It's difficult to enter into Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans expecting a comedy. That's despite a title more ridiculous and unwieldy than even a CSI spin-off would accept, and a trailer that features star Nicolas Cage waxing rhapsodic on his lucky crack pipe, and instructing some henchmen to shoot a dead body again, because the victim's "soul is still dancing." This has to be meant for laughs, right? The lingering expectation of a gritty drama lies mostly in this film's status as an ostensible remake of Abel Ferrara's 1992 cult favorite, the Harvey Keitel tour-de-force Bad Lieutenant, and in Herzog's reputation for dark and sober dramas about outsized obsessive personalities. more ›

People have been asking us: What's that big film crew doing downtown today? Why must my commute be ruined by greedy Hollywood movie producers? The answer: Why it's National Treasure: Book of Secrets, the sequel to the polarizing Nicholas Cage swashbuckler, of course. Here's the details on the filming for today, though circuses of production vehicles will likely be popping up elsewhere around the city for a while longer. The D.C. Department of Transportation (DDOT),... more ›

First Sandy Berger's sock incident at the National Archives, then Nicholas Cage breaks into Archives, now there's a missing portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt from the Archives' collection, according to WTOP. But there are other items missing, including dozens of presidential pardons. The Archives admits that the FDR portrait may be sitting in a landfill after being accidentally thrown out, but other items have turned up on eBay. more ›

The Fraser Mansion at the corner of Connecticut Avenue at 20th and R streets stands out, as you can see in this DCist photo. In a sea of older and newer commercial buildings a few blocks north of Dupont Circle stands the distinguished red stone mansion, its giant porte-cochere meeting the sidewalk with a majestic portal leading inside. It’s also Washington’s Scientology House, and while Clearwater, Fla., might be a more important Scientology center, Washington is where L. Ron Hubbard started Scientology when he was studying at George Washington University. We aren’t sure to call it a religion, cult or a pyramid scheme (feel free to post your thoughts in comments), but that’s not the point of this post. When DCist was in New York before Thanksgiving, we got a chance to interview a former Washington resident, who, on a whim, decided to go on a tour of the Fraser Mansion with friends when they were recovering from a tough hangover. more ›

The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, official repository of government records, unveiled today a new exhibit of some of their collections. more ›

Those who love (or despise) Dan Brown's literary crack, some more details about his new book, which will be set in Washington, are coming to the surface. The NY Times reports that during a reporters roundtable, Brown's publisher let the title of the book slip. The "Da Vinci Code" author's new book is titled "The Solomon Key," which we're Googling right now to see what it may be tied to. more ›