Reader TTS

New Yorkers are creatures of judgment. We love some music; we hate some art; we crave our favorite culture fixes like candy—and in a city all but synonymous with cultural diversity, there’s

plenty to fight about (even after the Republicans have packed up and gone their merry way). This fall should provide much in the way of passionate disputation. On TV, there’s our cover

model—beloved Jersey moll Drea de Matteo, late of _The Sopranos_—testing out her new sitcom chops in Hollywood. Mary-Louise Parker is headed in the opposite direction: back to Broadway to

revisit the work of her favorite playwright, Craig Lucas, in _Reckless_. And at the Met, _The Lion King_’s Julie Taymor is getting ready to reimagine Mozart with a splashy new production of

_The Magic Flute_. Some of the biggest reinventions are in midtown, where MoMA relaunches in a glorious new building (complete with fancy-pants restaurant by Danny Meyer)—and Jacob the

Jeweler expands into a splashy loft. Downtown, you’ll find feminist rockers Le Tigre, avant-garde diva Meredith Monk, and a hot Soho chocolate-maker. But everywhere, artists are popping up

in surprising new venues: Salman Rushdie at New York City Opera, Johnny Cash at Sotheby’s, and Jenny Holzer and Toland Grinnell remaking, of all places, the old TWA terminal at JFK.

Debaters, start your engines. Get ready to discover some fresh horror, or some fresh wonder, to argue about. And once in a while, like an artist unafraid to start from scratch, prepare to be

taken by surprise. MOVIES Nichols gets _Closer_ … Giamatti goes _Sideways_ … Topher Grace loses his innocence to Dylan Kidd … Sarsgaard’s kinky _Kinsey_ role … The biopic boom … Renée

Zellweger’s Bridget, take two THEATER Mary-Louise Parker and Craig Lucas together again … Two playwrights wrestle with God … Sam Shepard, reticent interviewee … Phylicia Rashad does August

Wilson … Neil LaBute defends a bully … Peter Dinklage as _Richard III_ … Edie Falco’s dark side … Matthew Broderick gets his post-_Producers_ theater fix ART Artists at the airport … MoMA

remade … Benjamin Edwards off the grid … Gilbert Stuart paints America’s dad … Isamu Noguchi’s centenary … Chicks with cameras … Old iconography in hip-hop regalia BOOKS Cynthia Ozick

revisits the Bronx … Saving chick-lit from itself … August Kleinzahler’s Old Jersey … Political novels: left, right, and center … Philip Roth gets counterfactual … Jonathan Lethem and Craig

Thompson picture fiction’s future TELEVISION Drea de Matteo forsakes Christopher for _Joey_ … Felicity Huffman, _Desperate Housewife_ … J. J. Abrams deserts his cast … _Law & Order_ and

_CSI_ shoot it out MUSIC Nas gets in touch with his roots … Rupee, crown prince of soca … The Clash, a quarter-century later … Le Tigre scratches at the mainstream … Johnny Cash’s last stand

at Sotheby’s … Pop gets grown-up CLASSICAL & DANCE Julie Taymor remakes _The Magic Flute_ … Salman Rushdie gets operatic … Kronos plays music from outer space … World Music Institute at

twenty RESTAURANTS Gray Kunz gets a kitchen of his own … Jacques Torres builds a Wonkaland … BLT Steak’s fishy brother … Three new pizzerias are anything but cheesy SHOPPING Pucci paints

Fifth Avenue red (and orange, and purple) … Peter Elliot works blue … Alessandro Dell’Acqua sets Madison Avenue a-shimmer … Jewelers a-poppin’