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NEWSLETTER
Updated: October 27, 2005
This week brings some sad news in my extended family, the Salmons. Dr. Doug
Salmon (husband of Bev and father to Doug, Jr., Warren, Heather and Leslie)
passed away last week. He walked through life as such a Distinguished Gentleman
and will be sorely missed by all that knew him - for me as "Doc". My
prayers go out to all who loved this great, quiet and brilliant man. The legacy
he leaves with us is truly incredible. See more details below. The edition is
dedicated to his memory and for the impact he has had on us personally,
professionally and spiritually.
Check out all categories
- tons of Canadian content in MUSIC
NEWS, FILM NEWS, TV NEWS, THEATRE NEWS, and
OTHER NEWS! Have a read and a scroll! This newsletter is
designed to give you some updated entertainment-related news and provide you
with our upcoming event listings. Welcome to those who are new
members. Want your events listed by date? Check out EVENTS.
Want to be removed from the distribution, click REMOVE.
::HOT EVENTS::
Canadian Music Artists Join Katrina
Fundraising Efforts – HOT Line-Up
Have you wondered what you can do to
help while watching the media coverage of the devastating trail of Hurricane
Katrina? This is your opportunity to help those in need - come out on Thursday,
October 6th to Revival, 783 College Street at 8:00 pm for one of
the hottest musical showcases to support Habitat For Humanity's
"Operation Home Delivery" project to aid the rebuilding of the
gulf coast. Syreeta Neal, one of
Toronto’s R&B divas (and daughter of Grammy-winning Kenny Neal), a native
of New Orleans has family members who lost their homes. Syreeta returned to
Toronto just days after surviving the challenges that the hurricane left in its
wake. Syreeta’s first order of business? To put together a fundraiser with a
plethora of her friends and family in a musical showcase to help those left
without a home.
The goal is to raise funds for Habitat For Humanity's "Operation Home
Delivery" project. This division of HFH is a program where
"sample" houses are built and sent to areas in the gulf coast
affected by Hurricane Katrina. Volunteers then rebuild whole communities
speedily in order to assist impoverished families to start anew. Syreeta’s
vision is to effect change for the future of these people. With costs of $100
million dollars to build 1,500 houses, the need for donations is great.
The show will be hosted by Syreeta Neal and one of the South's hottest
producers Howard M. (Master P., Lil Romeo, C Miller, Faith Evans, Lil
Wayne!). The confirmed line-up is:
Andrew Craig
Dane
DJ Carl Allen
Graph Nobel
James Bryan
Jeen O'Brien
Kayte Burgess
Jennie Laws
Melanie Durrant
Syreeta Neal
The Show
Wade O. Brown
Zaki Ibrahim
… and more surprise special guests!
The majority of the performers will be playing acoustically or "unplugged"
in an intimate setting. The range of varied performers includes the genres of
rock, R&B, dance and soul - all joining forces to raise some funds. Anyone
who wants to help heal through the power of music and give what they can for
the cause is welcome!
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6
CONCERT FOR KATRINA RELIEF
Hosted by Syreeta Neal and Howard M.
Revival Lounge
783 College Street (at Shaw)
Doors open: 8:00 pm
Showtime: 9:30 pm
Cover: $10 before 10:00 pm, $15 after 10:00 pm
Ladies Night at Hotel Lounge - Thursdays
Every
Thursday night Hotel Boutique Lounge invite you to “Ladies Night” Hosted by: Trent, Canada’s top male model (www.trentonline.ca).
Hotel Boutique Lounge is an intimate night club, where you can party in style
with Toronto’s most stunning ladies and classy men. Thursdays cater to women!
Ladies are free all night long, and there are free drink tickets, product gift
bags, long stem red roes, and much more as giveaways. Come and check out the newest Thursday night
in Toronto!
LADIES NIGHT THURSDAYS
Hosted by Trent
Hotel Boutique Lounge
77 Peter Street, Main Floor
21 and over
Ladies free all night long
For Reservations:416.345.8585
www.hotelboutiquelounge.com
www.trentonline.ca
::WE REMEMBER::
Dr. Douglas Salmon, 81: Surgeon, Scholar
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Philip
Mascoll, Staff Reporter
(Sep. 27, 2005) Dr.
John Douglas Graham Roy Salmon was a kind and wonderful
person who had to struggle for everything he achieved, his family and friends
say. Salmon, who died last Wednesday at age 81, wasn't only one of the first
black surgeons in Canada. He was an accomplished pianist, scholar, athlete and
sculptor as well. "From the moment I met him, I knew he was a person I
could truly respect, and I never varied from thinking that way," Beverley (Bev) Salmon, his wife and former Metro Toronto and North York councillor said
of her partner for 49 years. "He was always warm and loving to all the
family. He had a way of reaching out to people ... he was loved by patients and
colleagues alike. He was truly a role model and inspiration." His lifelong
friend, lawyer Leonard Braithwaite, Canada's first black MPP, called Salmon
"kind and capable. "This great land of ours is better because of
him," Braithwaite said of the man he grew up with near Kensington Market.
Braithwaite said that in those days, before World War II, black families were
few and far between in Toronto. Salmon's life was a story of triumph over
adversity. Born Dec. 13, 1923, in Toronto to Jamaican immigrants Eugenie, a
Black Cross (the Marcus Garvey-originated medical corps) nurse, and Robert, a
veteran of the Boer War, Douglas was the youngest of six children. They became
orphaned during the Great Depression when Douglas was 6. Their mother's sister,
Margaret Brown (Aunt Mag), a childless widow in her 50s, stepped in to raise
them. Salmon was independent and strong-willed even as a child. His late
sister, Stevella, used to recall that even from a very young age, her baby
brother was always insistent that "I'm going to be a docta!"
Young Douglas Salmon would let nothing stand in his way, according to the
family history. Always resourceful and self-motivated he would go around the
neighbourhood and light furnaces for a penny, as well as work three paper
routes so he, too, could contribute to the family. In the 1940s, "Doug
Salmon & his Orchestra" entertained at dances, parties and lodges in
and around Toronto. Not escaping the realities of racism of the day, Salmon
became a protest leader on the Race Discrimination Committee (1942), which
battled for the rights of blacks to enter Toronto's Palais Royale to see jazz
greats such as Duke Ellington. The protest came after he and a group of friends
were denied admission to the Palais Royale to hear Earl "Fatha" Hines
play piano.
In a 1992 interview with the Star, Salmon said while Canada didn't
have segregation in those days, blacks did find themselves shut out of places.
"You didn't see blacks as salespersons. As far as education was concerned,
you saw few blacks introduced to university." In 1951, he obtained his
honours degree in physiology and biochemistry from the University of Toronto,
and in 1955, his medical degree, graduating president of his second medical
year. Salmon received scholarships from the American Jessie Smith Noyes
Foundation and interned at Toronto Western Hospital. In 1954, his sister Bea
introduced him to Beverley Bell, a young Victorian Order nurse. They were
married in 1956 and immediately moved to Detroit. Although he was offered a
thriving practice in Detroit, the couple chose to return to Toronto and started
a family. They had four children: J. Douglas Jr., Warren, Heather and Leslie.
In 1967, Salmon joined Scarborough Centenary Hospital's general surgical staff.
He was the busiest general surgeon there for many years, which his colleagues
attributed to not only his superior skills and training, but also his work
ethic, conscientious patient care, disciplined lifestyle and great personality.
Salmon was known for his courage, humility and compassion, as he became one of
the first surgeons in Canada to treat the morbidly obese with breakthrough
gastric bypass surgery.
Salmon became president of Centenary's medical staff and was later appointed
chief of general surgery, the first black person in Canada to hold such
positions. After retiring from Centenary Hospital in 1995, he joined the Rudd
Clinic in downtown Toronto. He retired from practice in 1997. Salmon was a
fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and a fellow of the American College of
Surgeons. In recognition of his outstanding stature and service to the
community, he was awarded the Canadian Black Achievement Award, Medicine. In
tribute to their beloved husband and father, his family has established the Dr.
John Douglas Graham Salmon Award for Black Medical Students, administered
through the University of Toronto's faculty of medicine. Donations to the award
may be made c/o The Medical Science Building, Room 2306, 1 Kings College
Circle, Toronto, M5S 1A8, or call Ingrid Graham, 416-946-7681. Visitation will
take place today at Jerrett Funeral Home, 6191 Yonge St., south of Steeles
Ave., from 2-4 p.m. and from 7-9 p.m. A funeral is to be held at 11 a.m.
tomorrow at St. John's York Mills Anglican Church, 19 Don Ridge, North York,
with a reception to follow at the church. The interment is private.
The Passing of Dr. John Douglas (Doug) Graham Salmon,
M.D., F.R.C.S(C), F.A.C.S. - Retired Surgeon and Chief of Surgery at
Scarborough Centenary Hospital
On Wednesday, September 21, 2005 at age 81, Douglas
died peacefully at home surrounded by loved ones after a lengthy and courageous
struggle. He was lovingly cared for by his family and caregivers. Devoted
dearly loved husband of Bev, loving father of Douglas Jr. (Susan Fraser),
Warren, Heather and Leslie (Jeff Jones). Beloved grandfather of Caitlyn, Tyler,
Jordan, Shakarri and the late baby Angel Rose. He will be missed by his
extended family and friends. Survived by his sister Bea, predeceased by his
parents Eugenie and Robert, and siblings Stevella, Arthur, Lloyd, Mae and his
beloved Aunt Mag. Friends will be received at the Jerrett Funeral Home, 6191
Yonge Street (2 lights south of Steeles Ave.) Tuesday, September 27 from 2 – 4
and 7 – 9 pm. Funeral Service Wednesday, September 28 at 11am at St. John’s
York Mills Anglican Church, 19 Don Ridge. Reception to follow at the church. Private
Interment. Donations in Doug’s memory can be made to the University of Toronto,
The John Douglas Graham Salmon Award for Black Medical Students c/o The Medical
Science Building, Rm 2306, 1 Kings College Circle, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8 or
call Ingrid Graham (416)946-7681.
::MUSIC NEWS::
Urban Music Association Of Canada Unveils
Nominees For 2005 Awards
(September 27, 2005) - Today the Urban Music Association of Canada (UMAC) announced the nominees for the 2005 Canadian Urban Music Awards (CUMAs), the flagship event on Canada's urban music calendar taking place November 28 & 29 in Toronto.
Leading the field with five nominations apiece are Hip-Hop star k-os and R&B powerhouse Jully Black. In addition to his nomination in the Fan's Choice Award category, k-os racked up nominations for Hip-Hop Recording of the Year, Songwriter
of the Year, Producer of the Year and Music Video of the Year for his
critically-acclaimed Joyful Rebellion project.
Black's hit single "Sweat of Your Brow", off of her debut
album, This is
Me, earned a nomination in the R&B/Soul
Recording of the Year category, as well as two nominations for Dance/Electronic
Recording of the Year for remixes of the song by Trackheadz and Tricky Moreira. The co-host of last
year's awards show also earned nods in the Music Video and New Artist of the
Year categories.
Fan's Choice nominees Keshia Chanté and Divine Brown were close behind with four nominations each. Chanté, who took home three CUMA
trophies last year, is also up for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year
("Let the Music Take You"), Music Video of the Year, and shares a
Songwriter of the Year nomination with Rupert Gayle. Divine
Brown was rewarded with four nods for her
stellar self-titled debut offering (R&B/Soul Recording, New Artist, Music
Video and Fan's Choice).
Shawn
Desman, who came Back for More
earlier this year with his sophomore release, scored three nominations
(R&B/Soul Recording of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Fan's Choice
Award).
Breakthrough R&B star Massari earned two nominations
(R&B/Soul Recording of the Year and New Artist of the Year) in recognition
of his solid self-titled debut album. Other double-nominees include talented
Hip-Hop artist Rochester aka Juice (Hip-Hop Recording
of the Year and New Artist of the Year), producer/songwriter/rapper Saukrates (Producer and Songwriter of the Year), Montreal-based Hip-Hop
artist and MusiquePlus VJ Malik Shaheed (Francophone Recording
of the Year and Media Personality of the Year), and Hip-Hop star K'naan (Hip Hop Recording of the Year and Songwriter of the Year).
Other notable urban music stars competing for 2005 CUMAs include Maestro (Hip-Hop Recording of the
Year), jazz icons Jane Bunnett, Ranee Lee and Oliver Jones (Jazz Recording), Sonia Collymore (Reggae Recording), and in the Global Rhythms category, Alpha Yaya Diallo, Donné
Robert and Madagascar Slim from the award-winning African Guitar Summit collective.
"With the amazing field of nominees this year, the show promises to be an
unbelievable showcase of talent and star-power," says UMAC Executive Director, Aisha Wickham. "We are currently cooking up some awesome performance
collaborations that we will be announcing soon. Believe me…this year's show is
not to be missed!"
In a new category this year, UMAC members will have the opportunity
to honour an outstanding member of the urban music industry with the Community
Service Award. Nominees in that category include the Atlantic Canada Hip Hop
E-Newsletter (an online resource and mentoring
tool for the East Coast music industry), B.L.O.C.K.Headz (a youth empowerment organization that has used music to raise
political awareness), the Kay Morris Foundation (which supports
orphans and provides disaster aid to Africa) and UrbanAIDS (which employs urban music to increase youth awareness of how to
prevent HIV/AIDS and encourages youth to participate in volunteer activities to
promote prevention and assist people affected by HIV/AIDS).
Canadian Idol judge Farley Flex will be honoured with this
year's Special Achievement Award for raising the profile of urban music in
Canada and for representing the industry on a national scale with infectious
charisma and business acumen. Flex, who was one of the founding executives of
FLOW 93.5 and has helped launch urban stations in Calgary and Edmonton, is
currently guiding the careers of artists such as Canadian Idol
finalists Toya
Alexis and Gary Beals,
as well as JUNO Award-winners In Essence through his company, Plasma
Corporation. He is also a popular public speaker, coaching diverse audiences
about potential, performance and effective career planning.
The Lifetime Achievement Award will go to jazz drummer Archie Alleyne, who has played with countless jazz greats throughout his 56-year
career, including Billie Holiday, Nancy Wilson, Mel
Torme, Joe Sealy,
Liberty
Silver and many more. Currently, this
primarily self-taught musician is co-band leader of Kollage, a jazz collective that has included emerging music stars from
Hungary to Toronto and has performed for leaders like the President of Iceland
to Nelson Mandela. In 2004, Kollage won Acoustic Group of the Year
at the National Jazz Awards. Alleyne has a music scholarship fund
and mentor program named in his honour, which helps inner-city high school
students hone their skills with the guidance of seasoned jazz professionals.
The host for this year's award show will be internationally-renowned comedian Russell Peters. Peters, who earlier this year became the first South Asian comedian to
headline and sell-out the famed Apollo Theatre in New York and has played to
sold-out crowds across the United States, was recently signed to a talent deal
with Werner-Gold-Miller (part of Warner Bros. TV). His quick wit and riotous
characterizations will make for a very entertaining and hilarious show.
The producer for this year's awards show is Ngozi Paul
of Ngozika Productions. Paul was part of the original creative
team of Canada's first Black sitcom, Lord Have Mercy!, which was nominated for two Gemini Awards, including best comedic
series. She was also co-producer of the landmark television event, The Tonya Lee Williams Gospel
Jubilee, which aired on the CBC in March of 2004.
The co-producer of the 2005 CUMAs is Sol Guy, who has been an influential contributor to the rise of Canadian
urban music for more than a decade. As co-founder of Figure IV Entertainment,
he worked closely with and developed the careers of RASCALZ, k-os, and Kardinal Offishall. Through his 4REAL
project, he has traveled the world with his partner Joshua Sage, documenting
the stories of young leaders around the world who are making change under
extra-ordinary circumstances, and connecting them with internationally-renowned
artists such as K'naan and dead prez.
The production team also includes UMAC
Artist Relations Director and Acting President Debi Blair
and Joan
Pierre. With a focus on television, urban
music and event promotions, Blair is a veteran associate producer
of previous CUMAs and will provide valuable creative and artistic leadership again
for the 2005 awards. Pierre is a well-respected fixture in
Canada's event planning industry and has over 25 years of experience in project
management, sponsorship, arts administration and production for television and
stage.
This year's event is generously supported by FLOW 93.5
(Toronto), FACTOR (through the Canada Music Fund), The Bounce 91.7 (Edmonton), Radio Starmaker Fund, the SOCAN Foundation and the Toronto-Dominion Centre.
Online voting to select the winners of the CUMAs is
open exclusively to UMAC members from Wednesday, September
28 through Friday, October 28 at www.umacmembership.com.
For more
information on the CUMAs and the nominees, visit www.umac.ca.
Where Fashion Meets Fado
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail - By
Tony Montague
(Sept. 23, 2005) Mariza is still at work. The Portuguese chanteuse keeps
a busy schedule, and just a few hours after flying home from two concerts in the
Azores she's in the studio of dress-designer Joao Rolo, consulting with
him on a floor-length gown for her North American tour. "Joao is a kind of
Portuguese Valentino-figure -- very stylish," she says. "We've been
collaborating for six years, from the beginning, and I owe him a great
deal." With her haute-couture gowns and close-cropped platinum hair,
Mariza has become an icon of Latin elegance in glossy magazines around the
world. However, while she nurtures her image carefully, what really inspires
Mariza is not fashion but fado -- the bittersweet music that
encapsulates the soul of Lisbon. Sometimes referred to as the Portuguese blues,
fado belongs to the streets and tavernas where it was created in
the 19th century by sailors, fishwives, and former slaves. Mariza's powerful
and supple voice is able to draw out every shade and colour of the emotionally
saturated songs. You don't need to understand the language to know what she's
singing about. "The essence of fado is human feelings," she says,
"It deals with everything -- melancholy, saudade [yearning], joy,
lost love, hope, grief. If it's part of life, then it's part of fado."
Mariza was raised with fado. Her parents ran a small restaurant or fado-house
in Mouraria, one of the cradles of the music, where she began singing at an
early age.
Amazingly, her guitarist from that time still plays in her band. "Antonio
[Neto] has performed with me since I was six and we're great friends. As
children we used to make wonderful concerts on our street for the
neighbours." Though Mariza mainly favours a traditional approach to
accompaniment, with guitars and bass, she's also eager to explore new
directions. For her third and latest album, Transparente, she travelled
to Rio de Janeiro to work with Brazilian producer and cellist Jacques
Morelenbaum. His chief innovation was to include such instruments as accordion
and clarinet. "More of my personality, my fado, is able to appear
than before. That's why I called it Transparente," says Mariza.
"We had so much fun making it -- sometimes we stayed in the studio until
3:30 a.m. I never found time to go to the beach. Can you imagine being in Rio
and not putting your feet in the ocean?" Transparente topped the
Portuguese charts this summer. Next year, Mariza will also bring fado to
the screen in a film by Spanish director Carlos Saura. "It's called Fados,
but Carlos hasn't shown me the script yet, so I don't know if I will be acting
or singing," she says, with a laugh "I just hope it won't make more
people call me a diva. I hate that word. It comes from 'divine,' and I am just
a human being, a fado singer, and so happy to be that." Mariza
plays at The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts tomorrow. Tickets are $32 to
$49 at Ticketmaster, 604-280-4444.
Tip:
Bring CDS To CD Release Party
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Colin
Pendrith, Special To The Star
(Sep. 24, 2005) Any old group of guys can throw together a motley rock outfit
and play some shows. But it takes major dollars, a nationwide fan base and a
coveted record deal to record an album, right? Absolutely wrong. Computer
technology has made it cheaper and easier than ever to record your band's songs
in high-quality digital format. All it takes is a little money and a lot of
dedication. Using some would-be university tuition money, my group, The Jack Kerouac Knapsack Band, released a full-length
album last January. We gigged like crazy and tried to move albums any way we
could in a mad dash to pay back my debt to Queen's University and complete my
degree by April. In the end, the work paid off — I graduated on time and our
group began to see profits from record sales. Even without taking potentially
catastrophic academic risks, unsigned bands can easily cut an album. Before you
even get near a studio, you need a clear idea of what you want to accomplish.
Bands like U2 can afford to spend months in the studio messing around with song
"ideas" while the Daniel Lanoises of the world (read: enormously
expensive producers) mould them into chart-topping hits. But your band probably
doesn't have this option. If you can only afford 10 hours in the studio, don't
spend the first three deciding which tunes to record. Do your prep-work ahead
of time and you will see the dividends. Think about these important recording
questions: How much money can I spend? Would I rather record more songs at a
lesser quality or a few songs really well? How many songs do I have that are
worth recording? There are three basic categories of studio releases: demos,
EPs and LPs. A demo is the shortest and, in a sense, "most
independent" of recordings. At an industry standard of three songs, a demo
is inexpensive to record and serves as a succinct showcase of your band's
material. An EP, or Extended Play, once denoted a seven-inch record but it now
loosely defines a recording with anywhere from four to seven songs. An LP, or Long
Play, is usually a recording of eight or more songs. But these definitions are
by no means fixed. The first time a newspaper reviewed The Jack Kerouac
Knapsack Band's debut LP, we were informed it was in fact an EP, despite being
40 minutes of music. Who knew? Perhaps you have grandiose aspirations of
recording a concept album in the style of Tommy or Thick as a Brick.
In this case, it may be worth sacrificing the recording quality of individual
songs in order to lengthen the album and preserve its greater artistic
integrity. As someone who co-wrote and recorded a rock opera based on Edmund
Spenser's The Faerie Queene in exchange for university credit, I can
tell you that there's something to be said for biting off more than you can
chew. A basic rule is that the more time you spend on a song, the better it
will sound. If you have time to record six vocal tracks, you are endowed with
the opportunity to use the one in which your singer says "hips"
instead of "lips." Trust me, it makes a big difference. On the other
hand, your recordings will never be perfect so there is a limit to how picky
you should be. Now for the CD release. The most common and effective way to
generate interest in your CD is by throwing a CD release party — essentially a
large, live show with your CD making its purchase debut. But it is absolutely
integral that your CDs be present for this occasion. When The Jack Kerouac
Knapsack Band threw its CD release party at the Elixir Nightclub in Kingston
last January, we were disc-less. The company we hired to press our CDs promised
the discs a week before the release party. This deadline was ignored and
replaced by new, more ignorable deadlines. When the CDs eventually arrived,
they were more than three weeks late for their promised due date. We wound up
on stage explaining our CD would be arriving "sometime." Our band
learned that when it comes time to press your CDs, it's worth a few extra
dollars to hire a good company.
When a CD release party goes smoothly (and by this I mean having CDs!) you can
expect the vast majority of the crowd, mostly your fan base, to buy a copy. The
evening can amount to a hefty number of CD sales. But after the release party,
try approaching independent stores that sell music by local artists. You'll
likely be able to distribute your CDs on consignment: You get money every time
your CD sells and the shop keeps an agreed-upon amount added to the retail
price. Another way to get your music out there is to send your disc to campus
and commercial radio stations. Toronto is fortunate enough to have three large
campus radio stations with real audiences. While commercial radio stations may
not accept unsolicited material, campus stations are always promoting
undiscovered talent. And hearing your song on the radio is exciting. By making
your music available for download on your website or through an online music
community, more people will know about you. We sold several CDs to members of a
naval academy in Annapolis, Maryland, when they downloaded our free songs
online. (Offers for us to headline USO tours are undoubtedly around the
corner.) Your CD is the mark you leave on the music industry. It captures your
musical ideas at a specific point in time. So get to work on your masterpiece
and don't worry about unsold CDs. They'll make great Christmas presents for
years to come. HEAR THE PODCAST: Band members Colin Pendrith
and Connor Thompson talk about the recording processes as they deconstruct the
band's song "Steal The City." http://www.thestar.com/podcasts
Lauryn Opens MOBO
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Sept. 26, 2005) *As scheduled, Lauryn Hill opened the 10th annual Music
of Black Origin (MOBO) awards ceremony at London’s Royal Albert Hall on
Thursday after booked performer Amerie pulled out at the last minute. Hill’s
refusal to make the requisite trip to the press room following her performance was
a minor irritation to reporters. However, bigger concerns loomed about the
show’s increasing mainstream status – including the heavy presence of black
American nominees. The criticism continues to baffle organizers, who have
worked for the past decade to bring widespread credibility to Britain’s annual
celebration of black music. “Mobo is an event that is about celebrating music
of black origin. We’ve had people in the past that are not black and have won
awards, presented and performed because they make music of black origin,” MOBO
marketing and brand communications manager Kubi Springer tells the web site
Black Britain. “If you take a look at the music industry scene from when MOBO
started in 1996 to 2005, it really has shifted and Kanya King, our CEO and
founder, had to bang down a lot of doors back then. People were saying to her,
‘Nobody’s going to be interested in watching an award show of this nature,
there wasn’t an audience for it.’ Now ten years later, it’s a completely
different ball game.” Past criticism of giving away too many awards to American
artists who are never there to collect them was downplayed during Thursday’s
ceremony, with only John Legend and Snoop Dogg the only Yankees taking home
awards out of 13 categories. A surprise winner was UK rapper Sway, who won the
trophy for best hip hop act against such American acts as 50 Cent and The Game.
“We’ve got artists like Sway, who aren’t signed to a record company but are
selling 290,000 mix tapes; you got people like Jamelia who are the face of a
massive global brand like Reebok, the scene has changed. So being MOBO, we have
to represent that,” continued Springer in defence of the show’s move toward the
mainstream. “Music of black origin is important to us and we have to provide a
platform and celebrate all of it.” The ceremony, hosted by Gina Yashere and
Akon, included performances by Lemar, Ms Dynamite, Kano and John Legend, who
took home the award for best R&B act. Public Enemy was honoured for
outstanding contribution to black music, while a posthumous achievement award
went to reggae great Bob Marley. It was accepted by his son Damian, who was
named best reggae act and later closed the show with a tribute to his father
alongside brothers Julian and Stephen. Singers Omar, Misha Paris and newcomer
Nate James teamed to sing Luther Vandross’ “Never Too Much” in a tribute to the
late R&B legend.
Here are the winners:
Best African Act – Youssou N’Dour
Best Album – Lemar
Best hip hop act – Sway
Best Jazz act – Rhian Benson
Best r&b act – John Legend
Best reggae act – Damian Marley
Best single – Lethal B Pow (Forward)
Best UK Club DJ – Steve Sutherland
Best UK Newcomer – Kano
Best UK Radio DJ –Tim Westwood
Best Video – Snoop Dogg ft Pharrell ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’
Best World Music act – Daddy Yankee
UK act of the year – Lemar
MUSIC TIDBITS
Canadian Idol Runner-Up Signs Deal With Sony
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail
(Sept. 24, 2005) Corner Brook -- Rex Goudie, the Newfoundlander who placed
second on Canadian Idol, has signed a record deal with Sony Music
Canada. Just two days after his homecoming, the 19-year-old runner-up confirmed
rumours of the deal. "I want this album to show everyone what I can
do," he said. Sony BMG Canada president Lisa Zbitnew said the nonchalant
attitude of the performer turned heads from his first performance. The fact
that he narrowly lost to Calgary native Melissa O'Reilly didn't concern Sony
executives. CP
SOUL: I've Got My Own Hell to Raise
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail - By
Brad Wheeler
(Sept. 23, 2005) You can't be ordered to sing an album like this -- the peril
is too great for anyone other than a volunteer. Stepping up is Detroit's Bettye
LaVette, a glorious raw-voiced song stylist who pushes well into danger zone,
achingly making hers the songs of 10 woman songwriters. Sinead O'Connor's I
Do Not Want What I Haven't Got is done a cappella and defiantly, Lucinda
Williams's Joy is funked-up something fierce, and Dolly Parton's Little
Sparrow just plain terrifies. The album is produced by Joe Henry, the same
guy who did so well by Solomon Burke on 2003's Don't Give Up on Me, an
album that resembles this one a bit. LaVette even sounds like Burke on ace
track Just Say So, but forget about the comparisons. Veteran LaVette
puts it all on the line -- it's her heart on the recording-room floor. Hell is
raised, and so are the stakes.
Gamble & Huff In Dance Music Hall Again
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Sept. 23, 2005) *For the second year in a row, music legends Kenny Gamble and
Leon Huff were inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame, this time in the
"producer" category for creating an "outstanding body of
work." Songs like "I Love Music," "Expressway to Your
Heart," "Get Up, Get Down, Get Funky, Get Lose," "Love
Train," "Bad Luck," "I'm Not Jivin,' I'm Jammin'" and
"Now that We've Found Love," drew Gamble and Huff a standing ovation
from the audience of hundreds of cheering music industry professionals when
they took the stage together at the famed Manhattan Center as the showpiece and
grand finale of the induction ceremony this week. "We are honoured by this
incredible distinction and humbled by this exceptional tribute," Gamble
said. "It feels wonderful to be recognized by dance music experts around
the globe for a collection of music that we put our hearts and souls into
producing and worked tirelessly, day and night, to create." Huff added:
"We are especially ecstatic and overjoyed that such a prestigious honour
has been bestowed upon us for two years in a row." Harold Melvin's Blue
Notes, Sharon Paige and Bunny Sigler performed a medley of songs in the
Gamble-Huff music collection, including "Hope that We Can Be Together
Soon," "For the Love of Money," "Me and Mrs. Jones"
and "Backstabbers," in a special Dance Music Hall of Fame tribute to
the honoured pair. Last year, the co-founders of Philadelphia International
Records were inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame's "record"
category for creating dance songs "Love is the Message," recorded by
MFSB featuring The Three Degrees and "Don't Leave Me This Way,"
recorded by Thelma Houston. The Hall of Fame hailed "Love is The
Message" as "a timeless classic" embodying "the highest
calling of music" and lauded Huff's keyboard solo as a "critical"
component to the song. It recognized "Don't Leave Me This Way" for
its "supercharged rhythm playing" and "breathtaking
tambourine-driven break."
Shirley Caesar’s “I Know The Truth” Debuts At
#3
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
Gospel Grammy legend Shirley Caesar new release “I Know The Truth” debuted at
#3 on the Billboard gospel charts. I Know The Truth has achieved the highest
chart position, on the Billboard gospel charts, in twenty two years of Caesar’s
career. "I Know The Truth," the first single, has been the talk of
the music industry as it reveals a more versatile side of Caesar where she raps
with Stellar/Dove award-winning artist Tonéx. A song that is definitely out of
the box for Caesar exhibiting her ability to collaborate with any artist
willing to bring it on. Other standout songs, on the 12-track project, include
"Every Day is Like Mother's Day," in memory of Caesar's mother, and
"Jail Bird," a country song about a man on death row who commits himself
to God. “Miracles Still Happen” is a song you must listen to whenever you
forget how God heals or whenever your Faith is not where it should be. This
song will lift your spirits and remind you of how blessed you are. The awesome
production of “Give Me A Song” is an upbeat tune that makes you want to move
your body continuously. “I’ve Been Redeemed” and “Come To The Altar” bring
Caesar’s signature energetic powerhouse vocals with an abundance of love and
encouragement. For more information, go to www.shirleycaesar.com or www.artemisgospel.com.
D'Angelo Critically Injured In SUV Crash
Source: Associated Press
(Sept. 26, 2005) Richmond, Va. — R&B crooner D'Angelo, who won over America
with his '90s soul ballads only to fade after bouts with the law and drugs, was
critically injured in a car wreck outside his hometown of Richmond. D'Angelo,
31, born Michael Eugene Archer, was in a 2003 Hummer sport utility vehicle on
Sept. 19 when it crossed the roadway and struck a fence, ejecting the singer,
state police Sgt. Kevin Barrick said Monday. Archer wasn't wearing a seat
restraint, Barrick said. Barrick said Archer was initially listed in critical
condition, but that no further information is available. Officials at Virginia
Commonwealth University Medical Center, where the Grammy-winning artist was
flown after the wreck, said the family had asked that his condition not be
released. Another person, Lynne Sellers, also was injured in the wreck. Police
couldn't say which of the two had been driving. The accident occurred in
Powhatan County, a bedroom community west of the city. Archer lives in
Midlothian, just outside Richmond. The cause of the crash is under
investigation, Barrick said. Known for hits such as Brown Sugar and a
cover of Smokey Robinson's Cruisin', Archer rode a wave of popularity
that culminated with a Grammy in 2001 for best male R&B vocal performance
for Untitled (How Does It Feel) from the album Voodoo, which
won a Grammy for best R&B album. In April, the singer was fined $250 and
given a 90-day suspended jail term on a driving under the influence of alcohol
conviction. His driver's licence was suspended for one year. On a marijuana
charge, Archer was fined $50 and given a 10-day suspended jail term. His
driver's licence was suspended for an additional six months. Earlier this
month, he received a suspended prison sentence after being convicted of cocaine
possession. Archer had faced three years in prison.
::FILM NEWS::
Tonya Lee Williams: from Y&R to
ReelWorld
Source: by Barbara Goodman, Editorial Director, Canadian Health &
Lifestyle
You may know her as Dr. Olivia
Winters from the daytime drama, The Young and the Restless. But what you may
not know is Tonya Lee Williams started her acting career on the Canadian TV screen
as a teenage girl who had to move to Hollywood to make a living. This
fascinating woman lives between the two worlds of L.A. and hometown Toronto.
She shares her passions and inspirations of building a strong, independent
Canadian film industry that encompasses the cultural diversity of Canada. Tonya
is a modern day storyteller, sit back, relax and enjoy her tale.
H&L: When you went to L.A., was it with the intention of ‘making
it’?
Tonya: I never put that much expectation on myself, for me
it’s about the experience. In the beginning of my career a modeling agency sent
me to Paris, but I wasn’t tall enough. I learned that the experience of living
in Paris for months with six other models was what was important.
I came back to Toronto to find there wasn’t much happening for people of
colour. At an audition Gloria Reuben (of ER fame) said, “Tonya: ’s here we
might as well all leave, she books everything.” If I was booking everything and
not earning enough to live, then something was wrong. It started me thinking. I
was one of the last to go to L.A.. I wanted to stay because I was booking. I
thought there was more but there wasn’t. That was my reality check. I quickly
found out that there’s a lot of money in L.A.. In one tiny guest spot I made
what I’d make all year here. That was really appealing!
H&L: Is Canada’s acting market better today?
Tonya: There’s a different imbalance today. There’s more
people of colour training but there’s still the same amount of work. If you
compare that to when I was the only black person in my entire Ryerson
University class it’s actually worse. Young actors are already asking, “How
do I get to L.A.?”
I’ve been asked why Canada loses its actors to the U.S.. Our perceived loss
builds the business there. Mike Myers and Jim Carrey make billions for the U.S.
film industry. We have to build a strong, independent industry that will create
opportunities for our actors and attract international audiences. ReelWorld
Film Festival and ReelWorld Foundation, are initiatives to help build this
foundation, but won’t solve it alone.
H&L: How is the industry different here?
Tonya: There’s a drive in Hollywood you don’t find around film
in Canada. I compare it to an athlete’s drive to keep going until they win.
That’s how Hollywood projects are handled. A passionate drive runs through
everyone to be the best at what they’re doing, whether they’re in the mailroom,
behind or in front of the camera. They work hard because they know there’s
thousands waiting in the wings.
H&L: Do you have that drive Tonya: ?
Tonya: Definitely. My parents came from the Caribbean. My
father was a judge, and when you come from a country where many oppressive
things hold you down you have to work hard to get anywhere. My parents divorced
when I was 12. My mother was a nurse and yet I was taking piano, violin,
ballet, and jazz after school. And if a school trip came up she saved for it.
She sacrificed to give me every possible experience and opportunity. I watched
her buy a house, rent it out then buy another. When I got into Ryerson she
bought a house close by, and rented the other floors to pay for it so I wouldn’t
be stressed. I came from that kind of drive and it’s bound to rub off.
She also taught me that because I was black I had to work harder to get the
same opportunity as my friends. If you’re a person of colour that’s a given.
I’m not sure Caucasians understand that’s how a child of colour is brought up.
Your parents tell you that you have to be three times better just to be on a
level playing field. The only Caucasians who may understand that are immigrants
themselves. That reality was there when I went to L.A. as well. I had to
audition more, at fewer auditions with a lot more competition. So I had to be
brilliant to have a career equal to my friends. And it’s not any different for
people of colour today.
H&L: What did you do differently to get ahead as an actor?
Tonya: When I got my first agent here and other people sat at
home and waited for their agent to call I knew I didn’t have that option. I had
to be creative. So after the Genie and Gemini Awards I would send a card to
producers who won with my picture on it congratulating them. I did my own
marketing. I didn’t have the option of waiting for the phone to ring. I had to
create the thought to create a role for me because there were no roles for
black women then.
My Ryerson voice coach offered some profound advice that’s still with me today,
“You’re only a good actor if the audience likes you.” Simple but true. If
people aren’t coming to watch you, you’re not good. And I believe that goes for
film too. If an audience isn’t coming to what we create, it can’t be good. And
those of us in the Canadian film industry need to find out what they like and
create it to bring in the audiences.
H&L: Is there anything you’d like to say to today’s
aspiring actors?
Tonya: Hollywood’s different today, it’s savvier. The actors
of the future know how to write, direct and produce. No more sitting and
waiting for a call. If I was starting now I’d align myself with emerging
directors and screenwriters, a team where everyone can benefit from one
another’s skills. You have to come with a story. Or find a true story that you
can portray, make that your baby and run with it. Agents get excited about a
project that has a strong story even if they don’t know you. I’ve found stories
about historical women that I’d want to play in a movie.
H&L: What gets you through tough times?
Tonya: When I was a child I’d read a lot of fairy tales. The
Prince would always have to fight a dragon and kill it before he’d win the hand
of the princess his reward. So I learned to romanticize the obstacles in my
life. They’re just part of the journey, my dragon to slay to get the reward. I
may not know what it is, it’s only important for me to know that there is that
reward.
H&L: This comes from reading as a child?
Tonya: Yes, plus I was an only child and would easily fall
into my own fantasy world. I also had rheumatic fever when I was four. I was
hospitalized for six months and only had contact with my mother, the doctors
and nurses.
My mother told me they held me down to give me the needles. This and the pain
of the needles were very traumatic, so I’d escape into my fairytale world of
“these people are clearly cruel and someone’s going to save me.” This was my
way of dealing. I couldn’t play and run like the other kids either so that was
more time spent reading and expanding my imagination.
H&L:
What
about Tonya: ’s future?
Tonya: I definitely see myself as a director. I also see
myself in a little cabin writing a novel or a script. I can’t be creative when
I have too much going on. The last few years with Y&R, and flying back and
forth has squelched that and I’m really starting to crave it.
I also have to make a decision on what I’m going to focus on from a health
perspective. The flying is hard on my body as well as the stress of not
creating what I need. When I made the decision to phase out Y&R to be here
more and to make this my job it really freaked me out. Because the reason I
went to L.A. was to earn money. Last year I directed ‘Da Kink in My Hair’ and I
hardly made anything. I still haven’t learned how to earn money here. So
working with ReelWorld will help create work for me as a writer, director or
producer as well as for other Canadians here the dragon again.
My passion is to reveal the tapestry of Canadian multi-culturalism to the
world. Canada is known as the biggest multi-cultural country in the world and I
love that. We’re denying ourselves; we’re not showing the world our number one
feature. We do this better than anyone else. And ReelWorld will help do this
H&L: You have a novel perspective for the film industry
here.
Tonya: I believe we’re born with tools and that during our
life we’re also given tools. There’s a reason I was born to Caribbean parents,
another melting pot, lived in England, Canada and the U.S. There’s a
multi-cultural thing in the way I’ve lived.
When I started the Film Festival everyone thought it would be a Black Film
Festival but that was never my intention. My intention is to bring all cultural
film under one Festival. The idea still hasn’t caught on. There are some 43
cultural film festivals in Toronto. I believe a time will come when there won’t
be any segregated work.
H&L: Would you like to change your life in any way?
Tonya: I’ve had a definite shift in my energy. I want to
explore that and find more balance. I think people are supposed to be in a
relationship, to have a family. There’s a connection I feel I’m missing. And
I’d like to open that area of myself. I haven’t learned how to integrate
relationships into my life yet so they’ve been short. And since I’ve been so
busy in my career I don’t even know what I’d like in a relationship. When I
asked myself that, what I realized was “Who do I want to be?” that’s what has
to be clear first.
I’ve been living in a persona for many years. There’s a part of me that’s an
all natural girl, and then there’s the Y&R persona that most people know.
When I’m in L.A. I live in that persona, and I’m so not that. I’m so exhausted
from living that persona I haven’t had the energy to find me. Ideally it would
be great to be able to take the time to find that out. But what may happen as I
live in my new choices I’ll actually find out.
H&L: What’s the one thing you’d really miss if it wasn’t
in your life?
Tonya: (reflecting) I’m obsessive about quiet and silence.
It’s the one thing where I feel I’d go insane if I couldn’t have it. I can go
days with absolute silence so I can think, hear myself, be centred and be
focused. I can give up material things, I don’t believe they have any real
value except for the pleasure it brings in that moment.
H&L: You truly connect with your spirit.
Tonya: Yes. I believe that I’m just passing through this life.
So I focus on why I’m here.
H&L: Why do you think you’re here?
Tonya: Well I know we’re all here to learn our lessons. I see
it like we’re these rough objects that we’re polishing. I think most people
feel we’re here to help other people. I think we’re really only here to help
ourselves and in the helping of ourselves we help others. One of the things
I’ve been learning through the Festival is to be a good team player; I’m a
great lone wolf. I’ve found it hard to connect in groups where decisions are
discussed and created by the group and not an individual. By me learning this,
other people as well as the organization blossoms because of all their
contributions.
I believe if you’re on the right path and learn your things then the energy you
exude helps people around you without you even making an effort.
H&L: What do you do to feel good?
Tonya: I’m a huge pamperer. I go to a spa, get a massage, stay
in bed and read all day Sunday. I love to do those things. And I love
exploring. And it doesn’t matter where; it could be in my neighbourhood. I love
watching others. These things relax me. And I’m a movie-a-holic. I love the
whole story you get from a movie. Not like TV where there’s never an end. What
irony that I’m in a Soap.
H&L: Your mentors.
Tonya: Diane Keaton. She’s done such amazing work. To maintain
that career level for so many years, to direct, to write and have one of the
most powerful production companies in Hollywood on her terms. She has a
powerful drive, yet she shows her vulnerability, I think that’s beautiful. She
adopted two children and created a functional family out of desire. Everything
I believe a woman can be. Another is Goldie Hawn. I totally respect these women
who’ve been able to balance their careers with family.
And clearly my mother.
H&L: Where are you like Diane Keaton?
Tonya: I see myself as yet to become a ‘Diane Keaton’. I’m
growing into that.
H&L: A closing philosophy.
Tonya: Sometimes it’s enough just to wake up, open your eyes
and declare it a beautiful day. Then don’t let the person honking his horn make
you tense. What does it really matter in the big scheme of things? Feel sorry
for that person having a hard, dark day. Then fill yours with lightness by
complimenting someone and making them feel good you’ll feel good too.
A History Of Violence: Look Into The Soul
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Peter
Howell, Movie Critic
(Sept 23, 2005) "What's bred in the bone will not out of the flesh,"
an English proverb goes, meaning that try as we may, we can't escape the people
we really are. The thought is from a remarkable book by Robertson Davies, in
which a biographer is stymied to discover that the facts of a man he is writing
about "don't add up to the man we knew." The same dilemma now
consumes another Canadian, filmmaker David Cronenberg. A History
of Violence, his extraordinary new movie, finds universal truth in the
mysterious past of a mundane man. Arriving in theatres today, after winning
raves at both the Toronto and Cannes film festivals, it is an assured, potent
statement from an auteur who isn't afraid to pack deep thoughts into a movie
made for a wide audience. It is likely to be greeted as one of Cronenberg's
finest works in a 40-year career that already boasts many highlights, and sure
to be remembered when awards are handed out in the weeks and months ahead. A
History of Violence is also one of Cronenberg's most direct films, as lean
and muscular as the westerns of John Ford and Clint Eastwood, from which he
drew much inspiration. But it is by no means a simple work. A lot is packed
into its 95 minutes, relating to society's penchant for violent solutions and
our shared culpability. Anyone who leaves the theatre without feeling
powerfully affected by the film's messages — especially regarding the
complicated relationship between sex and violence — will have missed the impact
of Cronenberg's craftsmanship.
With a hat tip to Davies, here are the facts that don't add up — not at first —
about a man named Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen). He's the owner of a popular
diner in a sleepy Indiana town called Millbrook (actually Millbrook, Ont.,
where the movie was made). Tom fries eggs, pours coffee and makes banter with
the locals, including the genial town sheriff (Peter MacNeill), who looks like
he has plenty of spare time to chat. Tom has been married some 20 years to Edie
(Maria Bello), a lawyer with a busy practice who still manages to put her
family first. Edie may wish for something more in life — you can see it in her
eyes — but she's happy with what she's got. She and Tom are the proud parents
of teenaged Jack (Ashton Holmes), who is shy but very astute, and pre-teen
Sarah (Heidi Hayes), who worries about bad things she can't see. A bedtime
story leaves her fearful of monsters. "No, sweetie, there are no such
things as monsters," Tom says. Tom is wrong. Two armed hoods, straight out
of a Steinbeck novel, arrive at his diner one day at closing time, flashing leers
and guns and demanding cash. The cock of a gun hammer indicates they're willing
to be as monstrous as possible. In a heartbeat, Tom changes from mild hash
slinger into an avenger. Tom becomes a national hero, hailed in the press for
his bravery. He attracts the attention of other monsters, led by a sardonic
creep named Carl (Ed Harris), who insists he knows Tom from a previous life. A
life when Tom was known as Joey, and he was very comfortable with guns.
"You've got the wrong guy," Tom insists. Edie backs him up. So does
everyone else in town. How could quiet and true Tom be anything but a good man?
Carl insists some more. So does a Philadelphia mobster named Richie (William
Hurt), who further claims to be Joey's brother. They both have past issues to
settle with Joey, whom they see hiding behind Tom's implacable face.
Cronenberg's film showcases the depth of the filmmaker's understanding of a
world ruled by firepower. He points no fingers. We are all complicit. A
History of Violence is loosely based on a graphic novel, with a screenplay
credited to an unheralded Josh Olson, but it is a work clearly born of
Cronenberg's depth of understanding of the dark side of the human psyche. Like
those old westerns, and that proverb about our innate tendencies, the film
finds the fault line separating wishful thinking from hard truth. Boasting
career-peak performances by Mortensen and Bello, and introducing a fine young
actor in Holmes, A History of Violence is also aces in technical terms.
The mournful score by Howard Shore and immaculate cinematography by Peter
Suschitzky, both of them Cronenberg regulars, contribute to a movie that fully
realizes the ambitions and the insights of a true Canadian artist. This is
an edited version of a review originally published during the Toronto
International Film Festival.
Our Movies Need A Hero
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Murray
Whyte, Entertainment Reporter
(Sep. 25, 2005) In recent months, it has become his ritual. "On Friday
night, I get on the train in Montreal. I turn my cellphone off. I'm drunk by
Kingston — I'm not exaggerating," he says, laughing deeply, his whole body
shaking, almost unable to believe it himself. "Marg" — his wife of
many years, a saintly international development worker — "meets me in
Belleville. I fall off the train, she drives me 20 minutes to our cottage, we
have a last glass of wine together and I share with her the drama of my week —
`You wouldn't believe what happened!' Then I fade away, wake up Saturday
morning, and do nothing. That's how I cope." Nobody told Wayne Clarkson
that being a saviour was such hard work. But since January, when he took over
as executive director of Telefilm Canada, that's exactly what he's
become. The agency is our largest — and only — national funding source for film
and television. Its $385 million in annual funding is now in Clarkson's pocket.
And ultimately, success or failure — of which there has been plenty, for too
long — is now on him. "The Wayne Gretzky of Canadian Cinema" blared
the headline in Canadian Business magazine. "Can this man save
Canadian production?" read the story heralding his appointment in the
industry bible, Playback. "The expectations are, let's be serious,
unrealistic," said Clarkson, good-naturedly, over a late breakfast
recently during the Toronto International Film Festival. "It's very
intimidating. But things gotta change, and change dramatically." He
inherited a mess. "Disastrous," said director Atom Egoyan, describing
the regime under Clarkson's predecessor, Richard Stursberg. "For the only
names people would even recognize in Canadian film, actual depression set
in," said Sarah Polley, one of the country's best-known actors. "It
became as though we were no longer welcome here." In a terse, briefly
worded comment, director David Cronenberg said: "With Wayne, there could
at least be some hope." Niv Fichman, an executive at Toronto film
production house Rhombus Media, couldn't look forward without glancing back.
"My faith in him," Fichman said, "is that he'll bring dignity
back to Canadian cinema."
By many accounts, it had been lost. Stursberg followed a government mandate to
increase Canadian films' share of the box office to 5 per cent by making more
"commercial" films: a policy that helped spawn some of the depression
of which Polley speaks. Its fruits — rare triumphs like the Oscar-winning The
Barbarian Invasions set against a raft of commercially intended genre flops
like Foolproof, Decoys and Goose! — yielded a depressingly
familiar result: the majority of Canadian films sinking rapidly into oblivion.
The mental state of a national artistic community can't be quantified. But some
things can. A Canadian Heritage report stated that, almost five years and half
a billion dollars after Stursberg's beginnings, Canadian films everywhere
except Quebec have so far this year commanded a dismal 1 per cent of the box
office. Last year it was 1.6 per cent — where it has hovered for years.
("I'm terrified that, on my headstone, it's going to read: `Never more
than 2 per cent,'" Clarkson said.) The contrast with Quebec was stark:
with more than 20 per cent of the domestic box office based on French-language
films, one province nearly buoyed the entire nation's share to 5 per cent on
its own, making English Canada's failings all the more apparent. Last fall,
with these pressures coming to bear, Clarkson, at 62, was head of the Canadian
Film Centre, Norman Jewison's talent incubator in a tony North Toronto estate.
He'd been there since 1991. Months earlier, Stursberg had abandoned ship at
Telefilm, taking over as the head of English television at CBC. A choice arose:
an easy drift to retirement at the CFC, or the captaincy of a rudderless agency
that was taking on a disturbing Titanic-like air. Clarkson bit. "I
won't go into how old you get and the decisions you make in your life at
certain ages," he said. "But I woke up one morning and I said, `I
have another mountain I want to climb.'" Mountains are one thing.
Clarkson, however, had chosen Everest, without oxygen.
The Anointed One. The conciliator, the diplomat. The blessed son of Canadian
cinema. It's always been that way with Clarkson, it seems. After studying film
at Carleton and at the Slade School of Fine Arts in London (his 1974 graduate
thesis: "A Semiological Analysis of Sam Fuller's Shock Corridor"),
Clarkson was serving as director of the National Film Theatre in Ottawa when,
in 1978, he got the call to serve as director of the fledgling Festival of
Festivals in Toronto. On his watch, it blossomed into an international, star-laden
affair replete with the Hollywood A-list. He also established the Perspectives
Canada program, the first comprehensive showcase of Canadian cinematic talent
ever. In 1985, he went to the nascent Ontario Film Development Corporation, a
David Peterson-era project meant to nurture young filmmakers in the wake of a
disastrous filmmaking era, where films made for tax write-offs had all but
destroyed the local industry. One of Clarkson's first projects at the OFDC hit
big. Patricia Rozema's I Heard the Mermaids Singing won the Prix de la
Jeunesse at Cannes in 1987.
"It went through the roof that night," recalled Bill House, a Toronto
producer with Clarkson at the OFDC. "How could you imagine that such a
little film could be such a big deal? But it was. For the first time, that kind
of thing felt possible." Clarkson has spent a lifetime nurturing that
sense of possibility, and just as long watching it quashed by an unforgiving
public. "The expectations we put on our talent: `Every time you step out,
you have to succeed, big time,'" he said. "And if they don't, we
berate ourselves: `We're lousy, we can't do it.' I mean, s--t, you know? They
just made a movie, for God's sake." With a mind to cultivation, not a
quick fix, Clarkson's OFDC sowed the seeds of what would become the core of a
national cinematic identity: Rozema, Egoyan, Don McKellar, Peter Mettler, among
many others, all started there. "We just looked at ourselves, and the
filmmakers we loved all over the world, and we felt we could join that group.
"And," House said, "we had mucho fun." That's always come
easily to Clarkson. At the Canadian Film Centre barbecue, a sprawling, annual
festival-pegged affair at Clarkson's old stomping grounds, he mixed with the
many luminaries, both governmental and film industry, shaking hands, laughing,
hugging. He and Allan King, one of English Canada's seminal directors, greeted
each other warmly. "Talent first," Clarkson said, offering a gracious
sweep of the arm. "Money first," King shot back, and both laughed.
"The first thing that strikes you about Wayne is how charming, how erudite
he is," said Vincenzo Natali, whose cult hit Cube was produced
under Clarkson while he was at the CFC. "He's sophisticated, but he's also
so down to earth. I see him riding his bicycle around the Annex. There's no
pretension to him." But those close to Clarkson are concerned. "The
poor guy," said Jewison, at the event's VIP tent. "He's the right guy
for the job, but man — can you imagine being the head of the only studio in the
country? The poor guy," he repeated, shaking his head.
Thus far, Clarkson has enjoyed some slack. That will tighten in time, as too
many producers vie for scant funds. "Wayne's far too sensitive to how
culture is formed to be distracted by the big pronouncements," Egoyan
said. "I've always had a tremendous amount of faith in what he's going to
do." What he's going to do. That's the question. "He wouldn't presume
to step in and immediately change things — even if people like me are
pressuring him enormously," Fichman said. "And that's a good
thing." Almost everyone agrees, though, that the agency is desperate for
radical change — and soon. "Any attempt to please everybody in that
position only guarantees the continuity of mediocrity, and mediocrity is what
has reigned supreme in filmmaking in English Canada for the last two
decades," said Robert Lantos, a senior Canadian producer of such films as Sunshine,
Being Julia and Egoyan's recent Where the Truth Lies.
"Political agendas — regional correctness, gender correctness, and a
variety of other politically correct issues — have played a huge role in
Telefilm's allocation of funds for a long time. To do that job, you have to
have the courage to not please most people." So, Wayne? What'll it be?
"I know the expectations," Clarkson said atop the Spoke Club's
rooftop patio, wearing black jeans and weathered cowboy boots, a glass of
Sauvignon Blanc in hand. His references are quick, encompassing the breadth of
Canadian and international cinema — Jean-Luc Godard, Gilles Carle, Don Owen,
Cronenberg — and Northrop Frye, and Karl Marx. Parochial culture, the kind that
has reigned supreme, in Lantos's words, is not on Clarkson's agenda. "At
the film centre, we didn't train Canadians to make only Canadian movies that
fulfill Canadian cultural obligations, and by the way, we're taking our
passport away from you," he said. "We need to claim our talent, but
give them the opportunity." A few projects embody his early tenure: Trailer
Park Boys: The Movie. ("Popular appeal? You bet!" Clarkson
effused.) At the other end of the scale, an adaptation of Anne Michaels'
challenging, Orange Prize-winning novel, Fugitive Pieces, from director
Jeremy Podeswa.
Then, there is everything in between. Such as experimental filmmaker Annette
Mangaard's demand for $1.5 million for an esoteric film that has no
distributor. "No way. It's not my money," he said. Telefilm received
more applications than ever this year — 90 submissions came in last April; 12
were accepted. This is the problem. "Telefilm can't be the only game in
town. It's not healthy for Telefilm Canada, and it's not healthy for me,"
he said, laughing. Does this mean the return of the much-vilified tax-shelter
era, when brokers and dentists threw cash at quickie, often-abortive movie projects
for the tax write-off? "I won't say those magic words," Clarkson says
slyly, "but we are asking for a private sector-driven alternative. The
industry's smarter now, more mature. I think there's a kind of cultural
confidence that wasn't there before." Mature. Confident. This, after all,
is the goal. But with Clarkson poised to emerge from his months of
contemplation and take real action, the hardest road is ahead. "This job
is impossible. This job kills you," House said. "And the white knight
is bound to be tarnished." Clarkson is ready. "I think I have the
perspective I need. I can see it now," he says. "Can you be all
things to all people? No, you can't. But you can change the culture."
Clarkson pauses. The first year's been rough. Four remain. And then? "We'll
see what's next," he said. "You've got to keep throwing yourself into
the onslaught, clawing up the hill."
FILM TIDBITS
C.R.A.Z.Y. Scores Again At Atlantic Film
Festival
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail
(Sept. 26, 2005) Halifax -- The 25th Atlantic Film Festival has
announced its awards for 2005. Jean-Marc Vallée's C.R.A.Z.Y. won
for best Canadian feature, and Greg Spottiswood's Noise won best
Canadian short. Thom Fitzgerald's Three Needles won for best direction.
Vallée's film also won the award for best Canadian feature at the Toronto
International Film Festival earlier this month. In the Atlantic-Canadian film
category, Tim Wilson's The Last Weir won for best Atlantic short film,
and Andrea Dorfman's Sluts: The Documentary took the Rex Tasker Award
for best documentary. Staff
Coppola To Begin New Film
Source: Associated Press
(Sept. 23, 2005) New York — After an eight-year absence, Francis Ford
Coppola is returning to the director's chair. He will begin filming Youth
Without Youth”in Romania on Oct. 3. Starring Tim Roth, the film is
adapted from a novella by Romanian philosopher-author Mircea Eliade. “It's a
parable, it's a fable. It's almost like an intellectual ‘Twilight Zone,”' the
Godfather director said by phone Friday, speaking from Romania. “In a way
it's like a Hitchcock picture and Tim Roth is the Jimmy Stewart — the guy who
gets caught up in something fascinating and big.” The film takes place right
before World War II and chronicles how a professor's life is altered after an
“extraordinary change” late in his life, which leads to Nazi interest in
studying him. It will be Coppola's first movie since 1997's The Rainmaker.
In recent years, he's concentrated on new versions of past works, including Apocalypse
Now Redux and, more recently, The Outsiders: The Whole Novel. And
he's been working on a screenplay about New York in the future titled Megalopolis
for more than two decades. Coppola, a five-time Oscar winner, said a friend
recommended Youth Without Youth, saying it had similar themes to Megalopolis.
Soon, Coppola was fascinated and wrote a screenplay. “I see this all as steps
on the path to something,” Coppola said. “Maybe I'll be more qualified to do
‘Megalopolis' if I really digest this film. In a sense, I think a movie is
really a little like a question and when you make it, that's when you get the
answer.” Already immersed in preproduction, Coppola feels a “pleasant,
stage-fright kind of nervous” about his directing return. Anticipating a
release date of late 2006 or spring 2007, he envisions Youth Without Youth
as a return to his roots in personal filmmaking — before The Godfather
set him on a path of big studio projects. “I just feel that at a certain point
you have to go back to the beginning again,” the 66-year-old director said.
“The best thing for me at this point in my life is to become a student again
and make movies with the eyes I had when I was enthusiastic about it in the
first place.”
::TV NEWS::
Just Watch Me: Sophie Grégoire
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail -
By Sarah Hampson
(Sept. 24, 2005) ‘He told me I was going to be his wife on our first date,” Sophie
Grégoire blurts out, laughing girlishly. The new Mrs. Trudeau, the Quebec
media personality who married Justin Trudeau, the 33-year-old heartthrob eldest
son of late prime minister Pierre Trudeau, is clearly in the honeymoon of her
30-year-old life. Not only has love bloomed, but so have the career
opportunities. Since her marriage in May, she has landed two new television
gigs — a regular segment on beauty two mornings a week on a new show called Coup
de pouce on Radio-Canada in Quebec and a job as a national correspondent on
celebrity and Quebec culture for eTalk Daily, CTV's entertainment
program. But, she says, it is the love in her life that fills her with a sense
of purpose and calm. “There are other stresses that come with all of this,” she
says, referring to the scrutiny she is under as a member of the Trudeau family.
“But nothing compared to the calming sensation that I have every day.” She
places one of her little hands over her heart on the lacy front of her white
blouse, a sophisticated confection by Quebec designer Renata Morales. “I've
been waiting for this state of mind and heart for a long time.” With her
girl-next-door friendliness and fresh-as-a-peach appearance, Grégoire, an only
child of a Montreal stockbroker and a former nurse, is Canada's answer to a
Jennifer Aniston type — a sweetheart personality who immediately makes you feel
as though you could be her best friend, sharing in the story of her life. She
is willing to tell it all, but not out of indiscretion. A Catholic who was
schooled by nuns, Grégoire has a philosophical streak and a strong belief in
fate, which give her an exuberant confidence.It's as though she figures that
providence smiled upon her in order to help her understand her purpose, now
that she sees it, she feels compelled to explain.
“Justin and I didn't end up together for no reason,” she says. “We have values
that come from the same roots — not only social causes, but [values about] life
itself. We talk about that very often — why are we here? And we think about
what we have to do, first, to be happy, but to be happy for us also means to
make other people that we love happy.” Later, I begin to ask about the day of
the wedding, wanting to know how it felt to be part of the great (and in recent
years, sad) epic of the Trudeau family. After the ceremony in Montreal's
Sainte-Madeleine d'Outrement church, the couple drove away in Pierre Trudeau's
restored 1960 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL roadster that was adorned with yellow
flowers and, in the middle, a single red rose, the signature sartorial flourish
of the prime minister, who died in 2000. But before I can finish the question,
Grégoire interjects, “And it was a sunny day when it was supposed to rain.” She
sighs and then laughs. Like a sign from on high? “I totally believe that,” she
states emphatically. “It was meant to be.” Why? “Because what Justin and I
share is real and simple, and when there's so much love, I believe in energy.
So all this is connected,” she says with her charming brand of confidence. The
couple first met about 20 years ago, she tells me. “All my life, I went to
school with Michel [the youngest Trudeau son who was killed in an avalanche in
1998]. The parties I would go to were at his house. Then, at a graduation party
— I was there with my boyfriend at the time — I was at their place in the
Laurentians, and I remember Justin serving us food. But, he didn't even notice
me,” she confides, laughing, “I was three or four years younger than him. When
you are 12 and 16, those are two different worlds.” They met again in 2003 when
they were paired to co-host Le Bal Mercedes-Benz during the Montreal Grand
Prix. “Justin looked at me and he said, ‘ I think I've seen you before.' And I
said, ‘Well, I went to school with Michi all my life.' We hadn't seen each
other for 15 years or more. Some of my friends knew Justin, and I would get
news here and there, but I was not more interested than that, because I didn't
know him.” She pauses. “I did think he was cute, though,” she adds as an
afterthought. Well, she's not the only one who thinks that, I say. “But I've
got him now!” she says through a peel of laughter. “Sorry!” Contrary to
reports, Trudeau did not ask her out after their night of hosting the Grand
Prix ball. “We had a chemical something happen,” she says. But she didn't hear
from him for four months, and when she did run into him on the streets of
Montreal, she refused to give him her telephone number when he asked for it.
After the ball, she had sent him a note via e-mail as she routinely did to
people she had encountered through her work.
But he never responded. And, she says with a scolding tone of voice, “He was
very flirtatious that night! So I said, ‘Cross-check! No way! Off of my list!'”
Sounds like she has read the popular book, The Rules, about how to play
hard-to-get and land your man. “No,” she responds, “I don't believe in being
tough with a man. On that special occasion, it was what I had to do. “And it
worked!” she says. He said he would find her contact information from the e-mail,
because he had kept it. He did. He phoned. They went for dinner. Talked for
four hours. Sang karaoke. Went for ice cream. Headed back to his place. Talked
for another two hours. (Always in French. “He is so happy he ended up with
someone who speaks French, because his father always used to say, ‘ Tu es
plus elegant en français,'” she beams.) “And then there was a serious
moment when I saw his face change,” she tells me. “We were having a serious
discussion about life and whatever.” And he said, ‘I'm 31 years old,' And I was
like, ‘Yes, I know.' And he said, ‘I've been waiting for you all my life.
You're not getting out. You'll be my wife and we'll have a life together.' We
cried and that was it! We've been together ever since.” Wasn't she scared? “It
took me more time than him to really decant everything. But something in the
back of my mind said, ‘This is it. Go!'” She moved in three months later and
suspended work. “We travelled everywhere. “I was exposed to amazing and
enriching situations, everything from meeting the Dalai Lama to going up to the
Arctic.”
About a year later, Trudeau formerly proposed after visiting his father's grave
on the day that would have been his 85th birthday. He gave her a
vintage-looking diamond ring that he designed with Dominic Lucas, whose
Montreal jewellery-business family also created some pieces for Margaret when
she was married to Pierre. How many carats? “No, I never asked,” she says. “I
just know I love it.” Then I ask her the question that surely everyone has
wanted to know. Doesn't she feel, as a woman, that she helped heal this family
that has suffered so much recent loss? “Oh,” she says with an intake of breath,
“You have no idea. I have felt the family change in a way since I've been
there. Not because I think I do anything — no, no, no, no — but [because of] my
presence as a woman? Yes.” Changed them? “I think,” she begins tentatively,
shyly. “Margaret tells me. It's very emotional for me to think about this,
because it becomes even more the reason for why Justin and I are together.” She
pauses. “My mission is to bring love and stability, definitely.” Does she feel
she is filling a gap? “No, I don't think that. Because the gap will always be
there. But I think that I have brought maybe a new breath of fresh air, something
positive, hope, happiness.” Of their surprising decision to co-operate with the
media — she and Trudeau allowed a photographer to sell exclusive rights to
their wedding day to Maclean's and 7 Jours, a magazine in Montreal, with no
reported financial gain for the couple — she offers a simple explanation. “At
first, we talked about it, and I told Justin that I'm not sure I want to share
this — it's such a personal event in our lives. But at the same time, ever
since I've met Justin, each time we've been seeing people on the street or
people come up to us at an event or whatever, they have been so amazing to us.
And I thought the least we can do is share this kind of day with them. Because
they are curious and they are interested. And for the people who are not, well,
that's fine, too.” A sweetheart bride. A rising media star. She astutely
understands the importance of her moment. “I would lie if I said that I didn't
have to weigh the options carefully,” she admits, when asked if her marriage
made her more cautious about what she will do in her media career. (Educated at
McGill University in commerce and at the University of Montreal, where she
studied communications, Grégoire has worked on a variety of television shows,
mostly marginal ones and only in Quebec. She also worked as a personal shopper
in Montreal's Holt Renfrew, where she retains a few clients to this day.)
“Justin gives me advice, yes, but he has total faith in me, and vice versa, so
all this came very naturally.”
She has a relaxed attitude about her career, saying that she only accepted the
jobs because she liked the team of people involved. There are clearly other
roles on the horizon. “It's a priority for me in my life to become a mother,”
she says. “When it happens, it happens.” And then there's the prospect of
becoming a political wife. Trudeau, a former teacher in Vancouver, is now
studying for his masters in environmental geography at McGill, but has long
been pegged as a potential Liberal candidate. “I'm not going to try and see too
far out,” Grégoire says. “If it happens, we'll be ready for it. If it doesn't,
it wasn't meant to be. But one thing is for sure, if he does go into politics,
it's not going to be now. It's not going to be for a long time.” Drink this
young woman up, Canada. Poised, self-possessed, funny and spirited, she has a
lot in front of her. “I do think I'm prone to happiness,” she confides near the
end of the interview. That is the one thing she didn't need to say.
MTV Returns to Canada
(September
28, 2005) CTV Inc and MTV Networks today announced a bold new
strategic alliance to build and grow the MTV brand in Canada. The announcement
was made by Ivan Fecan, President and CEO of Bell Globemedia and CEO of CTV
Inc. together with Bill Roedy, Vice Chairman, MTV Networks & President, MTV
Networks International. The multi-layered CTV-led venture partners Canada’s No.
1 television brand with the world’s most valuable media brand, to create a
vibrant platform for MTV in Canada, including:
An MTV branded analogue channel available to 4.4 million households
A
commitment between CTV and MTV to create original Canadian programming,
destined for airplay in Canada across numerous CTV platforms – and on MTV
channels around the world
Exclusive
access for CTV to the MTV brand and library of programming for use in Canada
across CTV's conventional, and specialty services.
Exclusive
access for CTV to MTV’s array of digital media assets in Canada, including
online, wireless, interactive and Video On Demand, as well as development of
new digital media content for Canadians.
Today’s
announcement means that Canadians can access the true MTV experience in 360
degrees; with customized content not just across digital, specialty and
conventional television platforms, but for the first time across a
comprehensive assortment of interactive assets as outlined above. The MTV brand
is not only back in Canada, but it has returned in a broader, deeper way than
ever before. CTV’s talktv, an analogue specialty service currently
available in 4.4 million Canadian households, will be re-born as a Canadian
programmed and managed MTV channel, filled with dynamic, interactive,
lifestyle, talk and documentary programming. The channel will continue to be
fully compliant with its license condition of 68 per cent Canadian programming
(71 per cent in prime time), representing one of the highest Canadian-content
requirements of any Canadian service. Additionally, CTV confirmed today it has
filed an application with the CRTC for a new Category-2 Digital Television
Service – Canada’s next music television station. This new digital television
service, along with the new MTV analogue channel, will provide alternate high
quality entertainment options to all Canadians, and represent a great boost to
local production and culture. Finally, MTV programming will continue to air
across Canada inside a newly created MTV branded block of programming on CTV.
Today's announcement underscores CTV's strategic commitment to finding new
opportunities for growth and success,” said Fecan. “Around the world, MTV is a
brand that extends beyond television and we’re thrilled with the opportunity to
work with our new partner and worldwide innovators at MTV to build a successful
business that delivers fresh, honest and relevant content to Canadians.”
“Canada is a very important market to MTV. As a source of dynamic debate,
diversity and culture, MTV in Canada will reflect a uniquely Canadian
perspective to enrich our global operation,” said Roedy. “This is a tremendous
milestone in our global expansion, and its terrific to be partnering with CTV –
their passion, expertise, and credibility are inspiring. We are going to do
great things together.” Returning to Toronto to oversee the MTV business is
Canadian Brad Schwartz, today named General Manager and Senior Vice President.
In his previous position, Schwartz was Director, International Marketing
Partnerships for MTV Networks International, based in New York, and responsible
for worldwide marketing and sponsorship initiatives. “Our focus is to build a
clearly Canadian interpretation of the MTV brand – one that will engage and
excite all Canadians,” said Schwartz. “With the array of resources and
expertise available from both the CTV and MTV families, we’re going to rapidly
establish our presence in Canada, and become a vital and valued member of
Canada’s creative and production communities.” “Canadians have come to know MTV
as both a leading lifestyle and entertainment brand,” said Susanne Boyce, CTV
President of Programming and Chair of the CTV Media Group, “The MTV philosophy
has won the following of millions around the world for its leadership and
vision in current affairs, offering an alternative voice and engaging viewers
that the traditional mainstream media just don’t reach. It’s no secret that
millions of Canadians – especially young Canadians – are yearning for new ways
to become involved in issues that are important to them. They’re ready to be
challenged by the bold, unorthodox approach that MTV has pioneered.” MTV’s
content has a proven track record with Canadian viewers. The Osbournes
became a Top 20 ratings winner for CTV when it launched in 2002. Additional MTV
success stories on CTV include Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, Punk'd, and
Pimp My Ride.
“MTV’s commitment to bold, innovative and entertaining programming reflects
CTV’s philosophy toward building successful schedules,” added Boyce. “With
nation-builders like Live 8, The Juno Awards and Canadian Idol,
and star vehicles like eTalk Daily to showcase them, CTV has
demonstrated its commitment to developing Canadian stars. A partnership with
MTV is an exciting and ideal extension of our overall program strategy.” In
Canada, CTV remains the undisputed broadcast leader both in conventional
television and in the Specialty sector. CTV finished the 2004-2005 season with
18 of Canada’s Top 20 programs, and is home to the most watched Canadian
programs in all genres. CTV also owns interests in 14 Specialty services
including The Discovery Channel, The Comedy Network, OLN and No. 1 ranked TSN.
Comprehensive details relating to launch dates, content, co-production plans
and branding, including details outlining the digital strategy, will be
revealed in the weeks to come.
About CTV
CTV is Canada’s largest private broadcaster. Its conventional stations
boast 18 of Canada's Top 20 programs including the No. 1 Drama (CSI), the No. 1
Comedy (Corner Gas), the No. 1 reality series (The Amazing Race) and the No. 1
ranked local and national news. CTV owns 21 conventional television stations
and has interests in 14 specialty channels, including The Comedy Network,
Discovery Channel and Canada's No. 1 specialty channel, TSN. CTV is owned by
Bell Globemedia, Canada’s premier multi-media company. More information about
CTV may be found on the company Web site at www.ctv.ca.
About MTV
MTV is the world’s largest television network and the leading
multimedia brand for youth. For the 6th consecutive year, MTV was named
The World's Most Valuable Media Brand in the Interbrand/Business Week
2005 World's Most Valuable Brands Report. With 43 programming services in
Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America, North America, Russia, and the Middle
East, each MTV channel promotes local cultural tastes with a mixture of
national, regional and international celebrities along with locally produced
and globally shared programming. MTV’s holdings also include 37 locally
operated Web sites worldwide as well as publishing, recorded music, radio, home
video, licensing & merchandising and a feature film division. MTV Networks
International includes the premier multimedia entertainment brands MTV, VH1,
Nickelodeon, TMF (The Music Factory), Paramount Comedy, VIVA, The Box, FLUX and
Game One seen in 421.9 million households in 167 countries and 18 languages via
111 locally programmed and operated TV channels and 94 Web sites. The company’s
diverse holdings also include interests in television syndication, digital
media, publishing, home video, radio, recorded music, licensing &
merchandising and two feature film divisions, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies.
MTV Networks is a unit of Viacom International Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B).
Desperately Seeking Alfre
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Sept. 23, 2005) *On the season finale of “Desperate Housewives” in May, Wysteria
Lane received some mysterious new residents. Betty Appplewhite, played by Alfre
Woodard, and her son, Matthew, portrayed by Mechad Brooks, moved in under
the cover of night and looked a tad bit shady, to put it nicely. "I've
never sold a house over the phone before," said their neighbour and real
estate agent Edie Britt when she stopped by to welcome the family. Betty was
cordial to Edie, but definitely cautious. Why did the Applewhites move into the
house in the middle of the night? Why wouldn’t they let Edie inside? What big
secret are they hiding? Unable to wait until Sunday, we scoured every available
source to come up with some answers. The common denominator seems to be that
the Applewhites are involved in something very dark and disturbing that will
play out over several months. Last July during a press conference to promote
the show in Beverly Hills, series creator Marc Cherry described the
Applewhites’ secret as the prevailing mystery of next season and the “darkest
thing we’ve ever done.” "My son and I have a lot of baggage with us and,
it's not just the stuff that we were unloading from the car," Woodard told
E! Online last month. "And it might make a few people's hair stand on end
when they're watching. There's something very provocative that happens at the
very end of the first episode, and that's the thing that'll make you go
'Whooooaa!' It plays out over months. But you'll definitely do that
'Whoooaa!'" People magazine reported in June: "Definitely keep an eye
of Alfre Woodard's character. She came to Wysteria Lane with something to hide,
and we're going to find out exactly what she's hiding in the season premiere.
There's a reason they moved in the middle of the night, and there's a reason
they moved themselves."
In July, Cherry revealed that Woodard's character was a concert pianist, “but
is now involved with something very dark and spooky.” Marcia Cross, whose
daughter on the show, Danielle, asks Betty to play the organ at her father’s
funeral service, (if the rumour of this scene is actually true), told
Entertainment Weekly: “If you're going to do a far-fetched mystery, you want to
have someone who is really intriguing. Alfre carries that with her. As a
person, you're like, 'Who is she?' She seems like the oldest soul you've ever
met. If you had a lightweight in there, you wouldn't be that curious.”
Entertainment Weekly goes on to report that Betty ends up making quite an
impression at the service – “and not just for her ivory-tickling.” For a split
second last summer, ABC “accidentally” (according to the network) ran a photo
on its web site that showed a scene that was supposedly cut out of May’s season
finale. It showed Betty and her son taking a tray into a locked basement room
that looks almost as dank and dreary as the dungeon in the movie, “Saw.” The
picture was immediately pulled. Finally, some parting words about the
Applewhites from Cherry, courtesy of USA Today: "They come on the street;
they seem like nice people - but they've got a secret. And it's pretty gothic.
It's real and human and awful all at the same time.” Their story will begin to
unfold Sunday night at 9 on ABC. The season premiere is titled, “Next.”
Both Sides In CBC Dispute Called To The Table
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - John
Mckay, Canadian Press
(Sep. 25, 2005) The two sides in the CBC lockout have agreed to sit down
with federal Labour Minister Joe Fontana on Monday in a bid to end the
six-week-old dispute. The meeting will take place hours before Parliament is
set to resume for the fall session. "I am inviting you to meet with me . .
. to review the status of the negotiations and to develop a plan to bring these
negotiations to a successful conclusion without further delay," Fontana
said Friday in a letter to CBC president and CEO Robert Rabinovitch and to
Arnold Amber, president of the CBC branch of the Canadian Media Guild. CBC
spokesman Jason MacDonald confirmed that Rabinovitch will attend the meeting.
"I think any initiative that could move the process along toward a
negotiated agreement is positive," he said. "I mean I sound like a
broken record but I've said our objective is to get a negotiated agreement as
soon as possible." The union will also attend the meeting. Karen Wirsig of
the Canadian Media Guild called the minister's invitation "the first major
breakthrough" in the dispute. Fontana could not immediately be reached for
comment Friday. His letter said he's heard grave concerns about the length of
the lockout and is particularly worried about the impact it is having in remote
areas of the country. The union is still planning a major rally Monday in
Ottawa, where morale on the picket line is said to be sagging. Fontana's
invitation came a day after the Guild tabled what it called its first
comprehensive offer in the dispute that has locked out 5,500 unionized
employees and crippled original programming on the CBC English-language radio
and TV networks.
The package was quickly dismissed by management for failing to deal with two
key issues: the CBC's wish to make greater use of contract employees and the
qualifications a laid-off employee would have to have to justify bumping a
colleague with less seniority. "It has been the experience at the CBC for
deals to be concluded in Ottawa with both the federal mediators there, but also
key members of the CBC management team who for the most part have not been
present at the bargaining at all," said guild president Lise Lareau,
referring to a 1996 dispute that was settled in such a manner that a deal was
reached within three days. Ian Morrison, spokesman for the watchdog group
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, believes Rabinovitch — who has kept a low
profile during the lockout — is under pressure from the CBC board of directors
as well as the Commons heritage committee. "He has been in a sort of
bunker," he said. "So I see this as a hopeful sign. If this does not
resolve the issue, ultimately more people are going to be saying `Who is this
Rabinovitch anyway? Why does he think that he can hold the public up to ransom
for whatever purpose he has?'"
Don Adams, 82: Bumbling Spy On TV's Get Smart
Excerpt from The Toronto Star
(Sep. 26, 2005) LOS ANGELES (AP-CP) — Don Adams, the wry-voiced comedian
who starred as the bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart in the 1960s TV spoof of
James Bond movies, Get Smart,
has died. He was 82. Adams died of a lung infection late Sunday at Cedars-Sinai
Medical Center, his friend and former agent Bruce Tufeld said Monday, adding
that the actor broke his hip a year ago and had been in ill health since. As
the inept Agent 86 of the super-secret federal agency CONTROL, Adams captured
TV viewers with his antics in combating the evil agents of KAOS. When his
explanations failed to convince the villains or his boss, he tried another
tack: "Would you believe ... ?" It became a national catchphrase.
Smart was also prone to spilling things on the desk or person of his boss — the
Chief (actor Edward Platt). Smart's apologetic ``Sorry about that, chief"
also entered the American lexicon. The spy gadgets, which aped those of the
Bond movies, were a popular feature, especially the pre-cellphone telephone in
a shoe. Smart's beautiful partner, Agent 99, played by Barbara Feldon, was as
brainy as he was dense, and a plot romance led to marriage and the birth of
twins later in the series. "He had this prodigious energy, so as an actor
working with him it was like being plugged into an electric current,"
Feldon said from New York. "He would start and a scene would just take off
and you were there for the ride. It was great fun acting with him." Adams
was very intelligent, she said, a quality that suited the satiric show that had
comedy geniuses Mel Brooks and Buck Henry behind it. "He wrote poetry, he
had an interest in history ... He had that other side to him that does not come
through Maxwell Smart," she said. "Don in person was anything but
bumbling."
Adams had an "amazing memory" that allowed him to take an unusual
approach to filming, Feldon said. Instead of learning his lines ahead of time
he would have a script assistant read his part to him just once or twice. He invariably
got it right but that didn't stop people from placing bets on it, she
recounted. Adams, who had been under contract to NBC, was lukewarm about doing
a spy spoof. When he learned that Brooks and Henry had written the pilot
script, he accepted immediately. Get Smart debuted on NBC in September
1965 and scored No. 12 among the season's most-watched series and No. 22 in its
second season. Get Smart twice won the Emmy for best comedy series with
three Emmys for Adams as comedy actor. CBS picked up the show but the ratings
fell off as the jokes seemed repetitive, and it was cancelled after four
seasons. The show lived on in syndication and a cartoon series. In 1995 the Fox
network revived the series with Smart as chief and 99 as a congresswoman. It lasted
seven episodes. "It was a special show that became a cult classic of
sorts, and I made a lot of money for it," he remarked of Get Smart in
a 1995 interview. "But it also hindered me career-wise because I was
typed. The character was so strong, particularly because of that distinctive
voice, that nobody could picture me in any other type of role." However,
he did make a sitcom comeback in the Canadian supermarket comedy Check It
Out, which aired from 1985-88. He played Howard Bannister in the series,
which also starred Dinah Christie. "Not a great show, but not bad. It was
OK," he said in a 1999 interview with The Canadian Press while in Toronto
to promote AlternaCall, Inc., a fledgling long-distance discount service. He
was born Donald James Yarmy in New York City on April 13, 1923, Tufeld said,
although some sources say 1926 or '27. The actor's father was a Hungarian Jew
who ran a few small restaurants in the Bronx.
In a 1959 interview Adams said he never cared about being funny as a kid:
"Sometimes I wonder how I got into comedy at all. I did movie star
impressions as a kid in high school. Somehow they just got out of hand."
In 1941, he dropped out of school to join the Marines. In Guadalcanal he
survived the deadly blackwater fever and was returned to the States to become a
drill instructor, acquiring the clipped delivery that served him well as a
comedian. After the war he worked in New York as a commercial artist by day,
doing stand-up comedy in clubs at night, taking the surname of his first wife, Adelaide
Adams. His following grew, and soon he was appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show
and late-night TV shows. Bill Dana, who had helped him develop comedy
routines, cast him as his sidekick on Dana's show. That led to the NBC contract
and Get Smart. Adams, who married and divorced three times and had seven
children, served as the voice for the popular cartoon series, Inspector
Gadget as well as the voice of Tennessee Tuxedo. In 1980, he appeared as
Maxwell Smart in a feature film, The Nude Bomb, about a madman whose
bomb destroyed people's clothing. Tufeld said funeral arrangements were
incomplete.
TV TIDBITS
Shemar Moore On A Mission
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com - By Karu
F. Daniels
(Sept. 22, 2005) “The world goes 'round and 'round and 'round. And 'round!” MAKING
MOVES: Actor Shemar Moore is not just a pretty face. And he wants
the world to know it. “I know I look like I live that choice life and I do but
when you get doors slammed in your face because of how you look and people only
want to have certain conversations with you, you get hungry,” the soon-to-be
former soap hunk told “The RU Report” last weekend. “I’m ready to change
the conversation that people are having about Shemar Moore.” New conversation
fodder include his brand new star turn in CBS’s much buzzed about drama series,
“Criminal Minds,” which airs on Wednesdays and also stars Mandy
Patinkin, Thomas Gibson, and Lola Glaudini. In the role of
Special Agent Derek Morgan, an expert on obsessional crimes, the 35-year-old
Mr. Moore sheds his former persona of Malcolm Winters, the veteran Black eye
candy on the network’s legendary daytime serial “The Young & The
Restless.” “This [show] gives me the opportunity to do something that I
haven’t really gotten to do that I’ve known I could do for a long time,” he
explained. “It’s a cerebral show where I get to pull more tools out of my tool
box all at once, so to speak, as an actor and show that off. And people can
finally take notice. “For me, this is truly a vehicle to break down those doors
that I couldn’t get to in the last twelve years.” But don’t get it twisted. For full story: go to the Ru Report HERE.
Everybody Loved ‘Chris’
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(Sept. 26, 2005) *UPN’s “Everybody Hates Chris,” the Chris Rock-produced
and –narrated sitcom set in his real New York hometown of Do or Die, Bed Stuy,
Brooklyn, drew 7.8 million viewers during its 8 p.m. premiere Thursday, making
it the most-watched comedy premiere in the network’s 10-year history and the
No. 3 premiere of any kind on UPN (behind "Star Trek: Voyager," which
launched the network in 1995, and "Enterprise" in 2001). “Chris” beat
the first half-hour of NBC’s hour-long “Joey” premiere, which drew 7.5 million
viewers. The show, inspired by Rock’s own upbringing, was second overall in the
8 to 8:30 portion of the 8 p.m. slot, getting about half the 15.5 million
viewers who tuned in to time-period winner "Survivor: Guatamala." But
in Brooklyn, the show beat “Joey,” “Survivor” and everything else in its 8 p.m.
Thursday timeslot, including Fox’s “The O.C.” "Chris" was also No. 1
in New York with the advertiser-coveted 18- to 49-year-old viewers, and second
around the country with that crowd. Meanwhile, the fourth season of "The
Apprentice" had its smallest premiere audience ever with only 9.9 million
viewers. To put it all in perspective, Thursday night’s ratings champ, “CSI:
Crime Scene Investigation,” pulled 29 million viewers for CBS. Ten million of
those folks turned away from the network’s new drama, “Criminal Minds.” The
series, which co-stars Shemar Moore, still managed to earn the most-viewed
series premiere of the season with 19.6 viewers.
::THEATRE NEWS::
Billy Gets Personal
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Richard
Ouzounian
(Sep. 24, 2005) Ask Billy Crystal for the most important aspect of his
work and — like most comedians — he'll tell you "it's all about
timing." The difference is that he doesn't mean the one-liners he
detonates to perfection when hosting the Oscars, or the laser accuracy of his
numerous comic characterizations. No, what's on his mind these days is the 25
years it finally took him to find the courage to write 700 Sundays.
Crystal's sweet-and-sour examination of his youth won the Tony Award last
season for Best Special Theatrical Presentation after a sellout run that made a
record profit of $14 million (US). It begins a North American tour on Wednesday
at the Canon Theatre and the 58-year-old performer paused long enough during
rehearsals in California to give this exclusive interview. On the phone,
Crystal sounds more like the warm-hearted guy he played in films such as When
Harry Met Sally than the sharp-tongued emcee who makes the Oscar night
crowd perspire. This show means a lot to him and he's quick to explain why.
"Back in 1978, I found myself thinking a lot about my Dad, just after I
began to make it big on Soap." Crystal is talking about the
controversial TV show that found him playing the first openly gay regular
character on a network series. "I wished that Dad could have been there
for that and so I started digging into my memories of him. I wrote down four
pages of an outline. I called it 700 Sundays, which was the only way I
had of measuring our time together." His father, Jack, had to work at
several jobs to support the family. Consequently, Sunday was the only day he
actually had to be with the kids. He died of a heart attack when Billy was only
15 and the title is his mathematical calculation of just how many days they got
to spend together. "It tapped into some very strong feelings, feelings
that I wasn't really ready to deal with. I was afraid of them. So it went into
the `I'll get back to it next week' pile and my voice went into different
things." Those "different things" he brushes off so lightly
included a phenomenally successful career as a comedian. It reached a peak with
the 1984-85 season on Saturday Night Live.
His flamboyant impersonation of Fernando Lamas and his catchphrase "You
look MAH-velous!" made him a household name, but by 1986, "I felt I
didn't have much to say anymore," so he stopped doing stand-up comedy for
15 years. Instead, he shifted his attention to what he calls "my movie
world," with numerous high-grossing films such as City Slickers and
Analyze This. But after a while, that paled as well. "I felt like
the creative excitement was gone and I started to realize that there was a
whole generation who didn't know me as a comedian, who hadn't heard my real
voice." This was late in 2001, a tumultuous year for Crystal. He directed
the TV movie 61*, about his lifelong idol (and eventual friend),
baseball hero Mickey Mantle. Like most native New Yorkers, he was devastated by
the events of 9/11, and within a few months, he suffered the loss of the two
surviving pillars of his childhood — his mother Helen and his uncle Milt.
"When Mom and Milt passed away, I kept thinking about my life and these
wonderful people I had been blessed with. A lot of memories, great memories,
but those bags are heavy things to carry around with you. You've got to do
something with them. "I had this strange feeling inside me, an emptiness,
but a heaviness as well. I finally asked myself, `What makes me happy? What really
makes me happy?'" There's a long pause and then he offers the answer
that finally came to him. "It's when I'm out with a live audience on a
roll, talking about things that really matter to me." He tentatively
dipped his toes back into the water. Old buddy David Steinberg invited him to
Seattle for a charity benefit, in which Steinberg would interview Crystal about
his life. "It was a cross between Inside the Actors' Studio and
doing a really hot Letterman gig for two hours. It felt good to be back."
In the audience, at Crystal's invitation, was Toronto-born director Des
McAnuff, who had known the performer for years and offered what he saw that
night a home at his La Jolla Playhouse. "You could take this to New York
as it is," said McAnuff, but Crystal had another idea. "I brought out
the four pages of the outline I had written back in 1978. I thought the time
had come. If I could find the courage to talk about all these moving moments in
my life and not be maudlin or sappy, then that would be wonderful."
McAnuff brought Crystal and his friend, writer Alan Zweibel, into a little
rehearsal hall at Pepperdine University near Malibu. "I had my four-page
outline, my memories and a pile of music on CD. And then we started."
Crystal shivers at the memory. "Man, that's the DMZ out there and you've
got to be fearless. All those characters, all those words, riffing away as fast
as your mind can take you. Always knowing you had a theme to begin with; always
knowing you had a theme to come back to." If that sounds a lot like jazz,
it's only a matter of Crystal going back to his roots. His father booked
concerts for greats such as Louis Armstrong and Billie Holliday and his uncle
ran Commodore Records, dedicated to quality jazz. Young Billy grew up in a
world he describes as an amalgam of "Jews and jazz, brisket and
bourbon." When asked what he remembered best about the musicians from his
past, he doesn't hesitate. "I loved the joy of them, the joy and the
courage." His favourite was "a black stride piano player who spoke
Yiddish named Willie `The Lion' Smith. He'd show up at our seders,
wearing a yarmulke, and he nicknamed me `Face.'" A memory of him still
exists in Crystal's company, which is called Face Productions. All of this was
on Crystal's mind as "I would feed music into the CD player and just riff
and tell these stories. Des and Alan would listen and shape it." Within
three weeks, the show was ready. A preview period at La Jolla resulted in 18
minutes being cut; it opened on Broadway last December to sellout audiences and
rave reviews. "People ask me when I started writing it," says
Crystal, "and I tell them 1948," when he was 1 year old. "I was
finally so ready to tell these stories." But some of them were harder to
recall than others. Crystal's father had his fatal heart attack a few hours
after he and Billy had fought bitterly. They never had the chance to reconcile.
That scene forms one of the more painful moments and Crystal admits, "It's
still very hard to go there. Even though it's 42 years ago, it still feels as
fresh and raw as it did that night. But at least I feel I have the chance to
transform the hurt into something good." Apart from that childhood trauma,
Crystal has had a blessed existence. He's been happily married to his wife
Janice for 35 years and still proudly states, "She's the most sensible,
sweetest, honest person I can ever imagine." Crystal asked her to produce 700
Sundays on Broadway and when she claimed lack of experience he told her,
"You produced two kids and renovated our house six times. You can do this.
You know, a lot of people on Broadway sleep with the producer to get the job.
I'm no different." He's proud to have few regrets. "Only one, but
it's a big one. I regret not being on the first broadcast of Saturday Night
Live." Crystal was set to perform on that historic 1975 program, but
when Lorne Michaels scheduled him at the very end and cut his airtime to two
minutes, "I ended up walking off the show. Sure I came back as a regular
nine years later, but still..." A world of regret exists inside his
silence. "Well, maybe things are meant to be or not." As for his
eight stints as host of the Oscars, Crystal allows that "I've liked the
experience, but it consumes so much of the year and the rewards aren't what you
put back into it. I don't know what I get out of it anymore, but I've still
left the door open for the future." Right now, he's more than happy to
continue with 700 Sundays because "it's the best part I ever had to
play." In the end, he'll always be a jazz baby at heart. He admits that of
all the catchphrases associated with him, the one he'd most like to be
remembered by is freely borrowed from that black Yiddish-speaking stride piano
player, Willie "The Lion" Smith. "Can you dig it? I knew that
you could." Maybe he'd even like it on his tombstone? "Now
that," laughs Crystal, "that would be cool."
Shadowland's Movable Feast Is Fine Theatrical Fare
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Richard
Ouzounian, Theatre Critic
(Sep. 26, 2005) "Unique" is an overused word in the critical lexicon,
but it's the one that best applies to The Lost Supper, the latest
work from Shadowland Theatre. It's a strange but lovely mixture of
puppetry, movement, light and music that tells seven distinctive stories, but
barely uses a word. Shadowland is the Toronto Island-based group that brings
its unique creativity to many aspects of our local theatre scene. It has won
three Dora Awards for the grotesquely splendid costumes it provided for Video
Cabaret, produced some memorable outdoor spectacles like Right of Passage and
also created an assortment of memorable smaller pieces, of which The Lost
Supper is a fine addition. Seven life-size puppets sit at a communal dinner
table and, after a sort introductory talk from one of them (a kind of
papier-mâché Margaret Visser), we launch into the individual anecdotes that
connect each guest's life with the world of food. Throughout, the five
black-clad manipulators (Anne Barber, Brad Harley, Mark Keetch, Noah Kenneally
and Clea Minaker) do a delicate job of not only seeing that the larger puppets
move and react appropriately, but that each story is told by a group of smaller
puppets with a wealth of careful detail. The end result is not unlike those
Matryoshka dolls, where a full-sized original keeps revealing a series of
ever-tinier miniatures, to our constantly growing amazement. The Russian
atmosphere is echoed by the content of the some of the tales as well as the
heavenly Klezmer-flavoured score composed, arranged, produced and even
partially played by David Buchbinder. The individual episodes range from an
evocation of passion in a Provençal garden to a year in the life of a farmer,
each handled with a different style and some amusing theatrical flair.
Is there a final point to it all, other than the celebration of the joys and
sorrows that can be found in the community of dining? That's hard to say, but
this is a piece that excites us more for its unheard echoes than its clearly
defined statements. Mark Cassidy has directed with an invention that surpasses
mere cleverness and a sense of just when we have to be dazzled and when it's
time to let us sit and think. There's also a lot of humour in the piece — some
subtle, some broad — and it makes for an entertaining hour. It's also a treat
to see how the five cast members constantly reinforce the emotions that their
puppets are meant to be feeling, with a wealth of subtle smiles, exchanged
glances and murmured confidences. Rebecca Picherack has done wonders with a
simple lighting plot, including a magical evocation of a Balinese shadow play.
And, as mentioned before, Buchbinder's score wraps the whole thing up in a
blanket of sound that soothes without ever smothering. It's some of the best
theatre music I've heard in a long time. The Lost Supper once again
shows that Shadowland is a group that can be counted on to provide Toronto
theatre with work deliciously out of the ordinary. It's not conventional, but
nothing this group does ever is. Still, if you want something different, you'll
find it here.
Oprah To Produce Broadway's The Color Purple
Source: Associated Press
(Sept. 26, 2005) New York — The Color Purple, a musical based on
Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, will have Oprah Winfrey as
a producer and investor when it opens on Broadway in December. In Ms. Winfrey's
first Broadway venture, she will contribute more than $1-million (U.S.) of the
musical's $10-million production cost, The New York Times reported Sunday on
its Web site. The musical, which has been revised since receiving some bad
reviews when it opened in Atlanta last year, will be called Oprah Winfrey
Presents: The Color Purple. Winfrey told the Times it has been “a secret
dream” to be part of Broadway. “I hope to do for this production some of what
I've been able to do for books — that is, to open the door to the possibilities
for a world of people who have never been or even thought of going to a
Broadway show,” she said. Ms. Winfrey was nominated for an Oscar for her role
in the 1985 film version of The Color Purple, directed by Steven
Spielberg. Ms. Walker's book has been adapted by Marsha Norman, author of ‘
night, Mother, while the score is by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and
Stephen Bray. The Winfrey production will be directed by Gary Griffin, a
Chicago-based director best known for his small-scale productions of musicals
such as My Fair Lady and Pacific Overtures. The choreographer is
Donald Byrd. Besides Ms. Winfrey, producers include Quincy Jones, Scott Sanders
and Roy Furman. The actress LaChanze will
star in the show. The Color Purple is told through the eyes of Celie, a
timid young Southern woman who is raped by her father, gives birth to two
children and suffers years of cruelty married to an abusive man.
::SPORTS
NEWS::
::OTHER
NEWS::
What's this? Idealism in film biz?
Excerpt from The Toronto Star - Peter
Howell
(Sept. 23, 2005) Jeff Skoll has been called naïve a lot lately. The
Montreal-born entrepreneur is getting used to it, and also to proving people
wrong. In the late 1990s, he and his friend Pierre Omidyar had an idea
for selling goods via the Internet. They believed people were basically honest,
and that they'd be willing to do transactions on the honour system. Everyone
laughed at how gullible Skoll and Omidyar were. Perhaps you've heard of their
idea. They called it eBay, and it's now one of the biggest and most
profitable of Internet success stories. Skoll has since left eBay, having made
many millions off his naiveté. He's tilting his Quixotic lance at an even
bigger windmill: Hollywood. At the not-so-young age of 40, he continues to
believe in the essential decency of his fellow humans, despite everything life
and the movies have taught him. Skoll last year created Participant
Productions, an L.A.-based company that would have seemed perfectly logical in
the hippy-dippy 1960s, but which seems downright crazy in the hard early years
of the 21st century. As chairman and CEO of Participant, he's using his eBay
bucks to back movies that seek to inform as well as to entertain. And not just
movies that people will talk about after they've seen them, but movies that
will motivate them to go out and change the world. Perhaps you've heard of some
of them, which are already getting much attention and Oscar buzz. They include
the recent Toronto film festival gala North Country, starring Charlize
Theron, Sissy Spacek and Frances McDormand; the summer documentary Murderball
and the soon-arriving George Clooney dramas Good Night, and Good Luck and
Syriana.
Skoll and Ricky Strauss, 38, the company's first president, came to Toronto last
week in the midst of the film festival frenzy to calmly talk about their shared
vision for living better through socially conscious cinema. They want to make
the films that Hollywood forgot. "As a kid, I'd see movies like The
China Syndrome, All the President's Men or Gandhi and I
thought, `Boy, it would be great to have a company that would focus on doing
movies like that,'" said Skoll, who moved to Toronto at age 13 and ended
up studying electrical engineering at the U of T. "And it would be even
better to take these movies and to use them as a catalyst to actually change
society, working with organizations that could be involved in these issues.
Instead of people seeing a film and saying, `I'm going to go and have a beer,'
they'd go, `Wow, what can I do to help?' And I wanted to give them tools that
could actually help." The tools include educational kits and other interactive
features, to be made available through Participant's website (http://www.participantproductions.com).
You can stifle those snickers. At this point I must report that neither Skoll
nor Strauss appeared to be wild-eyed dreamers or recreational drug users, as
they sat before me across a table in a crowded hotel suite. Both men have
considerable business experience: Skoll has founded two other companies besides
eBay and Participant, and Strauss spent 17 years at Sony and its TriStar
Pictures and Columbia Pictures affiliates, where he helped market socially
aware films like Gandhi and Philadelphia. (Strauss is a New
Yorker, incidentally, so he can't claim Canadian innocence as any kind of
defence.) Even with that kind of background, Skoll admits the doors of
Hollywood didn't exactly swing open, when he first began shopping the idea for
Participant around last year. "Well, initially people would always say,
`Nobody is going to want to see a spinach movie, a message movie.' "But it
seemed like everybody I spoke to cared about a particular issue. No matter
whether they were a director, an agent, a studio person or an actor or actress,
they all seemed to have an issue important to them — such as AIDS, which is the
theme of Philadelphia, which Ricky worked on way back when. "So
when you put it in a context like that, they'd go, `Oh, we can do an
entertaining movie that has AIDS as a theme? That's a cool idea. Now I get it.
You can make good movies that people want to see and they also have a
message.'"
It's hard to imagine a Hollywood person actually talking like that. The recent
history of message movies has been something of a mixed message. There were
Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine, which
set new ticket sales records for documentaries, but neither film made a
discernible impact on the public mind. George W. Bush was re-elected, despite
the anti-Bush sentiment of Fahrenheit 9/11. And it seems likely that
none of the pistol-packing hoodlums currently terrifying Toronto took Bowling's
anti-gun message all that seriously. Ironically, Moore praised Toronto and
Canadians for our lack of gun violence. It's even tougher to sell a dramatic
feature with "spinach" content. In 1998, I interviewed another former
Montrealer, Barnet Bain, who had almost the same ambitions as Skoll. Bain was
going to make Hollywood movies meaningful with a company he founded called
Metafilmics. But he lost a bundle on his first big movie, a Robin Williams'
after-life bomb called What Dreams May Come, and he's barely been heard
from since. Skoll and Strauss know that they've got their work cut out from
them. But they're starting out with a very strong slate of films — North
Country, Murderball, Syriana and Good Night, and Good Luck
are all being considered as possible award winners this season. People will
likely see these movies, but whether or not they'll want to change the world
afterwards is a very big question mark. Strauss said Participant would do what
it can to prompt public involvement by getting social organizations onside for
every relevant movie. The company also plans to launch a new consumer-oriented
website Oct. 7, and there are big plans to use blogs to spread the good word.
They may be on to something. The New York Times this week ran a story
about a hit Egyptian movie called The Embassy is in the Building, which
reportedly takes a humorous and accommodating approach towards Israel, a
country many Egyptians are at odds with. Even more amazing is the news that the
film pokes fun at Islamic extremism. Is it possible that moviegoers are once
again ready to eat their spinach, as they seemed so eager to do in the 1960s
and 1970s? Skoll and Strauss seem convinced that they are. They both laughed
when I ask them why they aren't bitter and cynical. "There's enough of
those already in the movie business," Strauss replied.
Oprah Returns To New Books
Associated Press
(Sept. 23, 2005) New York — After two years of celebrating the past, Oprah
Winfrey has decided to welcome back the present. Her latest book club pick,
announced Thursday on her television show, is “A Million Little Pieces,” James
Frey's graphic memoir of substance abuse. It marks two departures from
Winfrey's recent choices: It's a contemporary book, and a work of nonfiction.
“I've decided I will open the door to all books as potential Oprah's Book Club
selections,” she said Thursday. “I feel this will give the book club a whole
new range of opportunities to explore the world through words.” Mr. Frey's book
was first released in 2003 and paperback publisher Anchor Books has
commissioned a new printing of 600,000. “A Million Little Pieces” was No. 1 on
Amazon.com as of Thursday night. Three years ago, Winfrey announced she was
cutting back on book club picks, saying it had “become harder and harder to
find books on a monthly basis that I feel absolutely compelled to share.” Since
2003, Ms. Winfrey has recommended “classics,” including John Steinbeck's “East
of Eden” and Pearl Buck's “The Good Earth.” She recently completed a “Summer of
Faulkner,” picking a trio of novels by the Southern writer. Last spring, more
than 100 writers, including Pulitzer Prize winners Jane Smiley and Jhumpa
Lahiri, wrote an open letter to Ms. Winfrey that urged her to “consider
focusing, once again, on contemporary writers” and suggested that her
abandonment of newer works was hurting sales.