Zames is name of the game at JPMorgan

JPMorgan Chase, the biggest US bank, named Matt Zames sole chief operating officer as Frank Bisignano left to become chief executive officer of First Data Corp.

"Zames is expanding his role," JPMorgan Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said in an internal memo. Paul Compton, currently co-chief administrative officer of the corporate and investment bank, will become CAO of the company and report to Zames, according to the memo.

Bisignano's exit buttresses Zames' stature as a potential successor to Dimon, 57. Zames, 42, was promoted twice within the span of 100 days in 2012 as he helped Dimon regain control of a UK unit's wayward bets on credit derivatives that cost the bank more than $6.2 billion. Zames, who began last year as co-head of the fixed-income business, was named chief investment officer in May and co-COO in July.

Bisignano, 53, will begin his new job today, Chip Swearngan, a spokesman for Atlanta-based First Data, said in an e-mail. First Data, a unit of private-equity firm KKR, is the largest merchant acquirer in the US, helping retailers accept credit- and debit-card payments.

Technology and security were among Bisignano's responsibilities as co-COO, and he held executive roles within the payments industry earlier in his career.

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Not Dell to pay

Dell shareholders could still stand to profit even after Blackstone withdrew its bid to buy the PC maker, Barron's said yesterday. On Friday, Dell's stock closed at $13.35, below the $13.65-a-share proposed buyout from founder Michael Dell and Silver Lake.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click For Restrictions

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Chill factor

Most popular songs

1. Gentleman, PSY

2. Just Give Me a Reason, Pink

3. Can't Hold Us, Macklemore / Ryan Lewis

4. Mirrors, Justin Timberlake

5. Stay, Rihanna

6. Thrift Shop, Macklemore / Ryan Lewis

7. When I Was Your Man, Bruno Mars

8. Get Lucky, Daft Punk

9. I Love It, Icona Pop

10. Radioactive, Imagine Dragons

Tivo favorites

1. NCIS

2. 60 Minutes

3. The Good Wife

4. The Voice, Tues.

5. The Voice, Mon.

Top video downloads

1. Pokemon prom proposal

2. Michael Bublé sings in NYC subway

3. Almost died

4. Have you ever seen an atom?

5. Teddy has an operation

Source: YouTube

Google trends

1. NASCAR

2. NFL draft grades

3. White House correspondents dinner

4. UFC

5. Yvette Prieto

Searches that have increased significantly.

NY Post hot topics

1. Boston suspects' 'helpers'

2. Selena a Belieber again

3. Thumping Iron

4. Warhol's secret diaries

5. The 20 worst shows right now

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Required Reading

The Woman Upstairs

by Claire Messud (Knopf)

In the latest novel from Messud ("The Emperor's Children"), 40-something would-be artist Nora Eldridge has settled. Instead of following her dream, she's a third-grade teacher in Cambridge with no children and no husband. Enter the Shahid family, which moves in downstairs. Their young boy is in her class; the mother is an Italian artist; the father is an academic. As Nora and the family intertwine, she is happier with her life. But this is no happily-ever-after story.

Bunker Hill

A City, a Siege, a Revolution

by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking)

Boston is well acquainted with struggle. Now Philbrick, the best-selling author of "Mayflower" and "Why Read Moby-Dick?" details the June 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill — and events leading up to it, starting with the Tea Party 18 months before. Colonial Boston, the author explains, was a town of 15,000 residents living in just over a square mile. Nearly everyone knew patriot soldiers who fought in the bloody battle. And the author gives an on-the ground view of everyday Bostonians — who were both for and against the Revolution.

The Mouth That Roared

My Six Outspoken Decades in Baseball

by Dallas Green and Alan Maimon (Triumph Books)

Baseball lifer Dallas Green is one of four men who managed both the Yankees and the Mets — but is distinguished as the only one who failed to reach the World Series with at least one of the teams. And while his tales of battles with George Steinbrenner, and with Mets management, are certainly entertaining, it's tragedy that makes this more than a typical baseball book. Green's granddaughter, Christina-Taylor Green, was killed in the Arizona shooting that wounded Rep. Gabby Giffords. His telling of that is heartwrenching. They say there's no crying in baseball. Not true.

The Prince of Paradise

The True Story of a Hotel Heir, His Seductive Wife, and a Ruthless Murder

by John Glatt (St. Martin's Press)

Ben Novack Jr. grew up in the 1950s and '60s in Miami's fabled Fontainebleau Hotel — more specifically, the 16th-floor penthouse — befriending the likes of Sinatra, Elvis and Ann-Margret, who all performed there. His parents owned the place. But his life ended at another hotel: He was beaten to death at a Hilton in Westchester County. His ex-stripper wife, Narcy, and her brother were later convicted of his murder. Veteran crime scribe Glatt gives us all the atmosphere, characters and facts to make an engrossing thriller.

Someday, Someday, Maybe

by Lauren Graham (Ballantine Books)

On Lauren Graham's résumé, we see "Gilmore Girls," "Parenthood" and . . . novelist? Yep. The popular actress, a Barnard grad, writes, apparently, from her own experience: In January 1995, Franny Banks has six months left on her self-imposed deadline to become an actress. An ad for ugly sweaters and waiting tables do not count. Her roommates, pal Jane and would-be sci-fi wrtier Dan, support her, but she needs more to get a career like her idol Diane Keaton (who blurbs the book).

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It’s always the economy

John Crudele

DEAR JOHN...THE ANSWER MAN

Dear John: Explain the following conundrum: Unemployment remains at about 8 percent, with an underemployment rate that is significantly higher.

Despite this, CNBC touts the return of the housing market.

I have spoken with consulting engineers, title companies, realtors and real-estate attorneys, and they are not seeing much of a pickup.

The government owes more than it can ever repay. We are in the classic definition of bankruptcy (liabilities exceeding assets), yet the stock market is on an upward tear that makes the irrational exuberance of the 1990s seem like sleepwalking.

At least that irrational exuberance had the tech explosion going for it.

The Federal Reserve has printed more money in the last three years than in the [previous] history of mankind, yet inflation is far lower than where it should be. We are about to have a mass retirement of baby boomers, yet we don't hear of the unsustainability of Social Security and Medicare.

Are we just a bunch of drunk, medicated gamblers hellbent on self-destruction? Or is the economy about to roar? A.P.

Dear A.P. What you are experiencing, I think, is people's desire to be optimistic — whether or not that optimism is warranted.

Let's talk about CNBC and all the other financial channels first. These stations need to fill hours and hours of on-air time. And the only way to do that is to invite guests from the financial community.

The vast majority of those guests are Wall Street salespeople in one form or another. So if you listen to these channels, you are going to get an overwhelmingly positive view of things, whether or not that view can be justified. There is just enough negativism to cover the stations' behinds in case there is financial calamity. CNBC learned its lesson the last time when it was criticized for luring people into financial deathtraps.

The other reason for the seemingly misplaced optimism is this: History tells us that bad economic times don't last forever. So, the experts figure, if they keep predicting an upswing in the economy, they will eventually be right. With the Fed, as you mentioned, pumping as much money as it is, can the upturn be far off?

But it's been five years, and we are still looking for that end-of-the-tunnel light.

I think the economy is growing very moderately. And it's worrisome that this is the best it can do, given the amount of stimulus provided by the Fed and the huge amount of money being spent by Washington. (That's also known as the deficit.)

I think inflation isn't as contained as the official numbers would make you believe. And price increases are only this moderate because there is not much demand for goods and services in this economy. In other words, the bad economy is keeping prices down.

I believe the housing market has gotten a little bit of a boost from people who think an investment in real estate is as good as anything else right now. But if the economy ever does break out, I think all the people who've wanted to sell their houses over the past five years will quickly glut the market with properties. And banks that have been holding onto foreclosed properties will also be sticking For Sale signs on a lot of lawns.

This is all a very dangerous situation. I hope I'm wrong, but this is one of those "better to be safe than sorry" sorts of economies.

Send your questions to Dear John, The NY Post, 1211 Ave. of the Americas, NY, NY, 10036, or john.crudele@nypost.com.

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App allows you to keep current

Are you looking for a convenient way to display business data next to personal info like upcoming events, incoming e-mails, tweets and news articles?

You might want to check out Status Board, a $9.99 iPad app that lets you configure various panels to display information from your e-mail, calendar and other services along with customized data.

Status Board comes with six built-in panels, displaying the time, weather, events and information from your inbox, Twitter account and RSS feed.

You can also create your own tables and graphs on more personalized data.

For your inbox, Twitter account and RSS feed, you can either have Status Board display incoming messages, tweets or articles, or chart their volume. You can also select from which local calendar Status Board pulls information. You can tap on a panel to change its settings.

You can create a bar graph or table using an Excel spreadsheet and then manually add it to your Status Board.

You can display only one Status Board at once. Although the app's manufacturer hopes to soon be able to let users switch between boards within the app, for now you can e-mail various Status Boards to yourself or colleagues and clients with the iPad app.

hlewis@nypost.com

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Slip of the tongue

Cilantro is the world's most divisive (legal) herb.

While some consider it a divine accent to most dishes, others have described it as "soapy," even "poisonous." There's a Facebook page called "I Hate Cilantro — an Anti-Cilantro Community" that boasts 11,000 likes, and beloved chef Julia Child once remarked in an interview with Larry King that it has a "dead taste."

Why such an extreme reaction?

Researchers aren't so sure. Studies have identified genes that might influence our appreciation of cilantro, but it's still just might be a matter of taste — one example of a sense that continues to befuddle scientists.

"There is a field that studies taste, and a field that studies smell, but very few people study their interactions. Taste and smell are still less understood than the other sense systems," says Yale neuroscientist Dana Small.

Sight and hearing, which seem more complex, are reasonably understood — while our everyday reactions to the foods we ingest remains a conundrum.

But then mysteries are right up science writer Mary Roach's alley. Roach has taken on sex, death and the supernatural in her previous bestsellers (respectively "Bonk," "Stiff," and "Spook"), and now she's back with "Gulp," tackling the most taboo of subjects: our digestive systems.

Most of the book isn't for the weak of stomach. Does one really to know what happens to our food after we swallow it? (For those who do, pick up the book for its chapters on Elvis Presley's constipation). But unlocking the puzzle of flavor is a delicious mystery.

Our sense of taste acts as the body's "gatekeeper," deflecting food that may be toxic (rotten or poisonous) and inviting in nutrient-rich foods (salts, sugars and fats) that are key to survival.

There are also taste receptors located in the gut, voice box and pancreas — but only the tongue's receptors report to the brain, where taste is discerned. The rest are believed to trigger hormonal responses and defensive reactions, such as vomiting.

Sweetness, for one, is believed to be enjoyed by nearly all humans because the brain associates it with fuel. Conversely, bitterness is often (but not universally) disliked because it can be a signal of poison.

Taste is the result of our estimated 10,000 taste buds (and their receptors) recognizing food chemicals and translating them into categories: sweet, bitter, salty, sour and savory.

This likely brings forth flashbacks of kindergarten, when we were forced to remember the diagram of the tongue mapped out into distinct locations for each taste (sweet on the tip, bitter in the back, for examples). Forget it — the diagram has been debunked. Instead, the taste buds and their varying receptors are located all over the tongue. No one area is responsible for one taste.

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In my library Richard Kind

Richard Kind often plays men who resemble his surname — amiable if slightly neurotic guys like the ones in "Mad About You," "Spin City" and "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife." So it's shocking — shocking! — to see him browbeating Bobby Cannavale's character in Broadway's "The Big Knife." In this Roundabout revival of Clifford Odets' slashing Hollywood drama, Kind's Marcus Huff is a monster, a studio bigwig who cries crocodile tears but will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Has he modeled Huff on any movie honcho in particular? "Not really," says Kind, a father of three, including 8-year-old twins. "But I don't trust any CEO's. I think that to get where they got, there's gotta be something askew." Here's what's in his library.

Getty Images

American Pastoral

by Philip Roth

It's set in the '60s, about a golden boy. He loves his family, and everything was going right for him until his daughter becomes politically active. She takes it a step too far, and his life crumbles. I was astounded at how hard that book hit me. You can do your best by your family and still something terrible can happen.

The Winter of Frankie Machine

by Don Winslow

I read his book "Savages." This one's about a hitman who's retired or at least peripherally involved, but suddenly forced back in. If you liked "Goodfellas" — a movie that, if I come across it [on television], I can't turn off — you'll love it. Robert De Niro has the rights to it, and I wish to God he'd make the movie. Do I want to be in it? Of course!

The Black Echo

by Michael Connelly

This is the first in his series about a grizzled police detective named Hieronymous Bosch, otherwise known as Harry. Since I had children, I'd fall asleep reading but I can read Connelly on a treadmill! I get the large print on my Kindle or iPad and jog. His books are easy to read and hard to put down.

Six Years

by Harlan Coben

We met at a charity poker event. I love his books. This one's like "North by Northwest." It's about an innocent man who gets caught up in a secret world of intrigue, all because he was involved with a woman who disappeared. Harlan told me Hugh Jackman was going to do the movie and then told me not to tell anyone. Two days later, I read it in the paper!

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An infested government: Rangel won’t go away

The Issue: Politicians who choose not to resign after a scandal, and instead try to continue their career.

***

Rep. Charlie Rangel, has some gall to say he is going to sue Speaker of the House John Boehner over his 2010 censure ("Charlie Rangel's War," Editorial, April 24).

Why doesn't he take his medicine like a man, and just step down?

He's lucky he was only censured and didn't face expulsion.

Tommy DeJulio

New Rochelle

As a constituent of Rep. Rangel, I am proud of the job he is doing and hope he continues for many years to come.

The Post should give up on the years-long vendetta against Rangel.

David McGlynn

Charlie Rangel

The congressman's judgment did not result in thousands killed and maimed in the Iraq War, which was based on lies.

The Post should concentrate on those issues.

John Santoro

Manhattan

Rangel, who should have been sharing a cell with Wesley Snipes, has the nerve to sue several members of the House to reverse his "humiliating" censure?

I know what a hardship it must have been to have to look at Nancy Pelosi for 30 seconds while she "berated" him for violating House ethics rules by getting caught — I mean, cheating on his taxes.

The only people worse than Rangel are the idiots in his district who continue to vote this criminal into office.

Steve Becker

East Meadow

So the thieving Rangel wants to sue his fellow congressmen for censuring him instead of giving him his "due process."

If he wasn't given censure and was given due process, he would be where he should be: prison.

Instead, he got to buy another congressional term.

Anyone with any sense of shame would have slithered away quietly. In the land of Spitzers, Weiners and Rangels, shame doesn't exist.

The low-moral voters will keep these losers around forever because they're Democrats.

Patrick O'Shea

Scotia, Pa.

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We’re not to blame for terror

The Issue: Whether America has brought acts of terror upon itself, as UN official Richard Falk suggests.

***

America is never held in high regard in the Islamic world, or among the liberal elites like Richard Falk, no matter what geopolitical or military decisions we make ("Oh, Terrorists, We're So Sorry," Michael Goodwin, April 24).

If we liberate nations from brutal secular dictatorships, like in Iraq and Libya, or barbaric mullahs, like in Afghanistan, we are "occupying forces" enhancing the "American global-domination project," as Falk bellows.

If we do not intervene, such as in Syria, we are uncaring.

Considering that we are broke, I agree with Ron Paul's isolationism. Let the other nations in the Middle East and elsewhere chart their own course while we save our gold and the precious blood of our soldiers.Herb Eichen

Bayside

If the Boston bombers had been right-wing loons instead of Muslims, President Obama & Co. would have acted immediately on the warnings we'd received from Russia.

Instead, he refuses to acknowledge that the American homeland is under siege from Islamists.

Shame on him and us for allowing this situation to continue.

Gerald Jacobs

Staten Island

Obama has refused to cite Islam as a motive for the Boston Marathon bombings, despite all the evidence.

It should be obvious that this was a case of "marathon violence," similar to the "workplace violence" that occurred at Fort Hood.

David Klein

Glen Cove

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A kinder, gentler Jimmy

"Mr. President, I'm filled with admiration for you and deep gratitude for you about the great contributions you've made to the most needy people on earth." — Surprisingly generous comments about George W. Bush from Jimmy Carter, referring especially to the 43rd president's support for HIVsufferers in Africa, at yesterday's opening of the Bush presidential library

MCT /Landov

Jimmy Carter

Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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Up the garden path

The people who run Madison Square Garden own the land on which their arena sits. In any discussion about what to do with that land, this fact ought to be the starting point. Alas, today it is otherwise, which helps explain both the contentiousness surrounding the renewal of the Garden's special permit — and the larger challenges faced by those trying to do business in this city.

By law, any arena that seats more than 2,500 people needs a special permit. The Garden's original permit expired in January, and the city is now considering its request for a renewal.

Getty Images

Madison Square Garden

Since the Garden has been here for 45 years and the nature of its business — sports and entertainment — hasn't changed, you might think a permit renewal would be straightforward. Especially in a city that has a stake in showing a competitive business world that our rules are clear, reasonable and fairly applied.

The problem here is that other agendas are at work. Some dream of resurrecting the old Penn Station that was torn down, so they want the Garden to move. The legal problem these critics have is that they don't own the land, and anyway there's no place for the Garden to go (much less any real chance for the Penn Station they dream of to be built).

Though the city concedes that "virtually all special permits" are now given with no time limit, the Garden's foes are asking for this one to be limited to 10 years. In short, they want a permit which gives them time to oust the Garden from its own land.

We find it extraordinary that New York would entertain sending that signal to a private enterprise that employs thousands of workers, that is a cultural as well as a business icon, that pays millions in taxes, that brings millions of people to the city every year — and that has just invested $1 billion of its own money to overhaul the place.

Sure, we'd like to see a better Penn Station. But it's not the Garden's fault that the city and state have failed so spectacularly to move that ball.

Ditto for complaints about the Garden's tax breaks. True, the arena enjoys a property-tax break that was part of its deal back in the 1980s. But the Garden's breaks are relatively modest compared with the breaks and subsidies enjoyed by, say, the Barclays Center, Yankee Stadium or Citi Field.

If the city can come up with a viable plan for Penn Station it can fund and build, and if the state proposes to strip all sports and entertainment venues of their breaks and subsidies in favor of a cleaner, flatter tax code for all, we'll be first to bang the drums in support.

In the meantime, a New York claiming to be "open for business" ought to be doing all it can to discourage those who would transform a zoning-permit renewal for a private-property owner into a highly politicized field of dreams.

Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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Dressing down Jews

Is City Hall about to take action against the dress codes at Manhattan's top-flight restaurants?

Of course not. And that only underscores the hypocrisy that all too often animates this administration. Because the city is going after Hasidic-owned store-owners who ask their patrons to dress modestly.

The city's Commission on Human Rights has cited seven small stores in the Hasidic section of Williamsburg for discrimination. Their offense? Posting signs that read: "No Shorts, No Barefoot, No Sleeveless, No Low Cut Necklines Allowed in the Store." Which is no different than restaurants requiring men to wear a jacket and tie — or a pizzeria posting a sign reading "No shirt, no shoes, no service."

J.C. Rice

The dress code sign on a Lee Avenue pharmacy

The city disagrees, and is suing the shops. Cliff Mulqueen, the commission's general counsel, explained to The Jewish Week that while "dress codes are OK . . . telling someone they have to abide by certain rules of the Jewish faith crosses the line into [establishing] a protected class."

But again, that's not what the signs say. And the city hasn't found a single person refused service because of his attire.

Here's the operative distinction: Anyone turned away from these stores for his or her dress can change clothes and be admitted. Anyone denied service because of his or her race, religion or gender can't do that.

The commission took action after The Post first reported the signs last July. At the time, a top official of the city Law Department said the signs appeared to be OK.

The good news is that the case has now attracted the attention and support of a top law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, which is representing the shop-owners pro bono. Notably, the firm is citing important First Amendment religious-liberty issues.

The city would do us all a favor if it limited its authorities to fighting genuine discrimination under the law — not inventing it where it doesn't exist.

Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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Hunger Games

The New York City real estate market is famished.

"There was a scarcity of new development over the past five years," says Susan de Franca, president and CEO of Douglas Elliman Development Marketing. "And there is a voracious appetite for New York."

This has led many a developer in this city to set out a lavish spread for the well-heeled buyer.

"We've sold over $1 billion [of new construction] in the last 90 days," says Kelly Mack, president of Corcoran Sunshine. "In the coming year, luxury buildings are going to dominate the market — more than half the properties that will open are expected to ask over $2,000 per foot. Developers are pushing the upper limits of luxury even higher. If you look at deals over $8 million, year over year, they've tripled."

The Schumacher.

"Inventory levels are at or near the lowest levels I've ever tracked," says Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of appraisal firm Miller Samuel. And prices are up. "It's been happening for several years, but it really accelerated over the last six months."

The hesitancy of buying an apartment off floor plans is a thing of the past. The forthcoming 150 Charles St. has in three months put about 90 percent of its 91 units in contract, at about $3,000 per square foot. (Last we checked in, the building had done $560 million in sales.) Its developer, Steve Witkoff, has his sights set on his next project, 10 Madison Square West, a somewhat more modest endeavor (in terms of pricing), rumored to be about $2,400 to $2,500 per square foot.

Developers PMG and JDS are preparing to build a 700-foot-tall tower at the Steinway building on West 57th Street (only about a block from One57), with plans for a 200-room hotel below 45 condo units, slated to be ready by 2015. "The building may grow to 900 feet," says Kevin Maloney, principal of PMG, making it one of the tallest residential towers in the city.

Luxury developments are popping up all over town. From still-to-be-fully developed neighborhoods like Hudson Square, which is seeing the launch of Renwick Modern (with prices starting at $1.5 million and going up to $6.5 million, for 1,100- to 2,700-square-foot apartments) — to de Franca's new project, the Marquand on the Upper East Side (where the starting price for apartments is $15 million).

At 56 Leonard in TriBeCa, half the 145 units are in contract. At 93 Worth, a few blocks away, 70 percent of the 92 units are in contract. The 104-unit 250 West St., at the edge of TriBeCa, which has been on the market since 2011, has seen 18 price increases and there are only four units left.

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Constantine’s floor

Though there's a full bar cart in the living room of his Kips Bay apartment, Constantine Maroulis has been abstaining. "Seven months not a sip. I knew I was going to go on the road and get dehydrated. I wanted my voice to be the best it can be," says the actor/singer and "American Idol" finalist, who recently wrapped up a national tour of "Jekyll & Hyde."

Now Maroulis, 37, is playing the dual role on the Great White Way, where the musical will have a limited run at the Marquis Theatre through June 30. But the Brooklyn-born, New Jersey-raised performer is no stranger to the Broadway stage, having been nominated for a Tony Award for "Rock of Ages." In fact, it was after Maroulis got the lead role of struggling musician Drew in late 2009 that he moved into this 700-square-foot rental.

CON IS ON: Maroulis holds the guitar signed by Robby Krieger, whom he met after appearing on "American Idol"; his bedroom features gold wallpaper.

Tamara Beckwith

CON IS ON: Maroulis holds the guitar signed by Robby Krieger, whom he met after appearing on "American Idol"; his bedroom features gold wallpaper (above).

The walls are a muted cream with matching wall-to-wall carpeting; similarly colored drapes replaced doors on the closets and at the entrance to the small galley kitchen. This aesthetic — very sleek and cool — was created with the help of interior designer Dale Cohen.

"Sure, I'm a big fan of 'Mad Men,' but I've always been a fan of that era," Maroulis explains of his decor choices. "I love the whole Palm Springs look — Frank Sinatra and everything — but it really started with my father, who was born in 1931 and was a working-class man. Everything was always working class-type nice stuff. Whether it was a nice Chrysler or a well-made table. I think it started with that aesthetic with the metals, woods and those neutral, muted colors. Factory cool."

Cohen clued Maroulis in to 1stdibs.com, the antiques website, where the actor found a set of Art Deco club chairs from the 1930s. "They're kind of worn in now, but they were pretty much brand-new when I got them . . . Untouched by time," Maroulis marvels. They also serve a practical purpose for the 6-foot-3 performer: "You have to be really tall to sit back in them."

The chairs complement the mid-century-inspired couch from BoConcept. In the bedroom, there's a 1950s dresser made in Paramus, NJ, that was found for $300 on Craigslist (another $150 went into restoring it) and a multifunctional desk/dining table that's positioned to look out on the Chrysler Building.

From the living room, the bachelor enjoys eastern views: "The East River isn't the skyline people think of when they think of New York, but you have the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges, and the Pepsi sign shines really great there."

The many signs Maroulis has inside his apartment are also impressive. They include an old-fashioned "on air" radio sign, found in Dallas, a lighted, red-and-white "Monticello Dairy" ice-cream sign discovered on a trip with his brother to the small Pennsylvania town of Adamstown, and a hand-painted barbershop sign.

A guitar signed by Doors guitarist Robby Krieger hangs on the wall in his living room. "Shortly after 'Idol,' I did this golf tournament in Oakland, where I met Robby Krieger. The Doors were just everything to me growing up," he says. The inscription on the guitar reads: "Constantine, the real American Idol. Robby Krieger 2005."

Maroulis remembers his "Idol" days fondly: "I think you just take it and love every moment of it and remember it as a great experience." But at heart, he's content to be a working actor.

And though he was initially unsure if the Jekyll/Hyde part was right for him, he was sold when it was tailored to his lower register by arranger Jason Howland and orchestrator Kim Scharnberg. "I was always a baritone kind of guy and just thought that's not me." Now he's relishing the role. "It's such a metaphor in everyday life."

Despite the enormity of the role, his pre-show routine consists of little more than the walk to the theater. Just a couple hours before the show, he's often playing his Xbox 360 with friends. "We game a lot here," he says, before adding that he'll usually move his blue-mirror glass-top coffee table (circa 1930) out of the way first.

Constantine Maroulis'

favorite things

* An "American Idol" gold record

* The set of 1930s Art Deco club chairs

* A guitar signed by Robby Krieger of the Doors

* A mid-century brass bar cart

* His Tony nomination for "Rock of Ages"

* The wallpapered area over his bed

* A hand-painted barbershop sign

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Mets beat Dodgers on Jordany Valdespin's walkoff grand slam

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Jordany Valdespin celebrates his game-winning grand slam as Dodgers pitcher Josh Wall walks off the field.

Upon further review, Matt Harvey is mortal.

But the Mets were willing to cut some slack to their fireballing phenom Wednesday night and helped him avoid his first loss in dramatic fashion.

After tying it with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Jordany Valdespin let the Mets forget about a night's worth of offensive shortcomings by hitting a walk-off grand slam against Josh Wall in the 10th inning for a 7-3 victory over the Dodgers at Citi Field.

John Buck smacked a leadoff single in the 10th before Ike Davis walked and Marlon Byrd moved the runners with a sacrifice bunt. Lucas Duda was intentionally walked before Valdespin — against a defensive alignment that featured only two outfielders and an extra infielder playing between first and second base — cleared the right-field fence.

Kevin McReynolds had been the last Mets player to hit a walk-off grand slam, on June 25, 1991, against the Expos.

Harvey had his fastball hopping, as has become the norm, but the difference between a win and no-decision was a well-placed Matt Kemp shot in the sixth inning. Kemp's replay-aided two-run homer put the Mets in a 3-1 hole and all but ended Harvey's night.

In the ninth, with the Mets trailing 3-2, David Wright delivered an RBI single against Brandon League with two outs after Mike Baxter had led off the inning with a pinch-hit double and reached third on Ruben Tejada's sacrifice. The Mets were close to sunk when Jerry Hairston Jr. reached over the third-base railing to make a lunging catch on Daniel Murphy's pop up for the second out, but Wright came to the rescue.

Kemp hit a slicing shot to the right-field corner in the sixth that was originally ruled in play for an RBI triple, but umpires convened for a replay review lasting 2:29 that showed the ball hitting a security guard behind the fence and caroming onto the field.

The blast placed Harvey into a 3-1 hole, from which the Mets didn't recover until Wright's game-tying single in the ninth. Harvey allowed three earned runs on four hits and one walk with seven strikeouts over six innings.

Harvey was cruising in a 1-1 tie in the sixth, when he walked Adrian Gonzalez with two outs. Kemp's ensuing homer was his first this season and only the second allowed by Harvey in 35 innings.

Harvey was attempting to become the first pitcher since Fernando Valenzuela in 1981 to win his first five starts in a season while pitching at least seven innings and allowing one run or fewer in each.

But Kemp's home run ended that bid and Harvey was removed for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the sixth.

Justin Turner's sacrifice fly pulled the Mets within 3-2 in the sixth after reliever J.P. Howell walked Byrd and Duda in succession to begin the inning.

Ted Lilly, in his season debut, frustrated the Mets with his assortment of off-speed pitches, allowing one run on six hits and two walks over five innings with seven strikeouts. The lefty made only eight starts last season before undergoing surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder.

Tejada's RBI single in the fifth made it 1-1, but the Mets missed an opportunity to add on as Lilly struck out Wright and Davis — with a Buck fielder's choice sandwiched in between — to leave two runners on base. Harvey's double off the left-field fence preceded Tejada's dribbler to right field that got the Mets on the board.

Mark Ellis, who torched the Mets for two homers and four RBIs in the Dodgers' 7-2 victory on Tuesday, singled to begin a rally in the first inning. After Gonzalez followed with a single, Kemp hit into an RBI fielder's choice, giving the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.

Wright walked and stole second in the third inning, but was left stranded when Buck struck out. An inning earlier, the Mets loaded the bases with two outs against Lilly before Harvey was retired.

mpuma@nypost.com

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A sassy and sure Bette

THEATER REVIEW

I'LL EAT YOU LAST: A CHAT WITH SUE MENGERS
Booth Theatre, 222 W. 45th St.; 212-239-6200. Through June 30. Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

For her first Broadway appearance since "Clams on the Half Shell" 38 years ago, Bette Midler split the difference between playing it safe and taking a risk.

Instead of trotting out her hits — like her old accomplice Barry Manilow did a couple of months ago — she chose the onewoman play "I'll Eat You Last." But while Midler doesn't sing a note here, she's dressed to kill while pumping out profane one-liners. And she's playing another Divine Miss M: Sue Mengers, the late Hollywood agent known for her bulging Rolodex, wild parties and biting wit — mud is flung tonight!

Richard Termine

With brassy quips and zingers, Bette Midler inhabits the role of Sue Mengers, superagent to the stars, in this one-woman show — Midler's first return to Broadway since the 1970s.

This isn't much of a departure from the outsize stage persona Midler created for herself over the decades, but so what? "I'll Eat You Last" is wickedly entertaining precisely because performer and material are so perfectly matched.

As Mengers, she spends the entire play plopped down on a couch, rearranging the throw pillows and lighting up joints. That she manages to hold our attention while doing it says a lot about the actress' charisma, as well as Joe Mantello's smoothdirection.

Playwright John Logan ("Red") takes us back to 1981, with Mengers lounging in her luxurious Beverly Hills home — Scott Pask's set makes it look like a SoCal version of Neronian decadence.

She's just been informed by her biggest client's lawyers that she's been dumped. Now she's waiting for a phone call from the star herself — Barbra Streisand.

To kill time, Mengers fills us in on her life, from her fleeing the Nazis at age 8 to her apprenticeship at William Morris and all the way to her conquest of Hollywood. She loved the movies but quickly figured out she belonged behind the scenes: "Why be a king when you can be a kingmaker?" No wonder she became one of the first so-called superagents.

Here we meet her as her influence is waning in a changing Tinseltown. This brassy, outspoken broad doesn't fare well in the new world of "pseudo-Ivy-League-whiz-kid-boy-agents-slash-rentboys."

She's defiantly old-school Hollywood, devoted to stars and crazy parties fueled by pot and bitchy gossip — "the lube by which this town slips it in."

Logan — who met Mengers in 2008, three years before her death — sticks to a conventional template, but fills it with killer quips and hysterical set pieces. Midler may not warble, but Mengers' brazen bluff on behalf of Faye Dunaway and her visit to Sissy Spacek's farm "in a mythical land called Virginia" belong on her Greatest Hits list.

The star is in total control throughout, multiplying each "S" into a slithering hiss ("Julie Harrissssss") and duplicating the overdramatic staccato Mengers adopted after learning English from Warner Bros. flicks.

Midler's said to be insecure about her acting, but she has nothing to be anxious about. Let's hope this show is just the first step in her reconquest of the New York stage.

elisabeth.vincentelli@nypost.com

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NYC's most wanted face

Jennifer Zealof, 23, is the front-desk manager of a trendy downtown hotel. As one of the first people to greet arriving guests, she is, in a sense, the face of the hotel. Last winter, she decided that face wasn't quite up to snuff. She worried that her appearance wasn't living up to the visibility of her position.

"My nose was too long, and went down when I smiled, like a beak,'' explains Zealof, who commutes daily from Long Island.

Her solution: Natalie Portman's small, elegant nose.

She went to Manhattan plastic surgeon Alan Matarasso to make the transformation.

WireImage

A Post photo composite shows the most-requested celeb facial features demanded by New York women.

"My friends want to look like Kim Kardashian, but I think Natalie Portman is more natural and elegant," says Zealof.

"She's so pretty, and now I have a natural beauty like she does. Before, because of my nose, I was a little shy, but now I'm more confident and my interaction with guests is smoother.''

Zealof isn't the only one looking at famous features as a kind of wish list. Everyone from NYC plastic surgeons and dermatologists to dentists, brow groomers and lash specialists are being visited by clients armed with a photograph of the star whose look they covet.

In the past, it was Nicole Kidman's nose and Jennifer Aniston's hair that women were after. No more.

These days, New Yorkers covet the dark-and-sultry look.

"People are swinging toward looking more natural, which is one of the reasons they are veering away from blond,'' says dermatologist Paul Jarrod Frank. "That bleached or highlighted look is associated with having work done, and nobody in New York wants to look like one of those 'Housewives' from any state. They want to look like they haven't done anything — and that takes a lot of effort, by the way.''

One of the reasons many celebrities look so good in photos is due to their sharp, squared-off jawlines.

Twenty-nine-year-old Chelsea resident Melanie Segal was getting married to a man obsessed with Jennifer Garner, so she went to Manhattan cosmetic dermatologist Howard Sobel, in an attempt to look as close to her fiancé's ideal as possible.

"[My fiancé] thought I looked similar [to Garner], but I didn't have her really strong jaw, so to surprise him before the wedding, I changed it," says Segal.

Sobel injected Radiesse, which is made from the same substance as bones and teeth, to create that definition, and then tightened the skin around it with a laser.

"It was a huge difference right away, and I sent my fiancé a photo looking just like Jennifer Garner, with a note that said, 'I heard you are a big fan of mine.' "

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Best blowout for your buck!

NYC has always been full of hot air, but now it's even more so thanks to a recent proliferation of specialized blowout bars catering to the busy New York woman who wants to look good but doesn't have hours to spend (so, pretty much everyone). The newest kid on the block is DreamDry, owned by Hollywood stylist Rachel Zoe. Situated in the Flatiron District, you can choose from a number of celebrity-themed blowout styles for $40, including the Brigitte (as in Bardot), the Ali (as in McGraw), and the Sophia (Loren, of course), among others. So, how did it stack up against the competition?

NY Post Brian Zak

Rachel Zoe's new blowout bar, DreamDry, comes complete with iPads docked at every hair station.

DreamDry

35 W. 21st St.; 212-886-5194

Cost: $40 for a standard blowout

Services offered: Blowouts, "express" blowouts ($30 for a quick refresher blowout sans shampoo), braids, updos, "Little Ones" blowouts for kids 10 and under

The vibe: Super-sophisticated business-as-usual; swipe through fashion magazines on an iPad (they're at every station) while Lady Gaga and Jay-Z play overhead.

The Post tested: The Sophia — plenty of glam, with lots of body

It took: 40 minutes

It looked: Awesome. The look was sleek and sophisticated with extra body and even a little side flip, an effect you'd normally only get at an expensive salon after a haircut.

It stood up under: Rain, wind, my 7-month-old son pulling on it and a Bikram yoga class

Lasted: 5 days

Rating: 4

DryBar

Le Parker Meridien Hotel, 119 W. 56th St.; 212-561-5392 (plus four other NYC locations)

Cost: $40 for a standard blowout

Services offered: Blowouts (for $95, they'll send a stylist to give you a blowout at home), updos, "Shirley Temple" blowouts for the 10-and-under set

The vibe: Like a giant adult female slumber party, you can sip free mimosas while romantic comedies like "Pretty Woman" and "When Harry Met Sally" play on a loop on the flatscreen TVs.

The Post tested: The Straight Up — straight and sleek with a little bit of volume

It took: 45 minutes

It looked: At first it was a little too pouffy "GOP candidate wife," but by the second day it had calmed down and I was digging it.

It stood up under: Two snow days, misty rain and another Bikram yoga class

Lasted: 5 ¹/₂ days

Rating: 3

Jean Louis David

1180 Sixth Ave.; 212-944-7389 (plus four other NYC locations)

Cost: $27 for a standard blowout

Services offered: Blowouts, haircuts

The vibe: No frills. No mimosas. This is the place you go when you don't care about atmosphere and you didn't have time to make an appointment — you just need a blowout. Fast.

The Post tested: What, you think Jean Louis David has time for cutesy style names? He does not. I asked for it "straight," and that's what I got.

It took: 25 minutes

It looked: Nothing fancy, but about 100 percent better than my hair usually looks (please refer to: 7-month-old son)

It stood up under: Meh, just a Bikram yoga class

Lasted: 3 days

Rating: 2

Blowdryer Rating

1 dryer: This blows

2 dryers: A bit of hot air

3 dryers: Hair raising

4 dryers: Blew us away!

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Talk show guests

TUESDAY

KATE HUDSON, CHRISTINA HENDRICKS, ROGER GOODELL - LIVE! with Kelly and Michael, 9 a.m., Ch. 7

LA TOYA JACKSON - The Wendy Williams Show, 10 a.m., Ch. 5 and 3 p.m., Ch. 9

DR. MICHAEL ROIZEN, DR. KEITH ROACH - The Dr. Oz Show, 11 a.m., Ch. 5

KENYA MOORE, CLARE BOWEN, STACY LONDON - Anderson Live, 12 p.m., Ch. 5

CURTIS STONE, GABBY DOUGLAS - The Chew, 1 p.m., Ch. 7

JESSICA JONES - Steve Harvey, 3 p.m., Ch. 4

BRANDI GLANVILLE, LAUREN FRANCES, JUDGE LYNN TOLER - Ricki Lake Show, 3 p.m., Ch. 11

DIANE KEATON, JON BON JOVI - The Ellen DeGeneres Show , 4 p.m., Ch. 4

NICOLE RICHIE - Chelsea Lately, 11 p.m., (E!)

JENNIFER LAWRENCE, NICK KROLL - Conan, 11 p.m., (TBS)

STEVE MARTIN, JENNA FISCHER - Late Show with David Letterman, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 2

HARRISON FORD, ANTHONY MACKIE - Jimmy Kimmel Live, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 7

CAROL BURNETT, STEPHEN AMELL - The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 4

JENNIFER LAWRENCE, NICK KROLL - Conan, 12:30 a.m., (TBS)

NICOLE RICHIE - Chelsea Lately, 12:30 a.m., (E!)

KEVIN BACON, REBECCA HALL - The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, 12:37 a.m., Ch. 2

WEDNESDAY

FABIO VIVIANI, JORDI LIPPE, KATHY NAJIMY - The Wendy Williams Show, 10 a.m., Ch. 5 and 3 p.m., Ch. 9

AMY SCHUMER, DR. RICHARD BESSER, STEVE MARTIN - The View, 11 a.m., Ch. 7

LISA ROBERTSON, SUNNY ANDERSON - Anderson Live, 12 p.m., Ch. 5

GORAN VISNJIC - The Chew, 1 p.m., Ch. 7

JACQUI STAFFORD - Steve Harvey, 3 p.m., Ch. 4

TERRY JAMISON, LINDA JAMISON, MAUREEN HANCOCK - The Ricki Lake Show, 3 p.m., Ch. 11

DENNIS QUAID, KATE MCKINNON - The Ellen DeGeneres Show , 4 p.m., Ch. 4

BOB HARPER - The Dr. Oz Show, 4 p.m., Ch. 5

KATIE COURIC - Chelsea Lately, 11 p.m., (E!)

ANDY SAMBERG, JOSH HOPKINS - Conan, 11 p.m., (TBS)

TOPHER GRACE, ADAM SAVAGE, JAMIE HYNEMAN - Jimmy Kimmel Live, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 7

KATE HUDSON - Late Show with David Letterman, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 2

EMILY BLUNT - The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 4

ANDY SAMBERG, JOSH HOPKINS - Conan, 12:30 a.m., (TBS)

KATIE COURIC - Chelsea Lately, 12:30 a.m., (E!)

RAINN WILSON - The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, 12:37 a.m., Ch. 2

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Khloe kaput: ‘X Factor’

Khloe Kardashian, meet Steve Jones.

Kardashian has been booted off "The X Factor" as a co-host of Simon Cowell's talent show. Her predecessor, Jones, was fired as host after the first season.

The Post reported Kardashian, 28, was a goner back in February, but the news has now been confirmed.

"We really enjoyed working with her and wish her all the best in her future endeavors," an "X Factor" spokesperson said of Kardashian in a statement.

Mario Lopez, who co-hosted last season with Kardashian, will return for a third season. Demi Lovato will also return as a judge, Cowell confirmed.

Kardashian's exit is another in a long line of shakeups on "The X Factor."

In addition to Jones, Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger were also canned after the first season.

Original judge LA Reid is now gone, while Britney Spears was axed after the end of last season.

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Al in the Family

Linda Stasi

TV CRITIC

"Al Madrigal: Why Is The Rabbit Crying?"

Here's something that may cause stand-up comic/late-night favorite Al Madrigal to put a price on my head: Al Madrigal is Roseanne Barr for the 2010s.

No, Madrigal hasn't turned into a surly fat woman with a bad attitude. He's still a nerdy-looking thin guy in corduroy.

But he does do domestic comedy — making fun of the situations he and his wife find themselves in because of their kids.

Madrigal, a third-generation Mexican-American from San Francisco, who can't speak Spanish (he calls himself "a full assimilation 'Mission Impossible' American") does soccer dad comedy.

Cliff Cheney

SOCCER DAD: Al Madrigal's stand-up special later this week represents a new-era breakout.

Madrigal is a storyteller more than a joke-teller, and his one-man show on Comedy Central Friday night will make you laugh. But if you're a young parent, he will make you howl until you spit expensive mineral water from your nose.

He tallks about his 6-year-old son's "chollo" gang-banger soccer coach who — threatening at first sight — whips out a full spread sheet detailing which which snacks parents are expected to bring on which days.

Madrigal's take on going to Home Depot to hire a Mexican day laborer to help him install the cheap, fiberboard Ikea kitchen? Hilarious.

"Go early for the first round draft picks," he advises.

He also tells a story about how his freshman college roommate was so rich, he had a cleaning lady whose name sounded like Liam Neeson.

One day, the roommate's dirty-looking girlfriend gave the 50-year old bible-toting Guatemalan cleaning lady marijuana-laced chocolates. It was up to Madrigal to talk the woman down, using the Spanish he learned from a CD: "Los choc-o-latt-ay es en drug-as."

After that day she never returned.

You will, though — especially if you are a normal suburban parent who isn' t on the drug-as.

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Go to Greg

I'm an experienced manager and find myself with a growing staff of younger workers who are far more tech- and social media-savvy than I am. I'm afraid I look outdated that I don't have followers on Twitter or a Facebook page — and that it could hurt my career. Any advice?

I'm not sure it's "savvy" — or career smart — to be a digital information exhibitionist, splashing too much information about yourself for the world to see on Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, etc. It makes one wonder about how you have time to actually get any work done. It is smart and important, however, to understand social media and its importance and relevance — particularly as it may relate to your business — and to be able to speak about it with some familiarity. (Avoid such phrases as "I'm not on the Twitter.") And as far as technology, you shouldn't have to ask how to download an app or upload a picture or document. In general, it's always a smart career move to keep all of your skills and knowledge current, which may include developing your personal brand by having a presence on select social networking platforms. (Just don't blog about every thought you have or your cat's latest trick — because, really, who cares?)

My employer may be contemplating layoffs, and if so I'd be interested in volunteering to leave — if the package the company is offering is worthwhile. Is there a way to approach the company without necessarily committing myself and hurting my ability to remain employed?

Whenever employers go through a layoff, they usually consider who might actually want to accept a package to mitigate the number of involuntary layoffs they must make. In fact, many employers actually make an official call for volunteers when announcing their intention to conduct layoffs. I'd wait to see if your employer proactively makes that call. And if they don't, you are unlikely to run any risk to your employment by asking your boss if the company would consider volunteers, because you might be interested depending on the terms, package, etc. If you don't ask, you may never know, and if you do ask, then it may lead to a mutually beneficial outcome. Good luck.

Gregory Giangrande is an executivehuman resources officer in the media industry. Email your career questions to gotogreg@nypost.com. And follow

Greg on Twitter: @greggiangrande.

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Reese Witherspoon charged with disorderly conduct

REUTERS

Reese Witherspoon (R) and her husband James Toth after their Friday arrests.

ATLANTA — Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after a state trooper said she wouldn't stay in the car while her husband was given a field sobriety test in Atlanta.

Witherspoon was released from jail after the Friday morning arrest and was in New York Sunday night for the premiere of her new film "Mud." She posed for cameras on the red carpet but did not stop to talk to reporters.

The trooper noticed the car driven by her husband wasn't staying in its lane early Friday morning, so a traffic stop was initiated. Her husband, James Toth, had droopy eyelids, watery, bloodshot eyes, and his breath smelled strongly of alcohol, according to the report.

Toth told the trooper he'd had a drink, which Witherspoon said was consumed at a restaurant two hours before the traffic stop, the trooper writes.

Before the field sobriety test began, the 37-year-old Witherspoon got out of the car, was told to get back in and obeyed, the report said. After the "Walk the Line" star got out a second time, the trooper said he warned her that she would be arrested if she left the car again.

As the test continued, "Mrs. Witherspoon began to hang out the window and say that she did not believe that I was a real police officer. I told Mrs. Witherspoon to sit on her butt and be quiet," Trooper First Class J. Pyland writes.

Toth, 42, was then placed under arrest. He was charged with driving under the influence and failure to maintain the lane.

At that point, the report says, Witherspoon got out and asked the trooper what was going on. After being told to return to the car, she "stated that she was a 'US Citizen' and that she was allowed to 'stand on American ground,'" the report states.

The trooper then began to arrest Witherspoon. The report says Witherspoon was resistant at first but was calmed down by her husband.

"Do you know my name?" Witherspoon is quoted as asking the trooper. She also said: "You're about to find out who I am" and "You're about to be on national news," according to the report.

Toth and Witherspoon were then taken to jail.

A message left at the office of Witherspoon's publicist, Meredith O'Sullivan Wasson, wasn't immediately returned Sunday.

News of the arrest broke shortly before Witherspoon arrived on the "Mud" red carpet.

"I can't say anything because I don't know," said director Jeff Nichols. " I literally — the first guy on the press line to say something was the first time I heard about it so I gotta go figure it out."

Matthew McConaughey, who plays the lead role in "Mud" and is represented by Toth, said "I'm not going to comment on that because it's too fresh."

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Oh, baby!

When Taty Sena returned to her part-time webmaster job after the birth of her firstborn last summer, the prospect of leaving behind her baby girl, Tahra, made her miserable.

"I was literally in tears about it," says Sena, 41, of Park Slope. "I didn't think I could be away from her for that amount of time."

So the New York International Fringe Festival employee took a chance and asked her boss if she could bring her infant to work with her — and, to Sena's delight, she got the go-ahead.

For the past five months, Tahra has spent three days a week at mommy's three-person office (along with Sena's husband, whose flexible sales job allows him to accompany Tahra to the office and entertain the tot throughout the day). The setup allows Sena to spend quality time with her 8-month-old child, breastfeed right at her desk (in clear view of her co-workers — who she claims are comfortable with the setup) and bring the baby to meetings in a portable crib.

NY Post: Anne Wermiel

BABY TALK: Like a growing number of new moms, maternity wear maven Rosie Pope (right) brings her daughter, Vivienne, to work with her.

Call it a move out of the Marissa Mayer playbook. The Yahoo CEO caused a stir in February for reportedly building a nursery for her infant son adjacent to her office — on the heels of banning the company's telecommute policy. And while experts say bringing your wee one to the workplace is virtually unheard of in corporate America, it can offer mothers at small companies — like Sena's — a unique solution to the intense work-life strains that new motherhood brings.

"It's sort of the best of both worlds," says Carla Moquin, founder of the Utah-based Parenting in the Workplace Institute, which helps companies implement baby-in-the-workplace policies.

According to her, there are currently 186 organizations across the U.S. with formal baby policies (including two in New York City), spanning such industries as publishing, manufacturing and law. One-third of these programs — most of which allow babies up to nine months of age — have popped up since 2008.

"I think there's a lot more understanding that this is a viable concept as long as you set it up right," says Moquin. This means, she says, establishing formal policies regarding where parents can change diapers, breastfeed and handle crying babies, and designates a co-worker to serve as "alternate caregiver" when the parent needs to pop into a meeting.

"And," she adds, "the company has to have the option to say, 'This isn't working,' " — as Moquin says one company did when an employee took to changing her baby's dirty diapers on the conference table.

Still, the programs are an overall success. Over the past seven years, Moquin's interviewed hundreds of participating parents who, she says, cite a long list of benefits to having their tot in the office — including lower stress levels and fewer financial worries.

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60 Seconds

You say certain virtues in the workplace can be transformed into vices. How does a value become something bad?

When you excuse yourself from tough self-awareness, you allow these bad habits to persist. A classic one is creativity, which is often used as an excuse for narcissistic behavior: Somebody at work comes up with a bright idea and gets everyone else onboard. Too often the workplace doesn't need the new idea; it's all about the worker's need to express himself.

Is there a metric workers can use to determine if they're turning a virtue into a bad habit?

Yes — if you find yourself explaining away negative feedback from your boss, your colleague, and you're telling yourself a story that they just don't get. They don't understand that this is virtuous — being passionate or being collaborative.

Let's take a look at a couple of virtues. What about passion?

There's compelling research that shows passion is harmonious — when it's checked by other aspects of your life. The problem is the narrow-minded, absolute focus on a passion for winning or success. Hiring managers fall into the trap of just wanting to hire passionate people: They say you don't want to have to motivate people — they want them to show up self-motivated. But sometimes these people are passionate in a way that leads to burnout and bad behavior.

And how can excellence be a vice?

Sometimes to do an excellent job you have to do less-than-excellent work. I was talking to someone who works in research, and she said she used to focus relentlessly on documenting reports with dozens of sources. And her boss helped her see her job is to help move products through the pipeline quickly.

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High-school hells

Bob McManus

Last week began with Democratic mayoral candidates calling for a kid-glove approach to chaos in New York's public schools — and it ended with videos of rolling corridor fistfights at Murry Bergtraum HS in Lower Manhattan once more making their way onto the Internet.

A disconnect there?

Not if you buy into the notion that there's no such thing as a bad kid — and that the Department of Education's insistence on suspending disruptive students amounts to an explicitly racist, go-directly-to-prison policy that dooms thousands to lives of hopeless poverty.

Is this worth a suspension? A scene from the notorious video of fighting in the halls of Murry Bergtraum HS — just blocks from 1 Police Plaza.

Oh, and by the way, to hell with the kids who behave themselves.

That's all nonsense, of course. But it resonates in a city like New York, with its politics of group identity and its perverse impulse to excuse — and thus effectively encourage — socially destructive behavior in its schools and on its streets.

And so last week two Democratic mayoral candidates — ex-comptroller William Thompson and his successor, John Liu — were at City Hall to endorse what would amount to an end to disciplinary suspensions in city schools. Two others — City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio — sent supportive notes.

Condensed to its core, their contention is that because some minority groups (African-Americans in particular) account for disciplinary suspensions out of proportion to their presence in the classrooms, the system is by definition racist. And, because students who get suspensions tend eventually to land in jail in disproportionate numbers, New York City isn't running a public school system so much as it is a pipeline to prison.

Or, as Liu colorfully ( if a little incoherently) put it, the education department comprises a "criminal-industrial complex."

But all this is less an argument than it is an assertion, and it fails on several levels.

Urban schools have always been tumultuous places, and New York's are no exception. Murry Bergtraum, where hallway brawling is common, is not atypical, and administrators need a full range of sanctions to keep minimal order.

Fistfights aside, chaotic classrooms are also the norm in far too many city schools. True, few want to say so out loud, or in any detail — though not even the advocates try very hard to dispute it. They just want suspensions done away with, no matter what.

But that skirts the core issue, which is that only the willfully self-deluded really believe that teachers can teach, and that kids can learn, amid constant disruption.

And what of the serious students? You'd be hard-pressed to find any sympathy for them in New York, nor even an acknowledgment that a problem exists. But a Wisconsin think-tank offers this spot-on analysis:

"Misbehaving students undermine the basic norms that are conducive to school success," reported the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute two weeks ago. "A [school] district that is plagued with disorder, significant teacher and principal time-demands for activities unrelated to student learning and constant stress caused by numerous disruptions will struggle to build a successful school culture."

The study of 424 Wisconsin school districts found that fully half had classroom-discipline problems, and estimated that reducing disruptive behavior by just 5 percent would boost reading and math proficiency by 3.5 and 5 percent respectively.

Would those prescriptions increase the abysmal 35 percent college-readiness rates of New York City's high-school graduates? Simple common sense instructs that calmer classrooms would produce more accomplished graduates.

Certainly further restricting the sanctions available to administrators is no prescription for tranquil classrooms — especially on the grounds that students who have discipline issues in school may or may not go on to have problems with the law later on in life. Maybe they're just bad kids to begin with.

Yes, the Department of Education has some obligations to anti-social students. But its chief responsibility is to ensure a clean, safe learning environment for all of the city's students. That's not the case now, and it never will be if school suspensions are abolished. Or even substantially restricted.

That the four Democratic mayoral candidates have difficulty grasping this is distressing — for one of them is odds-on to be running the Department of Education come January.

So here's an idea: Next time, why don't they just skip the City Hall blatherfest, hike the four blocks to Murry Bergtraum and ask about life in a high school hell-hole?

The new normal? That's almost certainly up to one of them.

rmcmanus8@gmail.com

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Mother courage

Linda Stasi

TV REVIEW

"Mary and Martha"
Tonight at 8 on HBO

Has HBO gotten back into the do-gooder movie game?

Tonight's original movie, "Mary And Martha" is not, as you might expect from its title, a biblical story, although the two lead female characters are saintly enough to fill a gospel or two.

Mary and Martha are actually two fictional characters from the keyboard of Richard Curtis, who wrote one of my all-time favorite movies, "Love Actually."

Mary (Hilary Swank) is a wealthy Virginia wife, mother and decorator who — like those annoying mothers who write how-to parenting books when their kids are still too young to know how they'll turn out — is a know-it-all mom.

FOR THE CHILDREN: Brenda Blethyn (left) and Hilary Swank play grieving crusaders on "Mary and Martha."

When she hears at yoga class that her son, George (Lux Haney-Jardine) is being bullied at school, she decides she will pull him out of school and take him to South Africa for six months — where he'll be home-schooled and they'll have a great adventure.

Great and overbearing mom that she is, one quick call to the pediatrician is all she does in terms of immunizations, convinced that neither she or George need shots or anti-malaria medications. First of all, if you travel to any part of Africa, you need to visit a doctor who specializes in travel vaccinations, get immunized and are advised strongly to take anti-malaria medications.

That's a huge hole in the story and, of course, after a few months George gets malaria and dies. Back home, overcome with grief, Mary tells her ever-patient husband (Frank Grillo) that she needs to return to Africa to mourn.

In Mozambique, she just happens to bump into Martha (Brenda Blethyn), an English housewife, whose grown son taught there and also succumbed to malaria. Why Mary doesn't recognize the dead son's picture is beyond me, since George played soccer with Martha's son's class.

Anyway, united by their grief, the women eventually come to realize that their sons' lives wouldn't be wasted if they could make a difference — so they bring the malaria cause to the Senate where, with the help of Mary's estranged politician father (James Woods), they let the world know what is happening in Africa.

Did you know for example, that twice the number of children die from malaria each year than all the people who have been killed in every war around the world since 1967? It's an astounding and tragic number this movie serves to bring home.

While Swank and Blethyn make everything they're in more remarkable for their presence, the movie plays more like a based-on-fact Lifetime flick than an HBO work of fiction.

But as Mary says to her husband, if it saves one life, it's more-than-worth it.

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Tasty delights

It's time for little piggies to go the market — the Flea food market. The popular Smorgasburg has returned. Every Saturday at the Williamsburg waterfront, or Sunday at the old Tobacco Warehouse in DUMBO, artisanal food lovers can get their fill and then some from dozens of vendors hawking everything from cookie-dough peanut butter to Bolivian sandwiches. This year, about 35 new food vendors are on offer. Here are seven of the tastiest (check vendor sites for weekend locations).

Perfect pairing

High-proof desserts at Butter & Scotch

butterandscotch.com

Self-proclaimed "drunk baker" Keavy Blueher dishes up a boozy Bananas Foster Trifle and other alcohol-infused treats at Butter & Scotch.

Homa Dashtaki and her dad, Goshtasb Dashtaki (whose white mustache inspired the brand), whip up creamy yogurts and top them with potato chips, bacon or other tidbits.

Keavy Blueher, 30, who's been at the Flea for years with her Kumquat Cupcakery, has teamed up with Allison Kave, 33, a fellow market vet with her First Prize Pies, to form Butter & Scotch. They call themselves the "drunk bakers" and plan to open a brick-and-mortar bar serving craft cocktails and tasty desserts in Crown Heights later this year. Until then, get a helping of the Bananas Foster Trifle ($5), before it sells out. It features bananas caramelized in dark rum and a little Cointreau and rum whipped cream. Don't expect to get drunk off these desserts, though. "You would probably feel like you had eaten too much sugar before you had eaten too much booze," says Kave.

Cultural Revolution

The White Moustache Yogurt

thewhitemoustacheyogurt.com

This family business shows off yogurt's naughty side, serving tangy Persian-style white stuff over potato chips and topping it all off with bacon ($6). Traditionalists can opt for thicker Greek-style yogurt with fruit and nuts ($6), but no matter what the accoutrements, the Dashtaki family's yogurt is a far cry from the supermarket varieties. Homa Dashtaki, 34, worked in finance until she was laid off in 2009. Now she makes yogurt just as her father taught her and packages it by hand in quaint glass jars, whose logo refers to dad's facial hair. Of her career change, Homa says, "I have one-sixteenth of the money [I used to have], but I'm so much happier."

Beyond beans

Chips and duck confit at El Gato Nacho

Christopher Davin, 26, and a cook at Egg in Williamsburg, and his fiancée, Jill Meerpohl, a manager at acclaimed sandwich spot Saltie, were watching "Monday Night Football" at a Bushwick bar and eating nachos last year when an idea struck them. "We were like . . . we can make better nachos than this," recalls Davin, and bam! El Gato Nacho was born. The couple takes nachos far beyond liquified fake cheese and sour cream. Chipsters can build their own nachos ($5 to $11) from gourmet ingredients like truffle cheese sauce, duck confit, pickled ramps and beef hearts. Every order is topped off with homemade hot sauce and salsa verde, radishes, cilantro, scallions, creme fraiche and pickled green peppers.

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Soap suit fits ABC

ABC is being sued by Prospect Park, which is launching "One Life to Live" and "All My Children" online.

Prospect Park, which licensed the soaps from ABC, claims the network breached its contract by having three "OLTL" characters written off the show while they were "on loan" to ABC's "General Hospital." It also claims ABC is trying to ruin the online versions of "OLTL" and "AMC" because it regrets giving up the rights to both shows.

"We haven't seen the complaint or been served so we can't comment," an ABC spokesman said.

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OMG! Paula back on ‘Idol’

Paula Abdul's surprise return to "American Idol" Thursday night was a reminder of the show's once-powerful grip on prime time.

Abdul, back on "Idol" for the first time since leaving in 2009, surprised everyone by coming on-stage —weeping, of course — to congratulate semi-finalist Candice Glover on her rendition of Abdul's '80s hit, "Straight Up."

"I've been watching this remarkable young lady captivate the audience week after week and I've got to tell you, Candice, I was really moved that you shared your beautiful vocals on a song that's been a best friend to me," Abdul said, hugging Glover. "I've been a big fan and I gotta tell you, I'm your biggest fan ever now."

"Idol" host Ryan Seacrest then asked Abdul about the remaining finalists, who are all women. "Deservedly so," Abdul said. "Congratulations to the judges for bringing the amazing talent in the first place, and congratulations to America for getting it right!"

Seacrest then escorted Abdul to the judges' table, where she hugged Randy Jackson, Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban and sat in Jackson's chair.

Despite the nostalgia, Thursday's hour-long "Idol" episode was beaten at 8 p.m. — in total viewers and adults 18-49 — by a repeat of CBS's "The Big Bang Theory."

"Idol" rallied at 8:30, coasting to an easy victory in total viewers and adults 18-49 and averaging 11.9 million viewers for the hour.

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NYPD vindicated

Bob McManus

Looks like it's time for the Associated Press to give back its Pulitzer Prize.

Just as it's time for politicians — and especially the press — to stop chewing on Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's leg over the NYPD's so-far-enormously-successful anti-terrorist surveillance programs.

Knock wood on the "successful" part, of course. If America has learned anything about terrorism since 9/11, it's that the threat is incessant, though hugely unpredictable as to source, specific motivation and any given terrorist's tool kit of choice.

That is, no one knows what tomorrow will bring, just as no one suspected what was in store for Boston on Monday — Patriots' Day in the Bay State.

REUTERS

Lockdown: The normally traffic- and pedestrian-packed area by Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston yesterday.

But it is beyond rational denial that one thread runs through virtually every known terrorist attack on America — and most of the others around the world — since 9/11: In one form or another, the terrorists have drawn their inspiration from one radical interpretation of Islam or another.

So while "Chechen terrorist" doesn't necessarily accord with trademark Osama bin Laden-style Islamist blood-letting, the differences are pretty much academic: Chechen Islamism has been ruthlessly expressed in the Caucasus since the fall of the Soviet Union (for centuries, actually), and Chechen Islamists have been supplying al Qaeda with trained killers for decades.

No great surprise, then, that a pair of young Chechens turn up as central figures in the bloodiest terrorist attack on US soil since the Twin Towers fell (rivaled only by the slaughter at Fort Hood).

No doubt the dark fantasies that put the Boston bombers into motion will be teased out of their personal histories in the days and weeks to come. But there was enough on the record yesterday to discern radical Islamist motives in their plot.

That is, to ratify once again the wisdom of Ray Kelly and the NYPD in targeting Islamic extremism as a profound and continuing threat to New York and its citizens — all of its citizens, including thousands upon thousands of Muslims — and then acting accordingly.

Where was Kelly & Co. supposed to go to protect the city from Islamist terror — Lutheran quilting bees?

No. And he didn't.

Operating fully within the bounds of a mid-'80s consent decree meant to guide NYPD oversight of radical political activity — as modified by a federal judge post-9/11 — the department went on the lookout for Islamist-inspired terror plots.

There's nothing surreptitious about the program. Officers wear plain clothes, to be sure, but the meetings they monitor are open to the public and the informers they recruit are no more a threat to civil liberties than run-of-the-mill crack-dealer snitches.

Over time, the program has directly prevented, or helped to deflect, 14 potentially deadly plots against the city. How many never got under way out of concern for attracting the NYPD's attention will never be known.

But the Associated Press, in particular, was offended, and the agency dogged the department for months. Its stories — some naïve, most just wrong and all oblivious to the legality of the program — clearly were intended to shut the Kelly effort down.

That the news agency collected a Pulitzer for its efforts reflects as badly on the judgment of those who run the contest as it does on motives of the AP itself.

Happily, Kelly was undeterred. To his great credit, and to Mayor Bloomberg's too, the surveillance remains in place. No doubt this is well known to the Islamists — a deterrent to the terrorists and thus a comfort to New Yorkers.

Certainly dismantlement of the program — or a fig-leaf-covered evisceration of it — would be an encouragement to radical Islam. This is worth keeping in mind as the mayoral campaign begins to gather energy.

For, beyond the deep personal tragedies and traumas of the Boston bombing, it remained yesterday that one of America's premier cities was in near-total lockdown — with the economic and social costs beyond calculation.

New Yorkers can relate, having been down that road before. Thus most would agree that reasonable vigilance is cheap if it helps avoid another such catastrophe.

And those that don't agree — well, too bad about them.

rmcmanus8@gmail.com

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Talk show guests

FRIDAY

RYAN LOCHTE, JEAN CHATZKY, KEVIN JONAS - Today, 7 a.m., Ch. 4

SUSAN SARANDON, CARSON KRESSLEY - LIVE! with Kelly and Michael, 9 a.m., Ch. 7

MARK MAZZETTI - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 9 a.m. and 7:27 p.m., (COM)

RICHARD ENGEL - The Colbert Report, 9:30 a.m., and 6:56 p.m., (COM)

JIM CANTORE, BETH STERN, DR. IAN SMITH - Rachael Ray, 10 a.m., Ch. 7

DR. MIKE DOW, CHERYL HINES - The Wendy Williams Show, 10 a.m., Ch. 5

PITBULL, CUBA GOODING JR., VANESSA WILLIAMS - The View, 11 a.m., Ch. 7

CURTIS STONE - The Dr. Oz Show, 11 a.m., Ch. 5

MARK WAHLBERG, JEFFREY WRIGHT, LISA LILLIEN - Anderson Live, 12 p.m., Ch. 5

HARRISON FORD - Tavis Smiley, 1 p.m., Ch. 13

JAMIE DEEN - The Chew, 1 p.m., Ch. 7

ANGELA KINSEY, ELIZABETH PERKINS - The Jeff Probst Show, 2 p.m., Ch. 4

WAYNE BRADY, LILY TOMLIN, CAROLINE MANZO - The Talk, 2 p.m., Ch. 2

DR. MIKE DOW, CHERYL HINES - The Wendy Williams Show, 3 p.m., Ch. 9

WYNTON HARVEY - Steve Harvey, 3 p.m., Ch. 4

KELLY RUTHERFORD - Katie, 3 p.m., Ch. 7

JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT, RYAN LOCHTE - The Ellen DeGeneres Show , 4 p.m., Ch. 4

AVRIL LAVIGNE, JOHN CAPARULO, HEATHER MCDONALD - Chelsea Lately, 11 p.m., (E!)

RACHEL MCADAMS, KELLY OXFORD, KID ROCK - Jimmy Kimmel Live, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 7

JAMES FRANCO, ANDREW BORRACCHINI - Late Show with David Letterman, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 2

KIM KARDASHIAN, WILLIE GEIST - The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 4

JOSH GROBAN, THOMAS DALE, SARAH COLONNA - Chelsea Lately, 12:30 a.m., (E!)

ANN WILSON, NANCY WILSON - Tavis Smiley, 12:30 a.m., Ch. 13

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, HAYDEN PANETTIERE - Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, 12:36 a.m., Ch. 4

HARRISON FORD, MELISSA RAUCH - The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, 12:37 a.m., Ch. 2

MONDAY

AMY DICKINSON - Rachael Ray, 7 a.m., (OWN)

PIERCE BROSNAN, JAKE JOHNSON - LIVE! with Kelly and Michael, 9 a.m., Ch. 7

ANDY COHEN, DAPHNE OZ - The Wendy Williams Show, 10 a.m., Ch. 5

KELLY OSBOURNE, KANDI BURRUSS, DR. ROBIN ZASIO - Anderson Live, 12 p.m., Ch. 5

ANN WILSON, NANCY WILSON - Tavis Smiley, 1 p.m., Ch. 13

JENNIFER KOPPELMAN HUTT, STEPHEN KRAMER GLICKMAN, ANGELA DAVIS - The Ricki Lake Show, 3 p.m., Ch. 11

ANDY COHEN, DAPHNE OZ - The Wendy Williams Show, 3 p.m., Ch. 9

RYAN GOSLING - Conan, 11 p.m., (TBS)

MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY, RYAN LOCHTE - Late Show with David Letterman, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 2

DENNIS QUAID, ABIGAIL SPENCER - Jimmy Kimmel Live, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 7

DIANE KEATON, TREVOR MOORE - The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 4

RYAN GOSLING - Conan, 12:30 a.m., (TBS)

KAT DENNINGS, PHILIP KERR - The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, 12:37 a.m., Ch. 2

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Stark, Raving Sad

Linda Stasi

TV CRITIC

CALL ME CRAZY: A FIVE FILM
Tomorrow night at 8 on Lifetime

Call me crazy, but Lifetime's original movie,"Call Me Crazy : A Five Film," did make me weepy enough to almost enjoy myself.

The movie — actually a compilation of five shorts that sometimes tie together — uses the same star-studded format as Lifetime's earlier "Five" movie about breast cancer.

This time the subject is mental illness and the effect it has on both those suffering with it and those close to them.

Produced by Jennifer Aniston, the 15-to-20-minute shorts are packed with big name talent like Academy Award-winning actresses Jennifer Hudson, Melissa Leo and Octavia Spencer, as well as Sarah Hyland, Sofia Vassilieva, Brittany Snow, Ernie Hudson, Jason Ritter, Jean Smart, Lea Thompson, Melanie Griffith and Chelsea Handler.

MENTAL: Jennifer Hudson plays a tormented war vet in tomorrow's unusual Lifetime movie of five interconnected films on mental illness.

Behind the cameras, Laura Dern, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bonnie Hunt and Ashley Judd handle the directing chores.

The first short, "Lucy," stars Snow as a law-school student with schizophrenia who has to be hospitalized when her condition becomes dangerous.

Spencer, as her shrink, wants her to return to law school and focus on becoming a lawyer for mental health patients.

"Grace" stars Leo as the divorced, bipolar mom of a teen girl (Hyland) who has suffered a lifetime of her mother's extreme highs and desperate lows.

Both women are so good (nobody does "crazy" like Leo) that you'll be pulling for both, although you may want to smack the mom before she gets into that car.

"Allison" brings Lucy back when her younger sister, Allison (Vassilieva), brings her boyfriend home for the weekend to meet her parents (Smart and Richard Gilliland). All hell breaks loose when Allison, thinking that crazy Lucy is safely locked away, discovers that her sister — who once tried to kill her during a psychotic break — is home as well.

"Eddie," directed by Hunt, stars Thompson as the long-suffering wife of a stand-up comic (Mitch Rouse) who tells jokes for a living and yet lives with overwhelming depression.

Will he kill himself if he doesn't slay 'em every night?

The final story, "Maggie," directed by Judd, stars Hudson as a returning Iraq war veteran who has a young son who's been living with her dad (Ernie Hudson), while she was deployed. Turns out when she was in Iraq, she'd been raped repeatedly by her commanding officer.

When she suffers a psychotic break, she mistakes her father for her commanding officer and tries to kill him. Guess who has gotten her law degree just in time to start defending mental patients?

While it's all too pat, offering instant fixes, there's still enough here to keep you watching.

Think of "Call Me Crazy" as an instant cure if you are still suffering ITDS — "In Treatment" Deprivation Syndrome, that is.

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‘Castle’ episode about bomb threat canned for now

ABC is pulling an episode of "Castle" that features a bomb-related plot following the attacks in Boston earlier this week, a network spokesperson said yesterday.

The episode, "Still," was scheduled to air Monday, but ABC has moved it to April 29, a week from Monday.

In its place, a different episode will air.

"Yes. Out of respect," Stana Katic, who plays police detective Kate Beckett on the show, tweeted about the move. "Please note that the chronology will [be] off."

The network's description of "Still" read:

"Beckett's life is on the line when she steps on a pressure-sensitive bomb. While the team searches for a way to disarm the explosive, Castle distracts Beckett by arguing with her about who fell for whom first."

ABC's decision follows several other network schedule changes this week to avoid the appearance of being insensitive.

Fox pulled a previously aired episode of "Family Guy" from its Web site and Hulu after someone altered video from the episode and posted it online — making it seem like the animated show was depicting the Boston bombings.

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Shooting on MIT's campus; officer reportedly injured

A gunman is on the loose on MIT's campus - with a police officer reportedly wounded.

Shots rang out at 10:48 p.m. on the Cambridge, Mass.-based campus, with school officials labeling the event as an "active shooter" incident.

According to the campus publication The Tech, an MIT officer was wounded and taken to a local hospital.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology is located a few miles outside of Boston.

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Not enough for a meal

DANCE REVIEW

BALLET HISPANICO
The Joyce, 175 Eighth Ave.; 212-242-0800. Through April 28. Running time: 90 minutes, one intermission.

A triple tapas plate of Spanish choreography,A Ballet Hispanico's program Tuesday recalled the old joke about Chinese food: An hour later, you are hungry again.

For the opening of its 25th season at the Joyce, the troupe's most substantial piece was the oldest, Nacho Duato's 1983 work "Jardi Tancat (Enclosed Garden)." To songs based on Catalan folk tales, three couples skitter and swoop across a stage bordered by thin, bare and weathered stumps.

The lyrics plead for water for parched soil, and the duets' broken postures and mournful attitudes show the cast's dashed hopes. Still, clocking in at less than 20 minutes, "Jardi Tancat" wasn't quite long or involved enough to anchor the evening.

Paula Lobo

The duet "Sortijas" features sexy moves on a smoky stage, but it fails to tell a full story.

Cayetano Soto's new "Sortijas (Rings)" is a brief, provocative duet to gravelly songs by Lhasa de Sela. The work is jammed with nervous partnering on a smoky stage — the guy's in black, the gal's wearing a top that looks as if it were made out of tinsel.

The stage blacks out several times, and we rediscover the couple in another pose when the lights come up. Finally, the man puts his hands around the woman's neck as her legs twitch and black paper airplanes fly onto the stage from all directions. Interesting though it is, it seems like the first section of a longer dance.

Last year's "A Vueltas con los Ochenta (Turning Eighties)" seems to start on the same smoky stage where "Sortijas" left off. Meritxell Barberá and Inma García's piece looks back at "La Movida," the cultural revolution in Madrid that followed the fall of fascism. The big hair and black club outfits — tight, ripped tops and short skirts — recall the NYC club scene during the '80s.

The work is a slice of life at the Disco of Desperation. The dancers enter, listening to their own headphones. Neurotic couplings degenerate into fights, and a strung-out woman twitches in front at the climax. While the piece aims at social commentary, it's too padded to have much bite — a couple dancing or the group walking across the stage gets stretched past the limits of patience.

So despite a few tasty morsels, Ballet Hispanico's program needs a little more meat on its bones to satisfy.

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Brooklyn bump

It's something of a swan story. Back in the bad old days, four years ago when the economy was tanking, a lot of new developments suffered. But some buildings had it worse than others, with preconstruction units languishing on the market, banks moving toward foreclosure, construction loans drying up and buyers deeming entire buildings damaged goods. In desperation, a handful of Brooklyn developers with ugly-duckling developments chose to sell their units at fire-sale prices, lopping off 20 percent or more.

Now, like the fairy-tale duckling, these condo buildings are suddenly realizing their worth.

N.Y.Post: Brian Zak

In 2009, the developer of Fort Greene's Forte condo building started selling apartments for about $500 per square foot. Prices have climbed nearly 50 percent since Forte'sdiscounted deals.

Take Williamsburg's Warehouse 11. According to David Maundrell, president of aptsandlofts.com, which marketed the building, the project was 75 percent complete in 2009 when the bank threatened foreclosure. Panicked, the developer negotiated a deal that allowed him to take proceeds from early sales and pay back a discounted amount on his loan. The catch was that he had a very limited time in which to do it.

"I set off the fire sales there," says Maundrell. "We sold 30 apartments of the 120 in the first night, at $500 a foot."

Now, a mere four years later, these same units are being resold for $900-plus per square foot — nearly twice the price of their initial sales.

This is no isolated incident. Downtown Brooklyn's Be@Schermerhorn and Fort Greene's Forte were both faced with similarly dire situations that also led them to slash prices. Both have recovered their value — and then some.

"Once we reduced the prices, we sold the building in less than a year," Rhoda Dunn, senior associate at the Corcoran Group, says of Be@Schermerhorn, where she was part of the original sales team. "The bottom line was the price."

Dunn just helped resell unit 12B. The 662-square-foot one-bedroom closed in February 2011 for $400,000. Just over two years later, in March, the same unit sold for $620,000 — a price increase of more than 50 percent.

So what's changed? Basically, everything.

"[At the time there] was also the Forte and Toren and Oro, all this inventory, and now it's all gone and there are these people who want to buy," Dunn says. "People are feeling good about the economy, and the interest rates are still low. There's demand and little inventory. It's really a function of supply and demand."

It helps that the buying public has no long-term memory.

Forte, built in 2006, sat so long on the market that it found itself with a bad reputation.

"Part of the problem was they were comparing themselves to One Hanson in regard to pricing, but One Hanson had better finishes and more amenities. This was the primary reason that the units sat on the market and eventually got stale," says Rodolfo Lucchese, a senior vice president at the Corcoran Group, which took over sales of Forte in 2009. "[The listings] were dead in the water; it had lost its buzz, so you're looking at sales that were really slashed."

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