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Clint Spaulding/PatrickMcMullan

Ed Swenson, Liz Walker, Emilia Pfeifler Fanjul and Brian Pfeifler

Nine hundred people attended the Museum Dance at the American Museum of Natural History on Thursday, a gala that is in its 40th year, according to event organizers. The evening’s theme, Bold and British, was perfectly aligned with a certain royal wedding set to take place the next morning. Interpretations on the theme varied widely: tailored floral dresses, white gloves, elaborate hats, feathered head pieces, and leopard prints for the ladies; top hats, crowns and safari helmets were common with the men.

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Clint Spaulding/PatrickMcMullan

Alex Hurst and Beth Kojima

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Clint Spaulding/PatrickMcMullan

Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia

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Clint Spaulding/PatrickMcMullan

Steve Guttenberg and Peter Lyden

Two of the benefit chairwomen, Zibby Right and Dana Wallach Jones had made use of the personal shoppers at Saks Fifth Avenue, the evening’s sponsor, to find their attire.

Standing between the reconfigured skeletons of a Barosaurus defending its child against an Allosaurus, they discussed their plans to watch the royal wedding in the morning. For neither would it be a dressy occasion.

“I’ll be in bed with my children in pajamas with a mug of coffee,” said Ms. Jones.

The sole celebrity at the event was the actor Steve Guttenberg, who wasn’t preoccupied with the royal wedding. In fact, he said, he had be en route to a different wedding the next day, as he’d been invited to Steve Wynn’s nuptials in Las Vegas. “It’s even bigger,” he said.

Soon a bagpipe player cued guests that it was time to move into the Hall of Ocean Life, where a video montage of English settings played beneath the blue whale. Chicken potpies were served at dinner, and bowls of English candy like Double Deckers, Crunchies and Maltesers were placed throughout the Hall of African Mammals.

Christopher Raxworthy, who is authentically British and a curator at the museum, greeted diners with a “Yeah, Baby!”

He went on to talk about his work, and clarified that while he was an expert in herpetology, this had nothing to do with STDs, but in fact, amphibians and reptiles.

When asked later how it felt to be surrounded by Americans dressed in their perceptions of the British, he said, “It’s really fun. In a sense it’s a very powerful form of flattery.”

A representative for the museum said the event raised close to $400,000.

—Lizzie Simon

By KEVIN SINTUMUANG

Texting. Ringing phones. Overpriced M&Ms. Dax Shepard. Oh, the many reasons to avoid the movie theater. Makes you want to just stay home and fire up the Jiffy Pop, doesn’t it?

I can keep going with why the cineplex is less appealing than the DMV. In fact, why not? Tickets cost $15. Stale popcorn costs $15. Stupid Fandango “convenience fees.” Commercials before trailers. Sticky floors. Mall rats. Sequels based on sequels that started off as Disney rides. Sequels of sequels based on TV shows that were based on toys. Sequels that are prequels of movies based on a comic book of which there were two sequels—and a spinoff. And did I mention Dax Shepard?

So those are the reasons why this summer I’ll be getting most of my cinematic entertainment, with the exception of a handful of movies, at home, through the Internet, on my couch.

But watching flicks in the living room isn’t just about avoiding movie theater annoyances. We’re witnessing a special little moment in home entertainment right now: There are more quality, full-length films to be discovered and rediscovered through a wireless router than there are at the multiplex. And all for less than the cost of a jumbo box of Junior Mints.

I’m not talking about renting “127 Hours” through iTunes or getting red envelopes of DVDs in the mail. There’s a system that’s even better: on-demand, unlimited movie subscriptions from Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. For around $8 a month, you can stream just about anything you want.

The beauty of these movie buffets, aside from the absence of late fees or 24-hour shelf lives (as is the case with many Internet rentals), is that there’s practically no barrier to watching films you might not have considered when paying a la carte.

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Marvel Studios

‘Thor’ hits theaters May 6

Example? “Timecop.” You’re not going to watch it for $3. But if you can watch it instantly? For “free”? Yeah, you’ll probably press play and, unless you have a thing against time-traveling thrillers, or Jean-Claude Van Damme or the girlfriend from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” you’ll probably enjoy it.

Another example? “Wild Strawberries” or “Rashomon.” I used to call these “coaster” movies because, more often then not when they arrived in the mailbox from my overly ambitious Netflix queue they would end up on my coffee table underneath a Miller Lite as I viewed something, you know, without subtitles. Now that these finer works of the canon cinematique can be instantly streamed I can watch and enjoy them when I’m feeling arty rather than force myself to just to get disc 2 of “Archer.”

Disclaimer: The streaming selection on all three services are padded with B- and C-list movies like “SanFranpsycho” and you may be frustrated that more recent releases aren’t available quickly enough. Still, for $8 a month there’s an impressive number of films that are worth your time (some of which I’ve noted in the chart above).

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Warner Bros.

‘The Hangover: Part II’ opens May 26.

So which service is right for you? Film snobs should not overlook Hulu, which has, in addition to the best selection of current TV titles, the rights to several exclusive Criterion Collection movies—the most highbrow group of films on the planet. With a subscription to Hulu Plus, you’ll get these as well as access to a wide variety of TV shows and movies, all with fewer ads to deal with than the free Hulu you veg out on at the office.

Just a few months old, Amazon Prime Instant Videos is part of the $80 annual membership to Amazon Prime, a program that entitles you to free two-day shipping for things you purchase on the website, among other benefits. It’s not bad, but you search for movies as you would socks or books or anything else in the Amazon eco-system. Hopefully it will get slicker as it grows.

Netflix, however, as the streaming pioneer, has the biggest and best selection of films you can watch instantly, including many from the Criterion Collection. There are no ads and its apps, available on the greatest number of devices (everything from your Nintendo Wii to your iPad), are the most elegant of the three.

I know what you’re thinking. Am I telling you to curl up on your couch with your laptop as you would on a 747? No. Getting this streaming goodness on your TV is easy. The simplest solution is the Roku streaming player (from $60, roku.com). Just connect it to your TV as you would a DVD player or a set top box and you’ll have access to all three subscription streaming services. Certain Tivo boxes, game consoles, and Internet connected disc players and televisions also have apps running these services. And, while it may be inconvenient, you can just connect your computer to your television. If you don’t have a computer with an HDMI port, you’ll need to get the right cables and dongles. A pain, but, hey, so is spending $10 on Skittles.

The cinema studies student in me is wagging its copy of “Godard on Godard” as I write this and asking: Shouldn’t films be watched in movie houses as the director intended? Isn’t the reason people talk in theaters because we’re so accustomed to watching films at home? Why haven’t you seen “Socialism” yet?

Yes, young folk these days may no longer think of theaters as sacred temples to celluloid, but it’s also the first generation that has every season of “Lost” and all of Akira Kurosawa’s films at the ready to be watched, absorbed and pondered with just a few keystrokes. No red envelopes, no snooty video clerks, no sticky floors. Maybe they will become such über-cineastes that they’ll force Hollywood to stop making sequels of sequels based on toys found in cereal boxes. But if not, I wouldn’t mind a “Timecop 3.”

By MELANIE GRAYCE WEST

It’s all about schnitzel for brunch at Edi & the Wolf, an East Village restaurant with Austrian roots.

The schnitzel burger, with a pounded pork cutlet that is breaded and fried, is served on challah bread and loaded with aioli and tomato confit. It’s a terrific, substantial handful, made better with the side of fingerling potatoes that have been roasted, flash fried and rolled in Gruyère cheese, bacon and parsley.

The brunch menu, with a set price of $14, is short with just six choices including granola, scrambled-egg dishes, tartines, a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, and a Kaiserschmarrn, an Austrian-style pancake. The meal begins with a pretty little basket of breads and jams, coffee and juice. Skip the traditional brunch Bellini and go for its improved cousin, the Kir Yvette, made with lemon, kir and Prosecco, $8.

The restaurant opened late last year and is the sister to midtown’s Seäsonal Restaurant & Weinbar. Executive chefs Eduard Frauneder and Wolfgang Ban are native Austrians and have strived to create an old-country feel in the dining room. With its all-wood, slightly decayed character, the room is definitely odd-looking but ultimately cool. There’s a back patio, too.

Edi & the Wolf, 102 Ave. C at E. 7th St., serves brunch from 11:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on weekends.

Write to Melanie Grayce West at melanie.west@wsj.com

By WILL FRIEDWALD

Julie Skarratt

Wynton Marsalis, Willie Nelson and Norah Jones join forces.

Sad to say, the most famous anecdote about the relationship between jazz and country music involves Buddy Rich on his deathbed in 1987. Before his final surgery, the story goes, the legendary drummer was asked if there was anything he was allergic to. Without missing a beat (he never did), he responded: “Yeah, country music.”

Even today, the singer-songwriter Anna Wilson says, “There are two kinds of people out there: Those who believe that there could never be any common ground between jazz and country music, and those who know that they’ve shaken hands, at least, in the past.”

Ms. Wilson’s new album, “Countrypolitan Duets,” is one of five recently released records that aim for common ground between the two venerable American music traditions. The most high-profile of these is “Here We Go Again,” the second recorded meeting between two dominant figures in each medium, Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis. But Ms. Wilson’s album also boasts a pantheon of Nashville stars both classic (Ray Price, Kenny Rogers) and contemporary (Lady Antebellum, Rascal Flatts). Also new on shelves are two mostly instrumental sets by musicians on the east (Bucky Pizzarelli’s “Back in the Saddle Again”) and west coasts (Cow Bop’s “Too Hick for the Room”) that are deeply inspired by the Western Swing of the 1940s. And the most unlikely of them all, “Pretend It’s the End of the World,” by saxophonist Bryan Murray, explores the conjunction of Merle Haggard and Ornette Coleman.

All of these albums (except, notably, the last) feature female vocalists. Norah Jones, whose style is rooted equally in Texas and the Downtown jazz scene, is a perfect foil for Messrs. Nelson and Marsalis, while Cow Bop spotlights a singer identified only as “Pinto Pammy.” Rebecca Kilgore, whose vocals are the major asset on Mr. Pizzarelli’s two country albums, said that singing country music requires “an entirely different approach than jazz singing. It’s not about improvisation or phrasing—it’s about emotion, and telling a story above all.”

Alan Nahigian

Bucky Pizzarelli goes country.

One of the major living jazz singers, Ms. Kilgore had sung in her adopted hometown of Portland, Ore., with a Western Swing group called Ranch Dressing some 30 years before contributing to Mr. Pizzarelli’s country albums. “It was a constant struggle between the jazz players and the country players,” she recalled. “The jazz guys could read the music properly but weren’t familiar with the songs, and the country guys couldn’t read that well but they knew the idiom.” Both factions, including pianist Monty Alexander and steel-guitar specialist Tommy White, work together beautifully on Mr. Pizzarelli’s album, with Ms. Kilgore’s mellifluous voice resonating like a honky-tonk angel even when singing “Hard Life Blues.”

Ms. Wilson, who is appearing at Joe’s Pub on Wednesday, described the rhythm of jazz as “very push and pull. Country music doesn’t do that; country songs are there to tell you a story.”

She’s in a unique position to make the comparison: Best known as a Nashville songwriter who has written for most of the contemporary artists who appear on her “Duets” album, Ms. Wilson characterized her own singing as jazz. But for “Countrypolitan,” her first album of standards, she has taken 10 country classics and arranged them in a swing-band fashion—Willie Nelson’s “Night Life” here sounds more like a Count Basie blues riff.

Cow Bop’s “Too Hick for the Room” is even more steeped in the country-swing idiom, with guitarist-leader Bruce Forman and guest pianist Roger Kellaway deftly interweaving bebop licks into familiar country airs like “Tennessee Waltz.” Most tracks, like the Bob Wills signature “San Antonio Rose” (which drops hints to Monk’s “Straight No Chaser”) are played in a danceable two-beat that rocks throughout.

Released last year, Mr. Murray’s “Pretend It’s the End of the World” (under the name Bryan and the Haggards) is an album of Merle Haggard songs played by two saxophones, guitar, bass and drums. It comes from a different place entirely. Unlike Messrs. Pizzarelli and Forman, Mr. Murray builds on the differences, rather than the commonalities, of jazz and country. As he put it, “This music is the opposite of what the contemporary jazz players look for, which is super complicated, with odd meters and tons of chord changes.”

Unlike most modern jazzmen, who often address a pop or rock song by reharmonizing it to make it more “jazzy,” Mr. Murray makes the medium of jazz simpler. “It’s like playing an Ornette Coleman tune, where you have no changes and can just open up,” he said. The album’s title comes from “Sing Me a Sad Song,” and underscores how Mr. Haggard’s saloon tunes (like “Swinging Doors”) are among the saddest in all of recorded music. In interpreting “Swinging Doors,” “Lonesome Fugitive” and other Haggard classics from a free-jazz perspective, Mr. Murray makes them sound not merely heartbreaking but positively apocalyptic. The “end of the world” indeed.

By MATTHEW FUTTERMAN

The lockout is back on.

A three judge panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 Friday to issue a temporary stay of the district court injunction that lifted the lockout earlier in the week. .

The judges will rule in the coming days on a request by the NFL to issue a full stay of the injunction until they reach a decision on the owners appeal of the district court ruling.

U.S. district court Judge Susan Richard Nelson issued the injunction because she said the lockout violated anti-trust laws.

Write to Matthew Futterman at matthew.futterman@wsj.com