The ever-gorgeous Mary-Louise Parker sparked up a conversation with long-time friend Ryan Adams last night at the New York Public Library. Maybe it’s because of her on-screen persona as the pot-dealing MILF in Weeds, but we couldn’t help but think that she and Adams were a little high. High on art, though, not grass. The conversation, about Adams’ new book of verse, Hello Sunshine, was as free-ranging as the poetry itself, moving seamlessly from anecdotes about Parker’s less-than-clean kitchen to a discussion of the writings of Frederick Siedel. Read more »

The New York Film Festival is back and it still loves all things French. Last year, it kicked off with Laurent Cantet’s Cannes-winning tale of inner-city Parisian school woes, The Class. Twelve months and one refurbished Alice Tully Hall later, the fest bowed with Alain Resnais’s Wild Grass, which screened to full audiences, ushering in the 47th edition. A rich drama, the film is set for theatrical release in Europe this fall, but Sony Pictures Classics won’t be sharing it with American audiences until 2010 at the earliest. Read more »

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez surprised the assembled press last night by showing up unannounced to a special screening of Oliver Stone’s new documentary, South of the Border, at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater. He stood by Stone’s side while the director was asked (as he was at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month) to defend his new documentary, which portrays Chavez in nothing but the most superflattering light. (Watch our video above for the director’s response.) Stone, of course, is no stranger to being criticized for his not-strictly-accurate characterizations of historical figures in feature films; think JFK, The Doors and Nixon. Read more »

We just heard about this really cool public art project: It sounds like a cartography version of PostSecret (in which people mailed in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard). “Map Your Memories” involves the distribution of a blank map of Manhattan. Onto it, New Yorkers are encouraged to write, sketch, or otherwise represent the experiences and places that make their city unique to them.

Its creator, Rebecca Cooper, a native of Queens (and assistant to author Adam Gopnik), has been planning the project, she says, about three years. She began late this summer by simply dropping the map, complete with instructions, in a few select locales in the city—down Broadway and across Houston, as well as Central Park. These, incidentally, are the only three locations drawn on the map itself: the rest is a blank slate. She then started handing out the map to folks on the street, who were initially suspicious (did she want money for coffee, or the train fare to Yonkers?). “When they found out it was an art project, they instantly cheered up”, she recalls.

They’re printed on funky, grainy art paper (Cooper made them herself in a letterpress in her basement), and sets out the following instructions:

Maps are more about their makers than the places they describe. Map who you are. Map where you are. Map the first snowfall or your favorite cup of coffee. Map the invisible. Map the obvious. Map your memories.

She realized, she said, while working on a larger art project that mapped the art institutions of New York, that smaller maps could in fact be more informative about the city than grander ones. The idea began to germinate when she read Italo Calvino’s novel Invisible Cities, in which the two protagonists (Marco Polo and Kublai Khan) initially seem to be talking about two different cities but, by the denouement, the reader realizes they’re both talking about the same one (Venice). Cooper said she realized that no two New Yorkers experience life here in quite the same way.

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Hot, toned guys in a perfectly blue pool on Fire Island: proof that we gays can make even fund-raising look sexy. Members of Offsprung, a program of the Empire State Pride Agenda, gathered at the Pines this weekend to encourage folk to donate to the cause of marriage equality, and provide much-needed funding for the group’s work of LGBT civil rights and advocacy within our state. ESPA hosted a cocktail-laced pool party at a fund-raiser’s home (musician Justin Utley even whipped out his guitar and sang an activist ditty), which was followed by a tea dance at the Blue Whale. Read more »

It has to be said, there are few things in life that fascinate us more than hot dykes with guitars. If you missed Amy Ray (of Indigo Girls) at the Mercury Lounge last night, then redeem yourself: Ray, along with Kaia Wilson of lesbian queercore band the Butchies, will be playing tonight at The Bell House in Brooklyn. You should probably go.

Amy Ray, one half of the lesbian folk duo the Indigo Girls, took a break from her tour with Kaia Wilson (of punk band the Butchies) today to stop by at the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls in Brooklyn. Ray is in town to play at the Mercury Lounge tomorrow night, and Brooklyn’s Bell House on Friday, before leaving for the Beachcomber in Wellfleet, Cape Cod, this Saturday night. But today, her audience wasn’t hipsters or Wellfleet’s frattiest, but about 150 elementary and middle-school-aged nascent rockers who were all incredibly eager to learn the finer points of songwriting, guitar playing and—get this, gentlemen—female empowerment. Read more »

It’s not every day you get to watch lesbians wrestling in Jell-O, but at least you can bank on seeing this fine sport at the Stonewall’s Anything Goes party, held on the last Thursday of every month.  The dessert-making itself is a sight to behold: The bar staff fill up an inflatable pool with water, then add a bag of white crystals and a bucketload of red coloring. Once that’s done, they add two women, and stir.

Anyone can sign up on the night; Stonewall even provides T-shirts and shorts, on the off chance you’d like to keep your own clothes stain-free. And in case you’re wondering: The Jell-O does not taste good.

Last night, we were at the launch party for a book with the nifty title The Patron Saint of Used Cars and Second Chances, a memoir about the eccentric but ultimately redeeming act of buying a used car on eBay. The author, Mark Millhone (who writes for Men’s Health despite, he said, knowing nothing about either men or health), had borrowed a friend’s penthouse in the village for the shindig (celebrity sighting: Kristen Johnston of 3rd Rock from the Sun was there with her pooch, Pink). The evening was, above all, a celebration of the efficacy of writers’ groups: Millhone praised the two fellow members of his group, the cutely named Barnaby Googe Society. Millhone’s not just a journalist and memoirist; he won an Oscar back in the late ’90s for a movie he made at Columbia’s film school, and is about to start shooting his first feature film, Minuteman. He even made a miniflick about his book, and here it is.

We’re just recovering from four days and nights of nonstop Pride: First there was the new girl party in the East Village, Gold Star (organized by the Proposition folks), on Thursday night; then Friday found us avoiding the rain and watching the sun set at Hudson Terrace, at an after-work soiree for queer women (thanks to Susan St. Peter, organizer of Out with the Girls wine meet-up). Read more »

AmfAR—the Foundation for AIDS Research that boasts Kenneth Cole as its chairman—held a shindig last night at the Edison Ballroom in midtown, to honor three of its strongest supporters. Alan Cumming hosted the event, and sung the praises of the honorees: fashion designer and all-around icon Patricia Field, Cleve Jones (friend of Harvey Milk and creator of the AIDS quilt) and Lady Bunny (drag queen extraordinaire). All three, he said, he loved for their “creative use of fabric.” Read more »

Although he’s written books on Proust, love, travel, philosophy and architecture, what Alain de Botton should really be doing is pursuing a midlevel job in the hospitality or sales industries. At least, that’s what the careers counselor he met while researching his latest book, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, told him to do. Fortunately, Botton ignored that advice, and is still, happily for us, an author. He was at the New York Public Library yesterday evening to chat about small subjects like the insincerity of human relations, what philosophy can contribute to our daily existence, and, most of all, how jobs can improve or radically stifle our lives.

He began research for the book “before the world economy fell off a cliff,” but now, of course, any discussion on the meaning of work and employment is especially relevant. Read more »

In the wake of yesterday afternoon’s ridiculous ruling in California, Marriage Equality held a protest march that kicked off at the Stonewall (riot, anyone?) and marched up to Union Square. New Yorkers protested the dearth of civil liberties on the golden coast, and spoke about the need to ensure that the same thing doesn’t happen here at the end of June, when our own gay-marriage bill hits the State Senate floor (click here to find out how to contact your senator).

The speakers included some of the usual suspects: Cathy Marino-Thomas, Marriage Equality New York board president; Christine Quinn, NYC Council speaker; and Scott Stringer, Manhattan borough president. “I will not let Iowa lead the way in civil rights!” Stringer screamed. The crowd concurred.

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Cynthia Nixon flashed her ring and announced her engagement to longtime partner Christine Marinoni at Broadway Impact’s Marriage Equality rally in midtown yesterday. “We could even go to Iowa, but we don’t want to!” she yelled, before gesturing toward her family at the front of the crowd, and talking about the gazillion rights that they were currently denied. For arm candy, Nixon brought along fellow Sex and the City star Kristen Davis, who stood, she said, “like Jackie O” at the side of the podium, blowing kisses.

The marriage equality bill was passed in the state assembly last Tuesday, and now has to get through those tricky politicians in the state senate. A similar bill failed back in 2007, but since then a handful of Republicans switched sides (so to speak) to secure its passage. The folks at Broadway Impact (who organized the rally) have put some easy-to-follow instructions on their website, explaining exactly how you can contact your senator to urge them to pass the bill when it slides their way.

Politicians were out in force at the rally, including Daniel O’Donnell, the Democrat who spearheaded the assembly effort; Governor David Paterson (who introduced the bill in the first place) and even newfound friend of the gays, Mike Bloomberg.

Gavin Creel from Hair (one of the founders of Broadway Impact) brought along fellow cast members who busted some (clothed) moves to The Age of Aquarius; fellow Broadway writers and singers Cheyenne Jackson (Xanadu) and Anthony Hayes made glittery appearances, as did Ugly Betty’s Ana Ortiz, Audra McDonald (Private Practice), and David Hyde Pierce (Miles from Frasier, with partner Brian Hargrove in tow).

According to the Post, opponents of the bill held a smaller rally outside Paterson’s office. But we bet they weren’t having as much fun.