Study: Subprime Loans Went to Minority-Heavy Neighborhoods

Residents of largely non-white neighborhoods in New York City were far more likely to receive a subprime loan than those in largely white neighborhoods, regardless of the borrower’s race, according to a new study from NYU’s Furman Center.

The study, which controlled for differences in income and loan amounts, found that African-American borrowers living in neighborhoods with the lowest share of non-white residents had a 24 percent chance of receiving a subprime loan. That number increased to 38 percent if the borrower lived in a neighborhood with the highest share of non-white residents.

East Villagers, Unite! Documentary on Ending Poverty Rich in Critiques

It wasn’t all doom and gloom at Friday’s premiere of “The End of Poverty?” at Village East Cinemas. The film, which traces the origins of global poverty back to the Age of Exploration, offers a reason for hope: things might soon get so bad that the impoverished will rise up in armed rebellion.

The documentary, narrated by Martin Sheen, argues that economic imperialism is the cause of widespread poverty in the Southern Hemisphere. According to the film, international economic policymakers at the IMF and World Bank ransom the natural resources of poorer countries, using coercive loans and crushing debt. At the same time, “structural violence” left over from colonialism has rendered these nations helpless, passive witnesses to their own despoliation. More>

Splendor in the Glass: Shards in the Carpet at NYPL Party

The New York Public Library’s Young Lions benefit party Monday night got off to an innocuous start. Library donors in their 20s and 30s gathered under the glass dome of the Bartos Forum in the main branch at 42nd Street, avoiding the dance floor while the DJ spun hits from their youth (Whitney Houston, etc.).

The night was optimistically titled “A Bright Future,” and a giant inflatable light bulb suspended from the dome’s peak reinforced the theme. More>

Designer Jacobs Lauded by Pratt as Trustee is Carried Out on Stretcher

“For me, a legend is someone I look up to and I respect and admire, and I guess I’m not there yet for myself,” said designer Marc Jacobs humbly on Thursday, Oct. 29, at the Pratt Institute Legends award benefit, where he was one of the evening’s honorees.

“Just because they give me this prize doesn’t mean I am one,” added Mr. Jacobs, who wore black leather boots with white socks, a red tartan kilt, a white dress shirt open at the collar and a black sport jacket with roped shoulders. More>

Ross Douthat: I Oppose Gay Marriage But I Don’t Want To Talk About It

Ross Douthat, conservative op-ed columnist for the New York Times, was made visibly uncomfortable for a moment while onstage last night at the New School’s Tishman auditorium. Having sailed through a discussion titled “Meet the Neo-Cons: They’re Young, They’re Bright, They Tilt to the Right” alongside his friend and co-author Reihan Salam (Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Save the Working Class and Save the American Dream), moderated by Marco Roth of n+1 magazine, Mr. Douthat became suddenly fidgety when asked to respond to a question from the audience on gay marriage. More>

At n+1 Panel, the Cat Got Douthat’s Tongue on Topic of Gay Marriage

Ross Douthat, conservative op-ed columnist for the New York Times, was made visibly uncomfortable for a moment while onstage last night at the New School’s Tishman auditorium. Having sailed through a discussion titled “Meet the Neo-Cons: They’re Young, They’re Bright, They Tilt to the Right” alongside his friend and co-author Reihan Salam (Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Save the Working Class and Save the American Dream), moderated by Marco Roth of n+1 magazine, Mr. Douthat became suddenly fidgety when asked to respond to a question from the audience on gay marriage. More>

At Wild Things Premiere, We Could Eat Celebs Up, We Love Them So!

“Since I was a kid, I’ve been hoping that I could get kids on my side, because they’re the coolest and smartest,” said Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the New York premiere of Spike Jonze’s movie version of the Maurice Sendak children’s classic Where the Wild Things Are, held at Alice Tully Hall on Tuesday Oct. 15. “They know better than all of us.”

Ms. O was speaking about recording the film’s soundtrack with a chorus of children. But she could just as easily have been talking about Warner Brothers’ hopes for the film, which went on to do very well in its opening weekend. More>

The New York Film Festival Opens Quietly at Alice Tully with Alain Resnais’ Wild Grass

“It’s like prom night didn’t happen this year,” said documentarian Aviva Kempner (Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg) on Friday, September 25, standing in the lobby of Alice Tully Hall, where the New York Film Festival was celebrating its opening night. She was disappointed at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s decision to move the party from its traditional home at beleaguered restaurant Tavern on the Green.

Psychologist Eva Fogelman agreed, disapproving of “the level of dress.” Dr. Fogelman, a specialist in Holocaust survivors who wore a black sequined frock, pointed out that formerly this premiere social event for New York’s cinephiles was a black-tie affair. More>

But Will it Play in Peoria? Esky Nervously Fetes Moore’s Anti-Capitalism Doc at Ultimate Bachelor Pad

“They promised me I would mellow as I got older, and it didn’t happen,” a graying Michael Moore bellowed before the New York premiere of his new film, Capitalism: A Love Story, at Alice Tully Hall on Monday, Sept. 21. The screening, a pre–New York Film Festival event put on by Esquire and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, drew noted capitalists like chef Mario Batali and editor Tina Brown despite its radical premise: that capitalism is, in a word, evil. More>

The Kindest Keats? Campion Talks About Demure New Biopic, Starring Dreamy Whishaw

Ben Whishaw, the young British actor with a Romantic poet’s mop of tousled black hair, stood alone by the bar at the Plaza’s Oak Room during lunchtime at Tuesday, Sept. 15, wearing black Vans, black jeans and an untucked white dress shirt. Although slightly out of place among a crowd of carefully primped movie-industry types, Mr. Whishaw looks the part for his role as a love-struck John Keats in Jane Campion’s new biopic Bright Star.

Ms. Campion said that she wanted Mr. Whishaw after seeing pictures in which he “looked like a rock star,” comparing Keats to Nick Drake. “I thought—yes!” More>