Sam Levin

SNL writer and actor Seth Meyers watches Mayor Mike Bloomberg speak Spanish at a press conference at 30 Rockefeller.

Forget the cast of Gossip Girl, Miss Piggy, Kermit the Frog, and Lady Gaga.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg brought in some serious entertainment power to really spice up his press conference this afternoon: Saturday Night Live.

Well actually, it was just Seth Meyers. But he got to use the whole stage of SNL at 30 Rockefeller Plaza! We were hoping for some Kristen Wiig or maybe even a Bloomberg-impersonating Fred Armisen, but oh well, you can't have it all, right? And Meyers certainly managed to make it more colorful and comedic than, well, the average mayoral announcement.

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Style.com

Dear Ladies of the Red Carpet:

Where's the shock of the swan dress or the pizzazz of the goth showgirl of yesteryear? Come on, ladies, this is the Oscars, and it's 2012! Why are so many of you million dollar actresses playing the Grace Kelly card? We are fully aware that all of you can't pull off a nip slip like Jennifer Lopez, or a bare-leg pose like Angelina Jolie. But you can still be poised and scandalous at the same time.

Please, don't get us wrong, we're not asking for sex-on-a-stick -- we're just looking for some real Hollywood bravado. We would be perfectly content if you had wowed or offended us, but we just hate being on the verge of a yawn. Thankfully, there was a nun on the red-carpet, and Sacha Baron Cohen in his dictator garb. Even veteran actresses like Meryl Streep in a shiny gold long-sleeve Lanvin and Glenn Close in a strapless/blazer Zac Posen put their younger counterparts to shame.

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By now it's quite obvious to anyone paying attention that Donald Trump will do anything to stay in the spotlight during this election season, despite already calling it quits on his own candidacy. So after very publicly declaring his support for Mitt Romney, a move that caused many Americans to engage in collective eye-rolling, Trump would now like you to know how proud he is that Mitt made it to victory in Nevada. Because where would poor old Mitt be without The Donald?

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via Wikimedia Commons

Looks like East Village residents aren't happy with their newest celebrity neighbor. The New York Post was able to confirm that David Schwimmer, one-time Friends star, is the owner of a historical East Village townhouse which was recently demolished to make way for a six-story mansion. As can be expected, fellow Sixth Street denizens are not pleased about it.

Schwimmer bought the building, at 331 E. 6th St., in 2010 for $4.1 million. Built in 1852, it was one of the oldest structures on the block.

Of course, old buildings are bought and sold and remodeled in the Village all the time. The area is hugely popular with students and celebrities, and developers and real estate agents know they can get more money for a nicer building.

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Far away, in a place known to some as "La-La Land," the region's princes and princesses are preparing for a big magical celebration. Yeah, no. It's just that the Golden Globes are happening tonight in Los Angeles. Will you watch? Will you not watch now that you know that Ryan Gosling will not be attending? Will you still watch because even if Ryan's not going to be there he's still nominated, along with Michael Fassbender? Well, if you do decide to tune in, here's a what you should do to prepare.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/41605671@N08/

This item almost makes you wish for the good ol' days -- when pop stars would make headlines for booze-fueled buffoonery rather than just shamelessly shilling random shit.

Alas, Justin Bieber has signed on to endorse a robot at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, according to CNET.

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Alec Baldwin -- closer, formerly prolific tweeter, and fake future mayoral candidate -- had a little incident with American Airlines yesterday because of his refusal to stop playing Words With Friends. Baldwin wouldn't shut off his phone when the flight attendant asked him to and says he was kicked off his flight. Words were exchanged, and now American Airlines is trying to set the record straight on its Facebook page. They don't refer to Baldwin by name, though:

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Not a lot to report here except this: Hugh Grant, lovable blinky British actor and phone hacking victim, is actually named Hugh John Mungo Grant. We discovered this while reading about Grant's testimony in the Leveson inquiry into media ethics by British red-tops in a no less reputable source than the BBC: "Hugh John Mungo Grant, to use the full name he gave the court, was determined to place many newspaper publishers in the dock."

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The New York Comedy Festival has arrived. The festival turns eight this year, and will hopefully celebrate with humor children of that age can't understand. While always a showcase for chuckles, the first day of the festival has a higher purpose: supporting injured soldiers through the Bob Woodruff Foundation.

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Michelle D. Anderson

The effort to ban horse-drawn carriages in New York City rages on. Another report of a carriage horse collapse in a two-week span has left animal-rights advocates -- including celebrities such as Glee's Lea Michele and Pamela Anderson -- with a renewed passion to end the use of horse-drawn carriages, and today, the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages (CBHDC) will hold a rally and tourist-hotel crawl on Central Park South at 6:30 p.m.

According to Elizabeth Forel, CBHDC's president since the group's inception in 2006, the latest horse collapse, which occurred Friday, is not the second in two weeks but rather the third. Forel tells us that on October 28, a horse bucked and nearly hit several taxis after racing along 59th Street.

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