Scott Gimple is the new showrunner for "The Walking Dead," which starts production on its fourth season in May.
Gimple is the series' third showrunner, following Frank Darabont and, most recently, Glen Mazzara.
He's been a writer for the show since Season 2.
Despite the widespread devastation, Superstorm Sandy left at least one big winner in its wake.
A California trailer-park king turned swimsuit designer snapped up a posh 12th-floor pad in one of architect Richard Meier's celebrity-packed West Village glass towers — for $1 million below market price.
Brian Fitterer, who made a fortune in real estate before launching haute Kandy Wrapper Swimwear, forked over $5.5 million sight unseen for an 1,800-square-foot condo in the Sandy-battered building at 173 Perry St.
"I used Hurricane Sandy as a negotiating tool," Fitterer, 54, told The Post yesterday. "Because of the hurricane, the owner wanted out. He was losing rent. No one was buying in this market."
Rich Press
PERRY GOOD: Buyer gets million-dollar discount on Richard Meier apartment.
A similar apartment in Meier's Perry Street towers — which celebs like Calvin Klein, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman have called home — was listed pre-Sandy for $6.4 million.
Fitterer displaced Pablo Picasso's great-granddaughter, Diana, an art historian who was paying $25,000 a month in rent to owner David Yontef until she and the building's other residents were forced to evacuate.
"Diana Picasso had hundreds of Picasso books, memorabilia and art in the apartment. She wanted to buy the apartment, but my client signed the contract fast," says Sarah Williams of Douglas Elliman, Fitterer's broker.
Another offer came in that was $800,000 more, but it was also too late.
Fitterer's new digs offer sweeping views of the Hudson. Few units in the all-glass towers have curtains because of the spectacular vistas.
Williams blamed the quick, cut-rate sale on "the weirdness of Hurricane Sandy" that spooked the owner.
"Everyone was freaking out. It was like having a murder in your neighborhood. No one wants to come by," says Williams, who closed the deal with fellow broker Alissa Soto. "But then Hurricane Sandy went away. New Yorkers stopped freaking out. They have short memories."
Yontef originally wanted $6.2 million, Fitterer's brokers say, based on what Kidman got per square foot when she sold for $16 million in 2012.
Sandy hammered the Perry St. towers, flooding the basements and knocking out power to the buildings.
Klein — who reportedly spent $20 million for a 16,000-square-foot penthouse — sought refuge at the Mercer Hotel in SoHo before moving back a few weeks ago.
The gym was destroyed, as was celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's restaurant, Perry Street.
By December, the city had granted permission for residents to move back, and Vongerichten's restaurant reopened last Wednesday.
jennifer.keil@nypost.com
What could be finer than a spring painted in the colors of Renoir? Lincoln Center's annual "Rendez-Vous with French Cinema" fortnight kicks off tonight and goes on to celebrate Renoir père et fils. In the superb drama "Renoir," showing this weekend, the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Michel Bouquet) is in the winter of his life and having a prickly time with his son Jean (Vincent Rottiers) when the youth returns home from WWI with a bad leg — yet vows, stupidly in the old man's view, to return to the front as soon as he is able.
Jean would survive the war and go on to direct such films as "Boudu Saved From Drowning," "The River" and "The Rules of the Game," all of which will be shown as part of the Rendez-Vous at the Walter Reade Theater, BAM and the IFC Center in Greenwich Village.
A nude model (Christa Theret, above) for the painter Renoir strikes up a flirtation with his son in the powerful drama, "Renoir."
In "Populaire," debuting tonight, the dashing Romain Duris teaches his secretary, Déborah François, to become a champion typist in the "Mad Men"-inflected romantic comedy.
Tonight the fest, which in recent years has given New Yorkers their first shot at such hits as "La Vie en Rose" and "The Intouchables," begins on a sweet note, with the breezy, candy-colored "Mad Men"-era rom-com "Populaire." It stars heartthrob Romain Duris as an insurance exec who coaches his shy secretary (Déborah François) to become a champion typist.
Among other highlights of the fest (check filmlinc.com for tickets), which runs through March 10:
* "The Suicide Shop" : Fans of "Little Shop of Horrors" and Tim Burton will delight in this morbidly droll 3-D animated musical about an "Addams Family"-style shop that sells everything you need to end your life.
* "Thérèse Desqueyroux": "Amélie" star Audrey Tautou turns off the charm as a frustrated variant of Madame Bovary plotting deadly revenge on her nasty husband (Gilles Lellouche) in the final drama by the late Claude Miller. The film is a remake of a 1962 version, starring "Amour" Oscar nominee Emmanuelle Riva, that will also be screened at the fest.
* "Journal de France": Don't miss this hauntingly impressionistic travelogue by Raymond Depardon about what he's witnessed in 50 years of documenting his country.
* "Granny's Funeral": Director Bruno Podalydès' light, quirky comedy stars his brother and co-writer Denis as an adulterous pharmacist (and would-be magician) trying to juggle a wife, a mistress and his grandmother's funeral arrangements.
* "Three Worlds": A trio of arrogant young jerks accidentally hit an immigrant and leave him gravely injured on the street in a dark drama that comments on class and morality in contemporary Paris.
* "In the House": Kristin Scott Thomas stars in a droll social satire about fiction versus reality from one of today's most acclaimed French directors, François Ozon ("Swimming Pool," "Potiche").
* "The Girl From Nowhere": An endlessly philosophizing retired mathematician (Jean-Claude Brisseau, also the writer-director) collides unexpectedly with reality when he finds himself arguing his points with a pretty girl (Virginie Legeay) he rescues from a beating outside his apartment.
* "A Lady in Paris": French cinema's living monument Jeanne Moreau ("Jules and Jim") plays a domineering grande dame who strikes up a curiously close relationship with her Estonian immigrant caregiver.
kyle.smith@nypost.com
THEATER REVIEW
THE WILD BRIDE
St. Ann's Warehouse, 29 Jay St., Brooklyn; 718-254-8779. Through March 17. Running time: 120 minutes, one intermission.
'The Wild Bride" is based on an ancient story later turned into a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, and it's grim indeed. Here we have the spectacle of a father cutting off his daughter's hands, a deer getting its eyes gouged out — it's a puppet, but still — and some comically mimed copulation.
All told, it's not for nothing that "The Wild Bride" is billed as "a tale for adults and brave children" (ages 8 and up). But thanks to the efforts of Kneehigh — the British theater company that also brought us a touching, multimedia "Brief Encounter" and a dazzling take on "The Red Shoes" — this inventive production is a bloody delight.
Richard Termine
Patrycja Kujawska, with Edward Scissorhands-style claws, falls into the lap of a Scottish prince (Stuart Goodwin) in Kneehigh's exhilarating adaptation of a Brothers Grimm tale.
The setting is an arid dust bowl, where an impoverished, hard-drinking father (Stuart Goodwin) lives with his young daughter (Audrey Brisson). One day he's visited by a fast-talking stranger (Andrew Durand) who offers to pay a handsome sum for everything in his backyard.
Thinking that it contains nothing but a barren apple tree, the father happily agrees.
Little does he know that the stranger is actually the devil — and that the deal includes his daughter who, unbeknownst to him, was playing in the yard.
"Did you have an inclination this was gonna happen?" the bereft father asks the audience.
Things grow worse when the devil realizes that he can't touch the young woman because of her purity. He coats her with mud, but her innocent tears wash her hands clean.
"I ain't got a woman problem, I got a hand problem," he declares, and orders the father to chop off the offending appendages.
The girl escapes the devil's clutches and becomes a wild creature (now played by Patrycja Kujawska) wandering in the woods. There she meets a jocular, kilt-wearing Scottish prince (Goodwin, again) who falls in love with her and outfits her with sharp metal hands, "Edward Scissorhands"-style.
But war soon intervenes, and thanks to the devil's machinations, the woman (now Etta Murfitt) winds up back in the woods, this time with a child in tow. Somehow, it all ends up happily.
There's as much singing and dancing as dialogue here, with several of the performers doubling as onstage musicians performing the largely original score by Stu Barker and Carl Grose. Director/adapter Emma Rice and choreographer/actress Murfitt move things along at an ebullient pace, and clever visual touches abound, such as the prince's mother portrayed as an oil painting with outreached hands.
The multitalented cast helps bring the elemental tale to stirring life. Kujawska plays a mean violin, while the women all dance terrifically. Goodwin is a hoot both as the father and the prince; Durand is devilishly charming as the demon who sings like a rock star; and the three actresses are wonderful at capturing each of the title character's different incarnations.
Never has such a dark tale seemed so enchanting. It's exhilarating enough to bring out the devil in everyone.
Call them the comeback kids: 56 Leonard and 5 Franklin Place (now known as just Franklin Place), two ground-up luxury condo developments in the same eastern TriBeCa micro-neighborhood, are being resurrected — again.
Between them, the buildings — both announced in 2008 and having gone through the opening of sales offices and the start of construction, only to have sales stall and money dry up — have been knocked down more times than a Whac-A-Mole. But like the mole, they always return. Meaning, it's time once again to call this swath of TriBeCa, surrounding Broadway south of Canal, the next big thing.
They're back: 56 Leonard and Franklin Place are ready to reclaim the spotlight and start fetching high prices in east TriBeCa.
TRI HARDER: On the northeastern edge of TriBeCa is the conversion of 50 Lispenard into six condos. The 1,750-square-foot penthouse, with 1,000 square feet of outdoor space, is $4 million.
And maybe this time it will actually happen. While rumblings of their returns have been around for more than a year, just last week 56 Leonard had its offering plan accepted, and the sales team is now meeting with buyers. The foundation of the building is finished, and construction is set to start this week. The team anticipates move-ins for 2015. At Franklin Place, construction has begun with an eye toward a late-spring 2014 completion. Meanwhile, its marketing team is preparing to start sales in May.
"I really think the neighborhood will happen — 2008 was an extraordinary time," says Richard Cantor, principal of Cantor-Pecorella, which is selling Franklin Place. "I don't think we've seen as bad a time; I remember back to 1974, where you saw values going down and projects being abandoned. Now we're in an up cycle, which began in 2012 — and if it's like others, it will last for two or three years, at least."
Though much, in terms of their earlier failures, can be blamed on the economy, there were other things working against these buildings, as well. Their location in TriBeCa's eastern edge, for one. Many people move to TriBeCa for its quiet cobblestone streets and water views, neither of which exist on the east side.
"Western TriBeCa has proximity to the waterfront," says Ryan Kaplan, executive vice president of development at Imperial Development Group, which, with Megalith Capital Group, plans to convert 6 Cortlandt Alley, also in the same eastern swath, into "around" six condo units.
"Northeast TriBeCa has been something of an overlooked area, especially when it comes to new development. You always think about that west-side stretch," says Douglas Elliman broker Fredrik Eklund, who is selling the condos at 50 Lispenard St. "What we're seeing now is this frenzy of activity in the northeast part."
If the sales at 93 Worth, a 92-unit condo conversion between Broadway and Church Street, are any indication, Eklund is right. According to Streeteasy.com, the 18-story building, originally built in 1924, has put 60 of its 92 units into contract since it went on sale 2 1/2 months ago.
"The velocity of deals has far exceeded our expectation," says Shaun Osher, founder of Core, which is marketing the building. The units, which range from studios to three-bedrooms, plus penthouses, are priced from about $1,300 to more than $2,000 per square foot.
"The reason that Worth Street was so well received is it's authentic product," Osher says. "TriBeCa is a neighborhood of history."
Which brings up another reason some people said 56 Leonard and Franklin Place had such a hard time getting off the ground. Designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning Herzog & de Meuron and starchitect Ben van Berkel, respectively, they both look quite different from their low-rise, turn-of-the-century surroundings. The plan for 56 Leonard was 60 stories and resembled a glass game of Jenga. And Franklin Place was slated for 20 stories and looked like it was sheathed in black rubber bands.
While 56 Leonard has retained its design, Franklin Place has been reconceived. It has a new name: "We felt that we wanted to emphasize the Franklin Place street, and there was too much confusion with the original building," Cantor says. "We needed a name change to give the building a new identity without straying too far from the location or the original building." And it comes with a new developer (El Ad) and a new design, too.
But it's 56 Leonard's modern design specifically that Douglas Elliman broker Frances Katzen says has two couples she's working with interested in the building.
"It's more view-centric," Katzen says. "It's cutting-edge. It's unlike most cookie-cutter buildings."
The units in 56 Leonard are priced to set records, ranging from $2,000 to more than $4,000 per square foot.
"TriBeCa has been such a prime hot spot in Manhattan, but northeastern TriBeCa is still a value play," Kaplan says. "For us, the building was an opportunistic buy because it was affordable, but by the time we're done, [units] in that area will be as much as anything else."
When Franklin Place comes on the market in May, it will be priced in the $1,600-per-square-foot range, with penthouses going for more than $2,000 per square foot, Cantor says.
This micro-neighborhood is seeing prices increase to the levels of the rest of TriBeCa. Eklund says that he expects to close on the 50 Lispenard penthouse in the near future, for more than $2,000 per square foot.
"We've raised the bar for northeast TriBeCa, pricing-wise," Eklund says.
WEDNESDAY
DONALD TRUMP, IVANKA TRUMP, GIADA DE LAURENTIIS - Today, 7 a.m., Ch. 4
DONALD TRUMP, TARAJI P. HENSON - LIVE! with Kelly and Michael, 9 a.m., Ch. 7
REGIS PHILBIN, JOY PHILBIN, GAYLE KING - Rachael Ray, 10 a.m., Ch. 7
DONALD TRUMP, DR. JEANINE DOWNIE - The Wendy Williams Show, 10 a.m., Ch. 5
LORI SILVERBUSH, KRISTI JACOBSON - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 10 a.m., (COM)
FRANCIS COLLINS - The Colbert Report, 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m., (COM)
KERI RUSSELL, MATTHEW RHYS, DR. SAM PARNIA - The View, 11 a.m., Ch. 7
KATHERINE HEIGL - The Chew, 1 p.m., Ch. 7
MARIE OSMOND - The Talk, 2 p.m., Ch. 2
PATRICIA CORNWELL - Katie, 3 p.m., Ch. 7
COLIN FARRELL, STEVE SPANGLER - The Ellen DeGeneres Show , 4 p.m., Ch. 4
R.J. CUTLER - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 11 p.m., (COM)
ELI ROTH, BRAD WOLLACK, MORGAN MURPHY - Chelsea Lately, 11 p.m., (E!)
JOHNNY GALECKI - Conan, 11 p.m., (TBS)
PAOLA ANTONELLI - The Colbert Report, 11:31 p.m., (COM)
TINA FEY, JESSE TYLER FERGUSON - Late Show with David Letterman, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 2
STANLEY TUCCI - Jimmy Kimmel Live, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 7
DAVID DUCHOVNY, J.B. SMOOVE - The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 4
CHRISTIAN SLATER, MIA WASIKOWSKA - Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, 12:36 a.m., Ch. 4
JIM JEFFRIES, NATHAN FIELDER - Last Call with Carson Daly, 1:36 a.m., Ch. 4
THURSDAY
MARK BURNETT, ROMA DOWNEY - Today, 7 a.m., Ch. 4
R.J. CUTLER - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m., (COM)
MAGGIE GRACE - Rachael Ray, 10 a.m., Ch. 7
PAOLA ANTONELLI - The Colbert Report, 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m., (COM)
MICHELLE OBAMA, SECRETARY OF EDUCATION ARNE DUNCAN, JILLIAN MICHAELS - The Dr. Oz Show, 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., Ch. 5
SUNNY HOSTIN, DERRICA WILSON, NATALIE WILSON - The View, 11 a.m., Ch. 7
LUKE WILSON, MARCUS SAMUELSSON - The Talk, 2 p.m., Ch. 2
ROYCE WHITE - Dr. Phil, 3 p.m., Ch. 2
ZACH BRAFF - The Ellen DeGeneres Show , 4 p.m., Ch. 4
JAMIE FOXX, CHANNING TATUM, ROBIN ROBERTS - Jimmy Kimmel Live, 10 p.m., Ch. 7
KATE MARA, BEN GLEIB, APRIL RICHARDSON - Chelsea Lately, 11 p.m., (E!)
RACHEL MADDOW - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 11 p.m., (COM)
JON FAVREAU - The Colbert Report, 11:31 p.m., (COM)
CHARLIE SHEEN, PHIL SIMMS - Late Show with David Letterman, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 2
JIM PARSONS, GAVIN NEWSOM - Jimmy Kimmel Live, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 7
STEVE CARELL, JOEY KING - The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 4
TINA FEY, BILL NIGHY - Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, 12:36 a.m., Ch. 4
DAVID DUCHOVNY - The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, 12:37 a.m., Ch. 2
Michael Starr
Blog: TVThis Saturday, Ch. 13 will air a special broadcast version of "Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?)," John Scheinfeld's 2006 documentary about the multi-talented singer/songwriter who died in 1994 at the age of 52.
Nilsson, who was very friendly with The Beatles, particularly Ringo Starr and John Lennon, has a TV tie-in of which many people aren't aware — he wrote and sang the theme song for "The Courtship of Eddie's Father," the gentle sitcom which aired on ABC from 1969-72 with stars Bill Bixby and Brandon Cruz. Nilsson also won two Grammys: one in 1969 for "Everybody's Talkin' " from the Oscar-winning movie "Midnight Cowboy" — one of the few songs he sang that he didn't write — and a 1972 Grammy for "Without You."
The late singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson is profiled this Saturday night on Ch. 13.
(One of the more famous Nilsson stories concerns the drunken night in 1973 that he and Lennon heckled Tom and Dick Smothers at the Troubador in LA —and were tossed out on their rumps.)
The Brooklyn-born Nilsson eventually fell prey to his inner demons (excessive alcohol and drug use) — but, sadly, had cleaned up his act when he suffered his fatal heart attack.
"Who Is Harry Nilsson" will air Saturday at 10:30 p.m. on Ch. 13 — almost exactly 40 years to the day that Nilsson won his Grammy (Best Male Pop Vocal) for "Without You." It has a different ending than the 2006 theatrical version (which is also available on DVD) — more upbeat in tone, I'm told.
* * *
Last, but not least:
* Peter Capaldi, who recently starred as Randall Brown in Season 2 of BBC America's "The Hour," will star in the network's new drama series, "The Musketeers," which premieres next year . . . PowerWomenTV, which is all-about content for women, launches in New York City cabs this Friday. It's the brainchild of Amy Palmer . . . Children's recording artist Laurie Berkner's new series, "Sing It, Laurie!" premieres March 25 on Sprout. It's co-created by Josh Selig (Little Airplane Productions) and marks a move into more original programming for the pre-school network . . . Last Saturday night's "48 Hours" topped the night in viewers (5.2 million) in recounting the story of a man serving a 40-year prison sentence — even though his accuser and an eyewitness have since recanted their stories . . . Monday night's episode of"Switched at Birth" (ABC Family) was cable's top scripted series in women 18-34, 18-49 and 12-34.
At least they're mostly recognizable names this time around.
ABC unveiled the new cast of "Dancing With the Stars" yesterday, confirming all the rumored names and adding a few more to the eclectic mix.
Baltimore Ravens star Jacoby Jones, who was announced during Sunday night's Oscarcast, will be joined by Wynonna Judd, Kellie Pickler, Aly Raisman, Andy Dick and Lisa Vanderpump — whose names were all leaked ahead of time.
They'll be joined by pro boxer Victor Ortiz, former Olympic ice-skater Dorothy Hamill, comedian DL Hughley, "General Hospital" star Ingo Rademacher and 16-year-old Disney Channel star Zendaya Coleman ("Shake It Up").
As expected, controversial professional dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy won't be back. He was replaced by newcomer Gleb Savchenko.
Also making her "DWTS" debut is dancer Sharna Burgess — who's got the thankless task of teaching the mercurial Dick.
The show's 16th season kicks off March 18 with a two-hour premiere.
'Downton Abbey" is about to get integrated.
The British drawing-room series, which airs on ITV and PBS, will feature its first black character next season — as part of a storyline about race relations, according to The Sun in London.
The character, Jack Ross, will be a jazz singer.
In casting notes sent to actors' agents recently, the character is described as "Male, 25-30. A musician (singer) at an exclusive club in the '20s," according to the report.
"He's black and very handsome. A real man (not a boy) with charm and charisma."
The actor who wins the role needs to "ideally be able to sing brilliantly . . . Overall he should be a very attractive man with a certain wow factor."
SOUL: Downton swings
The fourth season of "Downton Abbey" begins filming next month and is expected to air in the fall in Britain before premiering early next year on PBS here.
According to The Sun, there will be several other new characters next season, including a love interest for Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery) named Lord Anthony Gillingham — who's described as "dashing" and "good looking, very charismatic" and between 35 and 45 years old.
"Downton Abbey" is PBS's biggest series since "The Civil War."
Linda Stasi
Call it civil unrest.
Loudmouths with full mouths screaming in restaurants. F-bombs tossed around in front of little kids. Cellphone addicts yelling on public transportation. The obesity epidemic. The rise of falling pants. The end of face-to-face conversation. The death of the slow seduction. The celebration of ignorance over education. Slobs in style. Immediate gratification as a necessity. No shame.
Have you noticed that the less civil we become, the more we gravitate to shows that epitomize, glamorize and celebrate civility, manners, codes of conduct and style over, well, everything?
AP
PUL-EEZE: Shows like "Mad Men" and the newly started "Parade's End" have something we lost.
I'm talking about"Downton Abbey," "Mad Men," and the newest kid on the block, "Parade's End."
Do we secretly long to return to a world in which, (glamorized and fictionalized as it is), people got dressed for work, sporting events, plane trips and even to walk in the woods?
Do we all really want to go back to a time when we understood what the rules were?
Hell no. Failing the permanent collapse of the power grid, we really don't want to go back to living upright — as opposed to living hunched over our computers.
But there's no doubt, that on TV at least, the way we were was so much nicer than the way we ar e.
That said, each of these shows is also about how we got to where we are now — because each takes place on the ledge of seismic changes.
On "Downton Abbey," the Crawley family is trying to preserve their terribly civilized way of life in the face of world war and its immediate aftermath. Dressing up — even for each other — is not just about fabric, it's about the fabric of society.
Luckily the Crawleys don't know that, someday people in sweatpants and wife beaters will be buying candy in their grand salon.
"Parade's End," the fantastic new series on HBO starring Rebecca Hall and Benedict Cumberbatch — adapted from the Ford Madox Ford novels — is, like "Downton," also about Edwardian-era upper-crusters for whom the appearance of civility is all.
In this case, however, Christopher (Cumberbatch) endures the public (but unspoken) promiscuity of his wife and sacrifices his own happiness to preserve civility. It's that important to him.
Meantime, his wife, the uncivilized-but-civil fashion plate Sylvia (Hall), benefitting from the women's suffrage movement, embraces the new ways — not to mention every man she meets in wild sex romps. Speaking of wild sex romps and good clothes, fast-forward to the swinging pre-hippie 1960s of "Mad Men."
Again, we are brought to the edge war — in this case, Vietnam.
The men of "Mad Men," like "Parade's" males, mistake the tide of social change — in this case, the civil rights and women's movements — for a passing inconvenience.
For a few hours a week, we pretend we don't know that, under all the good manners, lives brutality and fraud. But — damn! — those beautiful veneers make it all look so much more, well, civilized back then.
Mayoral candidate George McDonald scored a small win in court yesterday: For the time being, he can collect campaign donations that are legal under state law but exceed the $4,950-per-donor limit imposed by the city.
That's great news for New Yorkers who are fed up with the city's current class of politicians. For this case is about more than money in politics: It's about laws that favor the established political class at the expense of credible challengers.
Because McDonald has opted out of the city's matching-funds program, he argues he should be governed by the state's finance laws. These laws allow campaign donations of up to $19,700 in the primaries and $41,100 in general elections.
George McDonald
Without access to these donations, McDonald simply can't compete. An advocate for the homeless, he doesn't have the money to self-finance. He isn't bankrolled by a union, and, unlike lifelong politicians, he has no donor base built up by years of dishing out political favors.
It's telling that a brief filed in court against McDonald came from state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who obviously has no personal objection to big donations. In his most recent six-month filing, we found more than 60 contributions that would exceed the city limits.
Indeed, Schneiderman has amassed a $2.8 million war chest, which suggests that his agenda here has little to do with keeping money out of New York elections.
Like so many others who want to extend the city's narrower campaign-donation limits to the state, Schneiderman knows that it's a good way of keeping first-time candidates like McDonald out of the running — and keeping entrenched pols in power.
As McDonald told The Post: "I'm planning on financing my campaign exactly as the attorney general does now. It hasn't seemed to invite corruption as far as he's concerned. It certainly won't for me."
We agree. Shouldn't McDonald be allowed to run his campaign under the same rules as Schneiderman?
Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!
The sequester is coming! The sequester is coming!
With the same breathless urgency that Paul Revere warned about the approach of British troops, President Obama has been warning about the horrors that will be inflicted by the Redcoats — er, Republicans — if they allow a sequester.
Leave aside that the sequester was an idea Obama himself proposed and then signed into law. Now that its discipline may be turned on him, he's clearly directed every member of his Cabinet to get back to him with a worst-case scenario if the automatic cuts go through. The result is a lurid stream of charts, figures and statistics feeding scare headlines all over America.
AP
Barack Obama
In this battle, all the usual suspects have been drafted into service. The Obama administration is painting images of long waits at airports, borders un-patrolled, children unfed, emergency responders let go and criminals set free.
Similar spectacles are being outlined for each state. Thus, Obama says a sequester means New York children will not get needed vaccinations, New York seniors will go without meals, New York teachers will lose their jobs and New York civilian defense workers will be furloughed.
Into this scare show we point to just two figures: For all the president's talk about the sequester's "deep" cuts, they add up to just 2.4 cents for every dollar in the annual federal budget. For New York, they work out to less than a tenth of a penny for every dollar of state and local spending.
Tells you all you need to know about Washington and Albany's idea of "drastic" spending cuts, doesn't it?
Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!
With the 2013 mayoral race quickly turning into a test of which candidate can outpander the competition, it's news when one stands up for principle.
That's just what City Council Speaker Chris Quinn did last weekend, when she refused to back down from her support for an East Side waste-transfer station.
The speaker and four other Democratic wannabes faced a crowd of locals hoping to block plans for the facility based on typical Not in My Back Yard concerns. Not one of the other candidates had the spine to back the station. Instead, they resorted to weasel words, half-promises and even sympathy for the residents' position.
AP
Christine Quinn
Quinn, by contrast, gave the crowd its medicine straight: "I am not changing my position" on the transfer station, she said flatly — reiterating her support amid a chorus of boos and vows not to vote for her.
Quinn argued, correctly, that the station is key to the city's five-borough plan to cut truck traffic by making greater use of waterways, and to distribute more fairly the "burden" of sanitation facilities. Historically these facilities have been placed in "low-income neighborhoods of color."
Nor is she backing what residents think will be a smelly eyesore in someone else's neighborhood instead of her own: Quinn sought a similar station on the Gansevoort Pier in her district.
As we've said before, the city's plan for a major overhaul of its sanitation process involves a tricky balancing act, requiring equal sacrifices from each borough.
Quinn understands that, too. Good for her for having the guts to speak the truth while standing in the lion's den.
Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!
A man was shot dead in a Brownsville apartment building this afternoon, police said.
Cops responding to a 911 of a shooting at 204 Lott Ave. in Brooklyn found a 37-year-old man "unconscious and unresponsive with an apparent gunshot wound to the chest," police said.
The victim, identified as Omar Murray, was loudly quarreling with another man in a hallway when suddenly four shots rang out, sources said.
Murray's wife, who was in the apartment, called 911, sources said.
Murray was taken to Brookdale Hospital and pronounced dead on arrival.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan — who will travel to Rome to help choose a new pope — knows what he's looking for.
"You always look for somebody that reminds you of Jesus," Dolan said, explaining he'll weigh-in on Pope Benedict XVI's successor after the 85-year-old religious leader retires on Thursday.
"You look for somebody who just seems to radiate the love, the tenderness, the mercy, the truth of Jesus Christ," Dolan said.
To prepare for the big decision, Dolan said he has turned to the man upstairs for some guidance.
"You got to believe me — I'm doing a lot of praying. The more this passes, I'm reminded about the awesome responsibility," he said.
Getty Images
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, will have say in picking next pope.
Dolan will fly to Rome in two days and soon after he will meet with a conclave of cardinals in order to elect the man who will lead the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.
His trip comes after Benedict this morning promised thousands of followers he's not abandoning the church during his final Sunday blessing — amid allegations that a gay sex scandal triggered his resignation.
Benedict claimed he's leaving the position on Thursday because he's not mentally and physically strong enough to keep it.
"This doesn't mean I'm abandoning the church," he said to a cheering crowd of 100, 000 from his perch above St. Peter's Square in Vatican City.
"I can continue to serve [the church] with the same dedication and the same love which I have tried to do until now — but in a way more suitable to my age and to my strength," he said.
In New York, Dolan defended Benedict's choice to retire, calling him "brave" and discounting reports as "rumor."
"There's so many rumors, so many whispers, so much gossip. I would like to think that we should take the holy father at his word," Dolan said.
The pope's goodbye comes after an explosive report this week linking his resignation to a network of influential gay prelates, who may have been blackmailed by male prostitutes, according to Italian newspapers.
The Vatican on Saturday denied those claims, calling them "deplorable."
The death of a former New York Post employee whose body was found in her Cobble Hill apartment Friday is being investigated as suspicious, sources said.
Elizabeth Borst, 55, was found on her kitchen floor after her husband, Gaetano Lisco, called neighbors and asked them to check on the victim because he couldn't reach her.
Although Borst's death has not been ruled a homicide, the autopsy on her was inconclusive, and the victim had several unexplained injuries, sources said.
Borst suffered broken ribs, a broken wrist, a ruptured spleen and a gash to her head, sources said. Toxicology reports have not been completed.
The victim called cops on her husband for a domestic dispute March 4, 2010 but no one was injured, records show. He was grilled by detectives after she was found dead but released.
kconley@nypost.com
Evander Kane scored a breakaway goal in the second period, and Andrew Ladd added some insurance in the third to lift the Winnipeg Jets over the New Jersey Devils 4-2 on Sunday.
Zach Bogosian scored in the first period, and Grant Clitsome had a power-play goal in the second for the Jets, who have won three of the first four of a five-game trip that concludes Tuesday in New York against the Rangers. Ondrej Pavelec made 26 saves.
Travis Zajac and Steve Bernier had goals for New Jersey, but the Devils (10-5-4) lost their fourth in five games and their second at home this season. Johan Hedberg, a late-minute replacement for Martin Brodeur, stopped 23 shots.
Brodeur left the ice in pregame warmups because of "a little soreness," the Devils said.
WireImage
Actor Christoph Waltz accepts the best supporting actor award at the Oscars.
LOS ANGELES — Christoph Waltz really owes Quentin Tarantino. Waltz won his second supporting-actor Academy Award on Sunday for a Tarantino film, this time as a genteel bounty hunter in the slave-revenge saga "Django Unchained."
In a choked voice, Waltz offered thanks to his character and "to his creator and the creator of his awe-inspiring world, Quentin Tarantino."
Waltz also offered gracious thanks to his supporting-actor competitors, who included two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro and Oscar recipient Tommy Lee Jones, who had been considered a slim favorite over Waltz for the prize.
WireImage
Jennifer Lawrence
A veteran performer in Germany and his native Austria, Waltz had been a virtual unknown in Hollywood when Tarantino cast him as a gleefully evil Nazi in 2009's "Inglourious Basterds," which won him his first Oscar.
Waltz has since done a handful of other Hollywood movies, but it's Tarantino who has given him his two choicest roles. Backstage, Waltz had a simple explanation for why the collaboration works.
"Quentin writes poetry, and I like poetry," Waltz said.
The Scottish adventure "Brave," from Disney's Pixar Animation unit, was named best animated feature. Pixar films have won seven of the 12 Oscars since the category was added.
The story of an dauntless princess (voiced by Kelly Macdonald) who balks at her parents' attempts to marry her off, "Brave" won out over a strong field that included Disney's "Wreck-It Ralph" and "Frankenweenie."
"I just happen to be wearing the kilt," said "Brave" co-director Mark Andrews, who took the stage in his trademark Scottish garment.
Oscar host Seth MacFarlane opened with a mildly edgy monologue that offered the usual polite jabs at the academy, the stars and the industry. He took a poke at academy voters over the snub of Ben Affleck, who missed out on a directing nomination for best-picture favorite "Argo," a thriller about the CIA's plot to rescue six Americans during the Iranian hostage crisis.
"The story was so top secret that the film's director is unknown to the academy," MacFarlane said. "They know they screwed up. Ben, it's not your fault."
William Shatner made a guest appearance as his "Star Trek" character Capt. James Kirk, appearing on a giant screen above the stage during MacFarlane's monologue, saying he came back in time to stop the host from ruining the Oscars.
"Your jokes are tasteless and inappropriate, and everyone ends up hating you," said Shatner, who revealed a headline supposedly from the next day's newspaper that read, "Seth MacFarlane worst Oscar host ever."
The city's murder rate, which hit an all-time low last year, continues to plummet thanks to creative new police strategies that target youth gangs and spouse beaters.
The innovative tactics helped send the city's homicide numbers tumbling to a record-low 414 murders in 2012 and they're down another 33 percent so far this year, police said.
One novel approach involves charging teen gang members with conspiracy, using taunts and threats they post on social-media sites to build mafia-style cases against them.
These small crews of trigger-happy thugs are responsible for 30 percent of all the shootings in the city, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told The Post.
Paul Nartinka
Ray Kelly
"For the last couple years, we've seen the emergence of younger males committing crimes in small geographic areas — turf," he said.
"My idea, the Crew Cut concept, focuses on this directly, and we're addressing it with the gang unit, patrol and SNU [street narcotics units] in the precincts that need it most in each borough," he said.
The new units — dubbed SETs for Strategy Enforcement Teams — operate in eight precincts in all five boroughs.
Kelly also revealed he's doubling the gang division's strength, from 150 to 300 officers.
"In each initiative, the teams help us monitor social media and we gather information we can use on these groups."
"We think that it's working. We started in October, and it's paying dividends now."
The program scored a major success in Brownsville Brooklyn's 73rd Precinct, where commander Joseph Gulota had his SET team pore over tweets and Facebook posts from the area's known street gangs.
The information was handed off to prosecutors, who used the conspiracy rap to nail dozens of gangbangers in sweeps akin to the big Mafia takedowns.
"They were locking up 40 to 50 people at once," said one police supervisor.
Direct quotes from thugs provided a new way in.
"If you have a victim who is assaulted, they won't talk to police," said the source. "But when gang members threaten each other on Facebook, that's enough to get a conspiracy charge."
Cops also set up special units in each precinct to crack down on domestic-violence incidents, helping pre-empt murders by abusive husbands and boyfriends. "They revamped how they're going after these misdemeanors," an NYPD insider said. "Now you have a sergeant and four or five officers in domestic-violence units."
"A lot of that stuff fell through the cracks," said one NYPD insider, noting that overwhelmed detectives simply didn't have the time to round up every abusive spouse.
Kelly hailed the initiative. "Domestic violence is a key component to addressing violence and addressing murder."
He also credited stop-and-frisk, the real-time crime center, Compstat and new technologies for reducing the murder plunge.
Record low crime
The city's murder rate has dropped another 33 percent this year. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly credits two new efforts:
* The NYPD is charging gang members with conspiracy, using threats they make on social media such as Facebook.
* More officers are devoted to arrests for domestic violence, helping to prevent possible murders by abusive spouses.
brad.hamilton@nypost.com
The city's murder rate, which hit an all-time low last year, continues to plummet thanks to creative new police strategies that target youth gangs and spouse beaters.
The innovative tactics helped send the city's homicide numbers tumbling to a record-low 414 murders in 2012 and they're down another 33 percent so far this year, police said.
One novel approach involves charging teen gang members with conspiracy, using taunts and threats they post on social-media sites to build mafia-style cases against them.
These small crews of trigger-happy thugs are responsible for 30 percent of all the shootings in the city, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told The Post.
"For the last couple years, we've seen the emergence of younger males committing crimes in small geographic areas — turf," he said.
"My idea, the Crew Cut concept, focuses on this directly, and we're addressing it with the gang unit, patrol and SNU [street narcotics units] in the precincts that need it most in each borough," he said.
The new units — dubbed SETs for Strategy Enforcement Teams — operate in eight precincts in all five boroughs.
Kelly also revealed he's doubling the gang division's strength, from 150 to 300 officers.
"In each initiative, the teams help us monitor social media and we gather information we can use on these groups."
"We think that it's working. We started in October, and it's paying dividends now."
The program scored a major success in Brownsville Brooklyn's 73rd Precinct, where commander Joseph Gulota had his SET team pore over tweets and Facebook posts from the area's known street gangs.
The information was handed off to prosecutors, who used the conspiracy rap to nail dozens of gangbangers in sweeps akin to the big Mafia takedowns.
"They were locking up 40 to 50 people at once," said one police supervisor.
Direct quotes from thugs provided a new way in.
"If you have a victim who is assaulted, they won't talk to police," said the source. "But when gang members threaten each other on Facebook, that's enough to get a conspiracy charge."
Cops also set up special units in each precinct to crack down on domestic-violence incidents, helping pre-empt murders by abusive husbands and boyfriends. "They revamped how they're going after these misdemeanors," an NYPD insider said. "Now you have a sergeant and four or five officers in domestic-violence units."
"A lot of that stuff fell through the cracks," said one NYPD insider, noting that overwhelmed detectives simply didn't have the time to round up every abusive spouse.
Kelly hailed the initiative. "Domestic violence is a key component to addressing violence and addressing murder."
He also credited stop-and-frisk, the real-time crime center, Compstat and new technologies for reducing the murder plunge.
brad.hamilton@nypost.com
A wall at a subway station abutting the World Trade Center site suddenly collapsed into a pile of rubble yesterday.
Cinder blocks fell on Cortlandt Street's northbound R-train platform at 8:30 a.m., authorities said.
No injuries were reported, but subway service was slowed for nearly four hours.
MTA officials said they weren't sure why the wall collapsed, but a maintenance worker at the scene said wet weather was likely a factor.
"It's water damage," he said. "It's just old, and it's raining."
After workers placed plywood over the damaged wall as a temporary fix, an MTA official said the site is now "deemed safe."
William Farrington
LUCKY: No one was hurt after rain likely caused this Cortlandt Street wall to collapse yesterday.
A rattled Vatican lashed out at the Italian media yesterday for spreading "false and damaging" reports over allegations of gay sexual blackmail and corruption inside the Holy See, saying it was an attempt to influence the election of a new pope next month.
"It is deplorable that, as we draw closer to the time of the beginning of the conclave that there be a widespread distribution of often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories that cause serious damage to persons and institutions," a Vatican statement said.
The Vatican is trying to control damage from reports that outgoing Pope Benedict XVI decided to quit on Dec. 17, the day he read an internal report that said a network of influential gay prelates was being blackmailed by gay outsiders.
Couture Dogs of New York
by Paul Nathan and Nadine Rubin Nathan
Pelluceo
In New York City, even the dogs can't be seen looking like mutts.
"Couture Dogs," photographer Paul Nathan's new coffee-table book, captures bedazzled chihuahuas and Yorkshire terriers — the fashion plates of a special breed of dog owners who don't mind spending a small fortune on a four-pawed wardrobe.
"They are eccentric and colorful and into fashion," said Nathan, a New Zealander who lives with his wife and their baby in Williamsburg. Nathan, whose previous book was about Brooklyn hipsters and their tattoos, started off the project by shooting owners who look like their dogs on the street. That eventually lead to meeting people in the dog-couture culture.
Some of the doggie outfits cost as much as $5,000. But for owner Grace Forster, it's worth every penny to clothe her two beloved Yorkshire terriers, Portia, 7, and Rosie, 6.
"They're family. I won't call them my 'fur-children,' but I do call them my 'yorkie girls,' " she said.
Forster has a closet in her Gramercy Park apartment crammed with designer outfits worth thousands of dollars — because she doesn't like "the girls" to repeat looks on the town.
"You don't want to be seen in the same thing, just like we don't want to be seen in the same cocktail dress," Forster said.
"I always love dressing my dogs, and they never go out without something on. If they didn't like wearing the clothes, I wouldn't do it."
It's not unusual for her to splurge $1,000 to $2,000 a year on their one-of-a-kind couture costumes.
"Sometimes I will buy a dress and I will want the designer to coordinate an outfit for the girls and vice versa."
Forster and her two Yorkies have a very busy social calendar, attending animal-welfare charity events in the evening at least once a week and appearing on the reality TV show, "Doggie Moms."
"It's very much an integral part of my life," said the retired UN staffer. Last year, Forster, Portia and Rosie were guests at a $250,000 over-the-top, record-breaking "puptials" — a pet wedding held in July.
The pooches Baby Hope Diamond, a teacup-sized Coton de Tulear, and Chilly Pasternak, a tie-dyed poodle, were united in holy "muttrimony" in front of nearly 300 guests at the ritzy Essex House hotel across from Central Park.
Forster said she didn't mind that the $200 a ticket took a bite out of her pocket, because the money went to the Humane Society of New York.
Besides, they got their pictures taken. "It was worth it," she said.
REUTERS
Scrambled: The troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighter fleet, including this Marine Corps version, has been grounded after cracks were found in a plane's engine blade.
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Friday grounded its fleet of F-35 fighter jets after discovering a cracked engine blade in one plane.
The problem was discovered during what the Pentagon called a routine inspection at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., of an F-35A, the Air Force version of the sleek new plane. The Navy and the Marine Corps are buying other versions of the F-35, which is intended to replace older fighters like the Air Force F-16 and the Navy F/A-18.
All versions — a total of 51 planes — were grounded Friday pending a more in-depth evaluation of the problem discovered at Edwards. None of the planes have been fielded for combat operations; all are undergoing testing.
In a brief written statement, the Pentagon said it is too early to know the full impact of the newly discovered problem.
The F-35 is the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program at a total estimated cost of nearly $400 billion. The Pentagon envisions buying more than 2,400 F-35s, but some members of Congress are balking at the price tag.
Friday's suspension of flight operations will remain in effect until an investigation of the problem's root cause is determined.
The Pentagon said the engine in which the problem was discovered is being shipped to a Pratt & Whitney facility in Connecticut for more thorough evaluation.
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A Northern California woman convicted of planting a severed finger in a bowl of Wendy's chili has been arrested again after police say she made up another tale, this one about a shooting involving her son.
The San Jose Mercury reports that Anna Ayala, the so-called Chili Finger Lady, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of being an accessory to a felony and filing a false police report.
Authorities say she told officers that her son, Guadalupe Reyes, had been shot in the ankle by two unknown people and gave them a detailed description of the assailants. They say she later acknowledged that Reyes had shot himself.
The 26-year-old Reyes, a convicted felon, was not supposed to be in possession of a gun.
Both are scheduled to be arraigned Friday.
The kingpin in a massive ring that sold at least 13 illegal guns and stole scores of motorcycles off city streets is going to prison for at least 7 1/2 years.
Tiwane Paul, 31, had asked for less time, arguing through his lawyer that he'd had a tough childhood in his native Dominica.
But prosecutor Diana Florence countered that Paul "was a very, very smart and cunning person," and that hours of wiretaps demonstrated, "Mr. Paul was able to negotiate with people who were very difficult and, frankly, very scary."
Paul, who faces certain post-prison deportation back to his Caribbean homeland, ran his criminal enterprise with Selwyn Mills, 22, who has pleaded guilty and is serving a 5-to-9 year prison sentence.
Of the 33 people originally arrested in Paul's gang, one has been dismissed, 11 are awaiting trial, and the remainder have pleaded guilty.
The case made headlines last July, when prosecutors announced the cycle-snatchers had been caught in the act of reselling more than 50 high-end bikes, including a Dukati Monster and a Kawasaki Ninja.
The case was back in the news just two months later, when seven of the stolen bikes were re-stolen -- from an NYPD lot in the Bronx. The twice-stolen bikes have since been recovered.
St. John's is done playing nice with the NCAA.
Sources told The Post Friday the university has retained high-powered attorney Robert Orr on behalf of center Orlando Sanchez, who has been unable to gain eligibility clearance from the governing body of collegiate sports. Sanchez, a 6-foot-9 center from the Dominican Republic who is 24, has made several "financial hardship" appeals to the NCAA to no avail.
The Red Storm (16-10, 8-6 Big East) are on the cusp of a possible NCAA Tournament berth. The one glaring weakness on the team is the lack of a true post player. St. John's only has four regular-season games remaining plus the Big East Conference tournament and whatever postseason tournament extends an invitation.
A source told The Post the university opted to take this step because it expects to have Sanchez back for next season as well. Sanchez last played at Monroe College of New Rochelle with current St. John's guard Marc Antoine Bourgault, helping the team to the Division II Final Four. He played for the Dominican National Team, appearing in one game, which counts against one season of eligibility.
Frustrated by the NCAA's arbitrary rulings and tedious processes, St. John's brought in a hired gun. Orr, of North Carolina, is one of the nation's top attorneys in NCAA Eligibility matters. Earlier this season, he represented freshman Shabazz Muhammad of UCLA, who was initially denied clearance.
A call and text to Orr were not immediately returned. St. John's is poised to release documentation supporting Sanchez's case.
Whereas Shabazz's case concerned possible payments, Sanchez's case is a complex one that centers on financial hardship created by a fragmented parental arrangement. Sanchez was raised, at various times, by his mother, grandparents and an uncle in Spain. He was resigned to getting a carpenter's certificate and working in the Dominican Republic.
But when his basketball talents were noticed, he began a circuitous route to the United States. St. John's has been trying to prove even though Sanchez is 24, he should receive relief from the NCAA's age ruling that says a player loses one year of eligibility for every year over the age of 21. If St. John's and Sanchez can prove financial hardship, he can regain eligibility.
lenn.robbins@nypost.com
The Nets kept making runs in the second half last night. But every time they did, the Rockets had an answer.
More to the point, the Rockets had James Harden.
With the Nets' go-to-guy in the fourth, Joe Johnson, sitting out for the first time this season, it was Harden who officially put the Nets away when he hit a 3-pointer over Keith Bogans with 39 seconds left send the Rockets to a 106-96 win Friday night — the Nets' 10th straight loss to the Rockets at home.
After the Rockets had shot the lights out in the first half — hitting 58 percent of their shots from the field and 53 percent from 3-point range — to head into halftime with a 61-53 lead, the Nets kept battling back. But outside of briefly tying the game at 68 midway through the third quarter on a Brook Lopez layup, the Nets were never able to pull even after falling behind in the late stages of the first quarter. They remain one game behind the Knicks in the Atlantic Division.
Brook Lopez finished with 27 points and six rebounds to lead the Nets (33-23), while the Rockets (31-26) were led by Harden and Carlos Delfino, who scored five straight points late in the fourth after the Nets had cut a 15-point deficit to three at 97-94.
After the Nets have spent all season talking about the various things ailing Deron Williams, who had his third round of cortisone shots in his ailing ankles on Thursday, the other half of Brooklyn's Backcourt took a seat for the first time last night.
Johnson, who had been the only player to start every game, sat for the first time this season dealing with plantar fasciitis in his left foot. To combat Houston's speed, the Nets inserted backup point C.J. Watson into the starting lineup, and moved Williams to shooting guard to try and contend with Rockets scoring dynamo James Harden.
And for much of the game, it worked, as the Nets were able to largely keep Harden at bay, as the league's leader in getting to the foul line was largely kept off of it.
But after the Nets had managed to get themselves back into the game in the third quarter, Harden nearly put them away for good.
With Houston leading 77-75 after a Brook Lopez bucket with 1:23 remaining in the quarter, Harden knocked down 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions before hitting one of two free throws to end the quarter on a personal 7-0 run and put the Rockets up 84-75. The Rockets then opened the fourth with six straight points to push the lead to 15 at 90-75. The Nets were never able to draw level down the stretch.
tbontemps@nypost.com
DANCE REVIEW
MYTH AND TRANSFORMATION
Martha Graham Dance Company. The Joyce, 175 Eighth Ave.; 212-242-0800. Through March 3. Running time: 113 minutes, one intermission.
Modern dance legend Martha Graham was upstaged by her imitator Wednesday, when her company's opening program paired two riffs on Greek mythology. There was one by Graham and one by Richard Move, who made his name with an act channeling her — and of the two, it was the imposter who shined.
Graham's 1962 "Phaedra" — about the mythological queen's illicit passion for her stepson, Hippolytus — opens with a startling tableau: Blakeley White-McGuire lying on a slanted settee, clenching her stomach and lifting her leg up as if she were having sex.
The end of the dance is even blunter, and still a little shocking.
Paula Court
It isn't a stretch to say 19-year-old Lloyd Mayor, making his New York debut, is very impressive in "The Show (Achilles Heels)."
Slathered throughout are lust and beefcake. Hippolytus wears nothing but sparkly black briefs and low body fat. We first see him inside a cabinet with small doors that expose parts of his body like a magician's illusion — or cuts of meat.
Yet with so many people clutching knives or their bellies, there isn't much to move you.
But then there's the Move piece. Made in 2002 for Mikhail Baryshnikov, "The Show (Achilles Heels)" is an hourlong fantasy about the Trojan War hero, in which Achilles' heels are . . . shoes.
The dancing careens from ballet to vogueing, and there are so many cultural references — from 1940s movies to "Jeopardy" — they'll make your head spin.
In legend, Achilles was so beautiful that his mother hid him in a brothel. Nineteen-year-old Lloyd Mayor has the heroic task of taking on the role originally choreographed for Baryshnikov. He does astoundingly well — you'd never guess it was his New York debut. Whether posing like a muscleman or dancing in high heels, he has a magnetic star quality that busts gender lines.
The evocative recorded score is by Arto Lindsay and Blondie's Deborah Harry. There's a recorded narrative as well, with the dancers lip-syncing to the lines voiced by Baryshnikov and Harry.
There are also poignant notes amid the glitter, like the small windup birds, their wings slowly flapping, representing the characters' souls.
The myth's big theme — the choice between a long, undistinguished life or a short, glorious one — taps directly into drag's notions of beauty, stardom and death. Move makes that aesthetic universal, and does it so well that it can give you chills.
Leave it to the French to fixate on fashion to define the times. That's what the Impressionists did: As Paris became the center of haute couture, Monet, Manet, Degas and Co. painted the styles they saw around them as a way of capturing the pulse of "modern life" — the 1860s to 1880s.
So what better way to display their work now than alongside the frocks, fans and slippers that inspired them? Or, for that matter, to frame a swatch of peach-colored silk from the Marquise de Miramon's peignoir and hang it beside a James Tissot portrait of her?
And there you have some of the fun of "Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity." Opening Tuesday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it hails from Paris' Musée d'Orsay, where it reportedly broke both attendance records — and hearts — when it left.
Here, on loan from Paris, the Art Institute of Chicago and elsewhere are 80 paintings, many of which feature life-size figures in meticulously detailed clothing, along with the fashions that inspired them: 16 costumes in all, plus accessories, from such temples of haute couture as Maison Roger, along with their made-in-America copies. Even then, when Coco Chanel was in diapers, we were following France's fashion lead.
"Artists have always appreciated the power of fashion to flatter or describe character, to provoke or shock, but what's distinctive about the Impressionists' interest is in reflecting the look of the moment," says Met curator Susan Stein.
Decades before his first waterlily, Monet strove to capture every crease in the green-and-black striped satin skirt his mistress, the future Mrs. Monet, modeled in his breakout painting, "Camille." You hardly notice Camille's face, but you'll never forget that dress, or the fur jacket she wore with it. Green had just come into vogue then, Stein says — only recently had they perfected the dyeing process — and that painting became widely known as "the green dress."
There are eight galleries in all, arranged more or less thematically. An entire room is devoted to women in white, another to the black dress. Not the Little Black Dress — because there's nothing little about these formal and formidable, tightly corseted confections. Back then, black dye was expensive; only the wealthy could afford to wear it. Here, your eye goes to a vintage number that looks very much like the one in the Manet painting across the way.
The show is peppered with perceptive text blocks and sound bites: "Black is the queen of colors," Renoir declared, while Manet mused, "The satin corset may be the nude of our era." And yes, there are corsets here, too, along with satin slippers that could have waltzed in from the movie "Gigi" and a case full of men's hats, from a straw boater to a glossy top hat.
There are lots of the latter in Tissot's 1868 painting, "The Circle of the Rue Royale," depicting a dozen dandyish members of a men's club. Dead center in the foreground is a dalmatian: A vision in black-and-white, he's yet to go out of fashion.
MOVIE REVIEW
11 FLOWERS
In Mandarin, with English subtitles. Running time: 115 minutes. Not rated (violence, profanity). At the Quad and the Munroe Film Center.
Wang Han (Liu Wenqing), an 11-year-old boy in a small, poor village in southern China, leads an ordinary life of school, playmates and trying to placate a strict mother. It is 1975, the waning days of Mao's brutal Cultural Revolution, and the local students spend a chunk of the school day in activities meant to exalt their leader.
Still, the anxieties of grown-ups barely register with the boy, whose main problem in life is his desire for a new shirt — until the day a corpse washes up from the river. The man was murdered, and as Wang Han slowly pieces together why, he also gains the first bits of understanding about why his intellectual father is working in a factory, and why the adults are afraid even to sing old songs.
"11 Flowers" boils down to a coming-of-age tale merged with a why-dunit — not unlike "To Kill a Mockingbird" — but the plot is molasses-slow, as threads are dropped, picked up and dropped again. While the actors — especially Liu, and Yan Ni and Wang Jingchun as his parents — are wonderfully unforced and natural, there are a few drawn-out scenes that shade into torpor.
But the movie lingers in the mind, largely because director Wang Xiaoshuai's theme is poignant and classic: The more a child perceives of what the adults around him are doing, the more childhood slips away.
MOVIE REVIEW
ONE LIFE
Running time: 85 minutes. Rated PG (mildly disturbing animal violence). At the Empire, 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue.
Nature films don't come any more spectacular than the BBC's "One Life." Check out the sea lion cub that clings to his mama like a columnist to his bar stool. Behold the stone-cold killing machine the Venus' flytrap, his assassinations caught in super close-up, super slo-mo. Here's a colony of ants cutting down stalks of grass much larger than they and carrying them away in formation, like Birnam Wood come to Dunsinane in "Macbeth."
We're inured to seeing marvels on film, but they're almost always fake. This documentary is an excellent way to introduce your kids to the more mind-boggling wonderments of reality, and perhaps kindle an interest in science in general.
The natural world is the beguiling star of BBC doc "One Life," including this pair of macaque monkeys in Japan.
Portentously narrated by Daniel Craig ("We see so much of us in them, and them in us," he says, quite rightly), the film suffers slightly from awkward transitions between unrelated animals, and it's hardly an original concept. But the segments profiling fascinating creatures dwelling in rain forests, arctic tundras, African plains and the South Pacific are kept brief enough that your child's attention is unlikely to wander. Adults will have plenty to savor as well, chiefly the dazzling photography.
MOVIE REVIEW
INESCAPABLE
In English and Arabic, with English subtitles. Running time: 93 minutes. Not rated (violence, profanity). At the IFC Center, Sixth Avenue and Third Street.
The children of movie ex-spies never inherit any wiliness, do they? One hint of daddy's buried past and off they go, blundering into a police state like a puppy after a ball. Next thing you know, daddy has to saddle up for a rescue that will have him colliding with all the reasons he retired to a desk job in the first place.
Daddy is Adib (Alexander Siddig, "Syriana"), a former Syrian military intelligence officer living a cozy life in Toronto, until daughter Muna (Jay Anstey) decides that January 2011 is the perfect moment for a side trip to Damascus. Adib scurries back to his homeland and searches for his daughter with the help of old flame Fatima, played by Marisa Tomei (quite good, although her accent could be charitably described as overemphatic).
Alexander Siddig (right) glides through "Inescapable," with Joshua Jackson, which adds nothing new to the spy genre.
The plot unfolds at a nice clip, but at no point does director Ruba Nadda evade expectations. If the genre demands that a late-night return to a hotel room reveals someone sinister ensconced in the armchair, that is what will happen.
The chief appeal, in addition to a surprisingly persuasive Levantine atmosphere conjured on location in South Africa, is Siddig's performance. There are times in this darkly photographed movie where the sole light source seems to be Adib's faultless white shirts. Handsome, unflappable and possessed of a most beautiful speaking voice, the actor glides through his paces with aplomb. The next time Siddig plays a man of intrigue, let's hope he's chasing something more interesting than a clueless kid.
There's nothing small-bore about Boerum Hill townhouses.
In fact, they're getting prices that one would have never thought possible, with some reaching beyond the $4 million mark.
James Cornell and Leslie Marshall of the Corcoran Group just put three under-construction townhouses on the market, as part of a still-unfinished nine-townhouse collection on State Street.
They range in price from $3.5 million for 301A State St. (which Cornell and Marshall just signed a contract for on Friday) up to $4.3 million for 309 State St.
Less than four blocks away, Kim Soule and Lucy Perry, also of Corcoran, have a two-family townhouse at 165 Dean St. on the market for $4.2 million.
N.Y.Post: Anne Wermiel
This State Street townhouse went for $2.54M in 2007 and was resold by the Corcoran Group's Debra and Denise LaChance for $3.3M in December.
STATE AFFAIRS: This row of townhouses was sold in 2006 and did well enough that developer Abby Hamlin is building nine more State Street homes, which are just hitting the market.
Two blocks from the Dean Street house, Brooklyn Bridge Realty is listing a three-family, Federal-style townhouse at 128 Bergen St. for $3.5 million.
"The buyers are, for the most part, families with kids," Soule says of the neighborhood's townhouse market. "Many of them have gotten into a local private school — or want to move into a neighborhood with good public schools. They're following their kids; they want their kids to walk to St. Ann's or Packer and don't want to stick them on a subway every day."
That is certainly part of the draw. These townhouses are not only located within walking distance from Brooklyn's private-school nucleus, but they're big enough to accommodate a growing brood. The State Street townhouses range from 4,300 to 4,800 square feet; the 25-foot wide house at 165 Dean St. is a little over 4,000 square feet; 128 Bergen St. is a healthy 3,800 square feet.
Why such high prices? "There's so little on the market," Cornell says. "I count 17 active or signed contract listings in Boerum Hill." While not all of these are more than $3 million (the average is $2.34 million), there's little doubt that the lack of inventory has been driving up numbers.
And while nobody could deny the beauty of the Boerum Hill townhouse, the housing stock has never been as grand or coveted as that in Brooklyn Heights. The shops and restaurants were never as fashionable as those in Park Slope. Yes, the great traffic artery passing through the neighborhood — Atlantic Avenue — is home to a lot of cool antique stores but also to a 759-bed jail that reopened last year and accompanying bail-bonds offices and check-cashing places. And there is also a large public housing-project nearby.
But there's no denying that this part of Brooklyn is on the rise. "The Barclays Center helped," says Angela Ruggiero, an agent with Brooklyn Bridge Realty, which is selling 128 Bergen St. "I think buyers are looking for convenience, and the neighborhood has pretty much everything. You can stroll everywhere — Smith Street, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights."
"When I moved to [nearby] Carroll Gardens in the late '80s, you couldn't go out [on Smith Street] at night," Cornell says. "Now you can't find any parking."
Indeed, the social scene has certainly improved. But there have also been a number of game changers in the local real-estate scene that led to this spike in prices.
The one sale that is most often cited by Boerum Hill brokers was the one late last year of 247 Dean St.
"The price was driven up," Soule says. "It was originally $3.75 million — and it sold for $3.95 million."
This shook up the market for a lot of brokers. Especially since the townhouse was 21 feet wide — somewhat smaller than the 25-foot-wide structures that traditionally fetch a premium price.
Plus, there has been a flurry of condo activity in the neighborhood. At 362 Pacific St., a two-unit building, Cornell and Marshall recently sold the top triplex for a whopping $3.325 million. "That's an impressive number for a condo on Pacific Street between Hoyt and Bond streets," says Cornell. "That's a number you'd expect at Love Lane Mews [in Brooklyn Heights] or One Brooklyn Bridge Park on their best units."
Moreover, at 253 Pacific St., Cornell and Marshall have three condo units in contract for roughly $1,000 per square foot. (The three apartments were listed for $2.15 million to $2.6 million each — none went for under asking price.) It should be noted, this building overlooks the jail.
"That was a deterrent to some people," Cornell says.
"Others were like, 'What the heck — this is where I want to be.' "
The three townhouses that Cornell and Marshall have on the market on State Street are the second wave of new townhouses on that block that developer Abby Hamlin, of Hamlin Ventures, has put up. Back in 2006, Cornell and Marshall sold 14 similar townhouses in three months, starting at $2.5 million each.
Very respectable until you consider that the cheapest of the new townhouses are $1 million more.
Attention, shoppers: Young Carrie Bradshaw on Fifth Avenue — looking very happy to be back in the city again.
AnnaSophia Robb this week is filming a new episode of "The Carrie Diaries," dressed like it's 1986 all over again.
On the show, which features the pre-"Sex in the City" Carrie, Robb's character is already brooding about splitting her life between sleepy, suburban Connecticut (and the parents) and the exciting streets of NYC.
"George [her boyfriend] has only seen 'Manhattan Carrie,' " she tells a friend. "I don't want the 'Connecticut Carrie' to scare him."
Christopher Peterson/Splash News
MAKE WAY: AnnaSophia Robb filming 'Carrie Diaries."
An elusive New York doctor is refusing to answer a subpoena about the clean bill of health he gave Michael Jackson just months before the pop icon died, according to a suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Concert promoter AEG Live hired Dr. David Slavit to conduct a physical examination of the singer before his 2009 "This is It" series of performances in London for insurance purposes.
The pop icon's family is suing the concert promoter for pushing him to perform despite his failing health.
Based in Los Angeles, AEG claims that Slavit has repeatedly dodged giving a deposition about his suspect appraisal of Jackson's health and refused to release medical records since April of last year.
The company wants a judge to finally force the New York-based doctor to comply with the subpoena so that the wrongful death suit can proceed.
Phone calls to lawyers for AEG Live and Slavit weren't returned.
Sometimes the damage to a TV show, through bad creative decisions at the top, cannot be undone.
Consider the case of NBC's "Smash."
The behind-the-scenes Broadway musical drama was promoted last year with great fanfare and a break-the-bank party at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It had anA-list pedigree (Steven Spielberg, the producing team of Craig Zadan and Neil Meron), original music and a cast stocked with Broadway pros (Megan Hilty, Christian Borle), a movie star (Anjelica Huston) and one "American Idol" runner- up (Katharine McPhee).
The show premiered after "The Voice" with delightful ratings — 11.2 million viewers — that dwindled as viewers got bored with inane subplots that included a pregnancy scare for a middle-aged female character.
Will Hart/NBC
DOUBLE TROUBLE: "Smash" stars Megan Hilty (left) and Katharine McPhee are singing the blues on NBC.
How do you sing that?
The show's creator, playwright Theresa Rebeck, exited, stage left.
When "Smash" returned with a new executive producer, Joshua Safran — charged with retooling the show — hopes were high that the talent was there to sell it to the audience. But viewers never came back, and the message was clear: that a great opportunity to create the ultimate New York show was wasted. Without "The Voice" as a lead-in, ratings tumbled a staggering 71 percent from the season-one premiere and 39 percent below the season-one finale.
Now, "Smash" may not get a curtain call. This past Tuesday's episode saw further erosion — an additional 25 percent of viewers, a series low.
"Smash" is currently in production for three more weeks at studios in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and Long Island City, Queens.
The show is filming its 16th out of 17 episodes.
Insiders say that the network plans to air the remaining episodes.
Jennifer Gould Keil
Want to live like a Victoria's Secret supermodel? It's not as expensive as you might think.
Runway-strutting Angel Lindsay Ellingson, who's also modeled for Chanel and Dolce & Gabbana, has put her one-bedroom co-op on the market for $589,000. The 650-square-foot unit is in Gramercy Park Towers at 205 Third Ave. and comes with a renovated chef's kitchen and ample storage, perhaps for the Victoria's Secret perfumes and bras that Ellingson is the face of.
The full-service building has a landscaped roof deck, garden and gym. Listing brokers Eyal Amir and Rachel Alexander (a former model herself), of the new brokerage firm I & I Real Estate, declined to comment.
Getty Images for SWAROVSKI ELEME
Victoria's Secret Angel Lindsay Ellingson
The Aldyn residences
Ellingson — who studied biology at UC San Diego before she was discovered on the street — has, we hear, bought an 1,100-plus-square-foot duplex loft on West 19th Street for $1.67 million.
Saget full house
Lara Saget, the artist daughter of actor-comedian Bob Saget, is hosting an art installation today to celebrate the Chinese New Year at the Aldyn condo development on Riverside Boulevard (pictured). Saget will display her work — along with art by her friend Jing Chen, a Corcoran Group broker who has sold multiple units in the building to Chinese buyers — in a $13.9 million, 17th-floor corner duplex designed by Roman and Williams. The 6,000-square-foot, six-bedroom, 7 1/2-bathroom home, which comes with a terrace, features double-height ceilings and dramatic Hudson River views.
The Aldyn, which includes 40,000 square feet of amenities like an indoor pool, basketball/squash court, climbing wall and bowling alley, is where Knicks guard Jason Kidd paid more than $4 million for a four-bedroom.
Zoom with a view
Celebrity photographer Mike Ruiz, who's worked with Kim Kardashian, Kirsten Dunst and Nicki Minaj, his put his stylish condo on West 24th Street up for rent at $8,900 a month. "I'm moving to horse country in New Jersey. I'll be on 4 acres in a four-bedroom home with lots of space to possibly give my dog, Oliver, a sibling," Ruiz says.
The 1,127-square-foot two-bedroom unit he wants to rent out in the Chelsea Stratus features lots of B&B Italia furniture — including a suspended wall unit that hides the TV. The building features an indoor basketball court and a lounge. Brokers Ralph Modica and Vickey Barron of Core have the listing.
DeLooking
Celebrity chef-restaurateur John DeLucie, of the Lion, Crown and the new Bill's in the old Bill's Gay Nineties space, is on the prowl for a new home.
He recently checked out a four-story townhouse at 115 E. 35th St., which Nest Seekers International broker Ryan Serhant had on the market for $3.99 million before another buyer signed a contract for it.
While DeLucie wasn't able to snag that 3,664-square-foot, four-bedroom townhouse, it looks like he got some TV time out of his home search. Serhant is on Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing New York," and there were cameras present during DeLucie's visit — filming for an episode that's slated to air in May during the reality show's second season.
We hear . . .
That real estate photographer Evan Joseph is signing copies of his latest book, "New York Then And Now" at 183 E. 73rd St., a stunning $22.8 million townhouse listed by Douglas Elliman broker Corinne Pulitzer. The five-story townhouse, built in 1866 and renovated by William Lawrence Bottomley in 1922, features a garden and brick patios. Currently a multifamily home, it is in prime shape to be "easily converted" into a single-family mansion, according to the listing . . . That the broker stars of two rival reality shows, Michele Kleier and daughters Samantha Kleier-Forbes and Sabrina Kleier-Morgenstern of HGTV's "Selling New York" and Fredrik Eklund and Ryan Serhant of Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing New York" were well behaved in front of one another at an Eleven Madison Park shindig to launch Douglas Elliman brokers' Melanie Lazenby and Dina Lewis' new project, the Whitman. Douglas Elliman's Howard Lorber and Dottie Herman were also at the launch party for the new boutique building on East 26th Street, where full-floor condos start at $10 million and the penthouse duplex is $22.5 million. The landmarked 1924 building was originally the headquarters for a textile company, Clarence Whitman & Sons.
'The Swan" — once called "the most sadistic reality series of the decade" — is set to return as a two-hour special this summer with celebrities on the operating table.
The original show — which pulled in more than 15 million viewers for its 2005 premiere — offered extreme plastic surgeries to "ugly ducklings" who then competed against each other in a televised beauty pageant.
But the original contestants are not unanimous in wanting to see the show come back,
Ex-"Swan" Lorrie Arias now says she suffers from bipolar disorder, lupus, depression and has become a prisoner in her Southern California home since receiving a $300,000 cosmetic overhaul on the original series.
BACK UP: Fox plans a celeb version of "The Swan," an early reality hit, this summer.
"I am agoraphobic, on meds and unable to enjoy life," she tells The Post.
Other women say their lives are better for the experience — though eight years after the show, almost all the former Swans, it turns out, are divorced.
"Kelly [Becker] and I are probably the only ones that stuck with our mates," reports former contestant Kathy (Rickers) Weber, who expects to graduate from nursing school near Chicago this spring.
Arias, 42, blames much of her misfortune on lack of follow-up treatment from show therapists.
"I had the most surgeries of any Swan in the history of the show and it has all gone to absolute sh-t," the widowed mother of two says. "I am a 300-pound mess of a person who is afraid to go outside."
"Some of the girls have had problems with their surgeries, and I would have thought [the producers] would have helped a little more with that," says Season 1 winner Rachel Love. "But what can you expect from them?
"Reality shows aren't there to guide you for the rest of your life."
Love, who is now divorced, says she's heard some of the ex-Swans are unhappy now and calls several of the women from the show "crybabies."
Some ex-Swans had been planning to take their grievances to the media soon after the show ended, says former contestant Tawnya Cooke — who wrote a tell-all "The Swan Diaries: Dirt Behind The Scenes of Reality TV" about the show.
But ultimately they changed their minds, she says.
"You can't keep blaming some particular event for the rest of your life," she says.
"I don't know what happened to Lorrie. But for the rest of us, it was scary and the followup was sh-tty, but as far as making people freaky? I don't think so."
Fox has not given any details of what the new show will look like — or who will be on it — the second time around.
But among the names rumored for the cast are former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and reclusive "Happy Days" actress Erin Moran.
Reps for Fox and Arthur Smith & Co., which produces the show, declined to comment yesterday.
The press corps sure is a whiny bunch. This week the White House Correspondents Association expressed "extreme frustration" about President Obama's lack of "access" and "transparency."
Memo to the Fourth Estate: The president won't ignore you if you do your job instead of releasing statements.
Start with immigration reform: Over the weekend, the White House leaked a plan that seemed to undercut the delicate negotiations under way in Congress. Though the White House has since walked it back — even former Obama adviser David Axelrod calls it a "mistake" — the move suggests that Obama may be back to his old game of privately working to bring down a bill he publicly claims to support.
AP
Cecilia Munoz
That's what Sen. John McCain was alluding to on "Meet the Press" when he framed the issue this way: "Does the president really want a result or does he want another cudgel to beat up Republicans so he can gain advantage in the next election?" McCain should know. The last time Democrats and Republicans came together to pass a serious immigration bill was 2007 — and then-Sen. Obama helped kill it by supporting poison-pill amendments favored by Big Labor.
Here's the danger today: If Republicans working with their Democratic counterparts conclude Obama will pull the same stunt this time, they'll bolt.
Surely, this gap between Obama's words and his actions on immigration is at least as compelling a story as the dissension in GOP ranks. But Obama gets a pass.
One example is the recent AP profile on Cecilia Munoz, the White House point person on immigration. The story mentions a framed note from Sen. Ted Kennedy that hangs on her wall. Written after the 2007 bill went down, it reads, "We didn't complete the journey, but we'll get there."
Left unmentioned by AP is that one reason Kennedy didn't complete that journey is the double-dealing by Munoz's current boss, President Obama.
Alas, White House reporters have made clear they aren't interested in asking tough questions of this president. And they wonder why he doesn't take them seriously.
Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!
Even crusty Dowager Countess would be impressed.
The season finale of "Downton Abbey" scored big numbers for PBS last Sunday night, snaring 8.2 million viewers.
That was up 50 percent over the show's Season 2 finale (5.4 million viewers), which aired in February 2012.
The British drawing-room series — set in the 1920s and starring Dame Maggie Smith as snarky Dowager Countess — is the the biggest hit for PBS since Ken Burns' five-part documentary series, "The Civil War," which averaged 14 million viewers in 1990.
For the season, "Downton Abbey" was up 66 percent in viewers from Season 2.
WHAT A PUSS : Maggie Smith, Dowager Countess.
Last Sunday's Season 3 finale ended with the death of Matthew Crawley, played by Dan Stevens. He was the second major character killed off this season, following the death-in-childbirth of Lady Sybil Crawley (Jessica Brown Findlay).
The series, which airs on ITV in the UK, has begun production on Season 4 — which will move the action ahead six months, according to "Downton Abbey" creator Julian Fellowes. It's expected to air next fall on ITV, followed by an early 2014 premiere on PBS.
The Season 3 finale averaged 12 million viewers last fall on ITV — huge numbers for British TV.
