No Judging About Gay Players on Basketball Courts

Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times At the West Fourth Street basketball courts in Manhattan, which draw players from all over the city, Jason Collins’s coming out raised few eyebrows.

The West Fourth Street basketball courts in Greenwich Village, known far and wide as the Cage, draw some of the toughest and best streetball players from across the city. And on Tuesday, as the sporting world absorbed the news that the journeymen N.B.A. center Jason Collins had come out as gay, the denizens of the Cage said, by and large, that it made no difference to them.

“His personal life is his own,” said a 60-year-old man who goes by the name Coach and has been playing and coaching at West Fourth Street for 30 years. “Nobody can tell me who in the morning I’m going to get up and smell their breath. We’ve raised gay people here. No jokes, no discrimination. I’ll critique your game but not your personal life.”

Across the East River at the Rodney Park North courts on the south side of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the reaction was much the same.

Here are some voices from the two courts:

From the Cage:

“There are a lot of gay players here but the only ones who admit it are the girls. But, still, today is better than yesterday for them.” - Vince, a coach and player from Jersey City in his 50s.

“It’s a great start, but they need a bigger star who’s more relevant to come out to really make a difference.” â€" Michael Watson, 23, who lives in Manhattan and works in a nightclub.

“I’d still play with him. I wouldn’t shower with him, though.” â€" Joseph Washington, 24, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

“I just finished playing with a gay guy here. It doesn’t change anything. He’s not changing the United States anyway, because everybody is going to have different views.” â€" Stephen Williams, 22, of the Bronx.

“He’s his own person. You got to be true to yourself sometimes. If he’s O.K. with it, everyone else should be,” â€" Shariff Webb, 21, of Queens.

From the Rodney Park courts in Williamsburg:

“It’s just something he’s had throughout his childhood, I don’t see nothing wrong with that. This is what Hollywood, the media, celebrities, does. But really it’s no big deal.” â€" Wady Capellan, 19.

“As long as he respects boundaries, it shouldn’t affect the basketball court.” â€" Bill Baez, 19.

“This is the South Side. We see gay people walking around all the time. It’s normal. If you’re gay, you’re gay.” â€" Ruder Perez, 17.

The TV Teaser That Depresses

It’s only Tuesday, but we can already declare a winner in the competition for the Most Attention-Getting Press Release Teaser of the Week. It’s Animal Planet, which on Tuesday morning sent around an e-mail with this in the subject field: “The Search Is on for the Best Hooker in America.”

Of course, Animal Planet also wins the prize for Biggest Press Release Letdown of the Week with the same e-mail, which it turns out is plugging a fishing show called “Top Hooker.” But for a brief moment, the mind raced with questions. How? What format? Would there be auditions? Who would judge such a contest? Perhaps the men from the repulsive Showtime series “Gigolos,” which claims to be a reality series about sex-for-hire studs?

The main question, though, is, Would someone actually make a talent competition show for prostitutes? And the dismaying answer is, do you even have to ask? It’s amazing no one has done so already.
Prostitution has certainly made its way onto television. HBO’s icky “Cathouse” franchise, about the Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel in Nevada, has been going for years. Cinemax has “Working Girls,” a “Cathouse” spinoff of sorts.

These and other sex-fantasy charades, though, contain no more “reality” than “Gigolos” does, since central elements of the prostitution world â€" drug addiction, disease, violence, sexual slavery â€" are nowhere to be found in them. Yeah, “America’s Best Hooker” sounds like a terrific idea for a reality competition series, until you think about it too long.

Searching for a Fierce and Entirely Unwelcome Fish, the Snakehead

Todd Heisler/The New York Times Anthony Lugo fished in the Harlem Meer on Tuesday, near a sign warning anyone who catches a northern snakehead, which is an invasive species, not to throw it back in the water.

Jack Grubaugh, via The Commercial Appeal/University of Memphis, via Associated Press The northern snakehead, referred to by some as fishzilla, is a voracious predator, eating just about anything in its path.

The Harlem Meer, a lake in the northeastern corner of Central Park, has long been a refuge for city people looking to indulge their inner Huck Finns, whiling away a lazy summer afternoon fishing for bass, yellow perch and black crappies.

But late last week, signs started popping up around the lake notifying anglers of the arrival of an intruder. The dreaded northern snakehead, a fierce predator common in the rivers and lakes of Asia but considered an invasive species in American waters, had been spotted.

The warning to anglers was clear: If you catch this fish, do not release it. Contact the authorities immediately. It does not belong and could radically alter the local fish population.

The snakehead is a relentless and efficient predator that devours just about everything in its path â€" fish, frogs, crayfish, beetles and aquatic insects. And it does not meet death easily; it is able to survive under ice or live on land for days in damp conditions. It has been called Fishzilla.

“I would describe them as the freshwater fish equivalent of a tank,” said Ron P. Swegman, a fly-fishing expert and author whose writings about fishing in Central Park include an essay, “Bright Fish, Big City.”

“They are heavily armed,” he said, “strong, and can cover almost any territory, aquatic and â€" at least for short periods â€" on land.”

Anytime something truly wild makes an appearance in this city built by man, it attracts attention. Give the creature a torpedo-shaped body that can grow to more than three-feet long, a jaw that stretches back well beyond its eyes and a reputation for being both a voracious eater and prodigious breeder and you can set off, well, a feeding frenzy of curiosity.

Mr. Swegman said that the local fishing community was obsessed with the fish, with regulars even wagering on who would be the first to catch a snakehead.

When he was fishing with a friend on the lake Friday, just as the signs started to appear, the friend claimed to have hooked one, reeling it in close enough to see, before it escaped. “That is a true story,” Mr. Swegman said.

On Tuesday night, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation will begin a survey of the lake. They will try to verify the sightings, determine how many snakeheads there might be and gauge the threat it poses to other wildlife.

State wildlife officials will use an electro-fishing boat,which releases electric current just beneath the vessel to temporarily stun nearby fish. The fish can then be scooped up in nets and examined on shore.

The results of the survey will not be finished until later in the week, said Melissa Cohen, a regional fisheries manager for the department.

“We got a call few months ago that an angler might have caught one,” she said, but that report was unverified. More recent reports prompted park officials to put up the signs.

If snakeheads have established themselves in the lake, she said, someone probably released the species into the lake, perhaps hoping to create a population for later fishing.

The northern snakehead is common in the lakes and streams of China, Korea and Russia but they are not native in American waters. The threat posed by the fish should not be underestimated, wildlife officials said.

The possession, sale and transport of live snakeheads was prohibited by federal law in 2002.

However, they remain a persistent presence in Chinese fish markets across the city, officials said. For many, the fish is prized not only as a meaty, savory ingredient in stew, but for its supposed healing properties.

After the seizure of 353 live snakeheads at Kennedy International Airport on the eve of the 2010 Chinese New Year, an investigation led to the arrest of a local wholesaler in 2011 who illegally imported thousands of snakeheads and sold them from a shop in Brooklyn.

Ms. Cohen said a single snakehead turned up in the Harlem Meer in 2008 and that the fish has recently established a presence in Meadow Lake in Queens.

It remains unclear why the snakeheads in Queens have not decimated the other fish population, but Ms. Cohen speculated that it could have to do with the relatively high salinity of the water. The Meer has a much lower salinity level and therefore could be more conducive to the snakehead.

Since there is not much likelihood that the fish will migrate out of the lake, Ms. Cohen said, if snakeheads are found they will be monitored rather than eradicated.

That is a less aggressive approach than authorities took in 2008, when they found the snakehead in Ridgebury Lake and Catlin Creek in upstate New York. Authorities, fearing that the fish could migrate into the waters of the Hudson River and wreak havoc in the ecosystem across the state, used an aquatic pesticide to kill the snakeheads.

Still, the snakeheads in the Harlem Meer threaten many other fish in what has become one of the city’s most popular fishing holes since it was renovated in the 1990s.

“It has a very wild profile,” Mr. Swegman said. “There are reed beds, lots of curves, nooks and crannies. It is not like you are fishing a swimming pool, it actually has the profile of a really natural lake.”

And the signs warning of the snakehead lent the Meer a touch more of the wild.

On Tuesday, many of the regulars had a tale to tell about a snakefish spotting. And while some hoped to be the first to catch one, others preferred to keep their distance.

Dwayne Coleman, 53, said he preferred more docile fish like bluegills, bass and carp.

“I don’t want to see them!” he said, as he tossed a sunfish back in the lake. “Scared of ‘em.”

If he lands one of the sharp-toothed invaders?

He smiled.

“I’m going to run,” he said.

Vivian Yee contributed reporting.

Next Concert Season at the Met Will Include Music in Galleries

The major shift of emphasis that the Metropolitan Museum made in its concert series this season, the first programmed entirely by Limor Tomer, as general manager of concerts and lectures, will carry at least through another season and seemingly far into the future, Ms. Tomer announced on Tuesday. She has largely abandoned the traditional series of classical recitals and chamber concerts in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in favor of nontraditional events related to Met exhibitions and, in many cases next season, actually taking place in the galleries.

The “gallery-hopping,” as a news release calls it, begins on Sept. 17 and 18, with “The Grand Tour,” celebrating completion of the museum’s new European Paintings Galleries, 1250-1800, with four early-music performances, successively featuring the ensembles Tenet, Dark Horse and Quicksilver and the harpsichordist Jory Vinikour, each in a different gallery. It continues on Sept. 28 with a day devoted to the composer and performer John Zorn (who will celebrate his 60th birthday on Sept. 2).

Mr. Zorn, an inveterate Metgoer since childhood, says he has drawn inspiration from a number of specific artworks there, and his day will consist of 11 performances in 11 different rooms, in some cases before the very objects that inspired him. This will allow attendees, Ms. Tomer said, “to see the Met through John Zorn’s eyes,” not to mention hearing it though his ears.

A cycle of Bartok’s six string quartets by the Calder Quartet in the Rogers Auditorium might at first glance seem a throwback to the old regime. But the works are presented in three concerts intended to show “Bartok’s debt to the human voice,” in Ms. Tomer’s words, variously including a work by the Hungarian composer Peter Eotvos and performances by David Longstreth, the founder of the rock band Dirty Projectors, and the innovative Czech vocalist, violinist and composer Iva Bittova.

The Met will also plunge into the world of chamber opera, and the artists in residence will be the new-music ensemble Alarm Will Sound.

Next Concert Season at the Met Will Include Music in Galleries

The major shift of emphasis that the Metropolitan Museum made in its concert series this season, the first programmed entirely by Limor Tomer, as general manager of concerts and lectures, will carry at least through another season and seemingly far into the future, Ms. Tomer announced on Tuesday. She has largely abandoned the traditional series of classical recitals and chamber concerts in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in favor of nontraditional events related to Met exhibitions and, in many cases next season, actually taking place in the galleries.

The “gallery-hopping,” as a news release calls it, begins on Sept. 17 and 18, with “The Grand Tour,” celebrating completion of the museum’s new European Paintings Galleries, 1250-1800, with four early-music performances, successively featuring the ensembles Tenet, Dark Horse and Quicksilver and the harpsichordist Jory Vinikour, each in a different gallery. It continues on Sept. 28 with a day devoted to the composer and performer John Zorn (who will celebrate his 60th birthday on Sept. 2).

Mr. Zorn, an inveterate Metgoer since childhood, says he has drawn inspiration from a number of specific artworks there, and his day will consist of 11 performances in 11 different rooms, in some cases before the very objects that inspired him. This will allow attendees, Ms. Tomer said, “to see the Met through John Zorn’s eyes,” not to mention hearing it though his ears.

A cycle of Bartok’s six string quartets by the Calder Quartet in the Rogers Auditorium might at first glance seem a throwback to the old regime. But the works are presented in three concerts intended to show “Bartok’s debt to the human voice,” in Ms. Tomer’s words, variously including a work by the Hungarian composer Peter Eotvos and performances by David Longstreth, the founder of the rock band Dirty Projectors, and the innovative Czech vocalist, violinist and composer Iva Bittova.

The Met will also plunge into the world of chamber opera, and the artists in residence will be the new-music ensemble Alarm Will Sound.

Reunited Neutral Milk Hotel Announces Limited Tour Dates

Neutral Milk Hotel, the 1990s indie-rock band known for its experimental sound, obscure lyrics and cult following, is reuniting for the first time in over a decade for a series of shows next fall, the band announced on its Web site.

The band went into hibernation after releasing “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” in 1998 and finishing a tour to promote the album. For years, the band’s frontman, Jeff Mangum, was a recluse in the indie-rock world, but he resurfaced for some solo tours over the last two years. Now it appears he has reassembled the lineup of the band that emerged after 1996’s “On Avery Island”: Scott Spillane, Jeremy Barnes and Julian Koster.

The band says some of the proceeds from the concerts will go to Children of the Blue Sky, a charity that helps street children in Mongolia. So far the tour is very limited: The first two shows will be held in Athens, Ga., at the 40 Watt Club and a third will take place in the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville, N.C. Two more shows are planned in Taipei, Taiwan, and Tokyo in late November and early December.

An Evening with Salter, Ford — and Bascombe

Nancy Crampton James Salter, left, speaking with Richard Ford at the 92nd Street Y on Monday night.

The acclaimed novelists Richard Ford and James Salter shared the stage at the 92nd Street Y on Monday night, accompanied by a surprise guest â€"Frank Bascombe.

Mr. Ford appeared first, sending a charge through the crowd when he announced he would be reading from a new story starring Bascombe, which he started writing in January. He called the story “Falling Forward.”

Bascombe, often compared to John Updike’s Rabbit Angstrom, another American male searching his way through life over the course of several novels, has appeared in three books: “The Sportswriter,” “Independence Day” and “The Lay of the Land.”

In 2007, Mr. Ford told an interviewer, “This is the end of this particular movement in my life, to write about Frank and New Jersey. I’m not going to do that anymore.”

Last seen, Bascombe was 55 and the country was living in the turbulent wake of the Bush-Gore election. In the excerpt Mr. Ford presented on Monday night, Bascombe is 67, retired from the realty business, narrating his life in the weeks before Christmas and after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

Mr. Salter, 87 and in fighting shape, read an extended passage from “All That Is,” his first novel in nearly 35 years, and afterward sat with Mr. Ford to discuss their craft and answer a few questions from the audience. As they settled into their chairs in front of a large audience that had already given Mr. Salter two sustained ovations, Mr. Ford said, “So I guess the whole ‘writer’s writer’ thing is over now?”

“I hope so,” Mr. Salter replied.

Mr. Ford said that he regularly feels his novels are too long, and that the great American novels are on the short side, including Mr. Salter’s earlier works and books like “So Long, See You Tomorrow” by William Maxwell and “The Great Gatsby.”

“I am definitely miserly in trying to write a novel,” Mr. Salter said. “I don’t have an abundance of it. I’m trying to write longer, if you’re trying to write shorter.”

An Evening with Salter, Ford — and Bascombe

Nancy Crampton James Salter, left, speaking with Richard Ford at the 92nd Street Y on Monday night.

The acclaimed novelists Richard Ford and James Salter shared the stage at the 92nd Street Y on Monday night, accompanied by a surprise guest â€"Frank Bascombe.

Mr. Ford appeared first, sending a charge through the crowd when he announced he would be reading from a new story starring Bascombe, which he started writing in January. He called the story “Falling Forward.”

Bascombe, often compared to John Updike’s Rabbit Angstrom, another American male searching his way through life over the course of several novels, has appeared in three books: “The Sportswriter,” “Independence Day” and “The Lay of the Land.”

In 2007, Mr. Ford told an interviewer, “This is the end of this particular movement in my life, to write about Frank and New Jersey. I’m not going to do that anymore.”

Last seen, Bascombe was 55 and the country was living in the turbulent wake of the Bush-Gore election. In the excerpt Mr. Ford presented on Monday night, Bascombe is 67, retired from the realty business, narrating his life in the weeks before Christmas and after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

Mr. Salter, 87 and in fighting shape, read an extended passage from “All That Is,” his first novel in nearly 35 years, and afterward sat with Mr. Ford to discuss their craft and answer a few questions from the audience. As they settled into their chairs in front of a large audience that had already given Mr. Salter two sustained ovations, Mr. Ford said, “So I guess the whole ‘writer’s writer’ thing is over now?”

“I hope so,” Mr. Salter replied.

Mr. Ford said that he regularly feels his novels are too long, and that the great American novels are on the short side, including Mr. Salter’s earlier works and books like “So Long, See You Tomorrow” by William Maxwell and “The Great Gatsby.”

“I am definitely miserly in trying to write a novel,” Mr. Salter said. “I don’t have an abundance of it. I’m trying to write longer, if you’re trying to write shorter.”

Reunited Neutral Milk Hotel Announces Limited Tour Dates

Neutral Milk Hotel, the 1990s indie-rock band known for its experimental sound, obscure lyrics and cult following, is reuniting for the first time in over a decade for a series of shows next fall, the band announced on its Web site.

The band went into hibernation after releasing “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” in 1998 and finishing a tour to promote the album. For years, the band’s frontman, Jeff Mangum, was a recluse in the indie-rock world, but he resurfaced for some solo tours over the last two years. Now it appears he has reassembled the lineup of the band that emerged after 1996’s “On Avery Island”: Scott Spillane, Jeremy Barnes and Julian Koster.

The band says some of the proceeds from the concerts will go to Children of the Blue Sky, a charity that helps street children in Mongolia. So far the tour is very limited: The first two shows will be held in Athens, Ga., at the 40 Watt Club and a third will take place in the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville, N.C. Two more shows are planned in Taipei, Taiwan, and Tokyo in late November and early December.

How Are You Celebrating Queen Beatrix’s Abdication?

Jerry Lampen/Reuters Farewell, Queen Beatrix.

Subjects of the Dutch colony of Nieuw-Amsterdam, arise! After 33 years as your benevolent overseer, your queen has forsaken you.

Queen Beatrix is queen no more.

Maxima, the queen consort to the new king, Willem-Alexander, may take her spot as reigning female personage. But Beatrix shall not be replaced, not now, or ever.

And so we ask, City Room readers: what are you doing today to mark Beatrix’s exit from the throne?

How Are You Celebrating Queen Beatrix’s Abdication?

Jerry Lampen/Reuters Farewell, Queen Beatrix.

Subjects of the Dutch colony of Nieuw-Amsterdam, arise! After 33 years as your benevolent overseer, your queen has forsaken you.

Queen Beatrix is queen no more.

Maxima, the queen consort to the new king, Willem-Alexander, may take her spot as reigning female personage. But Beatrix shall not be replaced, not now, or ever.

And so we ask, City Room readers: what are you doing today to mark Beatrix’s exit from the throne?

How Are You Celebrating Queen Beatrix’s Abdication?

Jerry Lampen/Reuters Farewell, Queen Beatrix.

Subjects of the Dutch colony of Nieuw-Amsterdam, arise! After 33 years as your benevolent overseer, your queen has forsaken you.

Queen Beatrix is queen no more.

Maxima, the queen consort to the new king, Willem-Alexander, may take her spot as reigning female personage. But Beatrix shall not be replaced, not now, or ever.

And so we ask, City Room readers: what are you doing today to mark Beatrix’s exit from the throne?

How Are You Celebrating Queen Beatrix’s Abdication?

Jerry Lampen/Reuters Farewell, Queen Beatrix.

Subjects of the Dutch colony of Nieuw-Amsterdam, arise! After 33 years as your benevolent overseer, your queen has forsaken you.

Queen Beatrix is queen no more.

Maxima, the queen consort to the new king, Willem-Alexander, may take her spot as reigning female personage. But Beatrix shall not be replaced, not now, or ever.

And so we ask, City Room readers: what are you doing today to mark Beatrix’s exit from the throne?

Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival to Celebrate Kronos Quartet

As part of its 40th anniversary, the Kronos Quartet will present Kronos at 40, a five-day program that will include 28 free performances on Lincoln Center’s plazas during the opening week of this year’s Lincoln Center Out of Doors festival, which runs from July 24 through Aug. 11. The ensemble’s programs will include 11 premieres (including four newly commissioned works), and collaborations with dancers, pop musicians and indie classical performers. They are also the group’s first New York performances with its new cellist, Sunny Jungin Yang.

The Kronos series is unusual for Lincoln Center Out of Doors, a festival more typically given to unrelated (or loosely related) single-evening events. That format is largely preserved in the festival’s second and third weeks.

This year’s Out of Doors, the 43rd, will include more than 100 free performances, including a concert of traditional Greek music by Magda Giannikou (July 26); a tribute to Lead Belly by Dan Zanes and Friends (July 27); a new arrangement of the Pixies album “Surfer Rosa,” by the Asphalt Orchestra (July 28); dance performances by Kyle Abraham’s Abraham.In.Motion and The Living Word Project (Aug. 1); and concerts by Rubén Blades (Aug. 7); the Crickets (Buddy Holly’s band) and Nick Lowe (both Aug. 10); and Bobby Rush and Allen Toussaint (both Aug. 11).

Kronos at 40 begins with the world premiere of “Ritual Cycle,” a dance piece by Mark Dendy Dance & Theater Projects (July 24 and 25) and an Afrobeat and Afro-futurist program in which the Kronos will join a roster that includes Red Hot + Fela Live, Tony Allen, Superhuman Happiness and members of several indie-rock bands. Other Kronos performances include programs of works written or arranged for the ensemble by Omar Souleyman, Ram Narayan and Van-Anh Vanessa Vo (July 26); Bryce Dessner, Clint Mansell and Dan Deacon (July 28) among others; and collaborations with My Brightest Diamond and Emily Wells (July 25); and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus (July 27).

Routledge to Publish Porn Studies Journal

Pornography has made increasing non-clandestine appearances on college campuses, thanks to events like Sex Week, which has drawn criticism for spicing up educational offerings workshops with sex-toy raffles and lectures by porn stars. Soon, campus types will also be able ponder the mysteries of sexuality through a less obviously titillating medium: a full-fledged scholarly journal dedicated to porn.

Porn Studies, to be published by Routledge starting in 2014, is described as “the first dedicated, international, peer-reviewed journal to critically explore those cultural products and services designated as pornographic and their cultural, economic, historical, institutional, legal and social contexts,” with particular attention to “the intersection of sexuality, gender, race, class, age and ability.”

The journal, edited by two British academics, Feona Attwood and Clarissa Smith, has already inspired some hearty scholarly endorsements. “We have waited a long time for an academic journal that treats the subject of the representation of human sexuality with the seriousness it deserves,” Julie Peakman, a historian at the University of London and the author of “Mighty Lewd Books: The Development of Pornography in 18th-Century England,” said in a statement. “I look forward to a lively and disciplined debate across different disciplines.”

Cannes Adds Jim Jarmusch’s Vampire Film

“Only Lovers Left Alive,” a vampire film by Jim Jarmusch, has been added to the lineup in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, its organizers said.

Mr. Jarmusch, who won the festival’s Grand Prix in 2005 for his comedy drama “Broken Flowers,” wrote and directed “Only Lovers Left Alive,” which stars Tom Hiddleston (“The Avengers”) and Tilda Swinton (“We Need to Talk About Kevin”) as paramours who drift apart and reunite over the centuries. The cast also includes Mia Wasikowska, John Hurt and Anton Yelchin.

This year’s Cannes Film Festival will run from May 15 through 26 and will open with Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of “The Great Gatsby.” Other films on its competition slate include Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Inside Llewyn Davis,” Steven Soderbergh’s “Behind the Candelabra” and Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska.”

Cuomo Asks Con Ed To Freeze Bonuses for Top Executives

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo called on Tuesday for Consolidated Edison to freeze extra bonuses paid to senior executives for their response to Hurricane Sandy, other storms and a monthlong lockout of 8,000 workers last year.

The governor’s demand came five days after one of the company’s directors told The New York Times that the executives were given more than $600,000 for “exemplary” performance in handling several trying events. The company, New York City’s primary utility, said those events included the hurricane late last year that left hundreds of thousands of Con Edison customers without power for at least four days.

The governor appointed a panel, known as a Moreland Commission, to investigate how Con Edison and other utilities prepared for the hurricane and responded after it swept through the metropolitan region at the end of October.

On Monday, Mr. Cuomo sent a letter to Kevin Burke, the chairman and chief executive of Con Edison, stating that he would order utility regulators to look into the bonuses to ensure that they would not be charged to the company’s customers.

The governor followed up on Tuesday by announcing that he had asked Con Edison “to freeze the remaining executive bonuses until the Public Service Commission review is complete. I also urge Con Ed to fully cooperate with the Public Service Commission’s review so we can ensure ratepayers are protected.”

A spokesman for the company said that Mr. Burke had already agreed to return the extra bonus of $315,000 that the board of directors awarded him. That bonus had raised his total compensation for the year to $7.4 million, according to the company’s proxy statement.

The spokesman said on Tuesday that three other senior executives who had received extra bonuses would return theirs, too.

Craig Ivey, the company’s president, received an extra bonus of $146,100, raising his total compensation for the year to more than $3 million.
Robert Hoglund, the chief financial officer, got an extra bonus of $82,900 that took his total compensation to about $2.3 million. And Elizabeth D. Moore, the general counsel, got an extra bonus of $70,000 and total pay of more than $1.7 million.

The bonuses were awarded at the discretion of the board’s compensation committee. The committee’s chairman, George Campbell Jr., said in an interview with The Times last week that in the committee’s judgment, “the company performed in exemplary fashion.”

Cuomo Asks Con Ed To Freeze Bonuses for Top Executives

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo called on Tuesday for Consolidated Edison to freeze extra bonuses paid to senior executives for their response to Hurricane Sandy, other storms and a monthlong lockout of 8,000 workers last year.

The governor’s demand came five days after one of the company’s directors told The New York Times that the executives were given more than $600,000 for “exemplary” performance in handling several trying events. The company, New York City’s primary utility, said those events included the hurricane late last year that left hundreds of thousands of Con Edison customers without power for at least four days.

The governor appointed a panel, known as a Moreland Commission, to investigate how Con Edison and other utilities prepared for the hurricane and responded after it swept through the metropolitan region at the end of October.

On Monday, Mr. Cuomo sent a letter to Kevin Burke, the chairman and chief executive of Con Edison, stating that he would order utility regulators to look into the bonuses to ensure that they would not be charged to the company’s customers.

The governor followed up on Tuesday by announcing that he had asked Con Edison “to freeze the remaining executive bonuses until the Public Service Commission review is complete. I also urge Con Ed to fully cooperate with the Public Service Commission’s review so we can ensure ratepayers are protected.”

A spokesman for the company said that Mr. Burke had already agreed to return the extra bonus of $315,000 that the board of directors awarded him. That bonus had raised his total compensation for the year to $7.4 million, according to the company’s proxy statement.

The spokesman said on Tuesday that three other senior executives who had received extra bonuses would return theirs, too.

Craig Ivey, the company’s president, received an extra bonus of $146,100, raising his total compensation for the year to more than $3 million.
Robert Hoglund, the chief financial officer, got an extra bonus of $82,900 that took his total compensation to about $2.3 million. And Elizabeth D. Moore, the general counsel, got an extra bonus of $70,000 and total pay of more than $1.7 million.

The bonuses were awarded at the discretion of the board’s compensation committee. The committee’s chairman, George Campbell Jr., said in an interview with The Times last week that in the committee’s judgment, “the company performed in exemplary fashion.”

Opera America Program to Aid 13 American Companies

Thirteen opera companies across the United States will share $300,000 in grants awarded by Opera America in the first year of its new Building Opera Audiences program. The grants, which range from $7,500 to $30,000, are for programs meant to increase first-time opera attendance, and to increase return visits.

In particular, the organization sought projects that used technology and social media, offered special events in community theaters, or sought to engage listeners in discussions about perceived barriers to enjoying opera. The winning companies were selected from a pool of 67 companies that applied for the grants. The grants are underwritten by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.

The projects to be funded offer a variety of approaches to building an audience. Opera on the James, in Lynchburg, Va., will use its funding for “Get Real,” a project that includes a short mixed-genre opera (also called “Get Real”) as a way of introducing young urban listeners to the form, as well as excerpts from standard repertory operas in new orchestrations, with hip-hop rhythms, spoken word and video.

American Opera Projects, a Brooklyn company that focuses on contemporary works, will  create a mobile app called “Have a Voice,” which will allow the company’s audiences - and those of several other participating organizations - to offer feedback to creative artists, as well as opportunities for discounts and prizes (including tickets).

The Arizona Opera won its grant for a program meant to find opera fans in the Hispanic community, by way of school programs and a Spanish marketing program in Tucson and Phoenix. The Los Angeles Opera’s “Newcomer Project” offers preparatory materials and discounted tickets in the hope of demystifying the opera experience - something that the Florentine Opera Company, in Milwaukee, also plans to do through its Bohème Society, which will offer film screenings, backstage tours and receptions to new listeners.

The other companies that won grants are the Madison Opera, Opera Memphis, the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, the San Francisco Opera, the Sarasota Opera, the Seattle Opera, the Syracuse Opera and the Vancouver Opera. Opera America plans to monitor and evaluate the projects, and to share its findings with companies in the organization.

Netflix Prison Series Gets July Release Date

Though there was once a time when Netflix was most closely associated with its bright red DVD-return envelopes, the company â€" now better known as a video-streaming service â€" is hoping that orange will be its color this summer. On Tuesday, Netflix announced that it has scheduled its next original series, “Orange Is the New Black,” a comedy-drama set in a women’s prison, to have its premiere on July 11; and, as has become its custom, it will make all thirteen episodes of the series available for viewing at once.

Adapted from Piper Kerman’s memoir of the same title, “Orange Is the New Black” chronicles a Brooklyn woman (played by Taylor Schilling) whose relationship with a drug runner (Laura Prepon) gets her sentenced to a year in prison. The series, which also stars Jason Biggs, Kate Mulgrew, Natasha Lyonne and Pablo Schreiber, is created by Jenji Kohan, who previously mined laughs from law-breaking women as the creator of the Showtime comedy “Weeds.”

“Orange Is the New Black” will be the fourth original series that Netflix has introduced this year, following its hit political drama “House of Cards,” its suspense thriller “Hemlock Grove” and its new season of “Arrested Development,” which will have its debut on May 26.

Tony Award Nominations: Who Got Snubbed?

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Bette Midler as the agent Sue Mengers in “I’ll Eat You Last,” a one-woman show written by John Logan.

Tony voters might want to lay low today if they don’t want to get devoured by Bette Midler, whose unrecognized turn as the super-agent Sue Mengers in the one-woman show “I’ll Eat You Last” was perhaps the most glaring of snubs when the nominations were announced on Tuesday morning. Ms. Midler, an A-list star making her return to Broadway after an absence of some 40 years, was well-received for her performance as Ms. Mengers, a tough-as-nails Hollywood player, in “I’ll Eat You Last.” But neither she nor this original comedy, written by John Logan (a Tony Award-winner for “Red”), received a nomination. (Still, she’ll always have “Rochelle, Rochelle: the Musical.”)

A little further down the celebrity food chain, Fiona Shaw did not receive a nomination for her solo performance in Colm Toibin’s “Testament of Mary,” a monologue performed by the mother of Jesus, and Alan Cumming was similarly overlooked for his more-or-less one-man version of “Macbeth.” Alec Baldwin, the “30 Rock” star and sometime-nemesis of Shia LaBeouf, did not receive a Tony nomination for his performance in “Orphans,” though his co-star Tom Sturridge did. And a trio of Hollywood actresses who came to Broadway this season â€" Jessica Chastain in “The Heiress,” Scarlett Johansson in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and Katie Holmes in “Dead Accounts” â€" were all passed over, though none were expected to be cntenders.

Douglas Carter Beane’s “The Nance,” which drew a nomination for its leading actor, Nathan Lane, was nonetheless itself ignored in the best play category. And “Motown the Musical,” a huge hit, drew four nominations, but none of them were for best musical.

Meanwhile, “Bombshell,” Julia Houston and Tom Levitt’s new musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe, was entirely shut out, perhaps because it is completely fictitious and exists only on the NBC series “Smash,” and hence not eligible for real Tony Awards.

A Director Calls for Lights, Camera and Depression

Dear Diary:

On the “New York Street” of the Universal Studios back lot in Universal City, Calif., while filming the finale of ABC’s “Revenge,” the assistant director, Johnny Haddad, called out to his 130 background actors:

“People! You’re in New York! You’re on your phones! You’re walking fast! You’re unhappy!”

As a co-executive producer and co-writer of the episode, I was standing at the monitors and chuckled as I heard this.
Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via e-mail diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

Tony Awards 2013 Nominations Live Blog

How many of the Hollywood stars on Broadway this season - Tom Hanks, Bette Midler, Alec Baldwin, Jim Parsons, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Chastain among them - will be nominated on Tuesday for Tony Awards, the theater industry’s highest honor? Which of the most popular new musicals this spring - “Kinky Boots,” “Matilda,” and “Motown” - will rack up the most nominations? Will any performances from last fall’s flop shows be remembered, like Carolee Carmello in the musical “Scandalous”? And the biggest question of all: who will make the cut for best actress in a play, one of the most competitive races in recent memory?

The nominations for the 67th annual Tonys will be announced at 8:30 a.m., and we’ll be live-blogging throughout the morning with analysis of the picks, the snubs and their artistic and commercial importance. This year’s contests will include some nail-biters for best musical and best play, best actor and actress in a musical, and several other Tonys that 38 Broadway productions are eligible to win at the awards ceremony on June 9.

By far the hottest race will be for best actress in a play, with eight performers easily worthy of a nomination - but only five nominations available. Those eight powerhouse actresses, who are all acclaimed by theater critics, are Ms. Midler in “I’ll Eat You Last,” Jessica Hecht (“The Assembled Parties”), Laurie Metcalf (“The Other Place”), Amy Morton (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”), Kristine Nielsen (“Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike”), Fiona Shaw (“The Testament of Mary”), Holland Taylor (“Ann”) and Cicely Tyson (“The Trip to Bountiful”).

A case can be made for each actress, but some admirers of Ms. Nielsen, a veteran New York theater actress, are particularly adamant about a nomination given their dismay that the Tony Awards Administration Committee unilaterally ruled on Friday that she be eligible in the lead actress category. The producers of “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” had wanted Ms. Nielsen to be eligible for a best featured actress nomination - and she was seen as a likely winner in June. But a majority of committee members believed that Ms. Nielsen’s character amounted to a leading role.

As for the best musical Tony Award, “Matilda” and “Kinky Boots” are favorites to fill two of the four nominations; one recent flop, “Hands on a Hardbody,” which received some critical praise, has a shot at a third slot, and “Motown” - the best-selling new musical of the season - may round out the category.

The race for best play is fairly wide open; in the running for the four nominations are “The Nance” (by Tony nominee Douglas Carter Beane), “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” (Tony nominee Christopher Durang), “Lucky Guy” (Oscar nominee Nora Ephron), “The Assembled Parties” (Tony winner Richard Greenberg), and “I’ll Eat You Last” (Tony winner John Logan), among other works.

Will the race for best director of a musical come down to Matthew Warchus (“Matilda”), already a Tony winner, against Diane Paulus (“Pippin”), whose last two Broadway musicals won for best revival? Will the race for best actor in a musical be Bertie Carvel (“Matilda”) vs. Billy Porter (“Kinky Boots”), if both are nominated as expected, or will a third actor have a real chance?

Which Broadway shows were shut out? Who wuz robbed? Keep checking back here for ongoing updates and analysis starting at 8:30 a.m.

Tony Awards 2013 Nominations Live Blog

How many of the Hollywood stars on Broadway this season - Tom Hanks, Bette Midler, Alec Baldwin, Jim Parsons, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Chastain among them - will be nominated on Tuesday for Tony Awards, the theater industry’s highest honor? Which of the most popular new musicals this spring - “Kinky Boots,” “Matilda,” and “Motown” - will rack up the most nominations? Will any performances from last fall’s flop shows be remembered, like Carolee Carmello in the musical “Scandalous”? And the biggest question of all: who will make the cut for best actress in a play, one of the most competitive races in recent memory?

The nominations for the 67th annual Tonys will be announced at 8:30 a.m., and we’ll be live-blogging throughout the morning with analysis of the picks, the snubs and their artistic and commercial importance. This year’s contests will include some nail-biters for best musical and best play, best actor and actress in a musical, and several other Tonys that 38 Broadway productions are eligible to win at the awards ceremony on June 9.

By far the hottest race will be for best actress in a play, with eight performers easily worthy of a nomination - but only five nominations available. Those eight powerhouse actresses, who are all acclaimed by theater critics, are Ms. Midler in “I’ll Eat You Last,” Jessica Hecht (“The Assembled Parties”), Laurie Metcalf (“The Other Place”), Amy Morton (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”), Kristine Nielsen (“Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike”), Fiona Shaw (“The Testament of Mary”), Holland Taylor (“Ann”) and Cicely Tyson (“The Trip to Bountiful”).

A case can be made for each actress, but some admirers of Ms. Nielsen, a veteran New York theater actress, are particularly adamant about a nomination given their dismay that the Tony Awards Administration Committee unilaterally ruled on Friday that she be eligible in the lead actress category. The producers of “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” had wanted Ms. Nielsen to be eligible for a best featured actress nomination - and she was seen as a likely winner in June. But a majority of committee members believed that Ms. Nielsen’s character amounted to a leading role.

As for the best musical Tony Award, “Matilda” and “Kinky Boots” are favorites to fill two of the four nominations; one recent flop, “Hands on a Hardbody,” which received some critical praise, has a shot at a third slot, and “Motown” - the best-selling new musical of the season - may round out the category.

The race for best play is fairly wide open; in the running for the four nominations are “The Nance” (by Tony nominee Douglas Carter Beane), “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” (Tony nominee Christopher Durang), “Lucky Guy” (Oscar nominee Nora Ephron), “The Assembled Parties” (Tony winner Richard Greenberg), and “I’ll Eat You Last” (Tony winner John Logan), among other works.

Will the race for best director of a musical come down to Matthew Warchus (“Matilda”), already a Tony winner, against Diane Paulus (“Pippin”), whose last two Broadway musicals won for best revival? Will the race for best actor in a musical be Bertie Carvel (“Matilda”) vs. Billy Porter (“Kinky Boots”), if both are nominated as expected, or will a third actor have a real chance?

Which Broadway shows were shut out? Who wuz robbed? Keep checking back here for ongoing updates and analysis starting at 8:30 a.m.

Tony Awards 2013 Nominations Live Blog

How many of the Hollywood stars on Broadway this season - Tom Hanks, Bette Midler, Alec Baldwin, Jim Parsons, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Chastain among them - will be nominated on Tuesday for Tony Awards, the theater industry’s highest honor? Which of the most popular new musicals this spring - “Kinky Boots,” “Matilda,” and “Motown” - will rack up the most nominations? Will any performances from last fall’s flop shows be remembered, like Carolee Carmello in the musical “Scandalous”? And the biggest question of all: who will make the cut for best actress in a play, one of the most competitive races in recent memory?

The nominations for the 67th annual Tonys will be announced at 8:30 a.m., and we’ll be live-blogging throughout the morning with analysis of the picks, the snubs and their artistic and commercial importance. This year’s contests will include some nail-biters for best musical and best play, best actor and actress in a musical, and several other Tonys that 38 Broadway productions are eligible to win at the awards ceremony on June 9.

By far the hottest race will be for best actress in a play, with eight performers easily worthy of a nomination - but only five nominations available. Those eight powerhouse actresses, who are all acclaimed by theater critics, are Ms. Midler in “I’ll Eat You Last,” Jessica Hecht (“The Assembled Parties”), Laurie Metcalf (“The Other Place”), Amy Morton (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”), Kristine Nielsen (“Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike”), Fiona Shaw (“The Testament of Mary”), Holland Taylor (“Ann”) and Cicely Tyson (“The Trip to Bountiful”).

A case can be made for each actress, but some admirers of Ms. Nielsen, a veteran New York theater actress, are particularly adamant about a nomination given their dismay that the Tony Awards Administration Committee unilaterally ruled on Friday that she be eligible in the lead actress category. The producers of “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” had wanted Ms. Nielsen to be eligible for a best featured actress nomination - and she was seen as a likely winner in June. But a majority of committee members believed that Ms. Nielsen’s character amounted to a leading role.

As for the best musical Tony Award, “Matilda” and “Kinky Boots” are favorites to fill two of the four nominations; one recent flop, “Hands on a Hardbody,” which received some critical praise, has a shot at a third slot, and “Motown” - the best-selling new musical of the season - may round out the category.

The race for best play is fairly wide open; in the running for the four nominations are “The Nance” (by Tony nominee Douglas Carter Beane), “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” (Tony nominee Christopher Durang), “Lucky Guy” (Oscar nominee Nora Ephron), “The Assembled Parties” (Tony winner Richard Greenberg), and “I’ll Eat You Last” (Tony winner John Logan), among other works.

Will the race for best director of a musical come down to Matthew Warchus (“Matilda”), already a Tony winner, against Diane Paulus (“Pippin”), whose last two Broadway musicals won for best revival? Will the race for best actor in a musical be Bertie Carvel (“Matilda”) vs. Billy Porter (“Kinky Boots”), if both are nominated as expected, or will a third actor have a real chance?

Which Broadway shows were shut out? Who wuz robbed? Keep checking back here for ongoing updates and analysis starting at 8:30 a.m.