Robert DeNiro Is "Spiritual Magnet" of Tribeca Film Fest, Says Co-Founder

Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Craig Hatkoff.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

By: BROOKE NIEMEYER
Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Craig Hatkoff said fellow founder Robert DeNiro has unique pull when it comes to the 10-year-old film fest.

"Bob is the spiritual magnet of this project," Hatkoff said Friday at the 92 Street Y in Tribeca. "When Bob is in New York and not shooting a movie, he is at a lot of the events. He likes going and he goes quietly and often won't tell anyone he's coming. He just shows up and supports it."

Hatkoff, wife Jane Rosenthal, and DeNiro created the festival to help revitalize Lower Manhattan in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The idea was conceived when Hatkoff and his wife were having dinner in Little Italy shortly after the attacks, he said.

"We originally projected it would be something small, maybe a couple dozen films," Hatkoff said. "We never imagined to have the 160 films like we did or the 150,000 people show up."

With the integration of "Tribeca Film on Demand" this year, Hatkoff says he is happy they had the opportunity to have the films seen by more people. But nothing can replace the experience of watching films in the theater, he said.

"Nothing will ever replace being in the room when the lights go down," Hatkoff said. "Watching the films at home can be inferior as long as it gets the job [of reaching more people] done."

The 2011 festival will run April 20 through May 1.

This story ran on NBCNewYork.com's NiteSide.

Tim Gunn Defends Book's Unflattering Anna Wintour Depiction

By: BROOKE NIEMEYER
"Project Runway" host Tim Gunn defended his decision to keep the controversial anecdote about Anna Wintour's diva behavior in his book during a talk in Manhattan last night.

"[It's in there] because of the aftermath," Gunn told the audience at 92nd Street Y in the Upper East Side Sunday evening. "There are three aspect to it: don't bully, don't threaten and accept responsibility."

In his tome "Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for Making it Work," the fashion guru details how Wintour allegedly had her bodyguards carry her down the stairs rather than take the elevator following Peter Som's 2006 fashion show at the Metropolitan Pavilion.

Gunn also confessed he "never dreamed" he'd be part of the wildly successful fashion reality TV show in which his wry use of phrases such as "Carry on" and "Make it work" became part of the zeitgeist.

"I never dreamed that I would be part of it," Gunn said. "No one was more shocked about it than I."

He added, "I loved taping season one. It was entirely a new life experience for me. I had never been part of anything like that."

Gunn also said fashion reality TV contestants aren't guaranteed fame like many in the reality TV music industry.

"I don't for a moment want to trivialize 'American Idol,' so forgive me in advance," Gunn said. "If you are an alumnus or an alumna of 'American Idol' you could potentially hang your shingle outside, fill this beautiful auditorium and sing to them. For a fashion designer, it's much more complex. The designers who have been on the show can only achieve as much as their ambitions and their resources really allow them to."

This story ran on NBCNewYork.com's NiteSide.

My story lead the NBC New York home page and was linked up in the celebrity entertainment section in the other nine NBC local-media markets: Miami, Washington DC, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Connecticut, and Dallas-Fort Worth. 

"West Side Story" Lyricist Stephen Sondheim Reveals His Showbiz Regret

The talented lyricist, Stephen Sondheim.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

By: BROOKE NIEMEYER
"West Side Story" and "Sweeney Todd" lyricist Stephen Sondheim confessed there is one musical he regrets not having a role in during his distinguished career.

Promoting his new tome "Finishing the Hat" at Barnes and Noble in Union Square last night, Sondheim said he wished he could have worked on the 1961 Broadway production "Carnival" starring Anna Marie Alberghetti.

"That is a show that really resonates with me," he said to the audience, "and I wish I could've had my hands on it."

The acclaimed 80-year-old lyricist also discussed his great mentors, such as iconic playwright Oscar Hammerstein II, and pointed out that his new book reveals some never-before-seen lyrics.

"I wanted to tell people my opinions on lyric writing and that's where this book came from," he said.

The hardest part of penning lyrics, he said, is encapsulating a sentiment in a concise way.

"When you're dealing with lyrics, less is more," Sondheim said. "I like to tell stories with my lyrics and you only have a short piece to do it with so you can't waste words."

He added, "One of the things people have a hard time with when writing lyrics is they repeat the same thought or concept instead of adding something new."

This story ran on NBCNewYork.com's NiteSide.

Portia De Rossi: My Secrets Made Me Sick

Portia de Rossi speaks about her book "Unbearable Lightness."

By: BROOKE NIEMEYER
Starlet Portia de Rossi said the burden of keeping her emotions bottled up and her eating disorder hidden made her ill.

"It's a classic, stupid thing to say, but the secrets make you sick," de Rossi said. "I had to come out as having eating disorders and only by doing that could I really, truly say that I'm fully recovered."

De Rossi, 37, promoting her memoir at an Upper East Side Barnes and Noble over the weekend, said she battled anorexia from the start of her career as a model at age 12 until the time she played Nell Porter on "Ally McBeal" in 1998.

"I became aware, by the end of the book, that while I was really talking about wasn't my eating disorder and it wasn't my sexuality, it was this struggle for self acceptance and to be able to just feel comfortable in my own skin," de Rossi said of her tome "Unbearable Lightness."

De Rossi, who came out in 2005, has credited wife Ellen DeGeneres with helping her come to terms with her identity and said Friday night she found writing the book to be cathartic.

"It sounds very selfish in a way, but I really wrote this book for myself," de Rossi said. "I wrote it for my teenage self. I wrote it thinking that it was the book I wished I could've had access to when I was suffering so deeply from the disorder and struggling with my sexuality."

She added, "When I first realized that what I was writing was going to be called a memoir, I thought, I'm only 37. It just sounded so grandiose ... Then I thought, I'm not going to write about the event that happened in my life, I'm going to talk about the events that happened in my head."

This story ran on NBCNewYork.com's NiteSide.

Joel McHale "Excited" to See The Boss

Joel McHale on the red carpet at the New York Comedy Festival.

By: BROOKE NIEMEYER

On the television sitcom "Community" Joel McHale plays the leader of a motley gang of community-college students, but in real life last night he was psyched to meet another top dog -- The Boss.

"I'm excited about seeing Bruce Springsteen," said "The Soup" host of one of the evening's performers at the fourth-annual Stand Up for Heroes benefit for American war veterans, kicking off this year's New York Comedy Festival. Jon Stewart, Jerry Seinfeld, Tony Bennett, and Rosie O'Donnell also appeared.

The Bob Woodruff Foundation partnered with the New York Comedy Festival to put on the event, held at the Beacon Theatre on the Upper East Side.

"I think any time you can get anyone out and laughing it's a good thing," McHale said.

While many major stars turned out, McHale said the ones who deserved the most attention were the veterans.

Injured troops need lifelong care and there needs to be awareness of that and more funding for that," McHale said. "They have made such an incredible sacrifice that it's the least we can do."

And to those who might wonder why it works to mix comedy with such a serious subject, McHale simply said, "Why not?"

This story ran on NBCNewYork.com's NiteSide.

Comedian Tom Green Reveals 2011 Movie Release

Me with Tom Green at Comix on Friday night.

By: BROOKE NIEMEYER

Tom Green hasn't disappeared, he's just been hanging out in his living room -- with thousands of fans.

The comedian and actor, who was briefly a tabloid fixture of 2001 for his short-lived marriage to Drew Barrymore, has in fact been very busy as of late. Green continues to host a popular internet show out of his house, he began a stand-up comedy world tour earlier this year, and on his stop in New York City this weekend, he told NiteSide that he just wrapped filming a movie, "Prankstar," which he wrote, directed, and stars in.

"It will be coming out in a year or so," Green said before his Friday night show at Comix Comedy Club in the Meatpacking District. "[Movies] have always been something that I enjoy doing, but it takes such a lot out of you when it comes to directing and writing a movie. It's a little bit too slow of a moving machine for my attention deficit disorder, so I think I'd like to do one every few years."

As for other people's pictures, Green said he would like to see the latest "Jackass" movie, but his tour schedule has prevented him from going.

"I like 'Jackass' and I know some of those guys," Green said. "I'm sure it's awesome."

In 2006, Green started an online talk show, "Tom Green's House Tonight," where he interviews celebrities at a studio he built in the living room of his Los Angeles home.

"It's the longest running online talk show in the history of the Internet and the highest rated," Green boasts. "I was the first one to do it and I'm still going."

Green starred in the MTV his series of the late 90's, "The Tom Green Show," which was well known for its shock humor, but was discontinued around the time that Green was diagnosed with (and later successfully treated for) cancer. Now he says that even though he enjoyed doing the show, he doesn't really miss TV.

"I get literally just as many viewers on the web show," Green said. "[Now] I have nobody really telling me what to do and I can basically do whatever I want creatively and that's a lot of fun. I'm really in control of my own little business."

This story ran on NBCNewYork.com's NiteSide.

Famed Playwright Neil LaBute Battles Stage Fright

Playwright Neil LaBute spoke at Powerhouse Arena in Dumbo, Brooklyn.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

By: BROOKE NIEMEYER
"In the Company of Men" playwright Neil LaBute said he felt on edge about the Thursday night debut of his latest show starring David Duchovny and Amanda Peet.

"It is an exciting and horrifying thing," the famed scribe known for his dark and comedic explorations of morality told an intimate crowd at the Powerhouse Arena in Dumbo last night about the debut of his latest work, "The Break of Noon."

LaBute, whose "Reasons to be Pretty" was nominated for a Tony in 2009, read from the new work, which chronicles the life of an employee who claims to see the face of God following the worst office shooting in America. LaBute also read from past work and shared a short story he wrote just that morning for the event.

"I'm happy I still have a pleasure for writing," LaBute said. "I sit down and write things because I like it, not because it's for anything, but because it's a pleasure to do it."

LaBute also revealed why he tends to weave in corporate culture into his work. He said his fascination with business jargon developed when he worked for a software company while studying at NYU.

"I loved the sound of the foreign language that I didn't understand in the offices," LeBute said. "Nobody ever seemed to really be doing anything but would say, 'I have this meeting and I have to file a 507 later today.' I loved the banter and I've put that into the world of the offices I write about."

"The Break of Noon" is debuting at the MCC Theater in Manhattan tonight.

This story ran on NBCNewYork.com's NiteSide.

Model Helena Christensen: My Bond With Naomi Campbell

Danish model Helena Christensen at the Boom Boom Room.

Photo by: Brooke Niemeyer

By: BROOKE NIEMEYER

Model Helena Christensen said she and close pal Naomi Campbell have a bond built on their experiences during the early days of their forays into fashion.

"I shared a lot of unique moments with her," Christensen told NiteSide at the "Free the Slaves" benefit at the Boom Boom Room Wednesday night. "We were very young, and we stayed very close throughout all the years and had some really amazing times together."

She added, "It's very rare moments when we get to hang out again, but when we do, it's like we were never apart."

The Danish model said she is next off to Nepal with Oxfam.

"It's a really great organization," Christensen said. "I went to Peru to photograph the changes of the climate and the effect it had on the indigenous people it had in the mountains, and now we're going to Nepal to do the same because there's a big climate conference coming up next year."

This story ran on NBCNewYork.com's NiteSide.

"What Not To Wear's" Clinton Kelly Reveals Secret to New Book: Tourists!

By: BROOKE NIEMEYER

Fashion guru and "What Not to Wear" co-host Clinton Kelly told the crowd at 92nd Street Y last night that many of the style mistakes mentioned in his latest book came from an afternoon he spent sitting by the window at a Times Square Starbucks.

"I just watched all the tourists go by," Kelly said during the final stop on the tour for his new book, Oh No She Didn't: The Top 100 Style Mistakes Women Make and How to Avoid Them. "I kept writing down fashion mistake after fashion mistake after fashion mistake. In the time it took me to drink one tall latte, I had 85 of the 100 mistakes."

Kelly also addressed his relationship with "WNTW" co-host Stacy London.

"Stacy and I get along really well," Kelly said. "We are great friends at work and we make each other laugh every single day. I guess we're lucky like that."

Kelly divulged his fashion do's and don'ts, drawing on stories from the show as well as his latest tome.

"Sweat pants are the devil," Kelly said. "They will only make your life worse. Only wear sweat pants when you are sweating."

He also advised all women to only use fashion magazines as a tool to learn about the latest trends, not to define your personal style.

"Style is how you take fashion and make it your own."

This story ran on NBCNewYork.com's NiteSide.

Russell Brand: "I Am Excited About Getting Married"

Katy Perry and Russell Brand are expected to wed soon.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

By: BROOKE NIEMEYER

British comic Russell Brand said he was thrilled about his upcoming nuptials to pop starlet Katy Perry.

"I will say I am excited about getting married," Brand said Wednesday night at Barnes and Noble in Manhattan while promoting his new book "Booky Wook 2: This Time It's Personal."

"It's a lovely thing to get married. I think it's a peaceful thing and I'm very happy about it."

The couple got engaged last year, but Brand remained mum on the details and did not reveal a specific date or place for the wedding.

In lieu of a traditional reading, Brand interacted with the wall-to-wall crowd -- answering their questions and telling jokes. He humorously informed fans "that man on Facebook is not me."

While Brand's fiance is busy with her concert tour, the "Get Him to the Greek" star started a weekly radio show on the UK station talkSPORT earlier this month, which follows him on his book tour for the next 20 weeks.

Brand also revealed last night that before too long he will have another radio show to tune into -- this time it will be in the states.

"There will soon be a new radio show on Sirius," Brand said. "Look out for that."

This story ran on NBCNewYork.com's NiteSide.

Comics Still Reeling From Loss of Greg Giraldo, Says Pal

Comedian Joe DeRosa at Comix.

Photo by: Brooke Niemeyer

By: BROOKE NIEMEYER

The New York comedy community is still reeling from the shocking death of "Last Comic Standing" comedian Greg Giraldo, according to fellow comic and pal Joe DeRosa.

"It was a very hard thing to wrap your head around," DeRosa told NiteSide at Comix in Manhattan this weekend.

"He's definitely left a tremendous void in the business, and I think particularly in the New York comedy scene because he's here. I feel lucky to have known the guy in the way that I did."

He added, "He was the life of the party, would light up a room, always had a smile on his face, always funny, always charming, and one of the best comics ever to grace the business. He's very, very missed."

DeRosa met Geraldo, who passed away on Sept. 29 at age 44 of an accidental drug overdose, after he moved to New York from Philadelphia a few years ago to pursue a career in comedy. DeRosa said he stumbled into the business by accident when a club manager in Philly asked him to tell jokes during Monday Night football halftime breaks.

"I always enjoyed trying to be funny, and making people laugh is nice," DeRosa said. "But the thing to me that was always so incredible is that a group of people would listen to your thoughts and opinions."

He idolized the acts of men already in the industry, including Giraldo, and also George Carlin, who DeRosa had a brief phone conversation with a few years ago.

"When I tell you that is probably my most robust comedy memory, I'm not exaggerating," DeRosa said. "I just admired the man at such a level that even just to talk to him for five minutes ... that moved worlds for me."

Ari Berman at the White Slab Palace Bar

Photo by: Brooke Niemeyer

By: BROOKE NIEMEYER

Political journalist Ari Berman told NiteSide at "The Little Idea" rally last night that there is a core group he feels is being affected the most by the bad economy.

"The people who are really getting hurt by the economy are Obama's base -- young people, minorities to some extent, single women -- these are the ones who are really getting hit hard," Berman said at the White Slab Palace Bar in the Lower East Side. "They expected a change and now they're getting the short end of the stick with the economy."

Berman, a reporter for "The Nation" magazine, touches on this in his book, "Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics," which was released this month.

"Basically if you have a catchy title, you have to have a clunky, long subtitle," he joked. "But the subtitle is indicative because the book is about the evolution of the Democratic Party in American politics from Howard Dean to Barack Obama."

Dean, the former Governor of Vermont, was unsuccessful in his quest for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and Berman felt this was an important story to include in his book.

"I wanted to tell the story of the grass roots political movement that propelled Barack Obama to the White House," Berman said. "I felt like a lot of the books about Barack Obama, while a lot of them were very good, were missing that story."

He also felt it was crucial to visit states such as Indiana, Colorado, and North Carolina for his research so he could see how campaigners "turned these red states blue."

"I felt like then I wouldn't just have a book about politics," Berman said. "I would also have a book about the broader view into what is happening in the country.

Arianna Huffington: 9,000 Have Signed Up For Bus Ride to D.C. Rally

Arianna Huffington after speaking at the White Slab Palace.

Photo by: Brooke Niemeyer

By: BROOKE NIEMEYER
Arianna Huffington said more than 9,000 have taken her up on her televised offer to bus anyone interested from New York to Jon Stewart's rally in D.C. later this month.

"I'm expecting more to join us," Huffington told NiteSide at "The Little Idea" rally at White Slab Palace in the Lower East Side Wednesday night. "I'm sure Jon Stewart will be there too but probably the day before."

Though the media maven shocked "The Daily Show" audience on Sept. 28 when she offered free buses from her offices in SoHo to the Oct. 30 "Rally to Restore Sanity" in D.C., she had an agenda of her own last night: promoting her latest book "Third World America."

"We aren't a third world yet but are an interjectory to be a third world because it gives it a sense of urgency," Huffington said. "I talk about what we need to do to revitalizing ourselves, the community, and the country."

She encourages everyone to remove funds from big-time banks and instead invest in their local counterparts as part of her Move Your Money campaign.

"While money controls politics, we are less in control than we should be," she said. "Ultimately, the ones who are in control are the ones who are giving the big donations and sending the lobbyists up on the Hill."

This story ran on NBCNewYork.com's NiteSide.

"Girls to the Front" Author Sara Marcus Pushes Punk Rock and Lady Gaga

Sara Marcus at her book launch party in Williamsburg.

Photo by: Brooke Niemeyer

By: BROOKE NIEMEYER
It is possible to be a fan of both subversive punk rock and pop music's biggest current star? Author Sara Marcus thinks so. She recently wrote "Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution," the first book to document the history of the underground, feminist, punk music movement of the 1990s. Turns out, though, she now also admires Lady Gaga.

"I have to say, even though I'm not a fan at all of Lady Gaga's music, I really have a lot of respect for the way that she's using her celebrity as a platform to be a beacon of hope to the freaks and the misfits among today's teens and adolescents," Marcus said. "You don't see very many mainstream artists speaking specifically to those kids the way that she does."

Marcus celebrated the release of her book Saturday night at the Williamsburg venue and bar, Bruar Falls.

Growing up in the midst of this feminist punk scene inspired Marcus to write the book. Having the support of Riot Grrrl superstar and former Bikini Kill singer Kathleen Hanna (who is married to Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz) sure didn't hurt, either. 

"[Hanna] told me that she was really glad I was the one doing this," Marcus said. "So that was really helpful and really encouraging."

Marcus also said that while thousands of scholarly papers have been written about this generation of underground music, she wanted to be the first to write a narrative book about it, in order to make sure everything was captured correctly.

"It just seemed like if I didn't write it based on the experiences of me and the people that I knew, someone else was going to write the book," Marcus said. "And they would write it about this distorted idea and the real power of [the movement] was going to be lost."

While she had an array of legendary sources for her book, Marcus says her favorite was a woman connected to and a big fan of the Riot Grrrl scene, but whose name was never in the headlines. 

"Mary Margaret is in the book from the beginning right through the very end," Marcus said. "She let me into her life in this profound way that it influenced the way that I approached the book. She instilled me with this great sense of awe and humility and the responsibility I had to honor the lives and experiences of everyone in the book. It really set the tone for everything."

This story ran on NBCNewYork.com's NiteSide.

Singer Brendan James: American Idol is "Not For Me"

Me and Brendan James backstage before his concert at the Highline Ballroom.

By: BROOKE NIEMEYER
Singer-songwriter Brendan James, who released his self-titled album earlier this month, says he could never be a contestant on American Idol.

"It's just not in my blood to [have] that much enthusiasm to sing without an instrument and sing someone else's songs," James told NiteSide before his concert Wednesday night at the Highland Ballroom in Chelsea.

The Los Angeles-based crooner has had his music featured on popular television shows including "Private Practice," "Bones," and, most recently, "One Tree Hill."

"I was so glad they picked that song ("Your Beating Heart" for "One Tree Hill")" said James. "That ballad is a really broken down song on the album."

While James has performed with some top-shelf artists, including Carol King, The Frey, and a Cat Stevens-endorsed children's choir, there is someone he still hopes to collaborate with one day.

"I would like to sing with Sara Bareilles," said James, of the 30-year-old singer-songwriter and pianist. "I think it would be a cool duet. I just like her sensibility and she puts a lot of thought into her lyrics like I do."

This story ran on NBCNewYork.com's NiteSide.