New York Magazine

This is New York: @thecut @vulture @intelligencer @curbed @grubstreet @strategist

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

That Jalen Brunson is even in the conversation to be the Knicks’ greatest player would have been unthinkable when he signed four years ago. At that point, he had proved to be a good complimentary player, but he was not yet a consensus centerpiece. Others questioned why the Knicks were paying such a sizable contract to a second-round draft pick.

Brunson and the Knicks never fully quieted the critics until they ripped through the playoffs this spring. The team was good, the prevailing opinion went for much of the past four seasons, but probably not *championship good.* Brunson faced parallel skepticism: Sure, he had proved to be among the NBA’s best, but could he lead a team that wins four playoff rounds? Brunson and his teammates, however, consistently rallied, turning deficits into leads, and leads into wins, including a stunning 29-point comeback in game four of the NBA Finals.

The Knicks’ championship was a citywide exorcism after more than 50 years of falling short. It was also vindication: for the Knicks, who saw Brunson as a franchise cornerstone when few others did, and for Brunson, who could permanently silence the critics. “This completely changes everyone’s opinion of him going forward,” his wife, Ali Marks Brunson said. “If you’re going to talk about Jalen, you’re going to have to mention that he was a Finals MVP, that he was a champion.”

In Brunson, New York didn’t land a finished product but a player who was still ascending — and, perhaps most crucially, one who wanted to be here. “We did everything we could to bring something back here,” he said. “The character and then everything that this team embodies, it means a lot to me. It means a lot to the city, and obviously having a championship puts the cherry on top.”

For our new Cover Story, Tom Kludt profiles the King of New York: https://t.co/XSshOYMQg7

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

Oriana, the name, first crops up in literature as a term of praise, writes chief restaurant critic Matthew Schneier. The name likely alludes to the sun, from the Latin oriens (“rising”), a sometimes metaphor for Queen Elizabeth I. In the four centuries since, Oriana has bobbed mostly below the surface of the historical record. “Hark! It rises yet to christen a grand dining room in Nolita.”

This Oriana, all 5,000 square feet of it, leans into the celestial associations. The establishment’s sun-and-moon logo is generously deployed, etched into discs of soft yogurt butter and onto the square faces of the ice cubes in guests’ cocktails.

Oriana’s public-facing proprietors are its chef, Andy Quinn, and its sommelier, Cedric Nicaise, longtime collaborators who met in the trenches of Eleven Madison Park and run the Noortwyck, a West Village treasure whose Michelin-starred bona fides do not stand in the way of burger specials at the bar and a thoroughly excellent roast chicken. There’s a very nice chicken at Oriana, too, and here’s even a good flap of salmon, buttered well beyond its usual recognition as a diet option. “Fittingly, the energy at Oriana tilts away from the usual and toward the showcase,” writes Schneier.

Read his full review of the Noortwyck follow-up: https://t.co/n58VbpxnDG

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

Justin and Emily Baldoni spoke publicly about the ‘It Ends With Us’ legal battle for the first time on Wednesday, saying they’ve felt ‘injustice’ and ‘pain’ over the past two years. https://t.co/xs78wdCfiI

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

Peacock’s ‘The Five Star Weekend’ is a story about a culinary maven, but the show itself is snack food: more calorically empty than the Elin Hilderbrand novel on which it’s based, but nonetheless immediately pleasing and impossible to put down. https://t.co/tEovAUIA51

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

Netflix’s adaptation of a children’s classic is full of joy and hope, but don’t expect to be spared from the brutality of life on the Western frontier. https://t.co/fTGNj9AaZQ

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

The Grace & Frankie actress plays Eva Woods in Elle, the prequel series for Prime Video. She opted for a ‘no phones’ policy on set for season two, which has already wrapped filming. https://t.co/8VDqdrwo9K

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

We’ve all amassed a digital trove that, if exposed, could be catastrophic. It’s never been easier for that to happen. So how do you protect yourself?

Bridget Read reports on how hacks, lawsuits, and data breaches are increasingly exposing our digital records — threatening to spill everything into the public: https://t.co/bBqxwjEDby

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

‘New York’ Magazine’s restaurant critic Matthew Schneier reviews Oriana. The restaurant is a follow-up to the Noortwyck, which won over locals with a cozy room and smart cooking. This sequel fans the fire and the fireworks. https://t.co/ijeNajJFYF

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

Fertility clinics are seeing a wave of patients over 45 trying to get pregnant. It isn’t as easy as celebs make it look. https://t.co/GwpX5A7VK9

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

The AI industry, including leaders like Sam Altman and Dario Amodei, is unusually prone to dramatic swings in sentiment, from apocalyptic job loss to routine automation and back to the singularity. https://t.co/WwhFuWWMWq

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

Every weekday, the Cut’s astrology expert, Claire Comstock-Gay (aka Madame Clairevoyant) reads the horoscope for every zodiac sign. https://t.co/hxOalBsEGE

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

CNN CEO Mark Thompson admits to feeling the tension as Paramount merger looms, while warning against messing with the network’s brand. https://t.co/Sgq5QvPb0F

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

Marks is forced to bro out with the guys and gets harassed by Charlie the entire night, while Gia’s girls’ night reveals Riley’s bad side. https://t.co/n4ofKNXBa1

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

Janet’s conversation with Lala gives us a new understanding of the ongoing issues with Danny’s behavior. https://t.co/dkNws1zfMt

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

Minion co-creator and voice actor Pierre Coffin has an interesting theory: Minions have existed since the Big Bang and actually brought life to planet earth. Or that’s what an axed opening credits for Minions & Monsters would have posited. https://t.co/WTmPcisnES

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

At the 2026 World Cup, the superstars have lit up the field — Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland, and Harry Kane are locked in battle for the Golden Boot — but there is a growing consensus that Michael Olise is the most in-form footballer in the world.

Born in West London to a Nigerian father and a French Algerian mother, Olise could have played for any of four countries. When asked why he opted for France, he said, “The players I followed when I was young were Zidane, Henry, Ribéry.”

The attacking front four on the France national football team are out and out terrifying: Mbappé is France’s all-time top scorer and, at 27 years old, is already in contention to be the top scorer in World Cup history; Ousmane Dembélé won the Ballon d’Or last year; Désiré Doué was the man of the match in the Champions League Final this year; and then there is Olise.

Journalists often use the word “playground” to capture the exuberance and spontaneity of Olise’s style. “The metaphor might work better if children had elite acceleration, unparalleled passing ability, and peerless vision,” writes Tara Menon. “For a sense of what he is capable of, see his audacious, how-is-that-humanly-possible bicycle kick against Sweden. He didn’t score (it hit the post), but as his captain said admiringly afterward, ‘These are the kinds of moves that fans come to the stadium for.’”

Read Menon on why the Frenchman has outshined everyone, despite not having scored yet: https://t.co/ITS1iQjUNZ

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

Hacks co-creator Paul W. Downs gave a full-throated denial of there ever being a Jimmy and Kayla spinoff. Throw all the Emmys you want at them, it’s not happening. https://t.co/wWyV4Uq5B9

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

Alas, no Senator McDreamy. Patrick Dempsey says he won’t replace Graham Platner in Maine’s Senate race. https://t.co/NeU4aeqhqY

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

On Rosalía’s tour, Chappell Roan shared the gossipy origins of ‘Casual.’ Apparently, there was a monthslong flirtation during the pandemic, resulting in one date, a ghosting, and a hit song. https://t.co/aFt4JdGa6p

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

Justin Bieber has been announced as one of the co-headliners of the first-ever FIFA World Cup halftime show. https://t.co/V2IzPONynp

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

Zohran Mamdani got his rent freeze, and the grocery-store pilots are on the way. Now comes the third of the three campaign promises everyone remembers: Make the buses fast and free. It was always going to be the tough one. How does a mayor, who does not control the MTA and whose request would require Governor Kathy Hochul and Chairman Janno Lieber to cede $600 million-plus at the farebox every year, carry that one off?

The appointment of Elizabeth Adams. Two months ago, she was named to a new Mamdani post, senior adviser for fast and free buses, a.k.a. “the bus czar.” On Wednesday, the administration released the city’s bus action plan, the first big hunk of the ambitious project of which she’s a significant architect.

Its commitments range from the substantial, like a number of entirely revamped major streets, to modest and even comically micro improvements — seating added to 875 bus stops this year, and to all of them within a decade, and a goal to plant 30 (!) trees at bus stops before the end of 2026. The big news, though, is that about 50 of the heaviest-traffic, high-priority bus corridors will be redesigned, aiming to speed trips by 20 percent, which will shave off about six minutes per ride. A lot of barely visible changes will also ease the way for riders: better traffic-light timing to keep vehicles from bunching up, and firmer enforcement at hotspots where a high number of drivers block the lanes.

Great as all this sounds, it of course fulfills only 50 percent of the promise. It makes the buses faster; it does not make them free. Christopher Bonanos reports on the start of the Mayor’s plan to revamp the city’s buses: https://t.co/JRnlIusuk5