D.C. has landed an HBO comedy pilot on a D.C.-based Jewish family that will be directed by and star Ben Stiller. more ›

Does the HBO Dance need to be tinkered with? No, it does not. But that's not going to stop people from encouraging such blasphemy! more ›

Washington's beloved Screen on the Green outdoor film festival on the National Mall will happen this year, Dan Zak is reporting in the Washington Post. more ›

If you've been up at the intersection of 18th Street and Columbia Road NW today, you've no doubt noticed the freestanding scaffolding and truck parked there on the plaza. No, it's not construction beginning on the controversial plaza sculpture (that's been tabled for the moment), but rather a temporary art installation — or advertisement, depending upon your level of cynicism — from HBO and their "Imagine" project. more ›

Thanks to DCist Flickr contributor AnyaLogic for sending in this shot of actor Chloë Sevigny on the set of the HBO drama Big Love, which was spotted shooting exterior scenes for its fourth season around Washington, D.C.'s Union Station over the weekend. There's a lot of Big Love fans on the DCist staff, so we're as excited as anyone to find out more about the show's upcoming story lines in the District. All we know for sure is that a) Nicki and her recently discovered daughter from her first marriage, Cara Lynn, will come to Washington, and b) a lobbyist played by Sissy Spacek is somehow involved. The next season doesn't debut until January, so we'll either have to wait until then or pray for script leaks. more ›

This summer's resurrected, but truncated, Screen on the Green was by all accounts a big success, even if that final one last Monday happened to fall on the hottest, stickiest night of the year. So we can hardly blame SOTG co-saviors Comcast for going down to the National Mall with their cameras to capture some film goers giving them the love. But! At the end of the video below, the cameras are pointed toward a group of people purportedly doing "the HBO Dance" during the little musical interlude before the film begins, and there's maybe one person in there doing it correctly. People, people: the HBO Dance is not a freeform, wiggly enterprise comprised of flailing about however you feel like it. When done properly, the HBO Dance is more of a jazzercise move: you put your arms straight above your head, wave them back and forth to the beat of the music, and hop up and down with both feet. That's it. No spaghetti arms, no hip shaking, and for cryin' out loud, no twisting. Let's keep this sorry display in mind for next year, everyone. more ›

Most of America only really knows two things about Marion Barry: he was once the District of Columbia's mayor, and he seemingly can't stay out of trouble with the law. With yesterday's HBO premiere of the new documentary, The Nine Lives of Marion Barry, it's likely that many people have gained a broader sense of who Barry was and what he once represented for the District. But even with the additional context provided by the film, it's less likely that all that many people will become more sympathetic to the aging local politico and his persistent troubles. more ›

The new documentary by Dana Flor and Toby Oppenheimer about D.C.'s own Mayor for Life, The Nine Lives of Marion Barry, premieres on HBO tonight at 9 p.m. DCist caught the film when it debuted at SILVERDOCS earlier this summer, and overall the reviews have been a mixed bag. Critics already familiar with Barry and his lengthy history wanted more, while others were pretty much satisfied. You can be the judge for yourself tonight, if you've got access to HBO. more ›

HBO has pulled out of its annual sponsorship of the popular Screen on the Green outdoor film festival on the National Mall. more ›

You already know about the big names performing at Sunday afternoon's inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Beyoncé, Garth Brooks, Bruce Springsteen and U2, to name a few. A local group can also be added to that stellar lineup. more ›

The rumors were true: the Presidential Inaugural Committee has released the list of confirmed performers for what's being called We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial, scheduled to air on HBO on Sunday, January 18 from 7-9 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. There's no set start time for the concert itself yet, just a note that it will be taped on Sunday afternoon. (NB: We've updated this paragraph to clarify the concert schedule). more ›

Yesterday, the Presidential Inaugural Committee sent out a release announcing that a deal had been struck with HBO that would allow the pay cable network to broadcast exclusively an event being called the "Opening Celebration for the 56th Presidential Inaugural," a free concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial planned for Sunday, January 18. The release boasted that event will feature "some of the biggest acts in the world of entertainment." Today, WTOP reported they've heard that Bruce Springsteen is expected to headline. more ›

It seems as if the producers of the upcoming HBO series based on the Washingtonienne book by Jessica Cutler decided that the pilot really needed some authenticity - the show's crew was spotted by several DCist readers and contributors while shooting scenes last night in Adams Morgan. Apparently, the crew blocked lanes of traffic on 18th Street and a significant portion of the sidewalk. more ›

You know, I canceled my HBO subscription when The Wire ended, and even though I was briefly regretting that decision when I started reading about Alan Ball's new vampire show, today's news makes me feel sure I did the right thing. Via Gawker, Variety is reporting that some four years after the Jessica Cutler/Washingtonienne Capitol Hill sex blog scandal first broke, the pay cable network is going ahead with a pilot for a TV series based on Cutler's book. Sex and the City's Sarah Jessica Parker is set to executive produce. more ›

Just a few days from now, the critically acclaimed HBO series The Wire will kick off its fifth and final season. Considered one of the best and most realistic portrayals of crime and corruption in a struggling city (Baltimore, in this case), the show traces the thin line that divides the good guys from the bad. Whether cops stealing stacks of cash during drug busts or thieving dockworkers pooling together money for a stained-glass window at their local church, the distinction between law and lawlessness is often hard to find. more ›

Recently we caught up with Washington Capitals owner and former Vice Chairman of America Online, Ted Leonsis, over email. Here's what Ted had to say about his role in the organization, his goals for the team, and his feelings toward the media. Please note that he uses emoticons without shame. DCist: Now that you're completely retired from AOL, how much fun is it to get up every morning and not have to go to work?... more ›

This month marks the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's assault upon the city of New Orleans. The suffering and hardship of that city's citizens no longer makes headlines, but the havoc caused by the storm is something many people still live with on a daily basis. Jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard is one of those people. A son of the Crescent City and musical descendant of fellow New Orleanians Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong, and... more ›

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Foreign: Ballad of a Soldier The AFI's great Janus Films retrospective continues, and there is probably no title on the schedule this writer is more eager to see on the big screen. Grigori Chukhrai's 1959 classic takes a simple concept — the tale of a Russian soldier making his way home to see his mother during... more ›

As Sommer mentioned earlier this week, I was fortunate enough to have been invited to speak on a panel on D.C. voting rights at the YearlyKos Convention, a huge gathering of progressive activists and bloggers in Chicago. This morning I will be sitting alongside D.C. Shadow Rep. Mike Panetta, Danny Rose from DC Vote and Kesh Luddewhetty of DC for Democracy, all of whom will detail the current fight for voting rights, where it stands... more ›

Night of the Living Theater...by Dead Playwrights largely presents exactly what you'd expect to happen if notable writers from the ages were asked to take their scripts to modern-day producers and pitch them for Hollywood treatment. But while the five works highlighted in the piece may frequently lack surprises, the work as a whole still adds up to enjoyable, briefly-diverting entertainment. The best of the short skits is "A Lot of Talking", which smartly echoes... more ›

This is my third year coming to SOTG, but I had to have someone explain to me the concept of the HBO Dance. When the HBO music comes on, scores of men and women are compelled into a dervish that looks like an aerobics move, waving their hands above their head while hopping. Or a 20 second rave, where everyone is high on Franzia.

From the tallest skyscraper in the City of Brotherly Love to Canadian tourism copywriting brilliance, here's what you should know from our -ist cities: This week, Phillyist took a gleeful listen to the White Stripes' exciting new release, watched in awe as their new tallest skyscraper was finally completed, found a cheaper way to get to Gothamist, invented a tasty new dessert, and brought back their Craigslist Round-Up feature with a bang. Bostonist watches... more ›

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti... more ›

>> As we mentioned earlier in Reader, Meet Author, Vanity Fair editor Cullen Murphy will be at Politics and Prose tonight to read from and sign copies of Are We Rome? As long as we can ruled by Simon Woods, I'm all for saying, yes, please, let's be Rome. 7 p.m. >> Tickets are still available for tonight's performance of Leoš Janáček's Jenůfa at Washington National Opera. Our critic called this production WNO's "best... more ›

We're not quite sure what to make of HBO's Entourage. On the one hand it consistently provides a breezy half hour filled with laughs, wish-fulfillment, and little to no plot to slow things down. On the other, its sensibility seems geared toward the sort of despicable lunkheads who insisted on calling everything "money" in college; and we're pretty sure that if we ever met Turtle in a bar, punches would end up being thrown. more ›

Make sure you grab your popcorn money and that ugly purse you only carry because it's big enough to sneak in a couple of Diet Cokes and a bag of licorice, because the film festivals keep rolling into town. The AFI Silver Theater keeps the momentum going from last weekend's festival with the 17th Annual Washington Latin American Film Festival. Showings start tonight with the Spanish film Princesas (Princesses), featuring prostitutes with hearts of gold,... more ›

You're probably sick of hearing it by now. We're sorry about that. But we're only thinking of your well-being when we say it: you really ought to be watching The Wire. The stunningly complex and believable series about Baltimore's drug trade and pervasive institutional decay is only a couple of weeks into its fourth season on HBO, but the plaudits are already here in force. A 98 out of 100 on metacritic should provide some context. This is, at the very least, among the best dramas currently on TV. And now's a great time to get into it: taking a relatively fresh start, this season promises to examine Baltimore's failing school system. We're confident that by the end of it the D.C. educational system will look like the School of Athens by comparison. Lucky for you, Campus Progress wants to help you discover the show. They'll be hosting a screening of the season's third episode at 7 p.m. this Wednesday at the Mayflower Hotel. Unfortunately, all of the RSVP slots are currently taken — but you should think about getting on the waiting list anyway, because in addition to a chance to catch the new episode early, there'll be a Q&A with creator David Simon and writer Ed Burns immediately after. If this lengthy interview with Simon is any indication, it should be an interesting chat. Besides, they've already changed venues to accomodate the large crowd once. Who knows — by the end of this process, we might all be watching it at RFK. But if you don't get lucky on the wait list, you should tune in this Sunday anyway. And while you're at it, you might want to check out our interview with novelist and Wire writer George Pelecanos. more ›

FRIDAY: >> The fine folks at the Black Cat are throwing themselves a 13th anniversary party tonight, and bully for them — it can hardly be an argument that the bar and music venue has become a nightlife mainstay for those of us who like our drinks cheap and our juke boxes funky. The convergence of two unlucky symbols (13 and black cats) isn't lost on the staff, who are encouraging you to go ahead... more ›

Author George Pelecanos has been writing about life in D.C. for over fifteen years, but it's not the Washington you expect. He shuns the overdone political thriller, with the glamorization of Capital Hill and shiny Northwest. Instead, Pelecanos finds the homegrown stories of families who've been here for generations. The author, who also contributes to HBO's The Wire, was born in the city and raised in Mt. Pleasant (but now lives in Silver Spring), and... more ›

, which takes a peek at both the comic and darker sides of the male bond. more ›