while racking up hundreds of millions of dollars in drug profits and murdering tens of thousands. It helps to live up in the mountains in primitive conditions, for one, and if you must come into town for the occasional steak dinner, make sure you seize the cell phones of all other patrons first and pay their bills when you leave. But the biggest lesson might be not to trust BlackBerry to keep all your communications secure. North of the border, there's the story of Dr. Stephen Schneider, a doctor in Wichita, Kan., who got a little too lax with prescribing opiates, resulting in 16 deaths.

We can't be bothered about who did, and who didn't, make Time's list of the "100 Most Influential People." We are bored that Beyoncé is on the cover, overexposed as ever, and by the fact that her hubby Jay Z didn't make the list. It's slightly more interesting that Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg was asked to write the blurb for Beyoncé, despite the fact that Sandberg got snubbed by the list. But Sandberg's Beyoncé blurb is dull, and there's a lot of that going around here. If you're having trouble sleeping, try reading Hillary Clinton singing John Kerry's praises. On the other hand, we enjoyed the fact that Chris Christie, snubbed by the list, was asked to write about Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. "One of the most difficult challenges is standing up for what you believe in when faced with relentless public attacks," Christie observes.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Dear John: Employment isn’t working in the US

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 27 April 2014 | 17.08

Dear John: The biggest challenge facing our economy today is the lack of real employment opportunities for long-term unemployed [people].

There are millions of quality people who are on the sidelines, just trying to get a break, working part time or in minimum-wage positions, or operating as consultants and independent contractors.

We've reached the absolute crisis stage when all the financial stimulus and attitude change in the world are going to arrive too late to fix the mess.

Just ask any human resources representative why they won't hire an out-of-work individual.

You'll hear some implausible, irrational and simply remarkable answers, including denial, along with the general nonsense (overqualified, not a good fit, away from the business too long and so many others).

You will also inevitably reach the conclusion that they're just full of it.

This much is also certain: There will be a cornucopia of crap for you to discuss in your excellent column for many years to come. R.M.

Dear R.M.: You and I had a cup of coffee a few years back and discussed this very issue. And we have exchanged lots of e-mails.

There's no question in this for me to answer. But I wanted to let you appeal to everyone who is in a position to hire. Everyone — whether he or she has been out of work for a lengthy period, just got laid off yesterday or will crawl off a campus next month looking for a first job — deserves to be given an equal chance.

In fact, if you are someone in a position to hire and it's proven you are discriminating against older people or the long-term unemployed, you will eventually be reckoned with.

So just ask yourself: When you eventually get fired for discriminatory hiring practices, who's going to hire you?

R.M., best of luck. I hope things break your way soon.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Wall Street looks up to the Navy, not fellow traders

Who are Wall Street's heroes?

Fuhgeddabout Michael Lewis of HFT "Flash Boys" fame and Leonardo DiCaprio, who starred in "The Wolf of Wall Street."

No, it's patriots like US Navy SEAL Jason Redman whom traders most admire, On the Money has learned.

Redman bravely conducted more than 40 life-or-death missions.

The intrepid SEAL was critically wounded in Iraq in 2007 and survived to tell his story in his book, "The Trident."

"This author has never appeared on '60 Minutes,' and no movies have been made about him yet," said Jim Toes
, who is chief executive of the Security Traders Association of trading professionals centered in New York, which recently hosted Redman.

Toes can't say enough good stuff about Redman.

"In his book, Jason shares his never-quit story, which we all should try to incorporate into our lives. But it is his honesty which resonates with all who meet him and have the privilege to be in his company," Toes said.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Coffee prices set to rise as harvests decline in Brazil

That cup of morning coffee is going to cost you a few more beans very soon.

Brazil's Arabica coffee prices have recently surged 94 percent, to $2.144 a pound on the New York futures market.

The harvest in Brazil, which accounts for more than a third of world output, will drop more than expected in the 2014-2015 season to 49 million bags "with the risk towards a lower number," Marex Spectron said in a report last week — down from a January forecast of 55 million and last year's crop of 53.3 million.

That decline will leave global production 7.1 million bags below demand, Marex Spectron said. That would be the biggest deficit since the 2009-2010 season, US Department of Agriculture data show.

The price spike is a result of bad weather in Brazil.

First, growers were hit with a sustained drought during the growing season brought on by El Niño tropical weather.

Then, at harvest time, flooding hampered collection of the few remaining crops.

"Nobody is absolutely sure about how big the deficit will be this year," said Rodrigo Costa,
of Newedge Group. "The supply outlook definitely looks tighter than it seemed three months ago. The situation has deteriorated."


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Apple needs gadgets, not financial gimmicks

Apple was known as a technology-engineering powerhouse under Steve Jobs.

Now it's a financial-engineering prop house.

Since August 2011, when Tim Cook took over the reins of the company, Apple has not released a new product line.

Yes, there have been updates galore to Jobs' products, but not one gizmo that we didn't know we needed until it was unveiled.

Cook is the financial engineer who gets on the earnings call to announce enhanced stock buybacks and 7-for-1 stock splits. Talking to Wall Street was something Jobs always avoided.

And the indefatigable Apple always prided itself on never allowing itself to become old and gray like archrival Microsoft.

Well, Tim, look in the mirror: You are a dividend play for Carl Icahn, David Einhorn and other hedgies looking to unlock capital from your balance sheet.

Buying back stock isn't the solution for what ails Apple, even if it is a good financial move.

Apple's peers — Amazon, Google and Facebook — have been spending billions buying up companies that make drones and virtual-reality headsets and messaging apps.

And all have higher multiples than Apple.

Apple's financial moves may very well be the best ones, temporarily at least.

But a technology company buying back its own stock is essentially buying back time it has lost by not being innovative enough.

Perhaps it's being used as a tool to smooth out the fact that Apple's growth has slowed as its new-product development has stalled.

Jobs would have rather run through hot coals than buy back stock or pay a dividend.

He wanted his stock to go up because his company made the best damn products we never "Imagined" we needed. ("Imagine" was a big Jobs tag line.)

Pretty much nobody imagined the current state of affairs at Apple's Cupertino, Calif., campus.

The company was always run by engineers and geeks, and financial types had very little sway.

Fast forward: Although Apple has succumbed to pressure and bought back gobs of stock (it had to), it still has tons of cash.

Yet, for some reason, the company refuses to make any large-scale acquisitions to compensate for the fact that it's clearly lagging in product development.

The financial engineering doesn't stop at buybacks and stock splits.

Apple, which maintains a balance of more than $100 billion in cash on hand at all times, will also being paying Wall Street bankers.

Cook will be selling more debt to pay for his announced buyback because Apple prefers to keep its dollars offshore, safely tucked away in tax havens.

Today's Apple feels much more corporate — like it's run by bean-counter types in order to cover up a dead spot in its innovation cycle. (For instance, the "Think Different" company has completely missed the social media explosion.)

As Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO, prepares for retirement, he has stage-managed a loud ovation from Wall Street and has the company focused on financial-engineering its way to strong returns.

At the same time, Apple's technological creativity has ground to a halt.

It needs to get its mojo back — or risk becoming an old technology company.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

In my library: Elizabeth Strout

Elizabeth Strout writes novels the old-fashioned way: by hand. "I have to earn my way physically through a sentence — I like to see what I've done and make a mess and keep going until I can't read it anymore," says the author of "Olive Kitteredge," a Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of stories set in her native Maine. Strout's latest, "The Burgess Boys"—about two brothers haunted by a freak childhood accident — just came out in paperback. As an editor of other people's short stories, Strout says she looks for "an experience of seamlessness, of being invited into a world that takes me away from my own and is believable and real."

Here's what's in this writer's library.

The Odds: A Love Story

by Stewart O'Nan

I love this writer's work, and this is his latest. It's about a long-married couple betting everything during a weekend of gambling at Niagara Falls. O'Nan keeps you right on the edge of your seat. You are right there, cheering for these two, even when they are not necessarily able to cheer for each other.

Thirty Girls

by Susan Minot

A gorgeously written novel that juxtaposes two very different women, one a journalist who has suffered an emotional displacement of sorts, and the other a 16-year-old girl, Esther, who has suffered unspeakably at the hands of rebels in Uganda. Minot manages to make these two narratives nuanced and connected in their ability to inspire our compassion.

Stop Here

by Beverly Gologorsky

A gem of a book, involving a very human cast of characters. Many of them work at Murray's Diner, a character in its own right, on Long Island. It is a moving portrayal of working-class America, forcing us to take a good look at the people who fight our wars and serve our coffee.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank

by Nathan Englander

A short-story writer, Englander brings his mastery to these tales of human experience, which are concerned in large part with fraught relationships with Jewish orthodoxy. The title story is one of the finest I can think of — a whopper of an ending, and a beautifully crafted tale.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Verve ruling hits a nerve

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 26 April 2014 | 17.08

Vemma, a multilevel marketing company that recruits students to peddle its energy drinks, is trying to keep its international regulatory woes from spilling over into the US.

The fast-growing company — which markets its Verve caffeine-rich drink business on campuses — is one of five US companies recently deemed a pyramid scheme in Italy as part of an ongoing crackdown on the multilevel marketing industry in that country.

Italy's Competition and Markets Authority fined Vemma about $140,000 as part of the ruling in March, which the company is appealing. Vemma's founder, BK Boreyko, said the Arizona-based company is still operating in Italy.

"We think they are too strict in their interpretation of the law," he said. "We made the changes when they asked for them, and we've worked with them for six months."

One of those changes involved raising the retail price to ensure sales people profit from selling product, not recruiting. Boreyko said the company has also changed its bonus structure to meet Italian guidelines.

Vemma recently made some similar changes to its business in the US, as part of an attempt to get ahead of any regulatory fallout from Herbalife, a multilevel marketing company that is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department, among others.

But a US consumer group critical of Vemma and the MLM industry isn't buying it.

The group, truthinadvertising.org, analyzed the Italian regulator's findings this week and said it would take the information to the FTC.

Vemma has agreed to eliminate several bonuses that required buying huge amounts of product and recruiting additional people.

The consumer group dismissed the changes as window-dressing. It claimed that salespeople still need to buy $150 worth of product every month, purchase a $500 "affiliate pack," and personally enroll at least six individuals who have to buy $150 of product each month.

"They're wrong," said Boreyko. "If you don't want to buy product, you still qualify for all bonuses. If you get six customers, you can get every bonus we offer. It's the opposite of what we were doing in the past."


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Justice Sonia Sotomayor proves herself not so wise

Justice Sonia Sotomayor this week took the unusual step of reading her dissent in a case involving state-sponsored affirmative action in Michigan. In doing so, she showed herself not only petulant to be on the losing side in a 6-2 decision, but unable to divorce her legal reasoning from her own sense of racial grievance. It was an embarrassing but predictable performance.

In 2009, I was one of a handful of witnesses who testified against Sotomayor's confirmation before the Senate Judiciary Committee. I did so with sadness, because there is much to admire in Sotomayor's personal history. Raised by a single mom after her alcoholic father's death when she was 9, Sotomayor overcame poverty and poor health (she had juvenile diabetes) to graduate summa cum laude from Princeton University and excel at Yale Law School.

But rather than ascribe her own success to hard work — she quickly realized at Princeton that her English and writing were deficient and began reading the classics and studying proper grammar to independently improve her skills — she attributes virtually all her accomplishments to affirmative action. How sad.

Her myopia was clearly on display in her long, vituperative dissent in the Michigan case. At issue in Scheutte v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action was whether voters in the state had a right to ban racial, ethnic or gender preferences in public college admissions, state contracting and state employment through the passage of a ballot initiative amending the state constitution.

In Sotomayor's view, policies that apply the same standards to all individuals regardless of race place an unfair burden on minorities. "The Constitution does not protect racial minorities from political defeat," she wrote, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. "But neither does it give the majority free rein to erect selective barriers against racial minorities."

So what exactly were those "selective barriers" in the Michigan case? Sotomayor implies that the election process in a majority white state makes it difficult for minorities to prevail. But the facts in the Michigan election that banned racial preferences in 2006 suggest otherwise. The deck was stacked against those who proposed to ban racial preferences, not the other way around.

Opponents of the measure outspent proponents by 3-1. Virtually every establishment group in the state, including the Republican Party, opposed the measure, from business groups to unions to the clergy. Opponents' ads featured cross burnings and other highly charged symbols of racism to taint the initiative. Still, voters in the state approved the measure with almost 60 percent of the vote.

A handful of other states have also banned preferences through ballot initiatives. But Colorado voters defeated a measure with identical wording to Michigan's ban in 2008. Sotomayor seems unaware of this precedent — or perhaps she just chose to ignore it.

Maybe that's because Colorado's rejection of a ban on racial preferences doesn't fit in with her racial-grievance model. Both Michigan and California, the two most prominent states that have banned racial preferences through ballot measures, have larger black populations than Colorado. Indeed, California's is 60 percent non-white. Yet whiter Colorado voted against banning preferences for racial minorities, which contradicts Sotomayor's assumptions.

Sotomayor's dissent is peppered with highly selective research purporting to show the damage done to blacks and Hispanics when states pass bans on racial preferences. She includes charts showing a decline in admission to the University of Michigan after the passage of the ban on racial preferences, as well as declines in admissions to UCLA after a similar ban passed in California.

But she dismisses evidence that despite the drop in admissions at the flagship schools in California, for example, overall enrollment of black and Hispanic students at other University of California campuses has gone up after voters banned preferences. More importantly, students admitted to schools whose admission standards they could meet without racial preferences were far more likely to graduate.

The Supreme Court's decision in Schuette doesn't resolve the contentious issue of affirmative action, but it does uphold the right of the people to decide the issue directly rather than relying on university bureaucrats.

Sotomayor said during her confirmation hearings that a statement she had made earlier that "a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life" was simply "a rhetorical flourish that fell flat." Unfortunately, her dissent in Shchuette suggests she has failed to learn that lesson.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hondo’s relieving

That Erlin guy for San Diego didn't get it done Friday night, but the Sawx and Royals did, so Hondo was able to reduce his deficit to 525 eastwicks.

Saturday: Mr. Aitch, like everyone else, will take a Leake, namely Mike — 10 units on the Reds. Also, he will take a stab with Wood to help the Cubs chug past the Brewers.

-$

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, who supported Obama in 2008, said she "absolutely" would back Hillary in 2016 if she runs, adding, "So, you know, I hope so." Given Caroline's difficulty with the spoken word, she likely was misquoted. Chances are she actually said: "So, um, like, you know, um, I hope so" … Emailer Lenny Power points out Steven Colbert eliminated any doubt as to whether he is a suitable replacement for Dirty Dave Letterman Tuesday night when he wrote and read a painfully unfunny Top 10 List.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

60% of firms blustered about the weather in 1Q earnings reports

The weather excuse is still in season on Wall Street.

As of Wednesday, a whopping 93 out of 154 companies reporting first-quarter earnings mentioned the weather during their earnings calls with investors, according to FactSet Research.

Talk of the elements dominated at FedEx, whose call was littered with 41 mentions of the weather, according to the firm. Railroads Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern tied for second place at 39 apiece.

That extends the trend seen a quarter earlier, when companies blamed the weather for disappointing fourth-quarter results twice as much as they did a year earlier, according to FactSet.

This past winter was among the longest and harshest in memory, with the Northeast hit particularly hard by a slew of snowstorms that snarled rail lines and highways.

UPS said the rain, snow and wind hampered its ability to deliver packages to holiday shoppers on time. McDonald's said unruly weather kept customers from venturing out for Big Macs.

"We've seen times in the past where it seemed little more than an excuse," FactSet analyst John Butters told The Post. "This time around, I think it's pretty legitimate."

On Friday, Ford Motor said it got slapped with $100 million in weather-related costs, including increased expenses for parts shipments.

In some cases, however, the weather excuse seemed doubtful. While Dunkin' Donuts said it was "significantly impacted" by the harsh winter, Starbucks wasn't.

And even though customers were stuck inside their homes during the cold months, Verizon FiOS blamed disappointing growth on people who didn't wanted TV service installed in inclement weather.

As the sun finally emerges, not all companies will benefit. Restaurants, for example, aren't likely to make up business lost to storms in recent months, Butters says. For retailers of clothing, auto parts and home-improvement suppliers, however, it could be a different story.

"If people had damage and couldn't get into the stores because of the storms, they'll come back," he said.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Dead letters get Hallmark treatment in ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’

You know what there aren't enough of these days? Dramas about the post office. I'm speaking to folks who remember when humans actually hand-wrote and sent letters — a graying demographic at whom "Signed, Sealed, Delivered," the new Hallmark series, is squarely aimed (and oh, how square it is).

Brought to you by the people behind "Touched By An Angel," it repackages that treacly show's weekly-rescue format for our atheistic age. What's the next best thing to heavenly agents? The people who work in the dead-letter department at the US Postal Service, that's what.

(I'm hoping a mid-season supernatural twist will reveal them to be as dead as the letters, but that's just the frustrated "Lost" viewer in me.)

The show, which has its origins in a 2013 Hallmark movie but wouldn't have seemed out of place in the 1950s, stars Eric Mabius as team leader Oliver, a type-A boss who's prone to rhetorical questions like "Are we in the habit of ignoring miracles?" and aphorisms such as, "Putting a stamp on a letter and sending it out there into the world is an act of faith."

Yes, there's a generous helping of Christian values here, but in a less sanctimonious tone than "Touched" ever managed. The central driving force here is not religion but nostalgia — for an age when people took time to choose their words carefully, and those words took days, weeks or sometimes even years to reach their addressees.

Oliver and his lily-white team (is there any other sort on Hallmark?) function as postal detectives, tracking down the stories behind misplaced, mangled or badly-addressed mail. There's Shane (Kristin Booth), a mildly saucy blonde who's a slow-burn love interest for Oliver; Reta (Crystal Lowe), a hottie who's made out to be a frump because she wears glasses; and Norman (Geoff Gustafson), a Jack Black type who provides low-fi tech support and is really into stamps.

In this week's second episode, Valerie Harper returns as a postal higher-up, and Michael Hogan (Col. Tigh from "Battlestar Galactica") makes an appearance as a military officer. Following up on the grandmother-centric plot last week, this one revolves around a war vet and an Afghan girl he helped to rescue.

Grannies and former soldiers: you can't say this show doesn't know its viewership. But speaking as neither of those things, I can honestly say the unwavering, insistent sincerity of "Signed, Sealed," and its tearjerking final acts, are hard to resist, despite often being served up in greeting-card platitudes. Besides, there's an almost subversive delight in hearing someone complimented thusly: "She's a postal legend!" Don't mind me, I'll be over here wiping my eyes and brushing up on my calligraphy.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

The sure shoo-ins for Tuesday’s Tony nominations

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 25 April 2014 | 17.08

The Tony nominations are out Tuesday, but let me get a jump on things with my nomination for trouper of the year — LaTanya Richardson Jackson, who jumped in at the last minute to help salvage the hit revival of "A Raisin in the Sun."

Jackson, who lives in Atlanta, was in New York on a shopping spree when her phone rang. Diahann Carroll had dropped out of the revival a few weeks before its first preview, and Denzel Washington wanted her to take over the role of Lena Younger. Jackson hesitated: Lena, the matriarch of the family, is onstage for most of the play, which is 140 pages long.

She called her husband, Samuel L. Jackson.

"Are you crazy?" he said. "You took it, right?"

Two days later, she was at rehearsal, script in hand. Everybody else was off book. "I would rehearse all day, and then I would study my lines at the dinner table until I fell asleep in the dinner plate with the lines in my head."

But she pulled it off, and walked away with some of the best reviews of the season. She's certain to be nominated Tuesday, along with co-stars Washington, Anika Noni
Rose and Sophie Okonedo.

The critics were all over the place on the quality of this year's productions, but the season's been rich in fine performances. Bryan Cranston will be nominated for his titanic performance as LBJ in "All the Way."

The boys (girls?) of Harvey Fierstein's cross-dressing "Casa Valentina" are all excellent, and I predict nods for at least two of them — Reed Birney
and Tom McGowan — along with the excellent Mare Winningham. And don't forget Roger Rees, who was terrific in "The Winslow Boy" last fall.

As for musical performances, the male nominees will include Andy Karl ("Rocky"), Neil Patrick Harris ("Hedwig and the Angry Inch"), James Monroe Iglehart (the Genie in "Aladdin") and Jarrod Spector ("Beautiful").

For the ladies, it's a crowded field. Sure bets are Jessie Mueller ("Beautiful"), Sutton Foster ("Violet"), Kelli O'Hara ("Bridges of Madison County") and Idina Menzel ("If/Then").

On the Best Play front, it's been a weak season — all the entries have more detractors than fans. Charles Isherwood loved Will Eno's "The Realistic Joneses," but, in this case, Charles really is an island. My predictions: "All the Way," "Mothers and Sons," "Outside Mullingar" and "Casa Valentina."

Finally, musicals. Only two are safe bets: "Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder" and "Beautiful." I think "After Midnight" will get in, and then it's a fight between "Aladdin" and "If/Then" for the fourth slot.

"Bullets Over Broadway" slides on two conditions:
1. There's a fifth slot. 2. The nominators overlook either "Aladdin," "If/Then" or "After Midnight."

"Rocky" will have to content itself with being the darling of heterosexual male audiences — those people who don't give a fig about the Tony nominations.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Peter Yarrow: the guest of dis-honor

Al Roker didn't know he'd signed up to honor a pervert.

The "Today'' show weatherman and his "20/20'' TV reporter wife, Deborah Roberts, agreed to host a fund-raiser for La Guardia HS next month. But the couple had no clue the guest of honor was to be folk singer Peter Yarrow — a convicted sex offender who admitted molesting a 14-year-old girl.

"As new parents at La Guardia High School, we were asked to host this annual gala long before the program was set,'' Roker, 59, and Roberts, 53, told me in a statement e-mailed by an NBC spokeswoman.

"Our role has simply been to help support the school.''

Roker and Roberts' 15-year-old daughter, Leila, attends La Guardia, the prestigious public high school on Manhattan's Upper West Side that specializes in the performing arts. But the pair didn't say if they planned to pull out of hosting the May 21 Parents Association event at Lincoln Center, which the school bills as its 2014 La Guardia Arts Hall of Fame GaLa! — "Peace, Love, and the Power of Song: Celebrating Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, & Mary)"

What does Madonna think?

The 55-year-old singer is mother to Lourdes Leon, 17, a La Guardia senior. I'll bet that one word of disapproval from Madge's lips would end this Yarrow madness.

Her rep didn't get back to me.

Yarrow, who rocketed to fame in the 1960s with Noel Paul Stookey and the late Mary Travers as part of the Peter, Paul and Mary singing trio, is a longtime peace activist and well-connected leftist. He serenaded Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York's Zuccotti Park in 2011, sang at current Secretary of State John Kerry's 1995 wedding to Teresa Heinz, is godfather to Kerry's daughter from a previous marriage, Alexandra, 40, and traveled to Ho Chi Minh City in 2005 to apologize for America's involvement in the Vietnam War.

His résumé also includes a sex crime.

A 14-year-old girl and her 17-year-old sister went to Yarrow's hotel room in Washington, DC, in 1970 seeking an autograph, it was reported at the time. Yarrow, then about 32, answered the door naked. He made sexual advances that stopped short of intercourse, a tale recently repeated on the FrontPageMag.com Web site.

Yarrow served three months of a one- to three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to taking "indecent liberties'' with the girl. In 1981, the singer was pardoned by then-President Jimmy Carter on his last day in office.

Why did a president pardon a pedophile? Was it because Yarrow was married at the time to the niece of the late Democratic Sen. Eugene McCarthy?

Yarrow has repeatedly made excuses for his behavior. "You feel terrible about it, make your amends,'' he told the Baltimore Jewish Times in 2006. "In that time, it was common practice, unfortunately — the whole groupie thing.''

His "groupie'' was a child!

La Guardia is in an uproar, The Post's Josh Saul first reported. One parent called the decision to celebrate Yarrow "disgusting.'' A student wrote on the Facebook page for the school's vocal majors that she'd been informed by a teacher that any kid who felt uncomfortable could refuse to perform at the gala. Early this week, 10 boys and two girls did just that.

Yarrow attended the HS of Music and Art before it merged in 1984 with the HS of Performing Arts — the setting for the 1980 film "Fame.'' It was renamed the Fiorello H. La Guardia HS of Music & Art and Performing Arts. Notable grads include actors Jennifer Aniston, Ellen Barkin and Al Pacino.

Yarrow committed his dastardly crime more than four decades ago. But experts contend that sexual predators are rarely, if ever, cured.

In a statement released to The Post, Yarrow said, in part, "I hope my contrition and my efforts to help humanity over the years will allow me a measure of the public's forgiveness.''

"He has taken responsibility for his actions, paid his dues to society and showed remorse for what happened,'' reads a statement from Melinda Moore, co-president of La Guardia's Parents Association.

Protect the children. The school should honor someone else.

No Bode cares! Son in limbo

Olympic skier Bode Miller has a warped idea of what it takes to be a daddy. Miller, 36, temporarily settled a custody battle this week with his baby mama over thier son, Samuel Bode Miller McKenna. He calls the tyke Nathaniel.

For the next four months, the parents agreed that the kid will shuttle between the homes of his mom and dad. Miller insisted that the child talk to his busy father electronically via Skype.

Miller fathered the baby with former Marine Sara McKenna, 28, during a three-month fling in California after the pair met through a high-priced matchmaking service. Shortly after McKenna found out she was pregnant, Miller met, then married, pro volleyball player Morgan Beck. McKenna now lives in Manhattan.

None of this explains how Miller expects to raise a precious young one over the Internet.

What the hack is he thinking?!

New York's scariest cabdriver is back on the street.

A taxi driven by Mohammed Faysal Himon, 24, sheared off the left foot of British tourist Sian Green, 25, last August after the cruddy cabby jumped a curb at Rockefeller Center. Green's leg was then amputated below the knee.

Himon lost control of his cab, witnesses said, in a case of road rage against a bicycle messenger who, the cabby claimed, cut him off in traffic. He bleated to The Post at the time that he was a rotten driver and he didn't want to operate a taxi anymore. The Bangladesh native's hack license was suspended for 30 days by the Taxi & Limousine Commission — but he was never charged with a crime. He got his taxi-driving license back in September.

It seems nothing can get this menace off the road.

Perk-y pussycat people are my pet peeve

New Yorkers who prefer the company of four-legged fur balls to humans now can spend time at a pop-up cat coffee shop set up by Purina on Manhattan's Lower East Side. In Japan, the feline-deprived pay about $12 an hour — $24 for as long as they want — for the privilege of petting strange cats and feeding flavored milk to random critters.

I hope I never get that lonely.

Harem Scare 'Em

Serial cheater Tiger Woods' ex-wife, Elin Nordegren, and his current gal pal, Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn, "laugh and talk like they're girlfriends,'' a source told US Weekly magazine.

Lose the faithless golfer, Lindsey, and keep your girlfriend. You never know when you'll need a shoulder to cry on.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cumming makes ‘Cabaret’ revival hottest Broadway show again

What do you call a revival of a revival? A re-revival? In the case of this "Cabaret," you just call it fantastic.

In 1998, directors Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall brushed away the long shadow cast by Bob Fosse and Liza Minnelli to completely reinvent John Kander and Fred Ebb's 1966 masterpiece.

Now the Roundabout's brought back the production — down to its logo — with Alan Cumming reprising his brilliant, Tony-winning turn as Emcee of the seedy Kit Kat Klub. Indeed, the theater's orchestra section's been transformed into that infamous Berlin nightclub — "Cabaret" is the show that decisively brought the immersive experience to Broadway.

And what an experience it is! Those lucky enough to be seated at one of the small, lamp-lit tables are teleported to 1929 Berlin, when the city is losing itself in dissolute pleasures just as the Nazis are rising to power.

The biggest den of iniquity is the Kit Kat Klub, where boys and girls cavort in fishnet stockings, the roguish Emcee sports track marks on his arms, and the star attraction is a third-rate English entertainer named Sally Bowles.

Michelle Williams in "Cabaret."Photo: Joan Marcus

You have to admire the gumption of Michelle Williams, who chose not just to sing and dance for her Broadway debut, but to take on such an iconic role as Sally.

In films such as "My Week With Marilyn" and "Blue Valentine," Williams proved to be a master of the small brush stroke, a miniaturist of feelings. That attention to detail doesn't work on her big Kit Kat numbers, "Don't Tell Mama" and "Mein Herr." Williams doesn't have much flair for comedy, either, and Sally's breezy, put-on eccentricity feels tentative.

But she gets better when the mood darkens, as Sally and her paramour, a bisexual American writer named Cliff (Bill Heck), get caught up in Berlin's changing mood — violence is never far from sleaze in "Cabaret." Tellingly, Williams shines brightest when the focus is just her and a microphone, as on "Maybe This Time" and the devastating title song.

So maybe this Sally Bowles isn't one for the ages. But the show itself is, and this version, offers plenty of riches, starting with Linda Emond's finely wrought Fraulein Schneider, a landlady who engages in a doomed romance with Jewish fruit seller Herr Schultz (Danny Burstein).

And because Williams isn't quite strong enough to offer a counterpoint, the show belongs, more than ever, to Cumming's diabolical tease.

It's only fitting he'd get the last word, or rather the last image. You're left dazzled — and devastated.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Fraudster gets new, longer prison term

Opera-loving fraudster Alberto Vilar was re-sentenced Thursday to 10 years behind bars — a year longer than he originally received – for his 2008 fraud and money laundering conviction.

Manhattan federal Judge Richard Sullivan said a longer term was necessary since Vilar, 73, went out of his way to prevent victims from being repaid — and two died waiting to get their money back.

"I have to agree with the government, that the defendants' conduct was designed at every step to punish investors, particularly those who testified against them at trial," Sullivan said.

The feds say the Cuban-born Vilar cheated investors out of $40 million through his San Francisco-based company.

Sullivan also handed the disgraced money manager's ex-business partner, GaryTanaka, another year in jail – sentencing him to six years in prison for securities fraud and conspiracy charges.

The longer sentences came after a federal appeals court last August ordered both defendants resentenced following an unrelated 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that affected how punishments should be calculated.

Both were ordered free on bail in fall 2012 while their appeal on the 2008 convictions was being considered. After their appeals were denied by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Sullivan in November revoked Vilar's bail and threw him back in the slammer to continue serving what was then a nine-year sentence.

It is unclear whether the defendants will appeal the new sentences. Lawyers for the defendants declined comment, though Vivian Shevitz, Vilar's lawyer, at the hearing said claims he stood in investors' way of getting repaid were "completely untrue and unfair."

Vilar's generosity to arts-related charities had earned the fallen Philanthropist the reputation of being one of the Metropolitan Opera's largest donors.

With Post wire services


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Curtis Sliwa loses two rounds in court to ex-wife

Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa got hit with a double whammy Thursday when a Manhattan Family Court judge ruled he could not slash child support for his son — and said his ex did not have to turn over embarrassing communications between him and his politician girlfriend.

Ex-wife Mary Sliwa is sitting on some 200 racy recordings — more of which her lawyer, Paul Siegert, said he planned to release — between Curtis and his baby mama, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz.

Mary published transcripts of 19 steamy conversations in January in a $1 million fraud action against the couple, alleging they conspired to steal $342,000 in marital assets while she was still married to Curtis.

The judge will decide later how much Sliwa has to pay Mary in child support for their 11-year-old son, Anthony,
who has learning and social disabilities.

Curtis, who co-hosts a WABC talk show, had asked for a reduction from $13,000 to $2,500 a month.

Katz's attorney declined to comment. Curtis' attorney was out of state and did not immediately return messages. ­


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Brooklyn bodega slaying part of family feud: sources

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 24 April 2014 | 17.08

The father of 13 who was gunned down in a Brooklyn bodega last week was not the victim of a robbery gone bad — but was instead the target of a revenge killing that was part of a war among his family that stretches back to Yemen.

The shooter was apparently victim Swadh Maged's nephew, who was seeking revenge on the deli man for fatally gunning down his father — Maged's brother — with an AK-47 in 2010, law-enforcement sources said Wednesday.

That shooting four years ago in Yemen was itself an act of retribution, because Maged believed his brother had killed Maged's daughter years earlier, sources said.

Maged moved to the United States 10 years ago.

When the unidentified alleged deli killer moved to Brooklyn a few months ago, it appeared, at first, that he was going to leave his enmity for his uncle behind, the sources said.

"It had seemed like what had happened in Yemen, stayed in ­Yemen," said a law-enforcement source.

But investigators believe that the killer was waiting to exact his revenge.

At about 6:45 a.m. Thursday, the armed man calmly strolled into the Deli Grocery on Central Avenue, raised his pistol and executed Maged at close range, the sources said.

That night, the killer took a flight from Kennedy Airport to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Investigators believe he was headed back to Yemen.

Additional reporting by David K. Li and Reuven Fenton


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Elderly couple brutally beaten, robbed in Queens home

An elderly couple was brutally beaten and robbed Wednesday in their Queens home, police said.

The victims were robbed by two attackers who pretended they were doing work on the couple's home on 15th Avenue in Bayside, then pushed their way in around 2:20 p.m., sources said.

The Post is withholding the victims' names because of the attack.

The thieves beat and bloodied the 85-year-old wife, whose 86-year-old husband was partly incapacitated by a stroke, according to family members and police sources.

The feisty husband received several blows to the head during the robbery, but managed to bite one of the attackers before they fled, said Sebastian Pepi, 71, whose life partner is the couple's niece.

"He just had a stroke about a year ago," Pepi said.

"They've been walking up and down because they take walks here. I'm here 10 years and they've been here for 20. They're very nice people. It's stunning."

A neighbor, Dee Corio, 55, called the couple "sweet" and said they decorate their windows for all of the holidays.

"They try to coordinate it with the people who live next door to them," she said. "They mind their own business. They're nice people. This is just terrible."

The husband's struggles may have made him an easy target in the quiet, well-kept neighborhood, Corio added.

"All these people are like 85 years old," he explained. "They're so used to maintenance coming by. They trust them. This is a really safe area. I have a neighbor who still leaves her door unlocked. We try to tell her not to."

The tranquility of the tree-lined street was disrupted by the sight of about a dozen police officers who had taped off the cul de sac and were letting only residents from that street drive their cars through.

Neighbors said a heavy police presence in the neighborhood is not a common occurrence.

"This has never happened around here," Pepi said. "When they see a cop car go around the block, they say, 'Oh, there's a cop car.' "

Another neighbor said the thug's posing as workers likely earned the couple's trust before invading their home.

The victims were rushed to New York Hospital Queens for head trauma and facial injuries, but both are expected to survive, authorities said.

It was not immediately clear what was taken and cops are still searching for the suspects.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Burkle pal out in cold in hotel fight: source

Morgans Hotel Chairman Jason Taubman Kalisman will likely beat billionaire Ron Burkle and his supporters for a second time, The Post has learned.

Kalisman last year won a proxy battle with Burkle over control of the chic hotel group, which owns the Hudson, Delano and Mondrian brands. Now it looks as though he will hold off a Burkle supporter at the May 14 annual meeting.

Sahm Adrangi's Kerrisdale Capital has nominated a full slate of directors to replace the current board and pursue a sale of the business. Kerrisdale also supported Burkle during his board battle.

Adrangi, a 32-year-old Iran-born Canadian, is facing "an uphill climb" to win, said a person close to the situation, adding that none of his nominees for the board have relevant experience.

"Our understanding is that some investors do not believe the Kerrisdale slate is strong enough," MKM Senior Analyst Chris Agnew told The Post. "If that perception does not change, I would think the current board will likely keep their seats."

Agnew said he believes the lodging business cycle is on an upswing, making him wary of a fire sale approach.

Kalisman, the 34-year-old grandson of real estate developer Alfred Taubman, has suggested he's open to selling the chain but only after it reduces its debt load.
Morgans released a presentation on Wednesday aimed at persuading investors to re-elect the current board.

In response, Adrangi told TheStreet.com that a potential buyer would be willing to pay $10.10 a share for Morgans, which closed down 1.5 percent, or 11 cents, at $7.33.

Last week, Kerrisdale hired Andrew Zobler, chief executive of the Sydell Group, as an adviser. Sydell also has two joint ventures with Burkle's Yucaipa Cos., including one to acquire and develop urban lifestyle-oriented hotel properties.

Besides losing the proxy battle last year, Burkle also made a proposal to purchase Morgans for $8 a share that never fully materialized.
Kerrisdale and Burkle did not return calls.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Strong art sales boost Sotheby’s 1st quarter revenue

Sotheby's is taking on the modern art world without Dan Loeb, it appears.

A 34 percent increase in sales of impressionist and contemporary art drove net auction sales in the first quarter, up 40 percent from the prior year, to $730 million, Sotheby's said Wednesday in a report on its preliminary results.

Sotheby's said its "record-setting impressionist art sales in London achieved the highest-ever total for any sales series held anywhere in London."

The results are another jab at Loeb, who is mounting a proxy battle to gain three seats on Sotheby's board.

Last fall Loeb, who owns 9.6 percent of Sotheby's shares, used his poison pen to attack management for being like "an old master painting in desperate need of restoration."

"It is apparent to us from our meeting that you do not fully grasp the central importance of contemporary and modern art to the company's growth strategy," Loeb said in an Oct. 2 letter to
Chairman and CEO William Ruprecht.

Loeb sued Sotheby's over the poison pill it introduced to thwart his efforts to exert control, which will be heard in Delaware Chancery Court on April 29.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hamptons, North Fork home sales soar

Home sales are soaring in the Hamptons — and now buyers who want more for their money are splurging on its traditionally less fancy neighbor, the North Fork, according to new market reports.

While the number of home sales jumped 38 percent on the South Fork (a k a the Hamptons), they skyrocketed 60 percent on the North Fork, according to the Corcoran Group, which compared the first quarter of 2013 to the first quarter of 2014.

Some North Fork areas like Greenport saw the number of sales rise 200 percent, from 10 to 30, while the number of sales in Cutchogue/Mattituck/Laurel rose 107 percent, from 27 to 56 sales.

"The East End is experiencing an incredibly active market, which we haven't seen like this since 2006," said Pamela Liebman, Corcoran's CEO. "The lure of sand and beach are always a big draw. The North Folk is beautiful, but with better prices than the Hamptons."

Douglas Elliman's report found similar increases.

In the Hamptons, the number of sales jumped 52.2 percent, from 347 in the first quarter of 2013 to 528 in the first quarter of 2014.

On the North Fork, sales jumped 39.7 percent, from 78 in the first quarter of 2013 to 109 in the first quarter of 2014. The average sales price also increased significantly — 40.2 percent, from $1.21 million in the first quarter of 2013 to $1.7 million in the first quarter of 2014.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Collins to stick with new lineup — for now

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 23 April 2014 | 17.08

Terry Collins doesn't appear in any hurry to change his newfangled Mets lineup.

After moving Curtis Granderson from cleanup to the No. 2 hole on Monday and inserting Daniel Murphy fourth, the manager on Tuesday indicated he might stay "a little bit" with this alignment.

"We've only done it for one day with this particular lineup," Collins said before the Mets lost 3-0 to the Cardinals at Citi Field. "But I think as I told [Lucas] Duda and a few other people: Don't be surprised in the next month, I think it's going to change again. But we've put a lot on Lucas' plate in the last week. I don't need to pile it on."

On Friday, Duda officially became the Mets' full-time first baseman, when the club traded Ike Davis to the Pirates.

Granderson's nightmarish start to the season necessitated moving him from the cleanup spot. Granderson finished 0-for-3 with a strikeout and is hitless in a career-worst 22 at-bats.


Dillon Gee is winless in his last seven starts at Citi Field, dating to last Aug. 8. He probably deserved better than the loss Tuesday, when he allowed two runs over six innings against the Cardinals.

The right-hander allowed both of his runs in the fourth before escaping a bases-loaded jam with nobody out.

"I'm happy with the way I limited the damage in the one inning — it could have gotten really ugly, and in the past it has," Gee said. "For me, that was kind of a big step to have so far this season."


Juan Lagares has begun running in Port St. Lucie. The outfielder was placed on the disabled list last week with a pulled right hamstring. Collins said there is no timetable for Lagares to play in a minor-league game.


Bobby Abreu made his Mets debut by flying out as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning. Collins indicated he likely will give Abreu a start in the outfield on Thursday against Cardinals right-hander Lance Lynn.

Abreu played right field at Triple-A Las Vegas, but has been told to be prepared for action in left. *
David Wright finished 0-for-4 and had a 12-game hitting streak snapped.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Lohan’s reality show not expected to be renewed

Maybe it's just that no one cares anymore.

Sunday's two-hour season finale of Lindsay Lohan's OWN reality show, "Lindsay," corralled only 406,000 total viewers — way down from the 693,000 viewers who watched the show's March 9 premiere. On Sunday night's episode, Lohan, 27, said she'd suffered a miscarriage by way of explaining why she missed two weeks of filming on the series, which averaged 510,000 viewers over seven episodes and is not expected to be renewed for a second season.

"Lindsay" did, however, add about 330,000 viewers each week (through April 6) with "Live +7" data factored in (DVR viewing, etc.).

Speaking of young women sharing a little to much of their personal lives, there's Candace Cameron Bure, who's still hoofing away on "Dancing With the Stars." She shares her beliefs about religion and the role women should play in a "traditional" marriage in the May 5 issue of People magazine. "I used to think, 'I am a good person, so why do I need God,'" she says. "But then I started understanding the Bible, and it opened my eyes." As for her husband, "We split responsibilities as evenly as possible," she says, calling him the "leader" of the family. "Not everybody is going to like me or agree with my point of view. And that's okay."

'World Wars' on History

Stephen David, who brought us the Emmy winning "The Men Who Built America," is gearing up for the premiere of "The World Wars," a six-hour miniseries event airing Memorial Day weekend on both History and H2. David snared John McCain, Colin Powell, John Major and David Miliband, among others, to appear on-camera for the miniseries, which cover World War I and World War II (2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I).
David's company, Stephen David Entertainment, has three other specials in the works for 2014: "The West" (Discovery), "American Genius" (Nat Geo) and "Sons of Liberty" (History). Both "The World Wars" and "The West" were co-produced with Sundance Productions (Robert Redford and Laura Michalchyshyn).

Last, but not least …

Last week was a good one for ABC: ABC's "World News with Diane Sawyer" finished first in adults 25-54 — its first back-to-back win in the "money" news demo in over six years. And Disney XD, led by "Kickin' It," "Mighty Med" and "Lab Rats," finished the week with 521,000 viewers, its second-best prime-time average ever … Sesame Workshop will be named Friday as a winner of Tribeca's Disruptive Innovation Awards. Sesame Workshop CEO/president Melvin Ming will accept the honor … The Steve Schirripa-hosted "Karma's a B*tch!" continues Thursday (8 p.m.) on ID … Dr. Richard Besser, ABC News' chief health/medical editor, will be honored by the National Meningitis Association April 28 at the NY Athletic Club.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

After DNP, Kirilenko solid in Game 2

TORONTO — It was one of the great mysteries of Game 1. Where in the world was Andrei Kirilenko? His wife wondered on social media. But the Nets won that game and coach Jason Kidd said Kirilenko's did-not- play status was a matter of matchups and game situations.

Tuesday in Game 2, the question of where Kirilenko was became sort of easy to answer. It seemed he was everywhere when on the court..

Coming off the bench for nearly 20 minutes, Kirilenko played with his trademark style which is best likened to him running around as if he were on fire. Kirilenko had four points, four steals, three in the first half when he helped keep the Nets within six points, impressive really since they shot just 37.5 percent.

"I'm a professional player. My job is to play the game and not to coach," Kirilenko said. "We have a coach. I spoke with Jason and whatever minutes I have, I have to be ready and prepare myself to play those minutes. So no hard feelings. We're in the playoffs and we won a lot of games so we're good."

That good refers to the relationship between player and coach of course. Not how the Nets played down the stretch of the first-round series-tying 100-95 Game 2 loss to the Raptors at Air Canada Centre.

"It was a pretty equal game at the end," Kirilenko said. "There were a couple shots we should have made."

And some rebounds they should have gotten. And some stops they should have made, particularly on 30-point detonator DeMar DeRozan.

"Give credit to Toronto, they have played a great fourth quarter," Kirilenko said. "They forced a lot of fouls and got on the free-throw line."

"DeRozan did a great job of closing that fourth quarter. But still, I think if we make couple shots down the road we will be fine."


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

In place of historic jump, Ogwyn will be in avalanche special

Joby Ogwyn, whose wingsuit flight off the summit of Mount Everest was canceled after last week's deadly avalanche there, will participate in the avalanche news special that Discovery will air in place of his historic jump.

Discovery was slated to air Ogwyn's jump live on May 11. Instead, it will now produce a news special, airing early next month, focusing on the Mount Everest avalanche, which killed 13 Sherpas on Friday, April 18 — including three Sherpas who were part of Ogwyn's crew.

(Three Sherpas are still missing and are presumed dead.)

"I am going to take a small and humble role [in the special] … since I was one of two or three eyewitnesses who saw [the avalanche] happen that morning, which was the worst thing in the world you could see," Ogwyn told The Post. "This thing has gone from Joby making his ultimate flight off the summit [of Everest] to … very much about the special Sherpas who welcomed us with open arms."

Ogwyn, on the phone from Katmandu, Nepal — where he was ensuring that the bodies of his Sherpas were returned to their families — was in his tent at base camp when the avalanche struck around 8 a.m. local time. "It wasn't a big, loud thunderous thing," he said. "But it sounded big enough. I leaned out of my tent to look and I could see probably 25 to 30 people, guys on that section of the mountain, like little dots … and saw this cloud, like a dragon or a snake, working its way down and covering up the guys.

"There were five or six teams of guys on the mountain at that time and a wide variety of teams were affected by the avalanche," he said. "My team lost three guys; we had six total and obviously that's devastating. I had spent some nice time at base camp with these guys and they were very special and were sort of celebrities.

"These guys are the salt-of-the-earth and far better men than me," he said. "Lots of times people don't think as much of the Sherpas because the job they do is hard and lonely. This special will showcase who they were and what they stand for. It will be a beautiful thing."

So will Ogwyn now abandon his plans to jump off the summit of Mount Everest in his wingsuit?

"I haven't even thought about it. My goal right now is to support my Sherpa friends and their families," he said. "Mount Everest isn't going anywhere, and I'm not going to stop pursuing my dream.

"I just have to do that when the time is right."


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

DeGeneres takes on home design in new show

Ellen DeGeneres isn't just a talk show host and comedian — she's also a furniture design expert.

And now the daytime funnywoman is channeling that passion for a new six-episode design competition series that will premiere on HGTV next year.

"Ellen's Design Challenge" — DeGeneres' first show for cable TV — will feature six competitors tackling challenges to sketch, design and build furniture in just 24 hours.

Each designer will be paired with an expert carpenter to help them complete the tasks, which will be evaluated by a panel of judges with the winner receiving a cash prize. A six-part online companion series will also allow viewers to participate in another side of the competition.

"I'm so excited about this show because I love finding really special pieces of furniture," said DeGeneres in a statement. "One time I found a beautiful one-of-a-kind armoire that spoke to me in a way I'd never experienced. It turned out there was a drifter living inside of it, but that's a story for another time."

DeGeneres will executive produce "Design Challenge" through her company A Very Good Production, along with A. Smith & Co. and Telepictures.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More
techieblogger.com Techie Blogger Techie Blogger