Gotham hunkers down for Irene

A couple braves Times Square on Sunday morning, Aug. 28. Hurricane Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)As Hurricane Irene bore down on New York City over the weekend, Gothamites effectively closed up shop, canceling subway service, shuttering Broadway venues and movie theaters and sending newsies scrambling to cover the unprecedented preparations. The Mayor's Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting revoked all filming permits for the weekend (the MOFTB issued a terse statement via its website). Productions currently filming reportedly include Isla Fisher starrer "Bachelorette" and reality shows "Hoarders" and "Clean House."The evacuation area for the city included sections of all five boroughs, with the most severe flooding in Staten Island and Battery Park City. The weather is certain to affect this weekend's box office, as many of the major theater chains have already decided to close Saturday and Sunday (see separate story).All of Broadway cancelled Saturday and Sunday performances (see separate story), as did the New York Intl. Fringe Festival, Off Broadway theaterplexes New World Stages and 59E59, and sundry other venues. It's never desireable to close the theater on the weekend, especially on Broadway (Saturday night is almost always the performance that packs the house tightest), and the multi-billion-dollar damage estimates for the storm include quite a bit of lost revenue.With sustained winds of up to 85 mph forecasted, the entire city battened down the hatches starting Friday. Hotels downtown closed off elevator service from midnight on Saturday so that no one would be trapped in the event of an outage, and flat-fee-only cab service shut down at 10 p.m., with passengers required to share taxi seats with any stragglers needing a lift.Saturday daytime was a mad dash to the grocery, or at least the convenience store, for anything that wasn't nailed down. "The scene at our bodega looks like something from 'Under the Dome,'" said one Brooklynite, "which I guess I'll be reading this weekend."Most of the storm's damage was flood-related. Waters in Battery Park City reached five feet during the storm surge, on Sunday morning, and seven feet in Staten Island. Flooding swept across both FDR Drive and West Side Highway, the two roads that allow quick travel up the east and west sides of Manhattan. Standing water three feet deep was reportedly blocking all lanes on part of the Jackie Robinson Parkway in Queens as of Sunday ayem.New Yorkers knew early on that last weekend would be a long one: Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday announced the evacuation of low-lying areas along the Big Apple's waterfront areas -- a Gotham first -- and the Metropolitan Transit Authority shut down the entire subway system from noon on Saturday, effectively confining residents and tourists to shelter. (The subway hasn't been shut down since 2005's transit strike, a move that earned jail time for Transit Workers Union prexy Roger Toussaint.) By Sunday afternoon, the rain and wind had passed over the city and the metro area, Irene herself had been demoted to a tropical storm, and most locals were principally concerned with when the subways were going to be back in service. But It's not looking good for Monday ayem subway service. The MTA is advising patience, as much of the Metro North flooded during the storm and initial inspections revealed flooded tracks and fallen trees throughout the system.Newsies pulled out all the stops during the storm: NBC News kicked into high gear with corporate sibling the Weather Channel resources, while CBS added a special hourlong Sunday broadcast called "Irene Strikes" with Scott Pelley anchoring from 11 a.m. -- likely the time when the storm will be furthest inland. Sunday's "Good Morning America" expanded to three hours with George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts anchoring from Times Square starting at 7 in the morning.Cablers, too, entered the fray: CNN extended coverage for Saturday afternoon and evening, while MSNBC covered through the weekend rather than going to tape and Fox News preempted programming for storm coverage.By the end of the weekend, most Gothamites were looking to clean up the fallen branches, mop up the dirty water, and get on with it. Here in Gotham, a man's home is is his sleeping box - his business is his castle. Take Brooklyn's River Cafe, a tony DUMBO restaurant housed on a roomy boat docked next to the Water Taxi station. "I slept here last night," said one manager proudly, as he lugged a pump and a length of hose through the flower-petal-strewn doorway. "We were up all night pumping water, and we weathered it just fine. Buzzy (Michael O'Keeffe, the restaurant's proprietor), too. He's an old man, but he got just as dirty as the rest of us." Contact Sam Thielman at sam.thielman@variety.com

'White Collar's Matt Bomer Joins Steven Soderbergh's 'Magic Mike'

Matt Bomer, star from the USA series Whitened Collar, has became a member of the ab-worthy cast of hunks who'll play male strippers in Miracle Mike, Steven Soderbergh's next film. To date, Soderbergh has cast Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer and Matthew McConaughey. Miracle Mike is really a Saturday Evening Fever-style transitional phase story. Tatum plays the title character, who schools a youthful dancer (Pettyfer) in how you can hustle off and on happens. The inspirationwas Channing's own encounters like a stripper when he was 19. Nick Wechsler is creating with Tatum, Gregory Jacobs and Reid Carolin. Carolin authored the script. Soderbergh has known as the film "sexy, funny and shocking"using Saturday Evening Fever like a model. Bomer will next be observed in the Andrew Niccol-directed Over Time, playing the pivotal role of the wealthy guy who provides the protagonist (Justin Timberlake) a go in a longer existence. Take a look at that trailer:

John Mellencamp Finalizes Divorce

Elaine Irwin-Mellencamp and John Mellencamp John Mellencamp has completed his divorce from model Elaine Irwin, People reviews.John Mellencamp and wife splitThe two, who have been married for 18 years, discussed "an friendly settlement of issues including property and maintenance privileges, the custody of the children and support of the children, and all sorts of other conditions,Inch according the settlement agreement.They'll share joint legal custody of the children of the sons, Hud, 17, and Speck, 16, with Irwin getting primary physical custody of the children. The rocker covers supporting your children and also the boys' schooling.Are John Mellencamp and Meg Ryan privately dating?Mellencamp, 59, and Irwin, 41, introduced their separation in December and that he declared divorce in The month of january. Because the split, he's been dating Meg Ryan.

Las Vegas 2 prepared to shoot

Robert Rodriguez claims that financing was already decided to film Las Vegas 2.The director impressed comic-book fans by announcing at Comic-Disadvantage that Frank Burns has written a script that "could shoot as soon as later this season.InchSpeaking to We've Got This Covered in North Park, Rodriguez added the cash is also now in position.InchCrime City 2 is certainly going good, we are just finishing the script for your, we already got the cash. We now have everything we want therefore we can just start shooting the moment we obtain the web pages,Inch We've Got This Covered reported.The follow up is anticipated to become depending on Miller's comic A Dame To Kill For, which features the figures of Marv and Nancy and may see Mickey Rourke and Jessica Alba return.

Moore joins 'Jewtopia' cast

"Avatar" thesp Joel David Moore has arrived another male lead in Bryan Fogel's feature adaptation from the Off-Broadway hit "Jewtopia," which stars Ivan Sergei and Jennifer Love Hewitt, as Variety first reported. Trio is going to be encircled by a remarkable comic ensemble including Tom Arnold, Jon Lovitz, Nicollette Sheridan, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Rita Wilson, Wendie Malick, Camryn Manheim, Peter Stormare, Lin Shaye, Christine Lakin, Hayes MacArthur, Bree Turner and "Everyone Loves Raymond" creator Phil Rosenthal. Fogel co-authored the script together with his fellow "Jewtopia" playwright Mike Wolfson. Sergei plays a gentile who falls deeply in love with a Jewish girl (Hewitt) who's only thinking about getting married to a Jewish guy. Moore will have Sergei's Jewish closest friend who helps him make believe you be Jewish, but because the gentile goes much deeper into the field of Judaism, stereotypes collide, cultures clash, and chaos develops. "Race to Witch Mountain" helmer Andy Fickman is creating with Pavlina Hatoupis and Courtney Mizel. Pic, that has already began filming in La, is referred to like a mix between "Wedding Crashers" and "My Large Body fat Greek Wedding." Moore, who's slated to look in Oliver Stone's "Savages," next stars in David R. Ellis' "Shark Evening three dimensional," which Relativity Media opens Sept. 2. He's repped by Innovative Artists and Subterranean Films and Management. Contact Shaun Sneider at shaun.sneider@variety.com

Charlie's Angels Producers on Reboot: "If Jack Bauer and Carrie Bradshaw Had a Love Child"

Charlie's Angels ABC's reboot of Charlie's Angels will obviously be forever linked to the hit '70s TV series and the two films that followed. But for those who have never heard the iconic line "Good morning, Charlie" - or are just skeptical about this latest remake - the cast and crew have more a modern comparison to describe the series. "If Jack Bauer and Carrie Bradshaw had a love child, it would be Charlie's Angels," co-creator and executive producer Al Gough told reporters at ABC's fall TV previews Sunday. ABC picks up Charlie's Angels Gough and co-creator and executive producer Miles Millar have reboot cred: The duo launched the Superman-in-high-school series Smallville in 2001. "There a lot of similarities to Smallville, in that you're rebooting a brand and trying to put a new spin on it," Gough said. "It has to retain the DNA of the original, but bring something new to the table." Rachael Taylor, who plays Angel Abby Sampson, has purposely limited her knowledge of the original series. "I think it's important to respect the incredible legacy of Charlie's Angels," she said. "But I also think that for actors, it's important to do something fresh. It's important to do an incarnation of Charlie's Angels that is appropriate and befitting for this time." To that end, the L.A.-identified franchise moves to Miami - to make it more international - and gives the three central women rap sheets. "What we sort of wanted to bring to the table was making it more grounded. Making these women feel real, giving them backstories," Gough said. "The show is really about Charlie giving these girls a second chance." Robert Wagner out as Charlie's Angels' new Charlie One snag: There technically is no Charlie yet. Robert Wagner had signed on to fill in for the late John Forsythe in the (voice) role of the Angels' unseen mentor, but has since left the series, due to "scheduling reasons." Producers say a replacement is imminent. "It's trying to find an actor and a voice who brings a certain level of mystery, paternal-ness and authority." Charlie's Angels premieres on Thursday, Sept. 22 at 8/7c on ABC.

ABC Entertainment Topper Touts Strong Coming back Bench, New Slate Of 'Big Swing' Shows

Sony Dates 'Amazing Spider-Man' Sequel

Sony Pictures today set The Amazing Spider-Man 2 on the release schedule for May 2, 2014 to kick off the summer of 2014. "I think it speaks volumes about our confidence in what we are seeing on the new film and our desire to move quickly on the next installment," a Sony exec tells me about the reboot of its biggest superhero franchise from Marvel.

Brooklyn's Bushwick Becomes World-Class Arts Mecca

NEW YORK (AP) Brooklyn's old Bushwick neighborhood has quickly become a new world-class arts mecca with music, dance, sculpture and theater bursting from defunct warehouses and desolate streets where gangs still roam.That hasn't kept artists away from the affordable, industrial spaces ever more rare in a pricey city."This was a ghost town, with tumbleweeds blowing down the street five years ago," says Jay Leritz, co-owner of Yummus Hummus, a Middle Eastern-style cafe on a street filled with musician rehearsal and recording spaces."The streets were empty," says Leritz, "and that was the big attraction the lack of rules, like your parents went away for the weekend and it's a free-for-all."Born-in-Bushwick creations have reached Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other top venues in the United States and abroad even the tallest building on earth, the 160-story Burj Khalifa in Dubai.That's where four canvases of Bushwick artist Kevork Mourad now hang.The son of Armenian refugees in Syria is pioneering a special technique a counterpoint of art and music he's performed with cellist Yo-Yo Ma: Squeezing a tube of paint between thumb and forefinger, Mourad swipes his pinky lightning-fast across paper to improvise images to sounds, projected on a screen. Then a computer unleashes his hand-painted animation, turning the visuals into yet newer forms.Bushwick is "very private, and you can go into your bubble, your world, here without being interrupted by the fast stream of New York City," says the artist, whose abstract self-portrait sold for $20,000 in April at a Christie's auction, topping an estimate of up to $8,000.His favorite sidekick is 4-year-old daughter Cirene, who occasionally pops up in his Bushwick studio, dancing, singing and painting. "She's the boss; she has her own style," says her dad.She's watched him paint with greats like Ma, playing Bach. Mourad also teamed up with French guitarist Stephane Wrembel, who tosses off riffs in gypsy jazz style with off-the-cuff virtuosity. Wrembel, whose music is featured in Woody Allen's film "Midnight in Paris," showed up at Mourad's studio to jam with singer/songwriter John Presnell and guitarist Spencer Katzman.In the heat of a July night, their smoldering sounds filled the third-floor space on Meadow Street. The audience of several dozen people, sitting on a hand-woven Armenian carpet, was riveted."This is so cool!" said Quincy McQ, a Nigerian-born British music promoter.Several blocks away is residential Bushwick, where families live in neatly kept homes or rowhouses. Enticing smoke from barbecues fills the air in a part of New York that is slowly being resurrected from decades of burned-out destruction.A dozen years ago, this urban turf still struggled with crime and poverty. There were few banks, schools or social services never mind the arts.Then came help in the form of city money. Bushwick started to recover.It's the perfect place for income-poor, up-and-coming artists. They're spreading their raw vibes through the debris-strewn streets and converted warehouses of the area's non-residential industrial zone. On Saturday nights here, "underground" parties come alive with high-tech lighting and unlicensed bars.A pizza joint, Roberta's, is packed at night, with an Internet-only radio station housed in two converted metal shipping containers offering talk about natural foods sprinkled with hip music."There's so much happening here that it's just unbelievable," says Mourad.Earlier in July, Presnell, the songwriter, appeared in a double-height warehouse space two blocks from Mourad's studio. Singing in a rich, plaintive voice, Presnell played the brief Kafkaesque part of a lovelorn New York cockroach in an otherwise cheesy, sex-fueled musical featuring aerial acrobats. In the audience was Darren Aronofsky, who directed the Oscar-nominated film "Black Swan."After the show, the director made a beeline for Presnell, while another performer told the songwriter he had "a new fan." Perhaps someday, Presnell might be what Aronofsky or some other high-powered, artsy type can use.In the annals of art neighborhoods, Bushwick harkens back to New York's bohemian Greenwich Village in the 1950s and '60s, when real estate there was affordable, accompanied by drugs that brought murders and muggings to Manhattan's East Village.When prices climbed, artists discovered nearby SoHo. And by the 1990s, Manhattan was off-limits to all but the already successful ones. The rest crossed the East River to Brooklyn's Williamsburg.Now, it too is populated by "hipsters with a trust fund," jokes Adam Johnson, who chisels inspired, artistic furniture at the 3rd Ward, a 20,000-square-foot Bushwick building teeming with activity around the corner from Mourad's Meadow Street.The former warehouse is ringed by parked bicycles belonging to mostly youngish adventurers generating a whirlwind of activity amid weathered walls that house everything from fashion classes to high-end sculpture in chocolate taught by Mehdi Chellaoui, a former chef for rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs.One neighborhood over is East New York, the city's most violent and hardly a magnet for artists.Even in Bushwick, pedestrians stay alert for teenage members of the Latin Kings and Crips gangs. One evening, a police cruiser stopped, beaming a flashlight into the faces of a group of friends walking past abandoned buildings with blown-out windows.Mourad plans to take his art to these streets soon, with Lil Buck, a brilliant young Los Angeles break dancer who also has performed with Ma. He and the cellist have drawn almost 1.4 million YouTube views for their rendition of Camille Saint-Saens' dying-swan song in a Spike Jonze-produced video.There's something else on Buskwick streets that's of no use to anyone but attractive to some artists: trash.In the 3rd Ward, sculptor Luke Schumacher melts copper he retrieves from throwaway electric wiring to his dramatic welded sculptures their rough-hewn twists inspired by his childhood in California's Mojave Desert."This is like a fossil, from the time of the dinosaurs," he adds with a laugh, cradling one piece.Two floors up in the 3rd Ward, "Drink N' Draw" is the droll name of a sketching session offered each Wednesday from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. complete with a nude model and unlimited beer, for $10 if you come with a friend, $15 if alone.Anyone can bring a pad and pencil and practice the skill of tracing human anatomy."For young artists coming to make it here, Bushwick is the gateway to New York City," says Johnson, the furniture designer, eyeing a woodworking shop where he turns fallen city trees and discarded water towers into creative pieces. "They might have been big talents in small towns, but here they're just one of many; it's a real test."Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. By Verena Dobnik August 1, 2011 PHOTO CREDIT AP Photo/John Minchillo NEW YORK (AP) Brooklyn's old Bushwick neighborhood has quickly become a new world-class arts mecca with music, dance, sculpture and theater bursting from defunct warehouses and desolate streets where gangs still roam.That hasn't kept artists away from the affordable, industrial spaces ever more rare in a pricey city."This was a ghost town, with tumbleweeds blowing down the street five years ago," says Jay Leritz, co-owner of Yummus Hummus, a Middle Eastern-style cafe on a street filled with musician rehearsal and recording spaces."The streets were empty," says Leritz, "and that was the big attraction the lack of rules, like your parents went away for the weekend and it's a free-for-all."Born-in-Bushwick creations have reached Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other top venues in the United States and abroad even the tallest building on earth, the 160-story Burj Khalifa in Dubai.That's where four canvases of Bushwick artist Kevork Mourad now hang.The son of Armenian refugees in Syria is pioneering a special technique a counterpoint of art and music he's performed with cellist Yo-Yo Ma: Squeezing a tube of paint between thumb and forefinger, Mourad swipes his pinky lightning-fast across paper to improvise images to sounds, projected on a screen. Then a computer unleashes his hand-painted animation, turning the visuals into yet newer forms.Bushwick is "very private, and you can go into your bubble, your world, here without being interrupted by the fast stream of New York City," says the artist, whose abstract self-portrait sold for $20,000 in April at a Christie's auction, topping an estimate of up to $8,000.His favorite sidekick is 4-year-old daughter Cirene, who occasionally pops up in his Bushwick studio, dancing, singing and painting. "She's the boss; she has her own style," says her dad.She's watched him paint with greats like Ma, playing Bach. Mourad also teamed up with French guitarist Stephane Wrembel, who tosses off riffs in gypsy jazz style with off-the-cuff virtuosity. Wrembel, whose music is featured in Woody Allen's film "Midnight in Paris," showed up at Mourad's studio to jam with singer/songwriter John Presnell and guitarist Spencer Katzman.In the heat of a July night, their smoldering sounds filled the third-floor space on Meadow Street. The audience of several dozen people, sitting on a hand-woven Armenian carpet, was riveted."This is so cool!" said Quincy McQ, a Nigerian-born British music promoter.Several blocks away is residential Bushwick, where families live in neatly kept homes or rowhouses. Enticing smoke from barbecues fills the air in a part of New York that is slowly being resurrected from decades of burned-out destruction.A dozen years ago, this urban turf still struggled with crime and poverty. There were few banks, schools or social services never mind the arts.Then came help in the form of city money. Bushwick started to recover.It's the perfect place for income-poor, up-and-coming artists. They're spreading their raw vibes through the debris-strewn streets and converted warehouses of the area's non-residential industrial zone. On Saturday nights here, "underground" parties come alive with high-tech lighting and unlicensed bars.A pizza joint, Roberta's, is packed at night, with an Internet-only radio station housed in two converted metal shipping containers offering talk about natural foods sprinkled with hip music."There's so much happening here that it's just unbelievable," says Mourad.Earlier in July, Presnell, the songwriter, appeared in a double-height warehouse space two blocks from Mourad's studio. Singing in a rich, plaintive voice, Presnell played the brief Kafkaesque part of a lovelorn New York cockroach in an otherwise cheesy, sex-fueled musical featuring aerial acrobats. In the audience was Darren Aronofsky, who directed the Oscar-nominated film "Black Swan."After the show, the director made a beeline for Presnell, while another performer told the songwriter he had "a new fan." Perhaps someday, Presnell might be what Aronofsky or some other high-powered, artsy type can use.In the annals of art neighborhoods, Bushwick harkens back to New York's bohemian Greenwich Village in the 1950s and '60s, when real estate there was affordable, accompanied by drugs that brought murders and muggings to Manhattan's East Village.When prices climbed, artists discovered nearby SoHo. And by the 1990s, Manhattan was off-limits to all but the already successful ones. The rest crossed the East River to Brooklyn's Williamsburg.Now, it too is populated by "hipsters with a trust fund," jokes Adam Johnson, who chisels inspired, artistic furniture at the 3rd Ward, a 20,000-square-foot Bushwick building teeming with activity around the corner from Mourad's Meadow Street.The former warehouse is ringed by parked bicycles belonging to mostly youngish adventurers generating a whirlwind of activity amid weathered walls that house everything from fashion classes to high-end sculpture in chocolate taught by Mehdi Chellaoui, a former chef for rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs.One neighborhood over is East New York, the city's most violent and hardly a magnet for artists.Even in Bushwick, pedestrians stay alert for teenage members of the Latin Kings and Crips gangs. One evening, a police cruiser stopped, beaming a flashlight into the faces of a group of friends walking past abandoned buildings with blown-out windows.Mourad plans to take his art to these streets soon, with Lil Buck, a brilliant young Los Angeles break dancer who also has performed with Ma. He and the cellist have drawn almost 1.4 million YouTube views for their rendition of Camille Saint-Saens' dying-swan song in a Spike Jonze-produced video.There's something else on Buskwick streets that's of no use to anyone but attractive to some artists: trash.In the 3rd Ward, sculptor Luke Schumacher melts copper he retrieves from throwaway electric wiring to his dramatic welded sculptures their rough-hewn twists inspired by his childhood in California's Mojave Desert."This is like a fossil, from the time of the dinosaurs," he adds with a laugh, cradling one piece.Two floors up in the 3rd Ward, "Drink N' Draw" is the droll name of a sketching session offered each Wednesday from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. complete with a nude model and unlimited beer, for $10 if you come with a friend, $15 if alone.Anyone can bring a pad and pencil and practice the skill of tracing human anatomy."For young artists coming to make it here, Bushwick is the gateway to New York City," says Johnson, the furniture designer, eyeing a woodworking shop where he turns fallen city trees and discarded water towers into creative pieces. "They might have been big talents in small towns, but here they're just one of many; it's a real test."Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.