By Drew Grant 5/02 6:07pm

Escape to New York

Double Sirens: Lindsay Lohan Might Be Running Loose in NYC!

Generally, we try to stay away from Hollywood gossip because a) We are a respectable operation that cannot compete with TMZ.com and Perez Hilton and b) We are not in Los Angeles, so what do you care what Khloe Kardashian is eating  right now?

However, sometimes an event is so critical that it transcends the regional and becomes a national news story. Especially when the train wreck may be headed directly towards NYC. That’s right, we are now obliged, as a New York publication, to inform you: Lindsay Lohan is on the run from her rehab engagement–guess that Coachella sobriety stint didn’t take–and she might be making a break for it in the Big Apple.

And while this disturbing news does not have the city on lockdown quite yet, the silver lining is that this Lohandidty (meh, that’ll do) led to perhaps the best newspaper sentence all week, courtesy of The New York Daily News and Lohan’s attorney, Mark Heller. Read More

By Anna Silman 4/01 6:02pm

Poor Pour Rich People

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Lavo, Finale, SL and Bow Investigated for Slipping Revelers ‘Illegal’ Fees

With their 300-percent liquor markups and capricious, power-wielding bouncers, nightclubs are hardly known as bastions of fairness and decency. So it should come as little surprise that they might be charging their customers illegal fees—and no, we’re not just talking about the drink prices. (Seriously though, $18 for a vodka soda? What is this, prohibition?) Read More

By Drew Grant 1/22 1:25pm

Sundance Film Festival

7 Photos

You go, boy.

The Observer’s Grand Jury Prizes for Sundance

Sundance Film Festival, perhaps the most sporty/mainstream of all the cinema fests (Cannes more about getting drunk in the sun and being weird, SXSW is more about being the next Lena Dunham), is currently full swing. Which means that all the celebrities have mercifully vacated the premises for a week and are up in Utah, pretending to know what those white, flaky stuff on the ground happens to be. Though we haven’t seen the film selection this year because we’re still not allowed in NC-17-rated films, we do have our own Grand Jury selection awards to hand out for Excellence in Sundancing. Take a look. Read More

By Drew Grant 1/10 4:27pm

Longreads

Lindsay Lohan and James Deen in The Canyons (Facebook)

Alternate Titles for NYT Mag’s ‘Here Is What Happens When You Cast Lindsay Lohan in Your Movie’

If there ever was a week for longreads, this would be it. After Elizabeth Wurtzel’s 5,500-word essay published in New York about crazy landlords/Not Compromising on Life, The New York Times Magazine proved that it hadn’t cornered the market on histrionics. Thus, an 11-page exposé about Lindsay Lohan and The Canyons, the Kickstarter-funded film written by Bret Easton Ellis and directed by Paul Schrader, co-starring porn heartthrob James Deen.

As you can imagine, the piece chronicles what a nice time everyone had on the short shoot—which took place over three weeks last July–with a lot of fond, funny anecdotes. Like the time Ms. Lohan took too many sleeping pills, locked herself in a closet, and refused to come out until Paul Schrader took off all his clothes? That one is great. The pitch-perfect tone was immediately reflected in its  blog-snark title, “Here Is What Happens When You Cast Lindsay Lohan in Your Movie.”

A fine choice, but a little unsubtle. We offer these 10 other titles that would have equally reflected the appeal of such a long, labor-intensive piece of journalism. Read More

By Drew Grant 9:35am

2012 in review

10 Photos

Biggest Over/Underachiever: James Franco

Celebrity Superlatives: Class of 2012

This has been a big year for the young Hollywood crowd! Channing Tatum made the cover of People‘s Sexiest Man Alive, Taylor Swift dated both a Kennedy and a New Direction, and Lena Dunham did everything else. But now that the year is coming to an end, it’s time we hand out the awards like “Best Smile” and “Most Likely to Become President” (both go to Ryan Gosling). Give a hand for your 2012 Class of Celebrity Superlatives! Read More