De Blasio Proposes Housing Plan Focused on Affordability

Amid the community churches and boutique cupcake shops of a gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood, Bill de Blasio, a candidate for mayor, on Thursday proposed a housing plan in response to what he described as a “growing crisis of affordability” in New York City.

Mr. de Blasio, the city’s public advocate, called for 100,000 affordable homes for low-income New Yorkers to be built over the next 10 years, and a similar number of existing housing units to be preserved. He also proposed to dedicate $1 billion from the city’s pension fund investments to affordable housing, and to make it mandatory for developers in rezoned areas to include affordable housing in any new project, or to contribute to a fund for such homes.

“The real estate industry will be crucial to this equation, but the city has to steer the ship, not the industry, if we are going to create the affordability that we desperately need,” he said. “We want to get a lot more back for the public.”

Mr. de Blasio’s focus on citywide housing, his choice of Williamsburg as a backdrop for his announcement, and his repeated criticisms of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg were tailored to fit what has become his candidacy’s theme, that New York has become a “tale of two cities,” divided between rich and poor.

Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, is vying for his party’s nomination with several other current and former city officials, including Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker; John C. Liu, the current comptroller; and William C. Thompson Jr., a former comptroller. The primary is Sept. 10, and, if necessary, a runoff will be on Sept. 24; the winner will face the Republican nominee in the general election, on Nov. 5.

On the campaign trail Mr. de Blasio has sought to portray himself as a candidate for all five boroughs, and has derided Ms. Quinn as a Manhattan-focused candidate too close to real estate developers.

Barbara Garner, 56, a resident of the Williamsburg street where Mr. de Blasio spoke, said that while she preferred Mr. Thompson as a candidate, she agreed with Mr. de Blasio’s message that developers must provide more inexpensive homes.

“I think he’s a good candidate, I do, but they are all good when they are talking the talk,” Ms. Garner said. “What happens when the race is over? Are they going to live up to their promises?”

Thompson Chooses Education Heavyweight to Help Him Run for Mayor

William C. Thompson Jr., the former comptroller who is now a Democratic candidate for mayor, hopes a focus on education will help propel him to Gracie Mansion.

On Thursday, Mr. Thompson highlighted the issue with a high-profile addition to his team: Merryl H. Tisch, the chancellor of the state Board of Regents, who will serve as chairwoman of his campaign.

Dr. Tisch, a prominent voice on testing, charter schools and special education, said she had agreed to take on the assignment because she admired Mr. Thompson’s commitment to education.

Mr. Thompson served as president of the city’s Board of Education from 1996 until 2001. As comptroller from 2002 to 2009, he was a frequent critic of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s data-focused approach to overhauling the nation’s largest school district.

“He’s a man of confidence, experience, and honesty, “ Dr. Tisch said during a conference call with reporters on Thursday. “He has the right temperament to lead the city during a very complicated moment.”

Dr. Tisch did not endorse Mr. Thompson in 2009 when he ran against Mr. Bloomberg. Her relationship with the mayor is complex; at times, she has harshly criticized his policies, and at other times, she has rallied to his side.

In addition to her educational expertise, Dr. Tisch brings something of a golden Rolodex to Mr. Thompson. She is a fixture of elite Manhattan society, and her husband, James S. Tisch, is chief executive of Loews Corporation, a conglomerate that includes hotels and oil-drilling operations.

Asked if she foresaw any conflict between her role atop the state’s education board and her work as a political operative, Dr. Tisch demurred.

“We set educational policy for the state,” she said. “We do not run the city’s school system.”

Dr. Tisch, who flirted with her own mayoral bid last year, contributed $4,950, the city limit, to Mr. Thompson’s campaign in January, according to public records.

In past years, she has also contributed to several other people who are running for mayor this year, including Bill de Blasio, the public advocate, and Adolfo Carrión Jr., a former Bronx borough president.

Urban Forager | Garlic Mustard

Ava Chin Garlic mustard’s tangy bitter-green leaves seem to pop up wherever there’s a few square inches of shady or partly-shady ground.

I was recently nosing around a friend’s backyard in Connecticut, looking forward to introducing my 1-year-old to the newest crop of springtime edibles. I had just finished clambering down a rocky outcrop, disappointed that the season’s ramps had yet to appear, when I saw the rounded leaves of young garlic mustard growing low to the ground, waving in the breeze.

Although garlic mustard’s sharp garlic-and-onion notes sweeten and mellow in the summertime, I still enjoy eating it this time of year. After stuffing my mouth with a few spicy leaves, I had the family gather several handfuls to bring home.

Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) â€" a k a Jack-by-the-hedge, hedge garlic, poor man’s mustard, and “sauce alone” in the United Kingdom â€" is a biennial herb found this time of year in basal-rosette form with deeply veined, scalloped-shaped leaves. Around late May and early June, it transforms into a willowy stalk with pointy, triangular leaves and white cross-shaped flowers.

In New York City, Alliaria petiolata is a stealthy grower, proliferating throughout the five boroughs in abandoned lots, city parks and across college campuses. Most recently, I’ve spotted it in its transitional stalk-like form, and on the verge of flowering, on Staten Island and as far up as the Bronx River.

Native to Europe and Western and Central Asia, garlic mustard can be found in most states across the country, including the tristate area. It is widely considered a noxious weed â€" in forests, an enemy of native trees. In Connecticut, it is illegal to import, sell, buy, distribute or transplant garlic mustard.

Back in my kitchen, I cleaned the garlic mustard by soaking the leaves in a bowl of water before drying them off. I then blended them in a food processor with extra virgin olive oil, walnuts, salt and pepper, and a teaspoon of apple vinegar. That evening, we had a wild-tasting seasonal pesto pasta with shaved Parmesan that even our toddler enjoyed.

In his foraging guide “Food for Free,” the British naturalist Richard Mabey suggests that garlic mustard’s best culinary application is as a mint-like vinegary sauce for lamb (especially when the sheep itself has grazed on the plant). I look forward to trying my hand at it this summer.

MTV Orders TV Pilot Based on ‘Scream’ Horror Series

Gemma La Mana/Dimension Films Courteney Cox, right, as Gale, with an old friend, in “Scream 4.”

Do you like scary movies? And do you also like scary TV shows adapted from scary movies that cleverly deconstruct the entire scary-movie genre?

If you answered yes to both questions (and, in doing so, were not antagonized by a cloaked maniac in a spooky mask), you may shiver in delight at MTV’s announcement that it has given the green light to a television pilot based on “Scream,” the hit slasher-film series.

MTV was expected to announce the “Scream” pilot at its upfront presentation on Thursday afternoon. In a news release circulated prior to the presentation, the network said that it was working with Dimension Films, the studio that produced the “Scream” movies, to “reinvent the successful horror comedy franchise that spawned three sequels and unleashed ‘Ghostface’ to a legion of unsuspecting fans.”

The original 1996 “Scream” movie, written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven, starred Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox as some of the would-be victims of a murderer who wears a mask modeled on a famous Edvard Munch painting. MTV said it was speaking with “various writers for the potential series,” and that Dimension was talking to Mr. Craven about directing the pilot. No casting was announced for the series, which is planned for a summer 2014 debut.

The announcement comes as suspense- and horror-theme series are gaining momentum on network and cable television, ranging from MTV’s own “Teen Wolf” to AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” and from NBC’s “Hannibal” to Fox’s “The Following” (created by Mr. Williamson, the writer of “Scream.”)

MTV was also expected to announce on Thursday that it is renewing its popular “Jersey Shore” spinoff “Snooki & JWOWW” for a third season, and ordering the new reality shows “Generation Cryo” (about children who were conceived by anonymous sperm donors), “Nurse Nation” (about young nurses working in a hospital) and “The Hook Up,” a dating series.

A New Vision for Pershing Square, 27 Years in the Making

Think it’s taken a long time to plan the new World Trade Center, solve the problems of Penn Station and build a Second Avenue subway? Consider this:

Department of Design and Construction What the benches will look like.

In 1987, the Grand Central Partnership proposed closing the underused southbound leg of Park Avenue between 42nd and 41st Streets, across from Grand Central Terminal’s main entrance, to create a landscaped pedestrian plaza that would turn Pershing Square from an afterthought into an amenity.

In 2014, if all goes according to plan, the partnership will get its wish â€" 27 years later.

“What was envisioned here was a full-blown, fully designed, parklike public space,” Alfred C. Cerullo III, the president and chief executive of the partnership, said over coffee at the Pershing Square restaurant, which is tucked under the Park Avenue viaduct and looks out at the square. “It’s not just chairs and tables on a painted street.” Without missing a beat, he added, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

Pershing Square, if you’re looking for it, is not much more an actual square than Times Square. The name refers to the area flanking the viaduct south of Grand Central.

The plaza plan calls for the sloping roadbed and sidewalk to be replaced by shallow terraces of asphalt and concrete paving stones, with granite curbs and steps. One of the terraces will be used by the restaurant as an outdoor cafe. Three honey locusts are to be planted at the north end of the plaza, near a “rain garden” of sedges, ferns, sweet flag and iris in which runoff water will be captured for reuse. At the south end will be two planting beds of miscanthus and fountain grass. The garden and one of the beds will be bordered with oak and steel benches.

Mr. Cerullo cited at least one advantage to the restaurant having a level surface for its outdoor cafe, rather than the current incline. “They can fill people’s drinks to the top,” he said.

The $2 million landscaping, designed by Quennell Rothschild & Partners, with engineering by URS, is part of a larger $13.5 million repair and replacement of city water and sewer lines under Park Avenue.

“As is quite often the case, behind what you see on the surface is a lot of infrastructure work,” said David J. Burney, commissioner of the Department of Design and Construction, which will develop the project for the Department of Transportation and the Grand Central Partnership and which anticipates opening contractors’ bids in May.

As it is now, the southbound leg is partly closed from April through October to accommodate the restaurant’s outdoor cafe. City officials are not worried that a permanent closing will congest traffic. In fact, they believe it may help eastbound traffic on 42nd by eliminating the bottleneck of motorists waiting to turn right on Park.

“Pershing Square has been a summer oasis for Midtown and this project will make it a year-round destination,” Janette Sadik-Khan, the transportation commissioner, said in a statement. “The area around Grand Central is a real neighborhood and the local community supported the vision that our streets need to do more than just get you from place to place. They also need room where you can do something as simple as stop, enjoy a cup of coffee and take a fresh look at old New York.”

Department of Design and Construction Plan of the plaza pinpoints features like a “rain garden,” at right, that will collect runoff water; three honey locusts, shown in outline; and the curving edges of the terraces. In this view, Park Avenue is horizontal, with East 41st Street on the left and East 42nd Street on the right. The large enclosed white sace at bottom is the Pershing Square restaurant.

This was precisely the idea laid out by the partnership in its 1987 prospectus, “New Life for a Midtown Business District.” It recommended the eviction of the “low-end” discount store under the viaduct and its replacement by “a glass-walled street cafe,” which turned out to be Pershing Square, the restaurant. The report called for closing Park Avenue from 42nd Street to 40th Street and creating a “pedestrian park, with new paving, trees, planting, lights and seating.”

Mr. Cerullo said the idea, formed when Edward I. Koch was mayor, lay dormant through a less-than-sympathetic mayoral regime (he named no names) and hatched during the Bloomberg administration, after the restaurant had demonstrated its success in drawing diners to the once-forlorn viaduct.

“You got the feel of what public space and usage could be,” he said. “The cafe business went into the post-work hours. People were having cocktails waiting for their trains and having business meetings in the middle of Park Avenue. It was very exciting.”

Mr. Cerullo already has his eye on another objective: closing the leg of Park Avenue east of the viaduct. In the meanwhile, the city plans to relocate the airport bus stop that operates there and install a large bicycle rental station.

Grand Central Partnership This 1987 plan envisioned landscaping on both the east and west sides of the Park Avenue viaduct at Pershing Square. For now, only the west side will become a plaza.

Spymaster Makes Cameo in His Book Trailer

The trailer for John le Carré’s new novel, “A Delicate Truth,” is a stylish new example of a form (art form, advertising form or both, depending on your perspective) that is still finding its feet. The book is being published in the U.S. next week, and the video appeared for the first time on Thursday on Mr. le Carré’s Web site.

The clip’s London-based director, Kim Gehrig, said, “The tricky thing was how do you respect a reader when you’re making a film, because most films have to tell an entire story to make you feel satisfied. You want people to read the book, so I can’t tell the whole story.”

Ms. Gehrig said she didn’t cast actors in the trailer so that readers would remain free to picture the characters however they pleased. The one person who does appear is Mr. le Carré himself, sitting at a desk and looking concerned. He also provides the voice-over narration near the end.

Mr. le Carré may not be a recluse like Thomas Pynchon â€" who made a splash when he narrated the trailer for his novel “Inherent Vice” â€" but his presence in the video lends it a certain gravitas. His handwriting is also present. The pages that flit by are pages from the manuscript of “A Delicate Truth.”

Tribeca Video: Revisiting the Buckleys

The biopic “Greetings From Tim Buckley,” screening tonight in the Tribeca Film Festival and heading into theaters May 3, aims to commemorate the brief music careers and lives of the folk singer Tim Buckley and his son Jeff, who followed in his father’s musical footsteps. The film primarily takes place in 1991 and focuses on the organization of a tribute concert for Tim at which Jeff (Penn Badgley) will perform some of his father’s songs. It explores how Jeff perceived his father and how it affected his own emerging career. In this video, which looks at a musical performance by Jeff, the director Daniel Algrant discusses his process and how he came to cast Mr. Badgley, who performed songs live in the film.

Granta Editor Stepping Down

John Freeman, the American-born editor of the London-based literary quarterly Granta, has announced that he is departing the magazine, effective July 15. Mr. Freeman, 38, has edited Granta since late 2008, most recently overseeing the publication of the decennial “Best of Young British Novelists” issue, with 20 writers 40 years of age or under, which has become the magazine’s global calling card.

“I loved this job, but I always felt five years would be a kind of marker, and it was,” Mr. Freeman wrote in an email sent Thursday while he was flying from Seattle to New York. “There’s a next stage now, though,” he added. “And as the books I’ve been meaning to write are beginning to crowd to the front of my mind, it felt time to leave.”

Mr. Freeman has a book coming out in the fall called “How to Read a Novelist” and said he is also finishing a book of essays, tentatively titled “The Alphabet of American Poetry.” Beyond that, there is “hopefully a collection of poems,” he wrote. “I’ll also go back to reviewing a bit more, which I have missed,” and will be teaching a writing course at Columbia University this fall.

Under Mr. Freeman, a former president of the National Book Critics Circle, Granta has significantly raised its international profile. Founded in 1889 as a literary magazine at Cambridge University, it now publishes editions in several languages, including Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Norwegian; new editions in Turkish and Swedish are about to launch.

In addition, the magazine, whose publisher is the Swedish heiress and philanthropist Sigrid Rausing, has greatly expanded its online presence during his tenure, and reshaped its look, while continuing to seek out and promote new writers. In a harsh economic climate, Mr. Freeman noted, he has also succeeded in “reducing the magazine’s losses drastically, in half basically.”

“The great thing about Granta is it’s always felt to me like a kind of Trojan Horse for new writers,” he added. “I feel like the horse is in the keep now, and so it’s time to sit back and watch.”

Granta Editor Stepping Down

John Freeman, the American-born editor of the London-based literary quarterly Granta, has announced that he is departing the magazine, effective July 15. Mr. Freeman, 38, has edited Granta since late 2008, most recently overseeing the publication of the decennial “Best of Young British Novelists” issue, with 20 writers 40 years of age or under, which has become the magazine’s global calling card.

“I loved this job, but I always felt five years would be a kind of marker, and it was,” Mr. Freeman wrote in an email sent Thursday while he was flying from Seattle to New York. “There’s a next stage now, though,” he added. “And as the books I’ve been meaning to write are beginning to crowd to the front of my mind, it felt time to leave.”

Mr. Freeman has a book coming out in the fall called “How to Read a Novelist” and said he is also finishing a book of essays, tentatively titled “The Alphabet of American Poetry.” Beyond that, there is “hopefully a collection of poems,” he wrote. “I’ll also go back to reviewing a bit more, which I have missed,” and will be teaching a writing course at Columbia University this fall.

Under Mr. Freeman, a former president of the National Book Critics Circle, Granta has significantly raised its international profile. Founded in 1889 as a literary magazine at Cambridge University, it now publishes editions in several languages, including Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Norwegian; new editions in Turkish and Swedish are about to launch.

In addition, the magazine, whose publisher is the Swedish heiress and philanthropist Sigrid Rausing, has greatly expanded its online presence during his tenure, and reshaped its look, while continuing to seek out and promote new writers. In a harsh economic climate, Mr. Freeman noted, he has also succeeded in “reducing the magazine’s losses drastically, in half basically.”

“The great thing about Granta is it’s always felt to me like a kind of Trojan Horse for new writers,” he added. “I feel like the horse is in the keep now, and so it’s time to sit back and watch.”

Live Video: Bloomberg and Kelly Speak on Boston Bombers

.nytVideo, .nytVideo video, .youtubeVideo, .youtubeVideo iframe { background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #000000; } .youtubeVideo { position: relative; } .youtubeVideo, .youtubeVideo .thumb { height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%; } .youtubeVideo iframe { height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%; z-index: 1; } .youtubeVideo .playButton { border-radius: 10px 10px 10px 10px; height: 46px; left: 50%; margin: -23px 0 0 -35px; position: absolute; top: 50%; width: 70px; z-index: 2; background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(90deg, #6e0610, #ff0000); /* Safari 5.1+, Mobile Safari, Chrome 10+ */ background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(90deg, #6e0610, #ff0000); /* Firefox 3.6+ */ background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(90deg, #6e0610, #ff0000); /* IE 10+ */ background-image: -o-linear-gradient(90deg, #6e0610, #ff0000); /* Opera 11.10+ */ } .youtubeVideo .thumb { overflow: hidden; width: 100%; } .youtubeVideo .thumb img { height: auto; width: 100%; } .youtubeVideo:hover .thumb { cursor: pointer; } .youtubeVideo:hover .playButton { } .youtubeVideo .playButton .arrow { border-bottom: 10px solid transparent; border-left: 20px solid #FFFFFF; border-top: 10px solid transparent; height: 0; left: 28px; position: absolute; top: 13px; width: 0; } .clearfix:after { clear: both; content: "."; display: block; height: 0; visibility: hidden; }

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly are holding a news conference, where they are expected to discuss possible plans that the Boston Marathon bombing suspects may have had concerning New York City. It was scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m.

Live Video: Bloomberg and Kelly Speak on Boston Bombers

.nytVideo, .nytVideo video, .youtubeVideo, .youtubeVideo iframe { background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #000000; } .youtubeVideo { position: relative; } .youtubeVideo, .youtubeVideo .thumb { height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%; } .youtubeVideo iframe { height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%; z-index: 1; } .youtubeVideo .playButton { border-radius: 10px 10px 10px 10px; height: 46px; left: 50%; margin: -23px 0 0 -35px; position: absolute; top: 50%; width: 70px; z-index: 2; background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(90deg, #6e0610, #ff0000); /* Safari 5.1+, Mobile Safari, Chrome 10+ */ background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(90deg, #6e0610, #ff0000); /* Firefox 3.6+ */ background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(90deg, #6e0610, #ff0000); /* IE 10+ */ background-image: -o-linear-gradient(90deg, #6e0610, #ff0000); /* Opera 11.10+ */ } .youtubeVideo .thumb { overflow: hidden; width: 100%; } .youtubeVideo .thumb img { height: auto; width: 100%; } .youtubeVideo:hover .thumb { cursor: pointer; } .youtubeVideo:hover .playButton { } .youtubeVideo .playButton .arrow { border-bottom: 10px solid transparent; border-left: 20px solid #FFFFFF; border-top: 10px solid transparent; height: 0; left: 28px; position: absolute; top: 13px; width: 0; } .clearfix:after { clear: both; content: "."; display: block; height: 0; visibility: hidden; }

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly are holding a news conference, where they are expected to discuss possible plans that the Boston Marathon bombing suspects may have had concerning New York City. It was scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m.

Live Video: Bloomberg and Kelly Speak on Boston Bombers

.nytVideo, .nytVideo video, .youtubeVideo, .youtubeVideo iframe { background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #000000; } .youtubeVideo { position: relative; } .youtubeVideo, .youtubeVideo .thumb { height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%; } .youtubeVideo iframe { height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%; z-index: 1; } .youtubeVideo .playButton { border-radius: 10px 10px 10px 10px; height: 46px; left: 50%; margin: -23px 0 0 -35px; position: absolute; top: 50%; width: 70px; z-index: 2; background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(90deg, #6e0610, #ff0000); /* Safari 5.1+, Mobile Safari, Chrome 10+ */ background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(90deg, #6e0610, #ff0000); /* Firefox 3.6+ */ background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(90deg, #6e0610, #ff0000); /* IE 10+ */ background-image: -o-linear-gradient(90deg, #6e0610, #ff0000); /* Opera 11.10+ */ } .youtubeVideo .thumb { overflow: hidden; width: 100%; } .youtubeVideo .thumb img { height: auto; width: 100%; } .youtubeVideo:hover .thumb { cursor: pointer; } .youtubeVideo:hover .playButton { } .youtubeVideo .playButton .arrow { border-bottom: 10px solid transparent; border-left: 20px solid #FFFFFF; border-top: 10px solid transparent; height: 0; left: 28px; position: absolute; top: 13px; width: 0; } .clearfix:after { clear: both; content: "."; display: block; height: 0; visibility: hidden; }

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly are holding a news conference, where they are expected to discuss possible plans that the Boston Marathon bombing suspects may have had concerning New York City. It was scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m.

100 Restaurants Pledge to Halve Food Waste Sent to Landfills

Ángel Franco/The New York Times Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced on Thursday an initiative to cut commercial food waste that goes to landfills.

The next time you bite into that pork bun at Momofuku or burrito at Chipotle, you can tell yourself that you’re doing something for the environment.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced on Thursday that more than 100 New York City restaurants, from haute cuisine temples like Le Bernardin to chains like Pret a Manger, have pledged to reduce the food waste they send to landfills by 50 percent.

Sadly, they won’t accomplish this goal by offering you a discount for cleaning your plate. They’ll do it through composting and recycling, Mr. Bloomberg said, in a speech at The New York Times’s “Building Sustainable Cities” Conference at TheTimesCenter.

“Food wastes make up about a third of our city’s total of more than 20,000 tons of daily refuse,” Mr. Bloomberg said, adding that restaurants accounted for 70 percent of commercial food waste.

Mr. Bloomberg described the restaurants that had accepted the city’s challenge as ranging “from fast-food franchises like Chipotle” - which he pronounced “CHIP-o-LAY” - to “farm-to-table hot spots” like Blue Hill, and said he hoped that they would inspire other restaurants to follow suit.

He told the audience that the conference’s caterer, Cleaver Company, had also joined the challenge.

“I’m glad to report that any uneaten food today will be diverted away from the landfill,” the mayor promised, before adding, with a grin, a reference to the conference cost. “That’s not to say you shouldn’t eat. For 800 bucks you should get a decent meal.”

In a related announcement, Mr. Bloomberg said Wednesday that the city would expand a composting pilot program currently under way in Manhattan and Brooklyn schools to all schools in the next two years. The program has reduced the amount of garbage the Manhattan and Brooklyn schools send to landfills by 38 percent.

On Thursday, Mr. Bloomberg also said that the city would convert nine acres of underused city-owned land into community garden sites, which nonprofit and community groups can apply to manage.

Nora Ephron Prize for ‘Farah Goes Bang’

Tribeca Film Festival Meera Menon, the director of “Farah Goes Bang.”

The Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday inaugurated the Nora Ephron Prize, for a “woman writer or director with a distinctive voice,” by giving it to a very surprised Meera Menon, director of the road-trip comedy “Farah Goes Bang.”

The award, bestowed at a brunch for female filmmakers, includes $25,000 for the winner, and that would be very helpful, Ms. Menon told the crowd, which included Glenn Close, Anna Wintour and Ms. Ephron’s sister Delia. “I have soooo much credit card debt,” Ms. Menon said.

Turning serious, she referred to the story of her film, about girlfriends stumping for John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election, as she spoke about influence of the late filmmaker Nora Ephron “in terms of taking issues that are painful and kind of fear-ridden for women and finding the humor in them.”

This year, contenders for the prize were chosen from titles already selected for the festival. Next year, organizers said, female filmmakers can apply for the honor.

Nora Ephron Prize for ‘Farah Goes Bang’

Tribeca Film Festival Meera Menon, the director of “Farah Goes Bang.”

The Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday inaugurated the Nora Ephron Prize, for a “woman writer or director with a distinctive voice,” by giving it to a very surprised Meera Menon, director of the road-trip comedy “Farah Goes Bang.”

The award, bestowed at a brunch for female filmmakers, includes $25,000 for the winner, and that would be very helpful, Ms. Menon told the crowd, which included Glenn Close, Anna Wintour and Ms. Ephron’s sister Delia. “I have soooo much credit card debt,” Ms. Menon said.

Turning serious, she referred to the story of her film, about girlfriends stumping for John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election, as she spoke about influence of the late filmmaker Nora Ephron “in terms of taking issues that are painful and kind of fear-ridden for women and finding the humor in them.”

This year, contenders for the prize were chosen from titles already selected for the festival. Next year, organizers said, female filmmakers can apply for the honor.

Nora Ephron Prize for ‘Farah Goes Bang’

Tribeca Film Festival Meera Menon, the director of “Farah Goes Bang.”

The Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday inaugurated the Nora Ephron Prize, for a “woman writer or director with a distinctive voice,” by giving it to a very surprised Meera Menon, director of the road-trip comedy “Farah Goes Bang.”

The award, bestowed at a brunch for female filmmakers, includes $25,000 for the winner, and that would be very helpful, Ms. Menon told the crowd, which included Glenn Close, Anna Wintour and Ms. Ephron’s sister Delia. “I have soooo much credit card debt,” Ms. Menon said.

Turning serious, she referred to the story of her film, about girlfriends stumping for John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election, as she spoke about influence of the late filmmaker Nora Ephron “in terms of taking issues that are painful and kind of fear-ridden for women and finding the humor in them.”

This year, contenders for the prize were chosen from titles already selected for the festival. Next year, organizers said, female filmmakers can apply for the honor.

Nora Ephron Prize for ‘Farah Goes Bang’

Tribeca Film Festival Meera Menon, the director of “Farah Goes Bang.”

The Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday inaugurated the Nora Ephron Prize, for a “woman writer or director with a distinctive voice,” by giving it to a very surprised Meera Menon, director of the road-trip comedy “Farah Goes Bang.”

The award, bestowed at a brunch for female filmmakers, includes $25,000 for the winner, and that would be very helpful, Ms. Menon told the crowd, which included Glenn Close, Anna Wintour and Ms. Ephron’s sister Delia. “I have soooo much credit card debt,” Ms. Menon said.

Turning serious, she referred to the story of her film, about girlfriends stumping for John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election, as she spoke about influence of the late filmmaker Nora Ephron “in terms of taking issues that are painful and kind of fear-ridden for women and finding the humor in them.”

This year, contenders for the prize were chosen from titles already selected for the festival. Next year, organizers said, female filmmakers can apply for the honor.

Four Artists Named as Finalists for Britain’s Turner Prize

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, a British artist who paints portraits of imaginary people, leaving it to the viewer to supply the biographical back stories - and whose first solo museum exhibition, “Any Number of Preoccupations,” was a hit when it was mounted at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2010 - is one of four finalists for the 2013 Turner Prize.

The prize, given annually by Tate Britain to a British artist under 50 (or in some cases, artists born elsewhere who live and work in Britain), is a cash award of £25,000 (about $38,600). The other finalists each receive £5,000 (about $7,700).

Because the Turner winners are typically young iconoclasts, the prize almost invariably leads to debates about the merits of contemporary art. The museum named the prize after the 19th-century British landscape painter, J.M.W. Turner, who was controversial in his day, largely for that reason.

Ms. Yiadom-Boakye, 35, lives in London and was nominated for her exhibition “Extracts and Verses.” She is joined on the short list by Laure Prouvost, 35, a French artist and filmmaker who works in London, and was nominated for “Wantee,” a performance piece, and several exhibitions; Tino Sehgal, 36, a British-born, Berlin-based artist, was selected for his “This Variation” and “These Associations” exhibitions; and David Shrigley, 44, a British artist known for his darkly humorous works (including a stuffed Jack Russellterrier holding a sign that reads, “I Am Dead”), who was shortlisted for “Brain Activity,” a retrospective of his drawings, photography, sculpture and film.

The nominees’ work will be shown together at an exhibition in Derry-Londonderry, from Oct. 23 through Jan. 5, 2014. The winner, to be selected by a jury headed by Penelope Curtis, the director of Tate Britain, will be announced at an awards ceremony on Dec. 2.

New Literary Prize Goes to Old Pro DeLillo

The first Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction has been awarded to Don DeLillo, the author of “Underworld,” “White Noise,” “Libra” and several other books.

The prize was inspired by a 2008 award for lifetime achievement in fiction given to Herman Wouk. Starting in 2009, the award, then called the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction, went to John Grisham, Isabel Allende, Toni Morrison and Philip Roth.

Mr. DeLillo will receive the award at the Library of Congress National Book Festival in September. He was nominated for the honor by a panel of authors and literary critics. In a statement, Mr. DeLillo said: “When I received news of this award, my first thoughts were of my mother and father, who came to this country the hard way, as young people confronting a new language and culture. In a significant sense, the Library of Congress Prize is the culmination of their efforts and a tribute to their memory.”

Neil Diamond to Donate ‘Sweet Caroline’ Royalties to Boston Bombing Charity

Neil Diamond says he will donate the royalties from this week’s surge in sales of his song “Sweet Caroline” to a fund for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. He made the announcement on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon.

The 1969 hit song, addressed to Caroline Kennedy, is regularly played at Boston Red Sox games and became an unofficial anthem for the rattled city in the aftermath of the bombings on April 15. Sales of the single rose nearly 600 percent last week, to 19,000 copies, up from 2,800 the week before.

Last Saturday Mr. Diamond visited Fenway Park and led fans in singing the tune during the team’s first home stand since the attacks. He told Rolling Stone magazine he is working on new songs inspired in part by the bombings.

“I’m writing now and obviously affected by this situation in Boston, so I’m writing about it just to express myself,” he told Rolling Stone. “It’s like an infestation, and I’m writing about the general situation, not just about this bombing in Boston, but what we’re going through with all of these tragedies - shootings and so on and so forth.”

In a show of solidarity, the New York Yankees, Toronto Raptors and other professional sports teams have played the song at games in the days after the deadly blasts. Though the lyrics never mention Boston, “Sweet Caroline” has become associated with the city over the last decade as Red Sox fans adopted it as a regular part of the eighth inning.

Tribeca Film Festival: A Unique Perspective on the Madoff Meltdown

Eleanor Squillari in a scene from “In God We Trust.”

In early 2009, a journalist introduced the filmmakers Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek to Eleanor Squillari. The Bernard L. Madoff financial scandal was dominating the news â€" Mr. Madoff had been arrested in December 2008 â€" and as the disgraced financier’s former secretary, Ms. Squillari was a hot property among reporters and others hoping to untangle the crime.

“She was a fly on the wall in one of the most interesting rooms in financial history,” Mr. Kubicek said.

Fortunately for the filmmakers, the meeting went well enough to convince Ms. Squillari to join them on a documentary about the fraud. The film, “In God We Trust,” had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Friday and will screen again on Thursday.

Ms. Squillari, who worked for the money manager for nearly 25 years, made plenty of appearances in the press in the months following her boss’s arrest. (It was Mark Seal, her collaborator on a Vanity Fair tell-all piece, who introduced her to Mr. Anderson and Mr. Kubicek.)

But “In God We Trust” offers a deeper picture of her efforts to help investigators and journalists dig through the records and piece together the full dimensions of the fraud. Ms. Squillari told the filmmakers that working on the film offered a way “to deal with what happened and start to heal,” Mr. Kubicek said.

Though the episode is most frequently described as a Ponzi scheme, the film also lays out evidence of extensive money laundering and other financial chicanery. Eyewitnesses like the financier’s former driver and his brother Peter Madoff’s former secretary describe in intimate detail the moments of collapse within the Madoff empire. Interviews with victims, meanwhile, humanize the aftermath.

“To do a financial documentary is all fine and well,” Mr. Kubicek said. “But to be able to weave in this human story and have someone like Eleanor guide us through it was the great thing.”

Mr. Anderson and Mr. Kubicek talked about “In God We Trust” by phone this week. In edited excerpts from the interview, they discuss their ultimate goals for the film and why they had no desire to talk to Ruth Madoff.

Q.

Did you have any fears that Madoff would seem like yesterday’s news by the time you finished the movie?

Andrew Macphereson Victor Kubicek

A.

MR. KUBICEK We thought it was nice to get a little distance from the actual day he was arrested. Of course that first year it was on the cover of every newspaper and magazine. But even though there was this enormous amount of coverage, people weren’t really going behind the headlines and giving a lot of detail.

MR. ANDERSON Even though this happened several years ago, not much has changed. People’s lives have still been ruined. There hasn’t been much legislative change. In fact, there’s not even been one trial. In October of this year, [five defendants] will go on trial. Even that aspect of it is still playing out.

Q.

Why was it important to have Ms. Squillari at the heart of the film?

Andrew Macphereson Derek Anderson

A.

MR. ANDERSON I think that having that human story, seeing normal people, is a way to engage somebody who maybe isn’t in finance. It’s the humanity that brings them in.

MR. KUBICEK It’s really a lot of dense, complicated information â€" this crime was so intricate and there was much more to it than most people realize. With her guiding you through it, she makes it really digestible and easier to understand. She breaks it down in a way that hasn’t really happened before.

Q.

Ms. Squillari is the vehicle for the story but it seems like you’re also broadly interested in the more middle-class victims, in general.

A.

MR. ANDERSON One of the things that kind of blew our minds is the vast majority of the people who got hurt by Bernie were pretty average, normal people who just worked and saved money.

MR. KUBICEK Everybody put their hands up when Bernie was arrested and said, “I’m a victim. I’m a victim.” But when you drill down and follow the money trail, there are two classes of investors caught in this scam. There are thousands of people who are legitimately victims and a handful of people who are serious beneficiaries. Because there are probably about 18 or 19 entities that made an absolute fortune with Bernie.

Q.

What was the most surprising thing about the case for you?

A.

MR. ANDERSON One of them was how Bernie just went straight off to jail. He clearly didn’t want to have a trial â€" what is it he didn’t want to be exposed? He certainly had the resources or could have gotten the support to fight this. It wasn’t just a Ponzi scheme. It was any kind of nefarious financial activity he could make money from â€" laundering people’s money, manipulating taxes. The Ponzi scheme was just one piece of a much bigger crime.

Q.

What didn’t you get into the film that you wanted?

A.

MR. KUBICEK We wanted to have Eleanor get in touch with Bernie. We were hoping to hear something from him, some response to the letters she wrote him, and of course we heard nothing. Some people asked if we were trying to sit down with Ruth. We weren’t. We wanted people who we thought would be objective and honest and help us uncover what really happened. As interesting as it would be to sit down with Ruth Madoff, I’m not sure what we would really learn there.

Q.

You also cover efforts by activists â€" some of whom were Madoff victims â€" to establish some regulatory protections for investors. Do you consider this film to be part of that campaign?

A.

MR. KUBICEK Absolutely. It’s ambitious but we really do hope we can make a dent in that conversation and make people aware of the fact that this is almost four and a half years old, and nothing has changed. The fundamental elements to protect American investors are not there and no one has really addressed any of this yet.

MR. ANDERSON This is definitely a cause. Watching Eleanor fight for this, getting to know all of these victims â€" we’re going to stay on this path.

A Republican Fund-Raiser, Held Amid a Smoky Haze

Damon Winter/The New York Times Joseph J. Lhota

Some politicians avoid a smoke-filled room. This week, Joseph J. Lhota held a fund-raiser in one.

“You ever smoke a cigar before?” asked Mr. Lhota, a Republican running for mayor of New York City, his teeth clenched around a Montecristo White. He pulled out a miniature torch, flipped on the blue flame and gestured toward a guest. “Give him a cutter!”

Moments before, Mr. Lhota was addressing a crowd of two dozen cigar enthusiasts gathered on Monday evening in the leather-upholstered confines of the Habana Hut Smoke Lounge, a tobacco shop just off Bell Boulevard in Bayside, Queens. There was a well-worn stump speech, a bit of family history (father, a cop; grandfather, a cabby), and a round of thank-yous for the night’s donations.

Then it was off to the walk-in humidor.

“I haven’t smoked a cigar in I can’t tell you how long,” Mr. Lhota said, exhaling a blue plume. Later, he revised that assessment, admitting he had indulged in a celebratory smoke on New Year’s Eve. He keeps hundreds of cigars in his Brooklyn Heights home, but lately, he said, “I’ve cut down a lot.”

Elio Forcina, a lawyer who organized the event, introduced Mr. Lhota to an owner of the Habana Hut, adding that the proprietor, as a high school student, had once stuffed Andrew M. Cuomo, a classmate and the future governor, into a hallway locker.

The owner vigorously shook his head. “It was my brother! Not me!”

“Your brother put Andrew Cuomo in a locker? Wow, wow. That’s great,” Mr. Lhota said, reaching for a cigar cutter.

Many of the attendees â€" almost all male â€" knew Mr. Lhota from his days as a deputy mayor in the Giuliani administration, where he was known to indulge in cigars and Scotch. It was a habit he picked up in college, at Georgetown, where his roommates preferred the Caribbean blend of Macanudo Hampton Courts.

George Frangoulis, who served with Mr. Lhota at City Hall in the 1990s, recalled many smoky Christmas dinners with Chianti, cigars and a seafood feast, with Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mr. Lhota holding court. (Mr. Giuliani, he said, kept his cigars in a Tupperware container.)

Mr. Frangoulis said that Mr. Lhota often used cigars to put subordinates at ease, right before grilling them on a recent foul-up. “It was a communications device; he’d get everything out of you.”

Like Mr. Lhota, Mr. Frangoulis said he has had to cut back. “I’m 52,” he explained. “I love my teeth.”

Watching the festivities was Eric Ulrich, the youngest member of the New York City Council and one of its few Republicans. “We’re behind Joe 1,000 percent,” Mr. Ulrich, in a red tie with silver beads, told the crowd. He then predicted, in colorful language, that Mr. Lhota would easily best a rival, John A. Catsimatidis, in the primary.

As guests puffed away watching the Yankees game, Mr. Ulrich, a cigar enthusiast since high school, was asked his opinion of Mr. Lhota’s Montecristo. “It’s not bad,” Mr. Ulrich said, as he lighted up one of his own. “It’s a mild cigar. It’s not a dark leaf. It’s a social cigar.”

He gestured around the room. “These are very hard-working, middle-class people,” he said. “These are the voters who will put Joe over the top.”

At that, the beer arrived. “We’re getting Heinies right now!” Mr. Lhota exclaimed, as an organizer carried in a pack of Heineken cans and a bag of red Solo cups.

“If you’re together with a bunch of friends and you’re smoking cigars and you’re having a drink, the most important component is the discussion and the talk and the revelry,” Mr. Lhota said later, squeezed into a corner by the cash register. Amid the din, he looked pleased. “I think I’ve got to open up one of these places in Brooklyn Heights. I really do.”

Soon, Mr. Lhota ducked out to the sidewalk for some fresh air. As the evening drew late, he was surrounded by well-wishers, puffing on the Montecristo, coatless in the temperate spring air. A few minutes later, he grabbed a mint from a bowl on the store’s counter, shook a few more hands, and headed home to Brooklyn for the night.

Lil Bub Hits the Tribeca Film Festival

Robin Marchant/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival Mike Bridavsky and Lil Bub at the Tribeca Film Festival.

If you are the type of person who is inclined to watch YouTube videos of cute animals doing even cuter things, you’ve probably encountered Lil Bub: the adorable, wall-eyed kitten with a perpetually protruding strawberry pink tongue.

Videos and photos of Lil Bub bounding around a living room or eating yogurt have earned her countless global fans, and the feline was even considered a celebrity at the inaugural Internet Cat Video Film Festival. So it was probably only a matter of time before there was “Lil Bub & Friendz,” a documentary about famous felines showing Thursday at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Over the weekend, the movie was screened in the spring chill outdoors at the Tribeca Drive-in, behind the World Financial Center in downtown Manhattan. The sun was just beginning to slip behind the cityscape when Bub made an appearance, lovingly carried out by her suited-up owner, Mike Bridavasky, who gently set his star on a podium and invited attendees to pet and take pictures with the cat.

“She’s so cute!” wailed one little girl, as she angled her cellphone to get a better shot. Children and adults alike pressed against waist-high steel police barricades to get a glimpse of Bub’s face. Bub was dazed or unfazed, possibly a combination of both. She rested on her paws, tongue out as always, while dozens of little hands smoothed her fur.

Cats have long been a popular Internet phenomenon, with Maru the box cat and others leading the charge. They are ripe for parody, the film explains, as owners and fans enjoy analyzing their seemingly ungovernable behavior and relish projecting comical personalities onto their expressive faces and bizarre behavior.

But the Vice Media documentary, directed by Andy Capper and Juliette Eisner, also suggests that the rise of Bub along with Grumpy Cat, whose markings convey a very salty attitude, and Nyan Cat, a pixelated animation of a flying kitten with the body of a Pop-Tart, represents a turn in popular culture: rather than offering a few seconds enjoyment, they are now on par with well-known and loved characters in movies, video games and television shows.

“No one cares about Bart Simpson anymore,” Ben Lashes, a “meme manager” who helps Internet celebrities broker appearances and sell shirts and stickers, says in the documentary. ”This is it. This is popular culture.”

If this documentary is a mile-marker in the continued migration of niche Internet fads into the mainstream consciousness, then it also highlights the seediness that can be found during any boom, online or otherwise.

The cat owners featured in the documentary seem to genuinely adore their animals. Still, the unsavoriness of the media tours and the relentless merchandising â€" stickers, books, shirts, calendars and stuffed animals made in their likeness â€" is difficult to shake. Then there are the profits from ads that run alongside the popular videos,. In Bub’s case, the entrepreneurship is particularly unsettling because her lovability hinges on severe genetic deformities, like stunted bone growth, a misshapen jaw and a lack of teeth, among other things. The severity of her condition is a running current in the film: Bub can barely walk without falling over and when she does move, she creeps along the ground in a military-like crawl.

But Mr. Bridavasky offers one gem in explaining the popularity of Bub and his desire to share her with fans, when he calls her “therapeutic” and says that spending time with her relieves any of the stress and aggregation from his regular life. “She’s like a daughter to me,” he said. “Bub means more to me than any of this Internet stuff.”