By the time James Franco arrived at last night's party celebrating the release of Lapham's Quarterly's travel issue, he was over an hour late, and assistant editors who'd booked him were nearly hyperventilating. But when at last he took the stage, — appropriately dressed in jeans and a sweater with a whale on the back — he won over the small crowd of mostly book publishers with his readings from Don Quixote and Moby Dick. Speaking of the latter! Afterward, we asked the actor and student about the film he'd recently completed for NYU's Graduate Film Program, a four-minute short based on the Anthony Hecht poem "The Feast of Stephen," which Movie Line called "blisteringly homoerotic." Making the film was, Franco said, "fascinating, because so much, a lot of times, so much is just implied in poetry and not really explicitly said, so as a filmmaker, you have to make decisions on how to interpret the poems." Like in the infamous naked teenage basketball scene? we asked. Was it difficult to get a bunch of actors to interpret that? Teenage actors? Franco laughed. "The way we did that was, we used real teenagers to play basketball clothed, and we advertised on the web and hired some people and we just shot them from the neck down. They were doubles, body doubles, dick doubles. I couldn't shoot 16-year-olds naked. I'd get in trouble!"

Related: Read more on The Feast of Stephen in Jada Yuan's interview with James Franco last month.

This dog is a genius.

Today the Daily News tells us some news that is simultaneously stupendous and devastating. Apparently, tomorrow is "Take Your Dog to Work Day." THAT IS A THING? Did you people know this? Is there also a "Bring Ice-Cream Sandwiches for Your Gay Co-workers Day" that we didn't know about? What kind of offices have we been working in until now that we didn't know this was a holiday, and that it's been celebrated in the United States for ten years?

Now, readers, you are all on notice. You are going to be required to send any and all pictures of puppies at work (if they are wearing work attire, even better, and if they can be actually trained to do your work for you, best) to intel @ nymag.com tomorrow. If we get enough, we'll make a slideshow of adorableness. And to any and all New York co-workers, listen up: You'd better bring your dogs to work tomorrow, or else you are going to be looking at three (okay, one) very unhappy Daily Intel editor(s). We're looking right at you, Copy Chief Megan Who Sits One Cubicle Away and Who We Happen to Know Has an Adorable Goldendoodle Named Snapdragon.

You see, that's why the news of Take Your Dog to Work Day is both happy and sad. People will be bringing puppies to the office! Yay! But some of us don't even have a single puppy to bring. Booo ...

Blue, white and dog collar workers: Owners get set for 10th annual Take Your Dog to Work Day [NYDN]

Schtunningly, the two top-floor units of Julian Schnabel's art-chitectual masterpiece, Palazzo Chupi, have schtill not schold, and thus the artist and filmmaker has been forced to schlash prices yet again. He's now offering both of them together for $27.9 million, which is $31 million less than the original asking prices of $27 million and $32 million each. Holy schit. Frankly, we don't understand why someone like Andrew Hall, the energy trader and Schnabel enthusiast, doesn't schoop these schuckers up. They're a schteal!

PINK $LIP [NYP]

Learn to say "Jrue": UCLA's Holiday.

One month ago, when the NBA Draft Lottery revealed that the Knicks would have the No. 8 pick in tonight’s draft, the smart money was on Davidson wunderkind guard Stephen Curry. Knicks marketers lusted after him, Curry openly lobbied to come here, and circumstances appeared to line up for a player whom most agree is perfect for coach Mike D’Antoni’s system.

But then Curry started impressing every other team in workouts, and now, the odds that he’ll fall to the Knicks are extremely small. If Curry, Ricky Rubio, or Tyreke Evans are available to the Knicks, they’ll take them. But it’s highly unlikely any of them will be. According to ESPN’s Chad Ford, the Knicks believe tonight’s draft is seven players deep; their pick is eighth. Of course.

Johnny Depp left a $4,000 tip at Gibsons Bar and Steakhouse in Chicago following a screening of Public Enemies with his co-star, Marion Cotillard. Facebook to the rescue: Some lady in Montreal found the 11-year-old British kid that Megan Fox brushed aside, whose name is Harvii, on her list of friends, and now he'll get a photograph with the sultry star. While in Atlanta to cheer on A-Rod against the Braves, Kate Hudson opted to root for Rodriguez from the bar of Morton's Steakhouse. Angelina Jolie supposedly told Jennifer Aniston to "back off" after Aniston sent Brad Pitt some "motivational texts." And some fun-loving New Orleans residents have started a "Brad Pitt for Mayor"movement (Hey, if Arnold can be governor ... ).

If the situation in Albany really is a circus, as it has often been called recently, then the major players are some of the crankiest, grouchiest clowns you'll ever see. After gaveling out of a four-minute mandatory session yesterday, Malcolm Smith and the rest of the Democrats stated their intention to go home — as in, for good. Governor Paterson was furious, and in a fiery appearance last night, he reminded the senators that they would be in violation of the state constitution if they ignored his call for another special session today. He also threatened to withhold their pay since this whole mess began on June 8 — even though much of it has already been doled out, and he probably doesn't have that power anyway — and force them into the chamber under police escort. "Senators, get to work," he fumed. "You're not going home, you're not getting paid and you're not going to disrespect the people of the State of New York any longer." While this tough rhetoric may sound righteous to the ears of frustrated New Yorkers (at least, that's what Paterson hopes), it has not been going over well with Senate Democrats, who seem to get particularly testy when their salaries are threatened.

Sometimes, if you don't have a flip cam or regular access to the Internet, you have to be creative when punishing an ex and go seriously analog. That's what 28-year-old Suresh Persaud allegedly did when his ex-girlfriend, a married 19-year-old aspiring beauty queen, broke it off with him. Suddenly, in the girl's Queens neighborhood of Richmond Hill, shocking posters with nude pictures of her were "tacked to the family house, street poles, trees, car windshields and neighbors' front doors." In a creative twist, the posters also "listed her full name, address and phone number and said to call 'if you wanted a blow job.'" (Now that's really old-school. Like, middle school old-school.) Persaud, who started dating the girl when she was as young as 17, denies that he posted the pictures. "I never put up nude pictures of her," he said, claiming, in fact, that the images were "self-portraits."

Dude, at least claim they were ads. "Self-portraits"? Is that what we're calling those pictures in the back of the Village Voice now?

EX'S NAKED 'ATTACK' [NYP]