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Laura L. Griffin

By Velvet Roper staff 8/22/12 3:50pm

Question of the Week

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What's that in the distance?

Question of the Week: What Do You Hope NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds on Mars?

NASA’s Curiosity rover, which has been sending back incredible images of the red planet for two weeks now, finally made a move today. It inched just ten feet forward and then paused to photograph its tracks. Slow going, but every celebrity we’ve encountered this week has been ecstatic about the development! The mission’s stated goals are to explore and analyze the climate and geography of Mars, but don’t we all hope for it to find something more exciting? Something unexpected?

We collected celebrities’ answers to this very question: What do you hope NASA’s Curiosity rover finds on Mars? Click through the slideshow for their (surprising) answers. Read More

By Laura L. Griffin 8/22/12 8:30am

the eight-day week

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To Do Wednesday: Public Offering

Another day, another abbreviated version of a musical for you to enjoy! (These clever event planners know more than an hour and a half in the sun would wreck our base tan, anyway.) The Public Theater hosts a special act-one-only family matinee of Into The Woods (because, despite pulling inspiration for their Tony award-winning musical from fairy tales, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine didn’t write the thing for little Junior’s attention span). But it will still feel like the real thing, with Amy Adams, Jack Broderick, Glenn Close and the rest all singing onstage. Read More

By Laura L. Griffin 8:30am

the eight-day week

Film Forum marquee

To Do Tuesday: French Bread

The concession stand at Village stalwart Film Forum bears a small sign proudly proclaiming that the banana bread sold there was beloved by the late French philosopher (and known lover of baked goods) Jacques Derrida. Double down on Mr. Derrida by purchasing yourself a thick slice and sidling into the theater for a double-feature of his homeland’s cinematic offerings, part of an ongoing French Old Wave series. On view tonight, two gangster films: Pépé Le Moko (a favorite of Graham Greene’s) and Touchez Pas Au Grisbi (the title of which rather hilariously translates to “Don’t touch the loot”—good advice, unless the loot in question is banana bread). Read More

By Laura L. Griffin 8/20/12 8:30am

the eight-day week

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To Do Monday: Toy Story

The little one is back from summer camp, and now he’s demanding presents, attention, food … how brief the respite was! Hand him off to the babysitter for one more precious day and stroll around MoMA’s exhibit Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900–2000, gazing upon the modern objects you once fetishized in fancy toy stores, when children were a mere abstract design concept of your own. Enjoy the institution’s ample air conditioning and peek at a Skippy-Racer scooter from 1933, Bauhaus nursery furniture, Lego building blocks, a Slinky and a selection of original pieces from the set of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. After a couple of hours, you’ll remember why you’ve already starting socking away money for little Junior’s Whiffenpoofs tux rentals (Class of 2031!). Read More

By Laura L. Griffin 8/17/12 1:00pm

the eight-day week

(Photo by flickr.com/PaulSteinJC)

To Do Sunday: All That Jazz

Today we’re hitching a ride back to the city, slipping into a drop-waist dress, grabbing a parasol and lazing across the river on the ferry—and before you can say, “Is anyone actually disappointed by the yearlong delay of the release of Gatsby?” we’ll be on Governors Island for the 7th Annual Jazz Age Lawn Party. Help yourself to live music from Michael Arenella and His Dreamland Orchestra, dancing lessons on a temporary parquet floor, records hand-cranked on a phonograph, vintage portraiture and more twee retro fashions for sale than you could sneeze at through your newly purchased hand-embroidered organic cotton gingham hanky! (But don’t kid yourself—it’s all about the St-Germain cocktails.) Read More

By Laura L. Griffin 8/17/12 11:00am

the eight-day week

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To Do Saturday: The Artists of Fielding

Grab your peanuts and crackerjack, because Saturday marks the 64th annual Artists and Writers Celebrity Softball Game, which benefits an amalgamation of deserving East Hampton charities. And what rarified company you’ll be in! Long-time coach Ken Auletta leads the writers, joined by the likes of George Stephanopoulos, Hugo Lindgren and Carl Bernstein. The scribes will be challenged by the “artists” Christie Brinkley, Lori Singer and Mad Men’s John Slattery. (We’d never argue semantics, but this category used to include the likes of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, though we can’t picture either playing softball.) The proceedings will be announced by James Lipton, natch, whose bookings for Inside the Actors Studio have also begun to blur the lines of job titles. Remember the Jon Bon Jovi episode? Read More

By Laura L. Griffin 8/17/12 8:30am

the eight-day week

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To Do Friday: Guest Stars

Just try not to sing the overture from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast as you make your way to the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center’s “Be Our Guest” Gala tonight. The third annual benefit will contribute to the 1932 movie theatre-turned-events space currently in rounds of fund-raising for a complete face-lift. Spend the evening on the waterfront estate of hosts Kristin and John Miller enjoying cocktails and dinner, and choosing which of the upcoming events on the WBPAC’s calendar to attend: Megan Mullally, The Go-Gos or Rita Wilson singing the greatest hits of the ’60s and ’70s, all in one week? Must we only pick one? Read More

By Laura L. Griffin 8/16/12 11:22am

the eight-day week

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To Do Thursday: All Politics is Sexual

We’re taking a wide stance on Tail! Spin!, a play written by NPR contributor Mario Correa and directed by Tony nominee Dan Knechtges. It’s a tour of some of contemporary American history’s most notorious boner-related political indiscretions. The play, which saw its ripped-from-the-headlines world premiere during the currently running New York International Fringe Festival, is in its final performance tonight. It stars cut-ups Rachel Dratch, Sean Dugan and Mo Rocca, and, via the shameful correspondences that ultimately unseated them, performed verbatim, Gov. Mark Sanford, Congressman Anthony Weiner, Congressman Mark Foley and Senator Larry Craig (all of them formerly so, of course). Scandalous! Read More

By Laura L. Griffin 8/16/12 8:30am

the eight-day week

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To Do Thursday: Radio Play

Sometimes you can’t make it to the Great White Way to take in a show—for lack of interest, funds or obstreperous relatives in town demanding entertainment. (Why can’t we just sit in a dark room not speaking?) Lucky for you, sponsor 106.7 Lite FM is offering an omnibus of the musicals currently on Broadway, to catch you up on all the performances you’ve neglected. Stars from Nice Work If You Can Get It, Bring It On: The Musical, Rock of Ages, the forthcoming A Christmas Story (fingers crossed for an appearance of the leg-lamp kickline!) and others will offer you musical highlights from their shows today at lunchtime, which is normally when your host for the afternoon, morning drive-time DJ Bob Bronson, starts to put on his pajamas. This is the last show in the summertime Broadway in Bryant Park series, and thus likely the final time you’ll see the plush puppets, courtesy of Avenue Q, in the light of day. (Those bootleg Elmos in Times Square certainly don’t count.) Read More

By Velvet Roper staff 8/15/12 10:00am

Question of the Week

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The artist formerly known as Snoop Dogg

Question of the Week: Would You, Like Snoop Dogg (er, Lion), Change Your Name?

This week we asked actors, actresses, directors and Miss USA (!), what they thought of the name news: the rapper Snoop Dogg recently announced, after a trip to Jamaica, that he now wants to be referred to as Snoop Lion. He calls the moniker shift “an evolution”–we call it a risk! Is there a stronger branded name in rap? (Other than, perhaps, his old partner and producer Dr. Dre, he of the Dr. Pepper commericals and omnipresent headphones.)

In any case, everyone had an opinion: Vivica Fox, Kick Kennedy, Chaske Spencer, and more. So we collected their thoughts and answers to the question: Do you think “Snoop Lion” is an improvement on “Snoop Dogg”? Would you change your name, given the chance? Read More