Brooklyn Decker Watching Tenis

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s an unusual case of life imitating art imitating life — all to promote a new film. Indie rap-rock group Young Torture Killaz released their music video “I’ll Cut Yo D**k Off” online this week, sparking a firestorm of comments over their controversial lyrics and use of the n-word. It went viral, notching more than 100K views on YouTube and the urban/shock video clearinghouse WorldStarHipHop. But the Young Torture Killaz aren’t just another Insane Clown Posse knockoff looking for internet fame; they’re the fictional band in the indie flick Hellaware, debuting this weekend at NYC’s BAMcinemaFest. Online commenters have thus far been hoodwinked by the video, which WorldStar posted as the work of “unsigned artist[s].” So let Deadline peel back the curtain: Hellaware, written and directed by Michael M. Bilandic, follows a photographer (Keith Poulson) looking to break through in NYC’s art scene who stumbles across a band of goth rapper Delaware teens on YouTube and persuades them to let him tag along in their world. Naturally, things spiral out of control. The members of Young Torture Killaz are really actors Brent Butler, Zohren Weiss and Clarke Bliss, performing a song written by writer-director Bilandic. Indie fixtures Sophia Takal and Kate Lyn Sheil also star in the pic, which screens Saturday at the film fest hosted by the Brooklyn Academy Of Music. Hellaware has been screening for press and buyers in search of distribution, and Bilandic isn’t repped at ... Read More »

By Francesca Trianni NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City unveiled the first of 25 free solar charging stations for mobile phones on Tuesday, installed in response to Superstorm Sandy, which wiped out power and forced residents to walk miles to charge their phones. The Street Charge stations are New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's latest answer to flaws in infrastructure and operations exposed by the historic storm that ripped into the East Coast in October 2012 and left about 900,000 New York City dwellers and millions of others in the region without power. ...