Been a while since we've seen any good celebrity gossip. But Boston Daily has a little treat about Eli Roth, the director born in Massachusetts who grew up to be the king of icky torture porn and who inspired an article titled, "What's a Nice Jewish Boy from Newton Doing Making Films Like This?" Roth's brand of horror has made him a Hollywood name, but he's not big enough to sleep with Lindsay Lohan, which......

--The state owes snow plow operators $69 million for their work. Now that's a way to thank them for keeping our roads clean. The state has already--ahem--plowed through its snow-plow budget due to the abundance of snow this year. Sorry. Couldn't resist. [Boston Globe] --Two fires broke out at the same building in Fitchburg on Thursday, 12 hours apart. [WCVB] --An author from Dudley, Misha Defonseca, has admitted that she made up a best-selling memoir......

Second only to the awards themselves, fashion is one of the main reasons why so many of us watch the Oscars. So along with everyone else out there with a blog and a voice, we’ve decided to give you our opinion on fashion last night. We’ll save you from our opinions on the winners and why Amy Ryan was robbed and stick to what we know. Fashion. Amy Adams was probably one of the best......

Now that filmmakers have rediscovered Boston, the city wants to take advantage of it by building a movie studio in Weymouth, the Herald's Scott Van Voorhis reports: Seeking to build political support and persuade the state to expand existing tax credits, a team of Hollywood film moguls is flying into the Hub this week for meetings with state lawmakers and the development firm that controls the former naval air station in South Weymouth, industry sources......

Call us crazy, but we're not as excited about the Oscars as we could be. We're happy the writers' strike is over, because we support writers as much as anyone (we're pretty writerly ourselves, y'know). Still, the fact that everyone's excited about ads, parties, and fashion (though we do like the Penelope Cruz pick) rather than films speaks to just how Hollywood our movie industry has become--and just how sad that is for the films......

Speed-the-Plow By David Mamet Presented By Bad Habit Productions 8:00 pm tonight and Saturday, 2:00 pm Sunday Factory Theatre, 791 Tremont St., Boston. $12. Tickets and information They are the largely thankless theatrical roles, the parts that move a piece along but don't bring with them the promise of glory. Take Hamlet in Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz & Guilderstern Are Dead" and Rose Maxson in August Wilson's "Fences" - both necessary characters, but parts designed as......

Manchildren Founder of K Records and former member of Beat Happening, Calvin Johnson mastered precious naivete decades before it became the default indie mode. His off-kilter baritone is what sold it, and he's bringing his voice and an acoustic guitar to Cambridge tonight. Teenbeat Records founder Mark Robinson also performs as Cotton Candy. Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square, 7:00pm, $10. Men With Children Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers is returning to......

While waiting for the bus at Mass Ave and Washington Street in the South End, we used to always wonder why an entrepreneur never converted the former Alexandra Hotel into high-end condos. It wasn't for the lack of effort. A 2006 Globe piece documents the building's long, troubled history, describing an "old Gothic goddess [that] now stands out on the corner as an over-the-hill vamp, wearing graffiti like smeared lipstick. Redevelopment is passing it by."......

Bostonist knows a girl who once got lingerie on Valentine's Day from her Dunkin' Donuts guy. They weren't dating or anything. He just thought a bra & panty set was an appropriate "getting to know you" gift. Take our advice: if you don't have access to her drawers, both literal and figurative, do not give her lingerie. If you are able to check her tags (or are one of the four people on earth who......

This weekend's Hollywood blockbuster openings are even more depressing than usual, with an ancient Stallone (looking like "an overcooked Ball Park frank," according to E), a cybercrime flick, and a take on a decade-old SNL skit "leading" the pack. Rambo, Untraceable, and Meet the Spartans (which currently has a negative rating at Rotten Tomatoes, something we haven't seen very often, if ever!) will open this weekend, most likely to some box office clamor despite the......

Leaving aside the question of whether the event is newsworthy, Bostonist will be live-blogging the world's latest entertainment incarnation: an awarference (awards + press conference?). We're not sure the word will catch on, but we are interested in seeing how interesting (or soul-crushingly boring) the event will be. And we'd also like to discover if NBC will succeed in putting on a successful prom despite the lack of enthusiasm on the part of those nerdy,......

So a few movies shoot in Boston, and all of a sudden the city is Hollywood East. Well, a lot of movies stopped by here, and Denzel Washington's The Great Debaters premiered at Harvard. The New York Times called Boston the "new Toronto" as long as movies are concerned. Today, the Track Girls became excited at the prospect of Canada being jealous of Boston. But who cares about that? All we care about is--what in......

WGA Strike Support Rally Friday, December 14, 12:00 pm-3:00 pm Harvard Square Fans4writers.com Update: Bradley's Almanac just gave us a heads-up--the WGA East announced "Please RSVP to 212-767-7843 and leave the number of people in your party" if you plan to attend the event at the church. By now, we're all sick of the writers' strike, and Bostonist HQ is suffering from MCRW (Major Colbert Report Withdrawal). Rest assured, the writers are even sicker of......

How did The Golden Compass, Juno, and Atonement do critically and commercially? Of Compass and its controversy, the Dig's David Wildman said, "So screw the religious nuts, there's no reason not to see this fun little flick." James Verniere at the Herald disagreed, finding it a "long and often tedious slog." Unless you're a sci-fi fan or want to stick it to The Man, you might want to stay away. The movie opened at Number......

--Another snowstorm is on its way and is expected to have its greatest impact tonight. [WCVB] --Speaking of snow, Bostonist has the temperature and weather-condition icons at the top left of the home page. If you click on that icon, you'll get all the latest weather news. --People got cold in order to protest the heat of global warming during yesterday's Polar Bear Plunge in Concord. [AP/Globe] --Patriots owner Robert Kraft is partnering with......

--A woman who was pregnant with twins was shot in the back last night in Mattapan. Police are saying the 22-year-old was shot through her apartment window. The woman is now in stable condition. The Herald adds that Police Commissioner Ed Davis went to the scene and that It was unclear last night whether the woman was targeted by someone she knew or whether she was a victim of a bizarre act of random violence.......

--Fires ran rampant yesterday. A mother and her son were injured last night in a fire in Somerville. One firefighter was treated and released at the hospital. [Boston Globe] --Another fire broke out in Haverhill last night, and people were injured jumping out of the windows. No one died in the blaze, but 24 people have lost their homes. [Boston Globe, Boston Herald] --The state Supreme Judicial Court is letting Heidi Erickson, who kept......

There is no sign or banner, but it is easy to find the Tuesday meeting of Poly Boston at Somerville's Diesel Cafe. Just look for the people who are hugging each other. "Poly people are openly affectionate," admitted Jonathan Woodward, an outgoing polyamorous professional. "But not more so than a monogamous couple might be." Diesel is a terrible place to hold a meeting. Last night, Poly Boston members crowded in clusters around three or four......

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

There's more perks to being a BPD officer besides police details. The Globe did a feature on Michael O'Connor, the police officer who must handle traffic and keep an eye on stars who are filming movies in Boston. The gist of the story is that O'Connor has been busier lately with The Lonely Maiden starring Morgan Freeman, William H. Macy, and Christopher Walken. O'Connor is also keeping an eye on Real Men Cry with Ethan......

A Girl in Every Port (1928) and The Canary Murder Case (1929) Harvard Film Archive, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge Sunday, 7:00pm More information Come for the haircut. Silent film's iconic flapper, actress, writer, and theorist Louise Brooks is the subject of a double feature tomorrow night at the Harvard Film Archive. Brooks is best known for playing a pair of prostitutes in the daring New Objectivity movies of German......

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire. LAist continues to cover the......

Tim Thomas has been a rock in goal for the Bruins; even when they've been floundering offensively - and make no mistake, they have - Thomas has played well enough to keep them in the game. But last night against Toronto, another team struggling to put the biscuit in the basket, the B's found their rhythm and controlled the tempo, punishing old friend Andrew Raycroft for a 5-2 win. (Your humble correspondent was there, doing......

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

Ben Affleck is by no means the savior of the city for making a movie all about Boston. It's just a movie, after all. But some recent harsh criticism from Slate surprised us. Dorchester native Patrick Radden Keefe notes the abundance of aesthetically challenged individuals in the movie and declares, "The result is not so much what [Scorcese's] Mean Streets did for New York as what Deliverance did for Appalachia." Cue the umbrage. Did he......

Gothamist learned about the craziest urban nightmare come true: A huge python found in the bathroom pipes. It was also a nightmare for some Yankees fans, as manger Joe Torre declined to come back and manage the Bronx Bombers. At least the city's attempt to give some direction to subway riders was interesting, pranksters went shirtless at the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch and the I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendars came out. And just......

Boston Bike Film Festival Brattle Theatre, Cambridge Friday, October 19-Saturday, October 20, 7:00 $20 in advance / $25 at the door More info Full schedule It's hard riding a bicycle in this city. Even though Boston's mayor just discovered bikes, cyclists have to face numerous road hazards. This year's Boston Bike Film Festival will give bike-lovers the opportunity to revel in their chosen means of travel, and it will also give those who are afraid......

A Conversation with Michael Haneke Friday, October 19, 7:30pm, Harvard Film Archive Michael Haneke: A Cinema of Provocation Ongoing, Harvard Film Archive and Museum of Fine Arts Austrian director Michael Haneke, best known for his spare and chilling 2001 adaptation of The Piano Teacher, will discuss his thirty year career in television and the movies tomorrow at Harvard Film Archive. The talk will be followed by a screening of Haneke's latest: his shot-by-shot U.S. remake......

Introduction to the Current State of Film Criticism Wednesday, October 17, 7:00pm Traditional and Evolving Models of Film Criticism Thursday, October 18, 10:30am Outlook for U.S. Film Criticism Thursday, October 18, 2:00pm All events are $9.75 and are at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. When it's good, movie criticism is as much of an art as filmmaking itself. Read the works of the late, great Pauline Kael to discover that. Beyond art, movie critics can help......

Currently playing at the Kendall Square Theater in Cambridge, Neten Chokling's film "Milarepa: Magician, Murderer, Saint" offers the western world a peak into the Buddhist community. The film tells the story of Milarepa, a young boy who is destined to become one of the most important Buddhist yogis in history. Set in the 11th century, the real draw of this film is the stunning cinematography and sheer beauty of the Tibetan highlands. Those of......