I love a juicy conspiracy theory as much as the next guy (Cobain, 9/11), but whatever your thoughts about the six year old Tribeca Film Festival, there is no hidden agenda surrounding the recent revelation that organizers apparently registered the tribecafilmfestival.com URL a year before 9/11 (as blogged at NY Mag and Best Week Ever).

As I clearly wrote in indieWIRE the day the new festival was unveiled in December of 2001, Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal (pictured right, at last night's awards event) were already planning to launch a fest downtown before 9/11:

Robert DeNiro, the actor and TriBeCa developer/restauranteur, discussed the idea of a film festival for the neighborhood when he and business partner Jane Rosenthal formed the Tribeca Film Center on Greenwich Ave. thirteen years ago. Plans for the fest were put on the front burner this year, and then halted momentarily after the tragic events of Sept. 11th. Now, organizers see it as an important step towards rebuilding the severely damaged downtown scene. - indieWIRE: 12/07/01

Anyway, it was widely understood at the time that 9/11 actually interrupted plans for a Tribeca festival and after the tragedy, the plans were revived with a greater sense of purpose...