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Drew Barrymore and Justin Long Are 'Going The Distance' in NYC

On-again, off-again real life couple Drew Barrymore and Justin Long are on again, playing a couple trying to survive a long distance relationship in the upcoming comedy, Going The Distance. Could this be a case of art imitating life? In the movie, Drew is an older-than-usual intern at the fictional newspaper, The New York Sentinel—this already reminds us of Never Been Kissed.

To catch the duo in action, tonight they'll be filming at the Associated Press' real-life headquarters at 450 W 33rd Street in New York City, which will serve as the Sentinel's office space. The AP's headquarters also just happen to be about a block away from the newly renovated New Yorker Hotel, once known for being infested with bed bugs (and college students). The New Yorker however recently completed the full renovation of their 912 rooms, and the new Art Deco-inspired decor includes flat panel HDTVs with free HBO and Pay-Per-View Movies, and free Wi-Fi.

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Tags: Travel Media / The New Yorker / Crime / → All Tags

C.I.A. Flight Crews Party in Majorca

...and on your dime, Americans. The New Yorker reports that Jeppesen International Trip Planning, a Boeing subsidiary listed on the Boeing website, plays travel agent to the C.I.A. And we're not talking standard, quaint business trips here. Jeppesen organizes terrorist extradition flights for the Agency, ones on which suspects are supposedly tortured. According to Khaled el-Masri, a German who was mistaken for a terrorist on that infamous watchlist, he was stripped naked and shackled on a Boeing jet suspected to be operated by Jeppesen.

A former Jeppesen worker tells The New Yorker that the company's managing director once announced at a meeting, "We do all of the extraordinary rendition flights--you know, the torture flights." The employee goes on to say how higher-ups at Jeppesen explained to him the C.I.A.'s policy on lavish clandestine travel: they spare no expense on "the torture flights" and drop dollars like it's going out of style.

Of course, while prisoners languish in jails in Kabul, their American flight crews have got to rest somewhere on the way home. They take lavish stopovers in Majorca, where the crew from Masri's flight rested for two days at a luxury resort thanks to taxpayers' money. That means in theory, telling check-in agents that you have a terrorist in your custody should totally get you a seat upgrade, and perhaps a hotel voucher. In practice, we still wouldn't recommend that, however.

[Photo: Sarah <3]

Related Stories:
· The C.I.A.'s Travel Agent [New Yorker]