Just in case there was any doubt left, yes, Robert Downey is in blackface for almost the entirety of Tropic Thunder. And no, I didn't feel guilty about laughing at him. That's because Downey, who plays the Russel Crowe-like Kirk Lazarus, is laughing at himself. It's a ridiculous premise: a multi-time Oscar winner, Lazarus undergoes controversial (you don't say!) skin pigmentation-altering surgery to play the African-American sergeant of the American platoon featured in the Vietnam......

Yesterday's New York Times ran a rather long piece called "How Do You Prove You're a Jew?", and while it may seem an unconventional topic for a manners column, I'd like to expound a bit upon it. Have no fear: even if you don't have the time or the inclination to read the original Gershom Gorenberg essay, I'm only using it as a jumping-off point for this column, and I promise not to allude......

On Saturday, members of the Philadelphia Chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), set off to march twenty-five miles from the National Constitution Center to Valley Forge National Historical Park, "to show support for veterans and service members testifying at Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan," an IVAW event occurring in Washington, D.C. March 13-16. The event gets its name from a quote by Thomas Paine, who said that winter soldiers are those who......

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets. Check out this sweet poster for Takashi Miike's latest project, Sukiyaki Western Django. Here's hoping they manage to get a copy of this one for the Philadelphia Film Festival... We think we've already said this before, but each successive trailer for Iron Man makes us exponentially more excited about seeing the film, and the latest one is no exception. Hot damn, this movie......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Combat Footage: “Steven Spielberg, Special Effects, and the War Film,” a workshop examining Spielberg's use of special effects in Empire of the Sun and other works, at Scribe Video Center (4212 Chestnut, 3rd Floor), 6PM. Free (Part of One Film, One Philadelphia) Die Actor Die: Die Actor Die, comedy of many stripes, standup, sketch, and “other silly brick-a-brac” hosted by (Phillyist) Don Montrey at the Khyber (56 S.......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Academy Award Nominated Animated Shorts Academy Award Nominated Live-Action Shorts Wow, this is totally cool: the Ritz at the Bourse is actually screening all the animated and live-action short films that have been nominated for Oscars this year. These films are usually quite difficult to see, so this is a really neat opportunity. Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse George Romero's Diary of the Dead It's......

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week. Ancient Discoveries (Mon, 10PM-11PM, History Channel) This week's episode of Ancient Discoveries is entitled "Ancient Super Ballistics," and if that doesn't sound awesome to you, then we don't want to know you. It's about the history of ballistics, and features firearms experts testing ancient weapons for speed, accuracy, and power. Nova (Tue, 8PM-9PM, WHYY & WLVT) The venerable PBS science show takes a look at the Cold......

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Berks County is featured in one the strangest hauntings regarding road-related weirdness. At Hawk Sanctuary Mountain there is a legend that a shining, ten-feet tall apparition spooks drivers travelling along the two-road lane which ascends the mountain. The mountain, situated between Ecksville and Bailey's Crossing, is also allegedly haunted by the spirits of settlers who were killed by Indians during the 1700s. Meanwhile Bristol - located in the extreme south of Bucks County, northeast of......

The Inquirer has the highlights from Nutter's first crazy day as Mayor, and they also take a look at his "almost impossibly ambitious goals for Philadelphia." Nutter's first act as Mayor was to declare that Philadelphia has a "crime emergency," for which our new police commissioner has only 22 days to develop a strategy. A high-profile area World War II veteran who has served as a frequent speaker, museum advisory board member, and reunion......

Every weekday of December (except for December 25, that is), Phillyist will be counting down to 2008 with our highlights from the past year and our predictions for the next. If you have a list you'd like to submit, let us know! You guys picked the items in this list - which made this post a lot easier to write! And we thank you for that, because we're really kind of burning out on this......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. The Savages - Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman play siblings who are forced to live together again with their estranged father when his mind goes and there's no one else to take care of him. Not surprisingly, they drive each other crazy, but ultimately "start to realize what adulthood, family and, most surprisingly, each other are really about." Which sounds kind of corny. But with......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Most Likely to Rule: The Rape of Europa - Joan Allen narrates a documentary about the art destroyed and displaced by the Nazis during WWII, and the attempts - which began then and are still going on today - by museum officials and art historians to rescue and return said art. Sounds totally fascinating, and the reviews are very good. And given the slim pickings this......

Just in time for tonight's party (will you be there?), Phillyist adds another new writer to the mix, this one the very talented—and extensively published—Joshua Valocchi. We'd like to emphasize that we brought him on as a writer long before he said nice things about Editor Jill's place of employment in a Philadelphia Weekly article, and that said article has nothing to do with his new position on the staff. Although Editor Jill may just......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this holiday weekend (all of these movies open today). Most Likely to Rule: I'm Not There - An "unconventional" biopic of Bob Dylan wherein six different actors play him at various stages in his career. Said actors include Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, and Heath Ledger. Also in the cast (but not playing Bob) are David Cross, Bruce Greenwood, and Julianne Moore. We could see how this......

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......

When Richard Kelly's film Southland Tales was originally screened at Cannes, the buzz was extraordinarily negative. The word was that the movie was a great big mess - ridiculous and nonsensical. I didn't want to believe it. I really enjoyed Kelly's amazing indie/romance/sci-fi flick Donnie Darko. I thought maybe people were reacting to Southland Tales the way that some had reacted to The Fountain: they were confused by it because they hadn't looked hard enough......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Finishing the Game - We posted the preview for this one a ways back. It's a mockumentary about director Robert Clouse's attempt to finish the film Game of Death after the untimely death of its star, Bruce Lee. In Finishing the Game, Clouse starts a frantic search for an impersonator to replace Lee, and much wackiness and Hollywood satire ensue. Sounds like fun, but keep in......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Om: Om, Grails, and Randall Of Nazareth at Johnny Brenda’s (1201 Frankford), 9PM, courtesy the folks at R5. $10 Bat Boy: Bat Boy: The Musical at Mandell Theater (33rd and Chestnut) on Drexel’s Campus, 8PM. Free; runs through Sunday. A Pigeon and a Boy: Bestselling author Meir Shalev talks about his latest novel A Pigeon and a Boy, set during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, at The Free Library......

The Attorney General's Office has accused Former State Rep. Frank LaGrotta of giving his relatives fake jobs in order to pay them thousands in taxpayer dollars. A cheval-de-frise (an iron-tipped log that's placed in a riverbed along with many others in order to gore the hulls of enemy warships) was recently found at the bottom of the Delaware River at the Sunoco Logistics pier in South Philadelphia. It's a relic from the mid-1770s, and......

The best of the internet, chopped into tiny bits and grilled for your enjoyment. In honor of Veteran's Day, Cinematical offers us their Seven Favorite War Veteran Characters. Turns out the Movie Blog isn't going away after all! Wow, Winona Ryder is going to play Spock's mom in the new Star Trek movie. Game|Life has the list of nominees for the Spike TV Video Game Awards, which isn't surprising, as Game|Life's Chris Kohler was on......

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week. Atlantis SquarePantis (Mon, 8PM-9PM, Nickelodeon) - A special 45-minute-long episode of SpongeBob SquarePants wherein he and his friends take a trip to the lost city of Atlantis, but a flash from Patrick's camera causes trouble. The episode is followed by a fifteen-minute making-of special, which rounds out the hour. The important part: David Bowie guest stars as the voice of Lord Royal Highness, the king of Atlantis.......

"Officers from the State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement in Philadelphia conducted a special underage drinking detail in the Lincoln Financial Field parking lot" before the Temple-Penn State football game Saturday and arrested 31 underage tailgaters, as well as one more for presenting false identification. City police were trying to break up a dispute between two rival groups of young men in Gray's Ferry Saturday night when the young men opened fire on......

Let me just start off by saying that there is a lot of talent onstage during Being Alive. Let me follow that up by saying all the talent in the world can't save a bad show. It's not bad, I think, because Sondheim is some kind of holy, un-adaptable composer, whose music should never, never, ever be taken out of context, as some have suggested. In fact, more than a few revues have been built......

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you. A handy list for frequenters of fast food restaurants like ourselves: The 88 Fast Food Items Most Likely To Kill You. We're pleased to say that most of these are from places we don't ever go to. But we're depressed to see McDonalds' fries and Burger King's chicken fries included. We love those! (Via Sarah) And speaking of unhealthy foods, how about some......

It's not exactly the kind of album that's going to get you up on your feet and dancing, but Force of Light, the most recent release from Barbez (a band led by New York guitarist/composer Dan Kaufman) is definitely an interesting and haunting piece of music, and we wanted to mention it here, since the band will be playing a free event called Diaspora Kristallnacht at the Rotunda this weekend with Philly's own Oscuro Quintet.......

Ever been in one of those moods where every song sounds like a love song? That's the mood we're in and we're lucky because tonight Stars are playing at the Troc. And with Stars, every song is a love song, or at least a contemplation of love, be it the joyous happy side or the jealous underbelly. Touring in support of their latest release, In Our Bedroom After the War, the Canadians have taken their......

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets. Friend and former Phillyist Neil McGarry made his stand-up debut the other night at the Comedy Cabaret in Northeast Philadelphia, and the video, as videos do, made its way onto YouTube. We swear we're not just posting it because he's our friend, though; he's also very funny! Joystiq has for us the events and the characters that will appear in Mario & Sonic......

One of the most common, and legitimate, criticisms of the music of Stephen Sondheim by performers and critics alike is that he's not tuneful enough. "Hummable," I think is the word most often used by these critics. And yet somehow, a week after seeing The Arden Theatre's production of Assassins, I simply can't get the music out of my head. It may not be hummable, but goddamn if it isn't memorable. That's a sure......

Lynnise Burnett, a 14-year-old freshman at Germantown High School, had been missing since Thursday, and had sent distressing text messages over the weekend, one saying that "she was in a dark room and she was hungry and that someone was going to kill her." Apparently she was able to sneak back into her home recently, as police found her on the roof of the house Saturday night threatening to jump. She was taken to......