Von vavavoom: Right on time for Valentine’s Day, burlesque star Dita Von Teese will be back in New York with a brand-new striptease spectacle, “The Art of the Teese,” at the Gramercy Theatre, at 127 E. 23rd St., from Feb. 14-18. It will be “an opulent evening of glamour and seduction,” with Von Teese performing some of her best-loved acts that have never been seen on tour before, joined by other performers from around the world. In a telephone interview, Von Teese told us a bit about herself and what to expect at the show. Local favorite Murray Hill will be the emcee, and the show’s finale will be the Murray Hill Dance Challenge, where Hill picks people to get up on stage and shake it. “People win very easily by taking their clothes off,” Von Teese noted, adding, “We’re not trying to get anyone arrested or anything, but shamelessness is usually rewarded. We’ve had teachers win. Usually the winners are people you wouldn’t expect.” General admission tickets, $35, will get you a standing-room spot right upfront — where the sequins, feathers and beads go flying — while raised cabaret tables in the back will go for more. “I am a blonde woman from a farming town in Michigan,” she admitted to us, in a little bio background. “I’m also a failed ballet dancer.” She loves 1940s Hollywood glamour and “the classic ostrich feather dance.” We asked Von Teese what her favorite spots are in New York, and they are all pretty much Downtown Manhattan places: The Smile restaurant, Minetta Tavern, Gramercy Hotel, Bowery Hotel and Lafayette House. For tickets to her show, go to www.artoftheteese.com .
Moore door scene: A pussyhat-wearing Villager at the Women’s March on New York City two Saturdays ago who we were talking to told us that firefighters earlier that morning had been trying to get into the house of her A-list neighbor Julianne Moore. At first, she said, the smoke eaters were knocking — more like pounding — on the actress’s front door, but apparently no one was home. “It was so loud, neighbors came out of their homes to look,” the woman said. After no one answered, the Bravest went down to a basement door and used a circular saw to cut their way in. They hooked up a hose to a hydrant to keep the cutting area wet, so it wouldn’t catch on fire, she added. It’s not clear exactly what was going on, but it sounds like it was serious.
‘Scalia on steroids’: Congressmember Jerry Nadler blasted President Donald Trump’s pick of Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the late Antonin Scalia’s seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. In a statement, Nadler said, in part, “Judge Gorsuch is Justice Scalia on steroids. His record demonstrates that, if confirmed, he would rely on his conservative, originalist philosophy to overturn critical precedents and to disregard the rights of everyday Americans while bolstering protections for corporations and special interests. Gorsuch is openly hostile to women’s reproductive rights, and has repeatedly opposed the right of women to access cost-free contraception as guaranteed under the Affordable Care Act. He has been harshly critical of those who have turned to the courts to demand their constitutional rights, including the right to marriage equality. Furthermore, he has repeatedly favored corporations at the expense of employees and consumers and, if confirmed, will likely be Wall St.’s best friend on the court.”
Patz case concludes: Following closing arguments by the defense and prosecution, the jury began deliberations Wednesday in the retrial of Pedro Hernandez. The former Soho bodega worker is accused of killing 6-year-old Etan Patz in 1979. The first court case ended in a mistrial last year after the jury had deliberated for 18 days. The defense has focused on the original suspect, Jose Ramos, a former homeless drifter now in jail who used to hang around the neighborhood and was the boyfriend of a woman who used to walk local kids to the school bus. Etan’s father, Stan Patz, told The Villager last fall, when the retrial was beginning, “Hernandez is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. After almost 38 years, my family and I will be glad when it is over.”
Shut it down: Fresh off a successful anti-nuclear “Homes Not Bombs” protest in Washington, D.C., during the inauguration, former East Village activist John Penley and Bruce Wright are now working on their next idea: a National Strike Against Trump. Wright has suggested April 4, the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. As Penley explained, “Instead of protests here, there and everywhere on a whole range of issues, we need to call for a unified national strike day against Trump. No work, no school, nothing. Shut it all down for a day and that will do much more than protests all over the place.” He’s got a point. You need a calendar to keep up with all the anti-Trump protests. Their hashtag is #nationalstrikeagainsttrumpapril4 .
No-fly zone: Ian Dutton, our favorite goth pilot and a former member of Community Board 2, posted on Facebook last Sunday night that he would have none of Trump’s “travel ban” deportation plan. “I just stopped at Terminal B at Newark Airport where there is a team of immigration lawyers standing by to help in case of any immigration emergencies,” Dutton wrote. “At this point it sounds like any refugees or immigrants affected by the executive order are being stopped overseas and not allowed to board their flights. I wanted to find out if anyone was being turned around and deported and told them that should any such deportee be placed on my flight to Amsterdam today, I would pick up my flight case, leave the airplane and refuse to fly.”
Convinced now???!!! District Leader Arthur Schwartz suffered a heart attack over the weekend. “There were folks who whispered that my heart complaints last July were BS,” he texted us Saturday night. “Today I had a heart attack. Found out why I felt awful. I got to Beth Israel by way of the Northwell emergency department [Lenox Health Greenwich Village], fast, and didn’t suffer any damage after two stents were inserted. I learned a lot about heart attacks and the impact of getting into surgery fast. Thank God Beth Israel was as close as it was. I was told that I had no residual damage because I was in surgery so quickly.” Last year, Schwartz was running against Assemblymember Deborah Glick but dropped out of the race, saying he could feel that the contentious campaign against his longtime political nemesis was stressing his heart. However, Glick, in an interview with us back then, contended that Schwartz bowed out simply because he realized he couldn’t beat her. She shrugged that a lot of middle-aged men in the Village might feel a little twinge in their heart now and then. Glick didn’t return a call for comment by press time.
