Attending the premiere of Warner Brothers’ Batman: The Dark Knight at AMC Loews Lincoln Square on Monday, July 14: the film’s stars Christian Bale, Maggie Gyllenhaal (wearing charcoal Dries Van Noten splashed with flowers and accompanied by husband Peter Sarsgaard), Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman and Aaron Eckhart; actors Ethan Hawke, Edie Falco, Josh Hartnett, Seth Green and Emile Hirsch; plus Gossip Girl’s Blake Lively, Penn Badgley and Ed Westwick.

So whom did we nab? Screenwriter David Goyer! “This film is intense intense,” he said. “It’s about escalation, both good and bad.” What’s new about this Batman? “He’s the most realistic.  read more »

THE DARK KNIGHT
RUNNING TIME 152 minutes
WRITTEN BY Christopher and Jonathan Nolan
DIRECTED BY Christopher Nolan
STARRING Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Maggie Gyllenhaal

Some folks take metaphysical pleasure from the New Batman Philosophy According to Christopher Nolan: that good and evil lurk side by side in everyone, including Batman. But in my opinion, every Batman movie is about only one thing: action hero (the caped crusader with wings) vs. bad guys (everyone else). Writer-director Nolan’s Batman Begins, with its surreal and mystical mumbo jumbo about playboy Bruce Wayne’s beginnings, remains the worst Batman movie I’ve ever seen, although the comic-book addicts disagree.  read more »

THE DARK KNIGHT
RUNNING TIME 152 minutes
WRITTEN BY Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan
DIRECTED BY Christopher Nolan
STARRING Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman

Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, from a screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, based on a story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, is, of course, ultimately from a series of comic books published by DC Comics, with the creation of the Batman character attributed to Bob Kane. In the world of comic-book superheroes, the Batman franchise has specialized in the most eccentrically colorful villains. I still remember Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne/Batman character looking out of the corner of his eye at Jack Nicholson’s clownish antics as the Joker in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman, the second such cinematic transfer after Laslia Martinson’s 1966 Batman, with Adam West reprising in a campy fashion his hit television role.  read more »

For its August issue, Marie Claire recruited Maggie Gyllenhaal, Batman's girlfriend in Dark Knight—and stroller-pushing Park Sloper—to talk about her ever-evolving career, her brother Jake's new relationship, and what it was like losing co-star and Brooklyn neighbor, Heath Ledger earlier this year.

You already know what's after the jump: Highlights!  read more »

Designer Yves Saint Laurent died at home in his apartment in Paris yesterday at the age of 71. [NY Times]

Tatum O'Neal, who wrote a memoir in 2004 about her drug addiction, was arrested for buying crack on the Lower East Side on Sunday morning from a homeless man. [NY Daily News]  read more »

When Heath Ledger's masseuse found the actor unconscious Tuesday, she called Mary-Kate Olsen for advice before dialing 911. The NYPD spokesman said, "I'm not going to speculate on why 911 was not called first." [City Room]

Also, multiple types of anti-anxiety meds and sedatives, all prescribed to Ledger, were found in his apartment. [TMZ]

Paris Hilton updated her MySpace blog – she's "never been happier"! [Just Jared]

A who's who of city restaurants, like Michael Romano of Union Square Café and The Modern's Gabriel Kreuther, flocked to the preview of Alain Ducasse's new wine-themed restaurant Adour. Their critical palates were not disappointed. [Page Six]  read more »

Lance Armstrong seems to be working very hard to snuff rumors of a fling with Ashley Olsen. Both guests were at last night’s Calvin Klein-hosted “First Look” party—held to celebrate the opening of the Bowery’s New Museum—but the once-lappy couple avoided each other like SARS. Sadly, we couldn’t be there to recoil. But Jim Shi was! The Fashion Week Daily reporter, who manages to be everywhere at once, offered a dynamic recap of the artful affair.

Apparently, the seventh-floor party space, a “custom-made Calvin Klein lounge,” presented some problems for those who only wear heels (a likely majority). While Roopal Patel, Linda Fargo, Rachel Feinstein and Yvonne Force Villareal decided to hang out and wait for an open elevator to whisk them skyward, Jennifer Creel mounted the steps, huffing and puffing her way to Partyville. “We didn’t eat Thanksgiving four days ago for nothing,” she said, while getting plenty of use out of her suede Prada boots.

Plus: co-hosts Julianne Moore and Maggie Gyllenhaal waxed on art, sporting brows alternately high and low. Ms. Moore looked around and mused, "It's all very transgressive, but this is not fashion lighting." Responding to the fellow actress, Ms. Gyllenhaal, who recently wowed us with her gray matter, remarked while laughing, “I finally gave up trying to remember each piece by artist and name … I figured it out. Wanna know the trick? You look for a guard and you say, 'Ok, now tell me who everybody is.'"

“It’s okay to think about clothes as long as you think about other things,” the actress Maggie Gyllenhaal told the Daily Transom last night. “Otherwise it’s pretty problematic.”

The clever moppet was looking like a young Joan Crawford with her long, dark and wavy hair framing a pair of claret-colored lips, a glass of Champagne in her hand, as she stood on a tented balcony that hugs the third floor of the Longchamp store on Spring Street. She was wearing a deep vintage black dress under a trench coat as guests gathered at the store for an intimate dinner party.

But she didn't mean fashion can't be deep. She said shopping provides an opportunity to "think about who you are."

“I think that’s the pleasure in it for me,” the 29-year-old said.  read more »