The great tragedy in losing Pushing Daisies—and I do not write “a show like Pushing Daisies,” because, frankly, there has been no show quite like it—has as much to do with the actors involved in this heartwarming, intentionally precious, and wonderfully charming dramedy as it does with the show’s emotional core.

From the outset, this show’s creators made no mistake about their intention to give thespian delectation to trained theater actors whose skills are so rarely given their due on primetime television. Lee Pace, a Juilliard alum possessed of a subtlety of expression and the sort of élan normally associated with golden age stage gods, was to be its star, and Anna Friel, so winning onstage in her guffaw-worthy turn as Alice in Patrick Marber’s Closer, was to be his muse. (Clearly instilled with good actorly taste, Friel had the wisdom to make the fine stage and screen actor David Thewlis her life partner. These are actors’ actors.) Kristin Chenoweth—she of the sharp tongue, deliciously sweet-then-sour-then-sweet disposition and the well-turned harrumph—was plucked from Broadway’s Hallowed Pantheon and, lo and behold, given something worthy of her pluck. And Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene—need I expound?

This was immediately a show that took acting as seriously as it took whimsy. Read more

This week we published a culture piece by Armond White on his ideas on the 1986 C. Thomas Howell comedy Soul Man and how it helped pave the way for Barack Obama's presidential win. But we wanted to point out a prevailing view of the movie's tepid qualities. In a recent interview in New York magazine's 40th anniversary issue, Logan Hill asks Spike Lee what he thinks of Obama.

NYMag: What do you think of Obama?
Spike Lee: I’m riding my man Obama. I think he’s a visionary. Actually, Barack told me the first date he took Michelle to was Do the Right Thing. I said, “Thank God I made it. Otherwise you would have taken her to Soul Man. Michelle would have been like, ‘What’s wrong with this brother?’ ”

So not everyone is a fan of a white guy faking his way into Harvard by make himself appear black? Hard to believe.Read more

New York Magazine knows how to throw a good party, and they also know how to get people to donate money to charitable causes—liquor and bad art. For New York Magazine and New York Cares' second annual Bad Art Auction, they brought in 30 Rock's Judah Friedlander to host. First they let us drink free mojitos, letting us get just liquored up enough to make poor  decisions in judgement, then they brought out Judah's hideously amazing art collecting, and began the bidding war. As someone working in the art industry, the overload of irony in selling terrible art in a drunken auction was both amusing and tragic. Paintings of Bigfoot, unicorns and Black Jesus raised sums of over $100 each for New York Cares. As the night grew older, and more and more alcohol was being consumed, the prices at which the art was being sold raised into the $200 range. Early in the night, a friend bought was lucky enough to win bidding on this beauty...