20
Carlton Street, Suite 1032, Toronto, ON
M5B 2H5
(416)
677-5883
langfieldent@rogers.com
www.langfieldentertainment.com
August 9, 2007
I write to you this week with a heavy
heart as my friend and Canadian soul star, Haydain
Neale, has suffered serious
injuries in a car accident. I solicit you to right now say a prayer for a
full recovery for Haydain as well as loving support for his family and
friends. This is a difficult time for us and reminds us that life is
fragile - love hard and often. More details below including details on
how you can send your love and support to Haydain's family.
On a lighter and happier note, another Canadian star, Wes "Maestro" Williams has tied the knot in a private ceremony in Nassau last
week. We all wish Mr. and Mrs. Wes and Tamara Williams all the happiness
their hearts and hands can hold!
I've just returned from Barbados and will featuring a piece on my coverage of
the 2007 Crop Over with many photos in next week's newsletter. Harlem weekly event listings
with tons of live music listings are below as well.
::TOP STORIES::
Haydain Neale Critically Injured in Crash
Source: ib entertainment
(Aug. 7, 2007) This statement was released today from friends and family of
performer and songwriter, Haydain Neale of Jacksoul. Haydain was in an unfortunate traffic accident on the evening of
Friday, August 3rd. He is in the hospital in critical but stable condition. The
family thanks everyone for their concern and support and hope to have an update
soon. Any inquiries concerning Haydain should be directed to Daniel Mekinda at dmekinda@gmail.com.
Any messages to Haydain and his family will be received with appreciation at
the following email: getwellhaydain@gmail.com. Any cards should be
sent to the below address:
Haydain Neale
17 Stephanie Street
Toronto, Ontario
Canada, M5T 1B1
Jacksoul Singer In Critical Condition
After Crash
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
Unnati Gandhi
(August 8, 2007) TORONTO — A Juno-award-winning soul
singer is in critical condition after an accident, his publicist said. Haydain Neale, lead singer of the band Jacksoul, was
driving when he was involved in a traffic accident last Friday, said Daniel
Mekinda yesterday. He remains stable in hospital. Details of his injuries were
not released at the family's request. The 36-year-old Hamilton native, who now
lives in the Beaches neighbourhood, won a Juno Award this year for R&B Soul
recording of the year for his album, mySOUL.
Jacksoul Singer Neale In Critical
Condition Following Crash
Source: -- Katie Rook, National Post
(Aug. 9, 2007) The lead singer of jacksoul, an award-winning Canadian
band, is in critical but stable condition following a vehicle collision last
Friday night in Toronto. Haydain
Neale, 36, who is known in the city’s music
scene for his warm voice and soulful sound, suffered head injuries after a
northbound Honda, turning west onto Eglinton Ave. from Kennedy Rd., collided
with a southbound Vespa scooter around 10 p.m., police said. Mr. Neale, a
native of Hamilton, Ont., who now lives in the Beaches with his wife and daughter,
released an album in 2006 entitled mySOUL. Over the years, the
band has received the SOCAN Award for “R&B Song of the Year,” a Canadian
Urban Music Award for “Songwriter of the Year,” a JUNO Award for “Best
R&B/Soul Recording.”
Mr. Neale, who is president of the Songwriters Association of Canada, has spent
the duration of this year working on his next album, said Daniel Mekinda, a
family friend. “We’re confident that [Haydain’s condition] will take a turn for
the positive,” Mr. Mekinda said. “All of his family is with him.” Supporters
are asked to email well wishes to getwellhaydain@gmail.com.
Singer Suffering Head Injuries After
Crash
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Ashante Infantry, Pop & Jazz Critic
(August 9, 2007) Canada's premier male R&B vocalist remains in
hospital with head injuries after a vehicle collided with his scooter. Haydain Neale, lead singer of two-time Juno-winning
band jacksoul, was travelling south on Kennedy Rd. near Eglinton Ave. about 10
p.m. last Friday when a northbound Honda Civic turned left into his path, said
police. "Mr. Neale appears to have had the right of way," explained
Staff Sgt. Andy Norrie of police traffic services. The accident is still
under investigation and "charges are likely" against a 27-year-old
male driver who was accompanied by several passengers, the officer added.
"There was no alcohol (involved), no speed, no mechanical failure,
no intent," he said. "It's just a tragic circumstance."
Neale, 36, was wearing a helmet, he noted. The raspy-voiced
Hamilton native resides in Toronto's east end with his wife and teenage
daughter. "His entire family is with him," said family spokesperson Daniel
Mekinda, who declined to give further details at the family's request. The
five-member band Neale fronts is best known for the hits "Can't Stop"
and "Still Believe in Love." Their latest effort, mySOUL,
a disc of covers spanning 50 years, garnered a Juno earlier this year for
R&B/Soul Recording.
Funny
Man
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com
- Gayle Macdonald
(July 26, 2007) Russell Peters latest comedy tour is
appropriately named Homecoming. The Brampton, Ont.-raised comic has been
everywhere but home over the past few years. He's been cracking up audiences
all over the world during almost non-stop touring in support of his hit comedy
DVD Outsourced, based on his Comedy Central special that aired in August
2006. He's sold out rock concert venues in four continents including an
unprecedented two-night sellout of the Air Canada Centre in June, feats that
have him pegged as the hottest comedian in the world at the moment. Peters has
brought his unique brand of comedy back to Canada this summer with an
appearance at the Montreal Just for Laughs festival. He will kick off the
inaugural Toronto Just for Laughs festival, hosting a free evening of comedy at Yonge-Dundas Square on Friday.
But before Peters takes to the stage in Toronto, he'll answer your questions
online. Following Peters's free show in Toronto on Friday, he'll prepare for
his Western Canadian tour that will begin in Winnipeg on Sept. 18 and end in
Victoria, B.C. Sept. 25th. Unfortunately, Russell was able to answer only a few
of the many questions submitted from Globe readers. Those questions and his
answers appear below:
Patricia Smythe from Toronto writes: Any interest in doing a Canadian
television series?
Russell Peters: It's funny, up until two years ago, the best that the
Canadian industry could offer me was a radio play. All of a sudden everyone
wants to do a show with me here. I'm not against it, it's just that I live in
Los Angeles now and I'm juggling offers from a number of production companies
and networks. I had to go to the States to take my career to the next level and
like every other Canadian entertainer, once I went to the States and the
American industry acknowledged that I might have something to offer, the
Canadian industry followed.
This is still home to me, so I'll never say never.
Rex Murph from Toronto: What is your favourite city to perform in, and
why?
Russell Peters: Well now that I just wrapped-up two of the most
incredible nights of my career here in Toronto, I'd have to say Toronto. The
shows at the ACC were an absolute high point in my life, both professionally
and emotionally. I really was almost in tears when I took the stage on that
first night and I saw 15,000 people on their feet cheering for me. It's
something that I could never have imagined.
The Toronto audiences have been with me from the beginning (in 1989) and
they've stuck with me ever since.
Hakim Kassam from Kingston Ontario writes: Hey Russell, I really enjoy
your comedy, but I have friends at college who believe that it is regressive in
the fight to eliminate racism. How would you defend your jokes against this allegation?
Russell Peters: Sounds like your friends have some of their own issues
with racism. Generally I've found that there are two types of people who have
problems with my comedy - either the ultra politically correct who have no idea
of what it's like to be a visible minority or people who have their own racial
issues, whether that means that they've got their own racist issues or they
have their own issues with regards to their race and culture.
I also don't think that we're never going to eliminate racism. As long as there
are different races, there's always going to be one race that will feel
superior to another. What a lot of people walk away with from my material is
that there are more similarities between us, than there are differences.
I also don't really talk about race, I talk about culture.
Stevie
Wonder To Tour
Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall
(August 3, 2007) LOS ANGELES -- One of contemporary
music's most iconic stars, the legendary Stevie
Wonder, announced Thursday that he is hitting the road for the first
time in more than a decade. "A Wonder Summer's Night" tour will
feature an evening of music from Stevie, a performing and songwriting tour de
force who has received an astounding 25 Grammy Awards as well the prestigious
Lifetime Achievement Award. The tour kicks off on August 23rd at Humphries in
San Diego, CA and culminates on September 20th in Boston's Bank of America
Pavilion. The tour is being produced by Live Nation (NYSE: LYV) and company
executive Larry Magid. Tickets are available beginning on Saturday, August
11th. "I am looking forward to performing in these venues under the stars.
We are going to have some wonderful nights of intimate excitement," said
Stevie Wonder. Stevie Wonder released the first live performance to reach the
top of the U.S. charts with Fingertips Part II. His amazing career has earned
him 49 top 40 singles, 32 number-one singles, and an Academy Award(R) for
"I Just Called to Say I Love You," plus Billboard's 2004 Century
Award. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, alongside
the Rolling Stones.
In 1983, Wonder spearheaded the realization of Martin Luther King Day as a
national U.S. holiday. His participation in the massive 1985 "We Are the
World" fundraiser for hunger in Africa was a music industry milestone,
while his involvement to put an end to apartheid in South Africa is legendary.
Stevie Wonder was the youngest honouree of the prestigious Kennedy Center
Honors. At the 22nd Kennedy Center Honors in 1999, President Clinton remarked:
"In so many ways (Wonder) has helped to compose the remaining passages of
Dr. King's legacy." But it is Wonder's songwriting legacy that has
inexorably connected him to the world. From Motown prodigy to groundbreaking
innovator, he has always believed in music as a transformational force. Don't
miss these special dates. They will be nights of intimate excitement.
"A WONDER SUMMER'S NIGHT TOUR"
DATE CITY VENUE
Aug. 23 San Diego, CA Humphrey's
Aug. 25 Lake Tahoe, CAHarvey's Lake Tahoe
Amphitheatre
Aug. 26 Concord, CA Concord
Pavilion
Aug. 28 Santa Barbara, CA
Santa Barbara Bowl
Aug. 30 Portland, OR Edgefield
Amphitheatre
Aug. 31 Woodinville,
WA Chateau Saint Michelle Winery
Sept. 4 Saratoga, CA Mountain Winery
Sept. 5 Los Angeles,
CA Greek Theatre
Sept. 10 Chicago, IL Charter One
Pavilion
Sept. 12 Detroit, MI Meadowbrook
Sept. 14 Atlanta, GA Chastain Park
Amphitheatre
Sept. 16 Baltimore, MD Pier Six Pavilion
Sept. 20 Boston, MA Bank of
America Pavilion
Death
Of Canadian At Actor's Home A Mystery
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
Unnati Gandhi
(August 8, 2007) The last time anyone saw Jacob
Adams
alive, he was playing with his friend Ving
Rhames's four large dogs. The next morning, the Canadian scriptwriter was
found dead on the actor's front lawn in affluent West Los Angeles, dog bites
and blood all over his chest, legs and arms. But what happened in those
intervening hours has everyone from police to friends scratching their heads.
An autopsy Tuesday found the 40-year-old did not die as a result of the bites,
and that he was healthy in every other way. Police say Mr. Adams, who had been
living at the Mission Impossible co-star's home for the past two years
and worked as his professional stand-in, was seen outside the Brentwood,
Calif., home at about 8 p.m. last Thursday. Half an hour later, friends tried
calling him but got no answer. Whatever spurred one of the 90-kilogram
mastiffs to give chase had Mr. Adams running so hard that police found his
shoes more than nine metres from where his body was discovered. “He made it to
the gate, he got the gate closed to keep the dogs inside that grassy area, and
he collapsed on the other side of that gate, about three feet from it,” said
West Los Angeles Lieutenant Ray Lombardo. When police arrived, the dogs –
one with blood on its right forepaw; the other so old it hardly had any teeth –
were running around freely on the lawn. Mr. Adams was pronounced dead at the
scene.
Tuesday, the dogs were still in the custody of animal control. Mr. Rhames's
wife told police Tuesday that the dogs, which the family has owned for about
seven years, were very gentle. “She said she has two young children and that
the dogs had never viciously turned on anybody,” Lt. Lombardo said. Most of the
bites were superficial, the Los Angeles coroner's office said Tuesday. It was
also determined that Mr. Adams did not die of a heart attack and did not have
any clogged arteries. The body is now being sent in for toxicology tests. “At
this point, it's simply a mystery. We're ruling it an undetermined death,” Lt.
Lombardo said. He believes the dogs – “they're big dogs; they look like
lions,” he said – sensed something was wrong with Mr. Adams and were trying to
help him by pulling on him. There were no bites on the head or neck. Mr. Adams,
who is from the Toronto area, had met the Pulp Fiction actor several
years ago on the Canadian set for Kojak, a made-for-television movie in which
Mr. Rhames played a police detective. Mr. Adams had written that film's script.
The two men got along very well in a short time and became good friends. “He
took a real liking to Jacob,” Anne Dodds, a long-time friend of Mr. Adams, said
Tuesday. Mr. Rhames then asked Mr. Adams if he would like to work for him. “He
had apparently said to Jacob, ‘When I'm here, I want you to stand in for me,
but when I'm not here, treat my home in Vancouver, treat my home in Los
Angeles, as your own home,'” Ms. Dodds said in an interview. “This man, when he
was a friend, he was a friend,” Ms. Dodds said of Mr. Adams. “If you ever had a
down time, he'd give you that lift to make you feel better about yourself.”
With that, Mr. Adams moved to Los Angeles two years ago, where he lived in Mr.
Rhames's estate with his wife and two young children. Mr. Adams is not married
and recently got his green card. The deal was that whenever Mr. Rhames was out
of town – he's currently in Europe – Mr. Adams would take care of the “odds and
ends” around the house, police said.
::MUSIC NEWS::
Courthouse Saving Hot Jazz For Cooler
Days
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Ashante
Infantry, Pop & Jazz Critic
(August 05, 2007) Four months after its auspicious launch, Toronto's newest
jazz club is taking a break. Live@Courthouse will close to the public tomorrow and
reopen in September – a hiatus necessitated by a dismal turnout over the last
four weeks, said its operators. "We're losing money and we're not in
the business of losing money," said jazz impresario Pat Taylor, who runs
the Adelaide St. E. venue with entrepreneur Nick Di Donato. After realizing
capacity crowds of up to 400 nightly in June, for acts such as Mike Stern and
Freddie Cole during programming for the Canada Trust TD Jazz Festival (of which
Taylor is executive producer), attendance at the venue fell dramatically, but
not unexpectedly. "I was hoping business was going to be better than I
predicted," said Taylor of the swank 150-seat destination that opened in
March. "But there's so much activity going on. Everybody's outside,
sitting on patios and enjoying their decks, it's hard to get them inside.
"We had a close-to-break-even April/May, and June was fabulous. But July
lost money and August was going the same way." Cover charges at the venue,
which features eight-metre ceilings, iron lace balconies and a top-shelf German
sound system, range from $10 to $30.
The city's big jazz spots are typically vulnerable during the midsummer. Both
the 120-seat Montreal Bistro & Jazz Club (closed in 2006) and 150-seat Top
O' the Senator jazz club (closed in 2005) used to shutter in July, within days
of the end of the Toronto Jazz Festival. Jazz aficionados have high hopes for
Courthouse, which is located on the second and third floors of a historic
building and was renovated at a cost of more than $500,000. Its owners
are not rookies. Taylor has helmed the jazz fest for 21 years. As president of
Liberty Group Entertainment, Donato oversees a roster of successful spots,
including Rosewater Supper Club (adjacent to Courthouse) and Phoenix Concert
Theatre. It's because Liberty owns the landmark building that housed a
courthouse until 1899, and was later home to the exclusive Arts & Letters
Club, that pausing the jazz program is even an option. "We're in
control," said Taylor. "One partner is the landlord and we both have
other livelihoods." Once the duo made the decision Wednesday to scale
back, Taylor had to notify local artists such as pianists Bill King, Robi Botos
and Bernie Senensky that their August gigs were cancelled. "Not one
of them was surprised," he said. "They're all seasoned pros."
Taylor stressed that although the club is closed to nightly jazz, it will still
host private events, such as a wedding today. And, he said, most of the dozen
staff would find work at other Liberty operations. When Courthouse does reopen
at an undetermined date next month, the programming will consist of more
big-name touring artists, he said, adding that patrons can expect the summer
closing to become a tradition. "I'll reiterate what I said to the
public when we first opened: `We've done everything we can, now it's up to you,
whether you want to come out and support this music.'"
Gay Community Splashes Out For Caribana
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Ashante
Infantry, Pop & Jazz Critic
(August 05, 2007) One thing's certain Caribana
weekend: a
soiree to suit every passion. Boat cruise? Barbecue? House party? Hip-hop
jam? Vintage reggae? Soca rave? All ages? Older couples? Sexy singles? It's
covered. Now, even the city's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
community is getting in on the action. "Busy, busy, busy; I'm going
crazy," said Mykel Hall a.k.a. DJ Blackcat as he dashed about a few days ago organizing the
three-day Toronto Splash, billed as "The Only Official Gay Caribana
Events." Not that the event, which concludes today with Summer Breeze, an
outdoor fete at the Zippers/Cellblock complex (72 Carlton St.) and party
tonight at Goodhandy's (120 Church St.) is sanctioned by Caribana organizers –
any more than the multitude of happenings capitalizing on the festive
environment the annual festival engenders. "Traditionally, Caribana
weekend our community goes to Montreal for their Pride," explained
35-year-old Hall, Toronto-born of Jamaican parents. "But what happens when
you're gay and Caribbean and want to jump up?" In previous years, the
long-time promoter would stage one or two functions as alternatives to the
plethora of straight parties. This time, he teamed up with two other vets,
Murchy P. and Anopenmind, to stage a full weekend of gay-friendly bashes
featuring out of town deejays and exotic dancers.
"We want to make the Caribana weekend as big as Pride," he explained.
"This year we're putting the focus on the party aspect, but in the future
we want do workshops and film screenings." The deejay, who took his
name from the title of a popular Janet Jackson song, specializes in reggae,
house music, calypso and hip hop. "The bulk of my work is in the gay
community, because they know me more, but I've also played in straight
clubs." With an extensive email list and glossy postcard flyers, he
expected each night would attract up to 800 people – including dozens expected
from Atlanta, Boston and Washington, D.C. Hall would like to see Toronto Splash
become a massive celebration of queer and ethnic pride, similar to yearly
affairs in some U.S. cities. And it would not detract from the annual parade,
he insisted. "We don't even schedule any events during the day on
Saturday," he pointed out. "Caribana is an amazing thing that happens
in this city." Like Hall, CKLN radio host Nik Redman, 38, a self-described
"black queer trans man" is careful to say he has never felt direct
hostility from Caribana revellers but prefers to be where tolerance is assured.
"I don't want to spend my money anywhere I may not be accepted," he
explained. "I don't know if the people at some of those places would be
okay if two men or two women wanted to dance together or be affectionate. We
don't want to be closeted." Redman, who donned a costume and danced with
the Toronto Island Mas Band last Caribana, does recall hearing reggae and soca
artists singing homophobic lyrics at the festival in previous years. It's an
issue gay and transgender turntablists confront regularly. "I don't
believe in banning artists; I just won't play that particular (offensive) song,"
said Hall. "Where would I be as a DJ if I never play an Elephant Man tune?
The music aficionado does admit to not being as strident with misogynistic
songs. "I don't play a lot of bitches and hos stuff ... when something
does not really directly affect you, you don't really think about it."
Who Is Eric Roberson?
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 7, 2007) *Eric
Roberson has been the man
standing next to the man since the onset of the so-called neo-soul movement in
the mid to late nineties. But we've always known that this man has the
skills to pay the bills. And if his BET J "Cool Like That"
award nomination is any indicator, Roberson is in a class with some of the
best. "It was the BET J Award (nomination). It was Musiq Soulchild,
Gerald LeVert and myself that were nominated, and Brian McKnight as well,"
said Roberson of that special night at the BET Awards. "I'm
honoured. I am a fan of each one of them that was mentioned and being mentioned
in the same breath as them as an independent artist means a lot to me."
Back in the mid 90s Roberson languished on Warner Bros. Here's yet another
talented individual that's doing his thing on the oft times frowned upon indie
circuit. But, counter to big label naysayers, an artist can definitely
get paid on the underground. "We're just going to be touring,
man," the Rahway, New Jersey born artist told our reporter.
"We're booked all the way up through October and we're going to be touring
overseas. It'll be an honour to go out and party on tour and share our
stories with the people. We're celebrating the new album and we're just
going to take it from there." Taking it from "there" is taking
it very far indeed. Eric Roberson's new set is titled
"Left" and it has been killing them softly on adult contemporary
radio since its release on his very own Blue Erro imprint.
Art Davis, Jazz Musician: 73
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Associated
Press
(August 04, 2007) LONG BEACH, Calif. – Art Davis,
the
renowned double bassist who played with John Coltrane and other jazz greats,
has died. He was 73. Davis died of a heart attack Sunday at his home in Long
Beach, his son Kimaili Davis told the Los Angeles Times for a story in
Saturday's editions. Davis was blacklisted in the 1970s for speaking up about
racism in the music industry, then later earned a doctorate in clinical
psychology and balanced performance dates with appointments to see patients.
"He was adventurous with his approach to playing music," said pianist
Nate Morgan, who played with the elder Davis intermittently over the last 10
years. "It takes a certain amount of integrity to step outside the box and
say, 'I like it here and I'm going to hang here for a while.''' Known for his
stunning and complete mastery of the instrument, Davis was able to jump between
genres. He played classical music with the New York Philharmonic, was a member
of the NBC, Westinghouse and CBS orchestras, and played for Broadway shows. The
most enriching experience of his career was collaborating with John Coltrane.
Described by jazz critic Nat Hentoff as Coltrane's favourite bassist, Davis
performed on the saxophonist's albums including "Ascension," Volumes
1 and 2 of "The Africa/Brass Sessions" and "Ole Coltrane.''
The two musicians met one night in the late 1950s at Small's Paradise, a jazz
club in Harlem. Davis viewed his instrument as "the backbone of the
band," one that should "inspire the group by proposing harmonic
information with a certain sound quality and rhythmic impulses," Davis said
in an excerpt from So What magazine posted on his Web site. By following his
own advice, Davis' career flourished. He played with a long and varied list of
artists: Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Louis Armstrong,
Judy Garland, John Denver, the trio Peter, Paul and Mary and Bob Dylan. Davis
began studying piano at age 5 in Harrisburg, Pa., where he was born in 1933. By
sixth grade Davis studied the tuba in school because it was the only instrument
available, he said. By 1951 he decided to make music his career. He chose the
double bass, believing it would allow more opportunities to make a living. At
age 17 he studied with the principal double bassist at the Philadelphia
Orchestra. But when he auditioned for his hometown's symphony, the audition
committee was so unduly harsh and demanding that the conductor Edwin MacArthur
questioned their objectivity. "The answer was, 'Well, he's colored,' and
there was silence,'' Davis recalled in a 2002 article in Double Bassist
magazine. ``Finally MacArthur burst out, 'If you don't want him, then you don't
want me.' So they quickly got together and accepted me.'' After high school,
Davis studied classical music on scholarship at the Manhattan School of Music
and the Juilliard School of Music. At night he played jazz in New York clubs.
In the 1970s, his fortunes waned after he filed an unsuccessful discrimination
lawsuit against the New York Philharmonic. Like other black musicians who
challenged job hiring practices, he lost work and industry connections.
With less work coming his way, Davis returned to school and in 1981 earned a
doctorate in clinical psychology from New York University. For many years he
was a practicing psychologist while also working as a musician. As a result of
his lawsuit and protest, Davis played a key role in the increased use of the
so-called blind audition, in which musicians are heard but not seen by those
evaluating them, Hentoff said. The accomplished musician also pioneered a
fingering technique for the bass and wrote "The Arthur Davis System for
Double Bass.'' Davis also wore the hat of university professor. He taught at UC
Irvine for two years. Most recently Davis was a part-time music instructor at
Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. Besides his son Kimaili, Davis is survived
by another son and a daughter.
Levy The Living Legend Of Jamaican
Reggae
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Tim Lai,
Entertainment Reporter
(August 04, 2007) Although Barrington
Levy is one of the
living legends of reggae and dancehall, the Jamaican star has never performed
during Toronto's ode to the Caribbean, one of the city's highlights of the
year. Nevertheless, the 43-year-old is featured tomorrow night when he takes
his famous scatting and wailing on to the concert stage at Harbourfront Centre
for Island Soul – his jams will definitely get the crowd grooving.
"You come with the vibes, I'll bring the vibes," said Jamaica's
top-selling artist over the phone. "I'm definitely looking forward to
putting on a good show for the Canadian people." Levy, who has inspired
many of today's reggae stars, said he's looking forward to absorbing the city's
Caribbean soul when he arrives in town, even though he admits he's never even
heard of Caribana, a boisterous festival celebrating its 40th anniversary this
weekend. Since breaking out in Jamaica nearly 30 years ago as a powerful
and poignant vocalist, Levy has captured fans from around the world with such
hits as "Under Mi Sensi," "Murderer" and "Living
Dangerously" – the vibrant collaboration with Bounty Killer, one of the
island's most famous DJs.
Although Levy has a library of smash hits, along with a number of remixes, he
promises some new material will be on his forthcoming album – his first
original record in more than a decade. "Nobody has heard the new
stuff yet," he said. "I'm planning that it will be my final album,
actually." A release date hasn't been set yet, but he said he may release
singles here and there. In the meantime, he'll concentrate on his first
passion: touring and live performances. "There's no slowing, there's
no such word. That's all I know, that's all I've been doing," he said.
Levy said much of his new material came in bits and pieces over the
years, as he did a number of collaborations with Shaggy, Snoop Dogg and Shyne.
"You don't want to overdo it and I'm not the type of artist who will
overdo it," he said. His latest partnership was with Red-1 of
Vancouver's Rascalz, in which he provided his vocals to "No Fuss" on
the album Beg for Nothing, released earlier this year. They collaborated
before on "Top of the World," the Rascalz 1999 hit that also featured
an up-and-coming K-os.
Go Big Or Go Home
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com
- Michael Posner
(August 1, 2007) After three decades of success in any field,
many artists might start to think about slowing down. Not Jack Lenz. Overseeing
Lenz Entertainment, a company of about 60 musicians, writers, engineers and
puppet artists, the fifty something Toronto-based composer and arranger is
looking to expand. He claims his broad-based firm is now the fastest-growing in
his field in Canada, producing and writing music for television series,
specials and feature films, as well as developing a stable of young recording
artists. To bring what had been its disparate operations under one roof, the
firm recently bought a 25,000-square-foot facility in Thorncliffe Park,
complete with two state-of-the-art recording and engineering studios and a
puppet-making shop for the animated children's series it is producing. There's
talk of building a TV studio on the property to avoid renting space, and this
year Lenz will begin production of a long-nurtured feature film, Mona's
Dream. "We got to the point where we had worked on so many shows that
we thought, 'Hey we can do this,' " Lenz says of his decision to go big.
He's a tall, broad-shouldered, florid-faced man with a warm smile, a hearty
laugh and a ready quip. "There may be a bit of folly here, but we had to
grow. We couldn't stay where we were. So we went out and got some investors,
including Ole, a Toronto music publishing company. And we've created, I think,
a unique, independent, Canadian model." The competition is fierce, he
acknowledges. The budget for music in most films, he says, is less than 1 per
cent of total costs, "and it's dropping, and you're competing with guys
who work out of their basements. Producers are quite happy with that because it
costs them less."
Meanwhile, Lenz's 29-year-old son, Asher, a classically trained pianist, has
joined the firm as a songwriter, while his wife, Debrah Burton-Lenz, looks
after the company's business affairs. There's no questioning Lenz's musical
talent. He has been a composer and arranger for Jimmy Seals and Dash Crofts,
written scores of jingles (including the Toronto Blue Jays' theme song, OK,
Blue Jays, Let's Play Ball), scored dozens of TV shows (from the CBC
National News to Due South to Designer Guys to Little
Mosque on the Prairie), and several feature films (among them Paul Gross's Men
with Brooms and Mel Gibson's controversial The Passion of the Christ,
although he was subsequently replaced by John Debney). "Ooh, boy,"
Lenz laughs now, recalling the latter experience. "As a person, Mel's a
very sweet guy. But the religious thing is so crazy and his views are crazy. It
was a tough go. I think he's a tortured guy." When an article in the
Sunday New York Times Magazine came out about Gibson and his father, Hutton, a
Holocaust denier, Lenz told him: "If it were my dad saying these things,
I'd distance myself." More recently, the Lenzs - père et fils - have
written a single for Andrea Bocelli (Go Where Love Goes). And Asher,
working with singer Adam Crossley, sold a song to pop sensation Josh Groban (So
She Dances). Crossley, putting the finishing touches on his first album of
songs co-written with Asher (Anvil of the Heart), is one of several
performers that Lenz Entertainment hopes it can stage-manage into stardom. An
American, he describes his music as hillbilly, "paddleboat rock."
Other Lenz hopefuls include teenage opera prodigy Holly Stell, gospel singer
Mark Masri and jazz crooner Cal Dodd.
For years, Lenz earned a tidy income from royalties of music written for
children's TV shows, many of which run in syndication forever. Some years, he
cashed more royalty cheques than any other member of the Society of Composers,
Authors and Music Publishers of Canada. If the fees for writing music
were attractive, Lenz reasoned, why not produce the whole shebang - make the
puppets, draft the scripts, score the music. Now, in partnership with Grogs
Inc. (Jamie Shannon and Jason Hopley), Lenz has produced Nanalan, a
Gemini-award-winning preschool puppet series (reruns are on CBC, new shows are
being made for PBS); Weird Years, an animated fish-out-of-water series
featuring the adventures of the Dorkovitch family on YTV; Mr. Meaty, a
short, offbeat animated after-school show for Nickleodeon, which also airs on
CBC, with more than 100 puppet characters; and Ooh & Aah - puppet monkeys
that, after winning a stiff competition, began hosting the U.S. Disney
Channel's playhouse programming block in March. A new, five-minute adult puppet
series, Swami Jeff's Temple of Wisdom, will start airing on ABC
Australia this fall, and Lenz has signed a development deal with Teletoon to
expand the series to half-hour shows. A practising member of the Baha'i faith
since 1969 and the father of seven children, Lenz was raised in rural
Saskatchewan, the son of a Scottish mother and Hungarian father. He studied
piano as a child and later composition at the University of Saskatchewan but, convinced
that he couldn't be the teacher his mother wanted him to be, left after two
years.
Migrating to Toronto in his late teens, he hung around the local music scene,
met soft-rockers Seals and Crofts and, talking himself into a job, eventually
became their keyboard and flute player. He toured the world with them, and with
Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina. Asher's route into the business included
classical piano and then jazz, which he studied in New York. "I found it
provided you with a lot more tools in terms of writing your own music," he
said. I asked Lenz, who remains in awe of the great classical composers of the
past three centuries, whether we would still be playing the work of
contemporary writers 300 years hence. "I think we're at the end of a civilization,
not the beginning. Bach and others were the fruition of a series of cultural
and religious developments. We're at the end of that period and at the
beginning of something else. But the beginnings are seldom remembered, just the
fruitions. In the chaos of the 20th century and beyond, where is there an
environment that produces greatness. I don't see it." Of all the projects
on his plate, Lenz is probably most excited about his feature film, Mona's
Dream. His script tells the story of Iran's persecution and execution in
1983 of teenager Mona Mahmudnizhad and nine other members of her Baha'i faith.
The film, which will star Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider), has a
projected budget of $7-million to $10-million. He's still seeking a
co-production arrangement and some foreign financing. Meantime, Lenz is
enjoying his new role as an initiator of projects. "You know," he
says, "they used to ask [ composer and lyricist] Sammy Cahn which came
first - the music or the words. His answer: The phone call." Now, it's
Jack and Asher Lenz making those calls.
EUR Jill Scott Exclusive!
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 2, 2007) *Fans of Grammy winner Jill Scott in particular and good
music in general, rejoice. Her third solo CD, "The Real Thing (Words And
Music Volume 3)," is set for release on September 25. The news gets even
better. You don't have to wait that long to hear it. EURweb, along with Hidden
Beach Recordings, is making it possible for you to preview Jilly from Philly's
sensational new project right here and now. (Just click the player below).
Remember, this is an online exclusive from EURweb. But guess
what? The news keeps getting better. Hidden Beach Recordings (http://www.hiddenbeach.com/)
is making it possible for you to download your very own mp3 copy of this
historic sampler. The first 5000 people get it for free! Just scroll
down to click the link.
More About Jill Scott's New CD:
"The Real Thing" (09-25-07) will include 17 Brand New Songs. It's
being described as a "complete body of work." One that you can simply
"put the needle down and let it play" from start to finish; its full
of wonderful songs and music. It's a complete listening experience.
Hidden beach also says there will also be a Deluxe Limited Edition featuring
all of Jill's videos including her two new singles, "Hate On Me" and
"My Love." Also included is the "Running Away" bonus track
where Jill gives her approach on songwriting, an exclusive performance from her
forthcoming Jill Scott: Live In Paris" release and more.
To Download The Sampler:
http://family.hiddenbeach.com/index.php?automodule=downloads&showfile=10
To Write Jill Scott A Letter:
http://www.jillscott.com/fanbook/
To Visit Jill Scott's Site:
http://www.jillscott.com/fanbook/
Keeping It Real With Ne-Yo
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com
- Joshua Ostroff
(August 3, 2007) Most modern R&B singers portray
themselves as bigger-than-life lovers, either panting salacious sweet nothings
or detailing post-club sexcapades. But not every girl is crazy about a dirty-mouthed
man. For these ladies, Ne-Yo has become their approachable crooner of choice. “We've
had the era of mystique,” Ne-Yo explains. “But in a day where we have reality
TV shows and behind-the-scenes stuff, I think people want to know that you're a
human at the end of the day, not just some mystical being who creates music.”
In fact, the 24-year-old with two chart-topping albums of traditional R&B
under his belt – 2006's In My Own Words and this past spring's Because
of You – seems as down-to-earth as his given name, Shaffer Smith. Heck,
even when describing his Las Vegas upbringing, Ne-Yo makes the City of Sin
sound positively quotidian. “Of course there's the Strip, but that's just one
street. Las Vegas is a lot bigger. Other than that, it's just neighbourhoods
and hospitals and McDonalds and all kind of regular stuff.” Truth is, Ne-Yo
isn't quite as everyday as he seems. Plenty of teens pen lyrics in their
notebooks, but when Smith was 16, he already had a manager. In 1999, he wrote
for forgettable boy band Youngstown and landed a major label deal two years
later. But Columbia Records, currently kicking themselves, saw no future for
the young singer-songwriter. They dropped Ne-Yo, shelved his debut and handed
his song That Girl to singer Marques Houston. It became a minor hit in
2003 and artists started seeking out its writer. Ne-Yo next wrote Mario's Let
Me Love You and nailed his first No.1 single.
But despite this behind-the-scenes success, Ne-Yo still wanted to be behind a
microphone. True to form, he doesn't throw up a faux-macho front –
transitioning from backstage to onstage was nerve-racking and he's not afraid
to admit it. “To be an artist is to be a little emotional, a little insecure.
You want and need that acceptance from your peers and everybody else, so yes,
there was a little doubt in my mind. What am I gonna bring to this music
business? What is going to separate me from these other cats? Why would a
person buy my album when they could go buy an Usher album? “But I had to stop.
If I'm worrying about the other man, then I'm not focusing on me and if I'm not
focusing on me, then nobody else is, either.” He now boasts a string of smooth
radio smashes like the lovelorn So Sick, love-struck Because of You
and his current collab with rapper Fabolous, Make Me Better – all while
still penning other people's hits, including Beyoncé's step-off anthem Irreplaceable.
“I've always made a point to write relatable music, songs that anybody can
listen to and feel like they know what's going on with the person who wrote
them or the person who's singing it. I like to write music that makes people
go, ‘Yeah, I've felt that before.'” You've sort of heard it before too. Ne-Yo
is not pushing R&B into the future like Justin Timberlake, despite
borrowing his name from sci-fi flick The Matrix. The fedora-adorned
crooner's admittedly retro style is rooted in the seventies and eighties
R&B that birthed his idols Stevie Wonder, Prince and Michael Jackson.
Coming full circle, the latter may even soon become a future client. “I had an
opportunity to speak to him on the phone about us doing things together. I
can't talk about that too much, but it was surreal,” he says, still
star-struck. “Of course I'm listening to what he's saying but in the back of my
mind I'm like ‘are you aware that you're talking to Michael Jackson?'” But
while Jacko walled himself off from fans, Ne-Yo's attitude is, not
surprisingly, quite the opposite. When discussing career milestones, he
mentions a festival gig in Japan where language proved a problem. “I like to
communicate – realizing I couldn't do this in Japan was messing with me. What
the hell am I gonna do? I'm standing in front of 20,000 people who do not
understand English. They know who I am, but I wanna talk to these people,” he
says sincerely. “But soon as So Sick came on, they knew every word and
sang it back to me verbatim. That's the power of music – it knocks down all
those barriers.” Ne-Yo has been also adept at crossing gender barriers as well.
Putting aside his own broken-heart solo songs, his greatest success has come
from putting words in women's mouths. On top of Beyoncé, he also wrote
Rihanna's Unfaithful and is working with everyone from Celine Dion and
Whitney Houston to Jennifer Hudson and Britney Spears.
“There's something in the way I think that women can relate to. That comes from
growing up in a house full of women. It was me, my sister, my mother, my
grandmother and about five of my aunts all in the same house. So any drama that
a woman can go through, one of the women in my house went through it, and I was
right there to soak it up. I just might have a little more insight than the
average guy.” Perhaps, but so far being the average guy has served him pretty
well. Ne-Yo plays the Caribana Imagine Music Festival, with Sean Paul and
Destra Garcia, at the Molson Amphitheatre at 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Quincy Jones Launches Podcast Series
*Source: sahirah - SU Entertainment - www.sumanagement.com
(August 1, 2007) *Entertainment legend Quincy Jones has
unveiled the debut episode of his new video podcast series that takes viewers
behind-the-scenes into Q’s private world. According to podcast partners Wizzard
Media, the 26-episode series includes footage of the musician at work in the
studio and at exclusive events around the world. Also featured in are Jones’
takes on film, popular culture, politics and world events. The 27-time Grammy
winner's new digital platform expands with its second phase, the Fall debut of
quincyjones.com, an online destination featuring interactivity of a social
network embracing musicians, producers, artists and Quincy's other followers
worldwide. It will include Quincy's Vault that will give users access to
previously unreleased audio and video of Jones and the legendary performers
he's worked with as well as a virtual Quincy's Academy where users will network
and share their artistry with music professionals, like-minded peers and
consumers, and have access to digital record distribution and marketing
opportunities. Jones’ video podcasts will be available on www.quincyjones.com,
MySpace and Wizzard Media Channel on iTunes, and other leading podcast
directories including Yahoo!, VH1, Syndic8 and Podcast Pickle. Meanwhile,
in *other Quincy Jones news,
the 27-Time Grammy Award winner, was honoured with the Grammy Foundation
Leadership award at the Starry Night Gala. The intimate benefit, dinner,
and concert was held on Saturday June 28th, at UCLA’s Straus Stadium in Los
Angeles, CA. The event -presented by the Gibson Foundation-was attended by
a star -studded list of Quincy’s celebrity friends and colleagues to benefit
the Grammy foundation.
From the red carpet many noted how Quincy had influenced their careers.
In addition to admiring Quincy as a legendary composer, producer, and
humanitarian, Nancy Wilson acknowledged, “he is a great dad, a gentleman, and a
very good friend”. Jazz legend Herbie Hancock said, “ I’ve worked with
him on many occasions and must say, and every experience of his genius has been
significant”. Naomi Campbell, will.i.am(see photo provided by Wireimage.com),
Eric Benet, and Gail King were among the other notable celebrities who arrived
to pay tribute to Quincy. Neil Portnow, President of the Grammy
Foundation presented Quincy with the Foundation's Leadership Award . The award
salutes the honouree’s lifetime commitment and dedication to social, cultural,
economic and educational issues spanning the globe. Quincy Jones said, “
I am extremely delighted to receive the GRAMMY Foundation’s Leadership
Award. This is a very special award and it means a great deal to me,” said
Jones. "I am also honoured to be an ambassador as The Recording
Academy celebrates its influential 50-year history with a celebration of events
and activities for music fans and music makers, all while keeping the
importance of music education and preservation at the forefront of its
efforts." The tribute concert featured exceptional
performances by an array of musical stars including Nancy Wilson, Patti La
Belle, John Legend, Gloria Estefan, Bebe Winans, James Moody, Alice Smith among
others. Starry Night’s musical director, David Foster, a 14-time GRAMMY Award-
winning producer and GRAMMY Foundation Board Member stated, “Quincy is my
teacher and I have the utmost respect and love for him. He not only deserves
this Leadership Award, he is the epitome of a true leader.” The GRAMMY
Foundation also supports such programs as the Gibson Baldwin GRAMMY Jazz
Ensemble and GRAMMY Camp participants. This year’s ensembles included over 10
students selected to perform several of Jones’ works including “Killer Joe.”
Furtado Battles Beyoncé At MTV Video Awards
Source: Associated Press
(August 8, 2007) New York — Canadian singer Nelly
Furtado is in the running at this year's MTV
Video Music Awards, it was announced yesterday. The Promiscuous singer is in the running for best
female artist, where she will compete against one of this year's most-nominated
singers, Beyoncé. That R & B vocalist tied with Justin Timberlake for the
most MTV nods - they are up for seven apiece. Canadian actor Alan Thicke's son,
Robin, is up for male artist of the year. The awards are handed out on Sept. 9
in Las Vegas.
MTV Video Award Nominees Announced
Excerpt from www.thestar.com – Associated
Press
(August 08, 2007) NEW YORK–Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé lead the nominees for
the MTV Video Music Awards with seven nods apiece, it was announced
yesterday. Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable" was nominated for video of the
year, as was Timberlake's ambitiously cinematic "What Goes Around ...
Comes Around." Also competing in the category are Amy Winehouse's
"Rehab," Kanye West's ``Stronger," Rihanna's
"Umbrella" (featuring Jay-Z) and Justice's "D.A.N.C.E."
Timberlake, who will be the show's "maestro," was also nominated for
Male Artist of the Year and ``Most Earth-Shattering Collaboration" for
pairing with Timbaland for "Sexy Back." Beyoncé was nominated for
Female Artist of the Year and for her collaboration with Shakira on
"Beautiful Liar." West landed five nominations, including Male Artist
of the Year. Rihanna also received five nods, propelled by her hit
single, "Umbrella," which is up for "Monster Single of the
Year." Also nominated for Male Artist of the Year were Akon, T.I. and
Robin Thicke. Rounding out the nominees for Female Artist of the Year were
Fergie and Canada's Nelly Furtado. Winehouse, whose Back to Black was
her second disc but her first released in the U.S., is up for Best New Artist.
Winehouse will compete with Lily Allen, Carrie Underwood, Gym Class Heroes and
Peter Bjorn & John. Up for best group are Fall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes,
Linkin Park, Maroon 5 and White Strip
MUSIC TIDBITS
Canyon, Yellowbird Lead Country-Music
Noms
Source: Canadian Press
(August 2, 2007) Toronto — Country-music star George
Canyon and upstart Shane Yellowbird lead the nominees for this year's Canadian Country Music Awards. Nova Scotia native Canyon is up for five
trophies, including single and album of the year. Yellowbird, a first-time
nominee from Hobbema, Alta., also snagged five nominations, for categories
including independent male artist. Other multiple nominees include Paul Brandt,
Doc Walker, Emerson Drive, Brad Johner and Carolyn Dawn Johnson, with four
each.
Sean Kingston Makes Billboard
‘Beautiful’
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 3, 2007) *Sean
Kingston’s radio smash “Beautiful
Girls” jumps 23-1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this
week, sending the Plain White Ts’ sentimental “Hey There Delilah” from its two
week perch to No. 2. Fergie's "Big
Girls Don't Cry" falls 2-3, Rihanna’s "Umbrella" is down 3-4 and
Timbaland's "The Way I Are" featuring Keri Hilson drops 4-5.
T-Pain's "Bartender" featuring Akon jumps 10-6 and is the Hot
100's fastest growing track at radio. Shop Boyz' "Party Like a
Rockstar" falls 5-7, while T-Pain's former No. 1, "Buy U a Drank
(Shawty Snappin')" moves up 9-8. Fabolous' "Make Me Better"
featuring Ne-Yo rebounds 11-9, and Hurricane Chris' "A Bay Bay"
rounds out the top tier after falling 8-10. Elsewhere in the Hot 100, Yung
Berg's "Sexy Lady" featuring Junior moves 35,000 downloads and
results in a 30-18 jump on the Hot 100. The artist's debut EP, "Almost
Famous (The Sexy Lady EP)," was released July 24. The Hot 100's top debut is
Kanye West's "Stronger" at No. 47. The cut, which samples Daft Punk's
"Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger," will be found on West's Sept. 11
Def Jam release, "Graduation." Also new to the chart this week are
Baby Bash's "Cyclone" featuring T-Pain at No. 65 Fantasia's
"When I See U" is No. 1 for a sixth straight week on Hot
R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
Music Publishers Join Youtube Suit
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Associated
Press
(August 07, 2007) NEW YORK – A group of music publishing companies said Monday it is joining a copyright infringement
lawsuit against Google Inc.'s video-sharing site YouTube. The National
Music Publishers' Association said it was joining the lawsuit out of concern
that many songwriters weren't receiving proper compensation when their music
appeared on YouTube videos. The lawsuit also includes as plaintiffs the
Football Association Premier League and Viacom Inc., a media company that owns
MTV, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. The plaintiffs say
YouTube is breaking the law by hosting video clips that they hold the
copyrights to. However, YouTube says it's complying with the law by immediately
taking down any clips found to be violating copyrights after receiving
notification. David Israelite, chief executive of the NMPA, said in a statement
that the music publishers' group was "very concerned about YouTube's
approach to copyright." The lawsuits have been combined for trial purposes
into one case being heard by U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton in New York.
Music publishing companies administer the copyrights of songwriters and
composers and collect the royalties that are due to them.
Jill Scott Opens Up In Essence
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 8, 2007) "I put icing on places that were
wounded, so
they looked good and tasted pretty. But I really didn't deal with them until I
had no choice but to deal with what was going on in my marriage" The
lovely and talented Jill
Scott always had a smile that her fans adored.
She was "living her life like it was golden" and emulating a unique
confidence that ignored the stereotypical beauty standards of the record
industry. But everything in Jill's life wasn't golden. In a
sit-down chat with Terry McMillan, she talks to ESSENCE about "The Real
Thing", her new CD, her troubled marriage and her latest role in Tyler
Perry's "Why Did I Get Married?" (page 181)
::FILM NEWS::
Darrin Henson Takes ‘The Stand’
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
(August 1, 2007) *Actor Darrin Dewitt
Henson is busting his
acting chops with a vengeance. The “Soul Food” star has moved into his latest
project “The Last Stand,” fresh off his antagonist role in “Stomp the Yard.”
The new film is written and directed by morning radio talent Russ Parr,
who is wearing a new hat, while dancer/actor Henson is progressively becoming
an accomplished thespian. The straight-to-DVD flick explores the “drama
of comedy,” as it follows the lives of four individuals with dreams of becoming
the next big star. Henson plays TD, an up-and-coming comedian with a criminal
past. Henson chatted with EUR’s Lee Bailey about the film and his
growing movie career, and discussed how the film, though a straight-to-DVD
flick, is big screen worthy. “There was a premiere in D.C. and my jaw dropped
because of how dynamic the movie is. I said, ‘This should be in the movie
theatres, now.’ But because they [promoted] that it was coming out on DVD, I
guess they had to follow through with it. As long as people get to see the
movie, that’s what’s important.” Henson said that he got connected to the film
after a suspicious meeting with Parr during the Essence Festival a couple of
years ago. Henson was trying to avoid the crowd when a man he didn’t recognized
approached him. That man was Russ Parr. “I didn’t know him – I knew the name,”
Henson said of the legendary Parr. “He was this guy that was staying in the
same hotel as me during the Essence Music Festival, and he said ‘I gotta talk
to you.’ I still didn’t know who he was until he said, ‘I’m Russ Parr and I’ve
got this movie.’ About a week later I gave him a call back and said I’d love to
do it.”
The film was shot last year with little fanfare, but the critics are impressed
with the film, particularly Henson’s talent. After all, he’s a dancer first and
foremost, and then an actor. But even more, this role asked a lot of Henson’s
talent. He’s a dancer, as an actor, playing a comedian, who happens to be a gay
ex-con. But Henson did not shy away from the challenge. “That is the important
part – playing these characters and telling the truth of the men that I play.
From ‘Soul Food’ to ‘Stomp the Yard’ to ‘Life Support’ to a young Jim Brown in
‘The Express’ – a movie that I just finished a couple of weeks ago. This character
that I play is another person that exists and what I wanted to do was jump on
the character because it is very real. Playing a gay male didn’t bother me
because it’s about telling the truth about people that do exist.” Henson said
that he’s always frequented comedy clubs and loves to laugh, but when he was
offered the role, he really dove in, studying comedic timing, delivery, and
jokes. He even happened to be finishing up the book “Pryor Convictions” while
filming, a book that explores the life and times of legendary comedian Richard
Pryor. “I take what I do very, very seriously,” he said. “It was important when
I was playing a comedian that other comedians actually respected my timing and
respected the jokes. This guy was supposed to be funny. I was reading ‘Pryor
Convictions.’ It was so close to what was going on with my character’s life, it
was so strange and surreal to me. [It’s surprising] when you find out how
tragic comedians’ lives really are. It blew my mind. Some of the hardships they
go through and then they get on stage and make us laugh.” “The Last Stand” is
in stores now and also stars Guy Torry and Anthony Anderson. As he mentioned,
Henson just finished filming “The Express” about the first black Heisman Trophy
winner Ernie Davis. Next up is the release of his “Darrin’s Dance Grooves 2,”
the follow-up to his first instructional dance video – the highest selling
dance video in the US. For more info on his dance video and "The Last
Stand," visit his website: www.darrinhenson.com.
Chris Tucker: The Rush Hour 3 Interview
With Kam Williams
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com – by Kam
Williams
(August 2, 2007) *Born
in Atlanta, Georgia on August 31, 1972,
Chris Tucker has come a long way
since his days doing stand-up on Def Comedy Jam. Starring
in box office smashes that include the #1 grossing comedy Rush Hour 2, as well
as Friday, Dead Presidents, Money Talks and the original Rush Hour (which
grossed $250 million worldwide), he has clearly proven himself to be one of
Hollywood's hottest talents. Tucker entertains audiences the world over
with his motor-mouthed brand of humour and animated facial expressions which
always leave a lasting impression. During his downtime, Chris traveled to
Africa with U2's Bono and Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill on a
fact-finding tour to help countries plagued with AIDS, hunger, and unsanitary
living conditions. Deeply-affected by the conditions he discovered,
Tucker has since returned to the region regularly on humanitarian missions,
also functioning as a people's diplomat, raising cash and awareness to help
deal with the crises. As a consequence, he's been so busy he hasn't made a
movie in a half-dozen years. Here, he chats about Rush Hour 3, his first film
since Rush Hour 2.
Chris Tucker: Hey, Kam.
Kam Williams: Chris, thanks so much for the time.
CT: Oh, you're welcome, thank you.
KW: How did it feel being teamed up with Jackie Chan for a third time?
CT: Oh, I loved it, man! I loved it! It was just as much fun, or maybe even
more fun as the first one and the second one, 'cause it's such a fun movie to
do and being teamed back up with Jackie was great.
KW: How'd you enjoy the Paris locations?
CT: That was great, too, shooting in Europe, man. We did a lot of stuff
outdoors. Riding around the streets and drinking wine for lunch. It was great!
KW: Seems like you and Jackie have perfect screen chemistry. You have very
different types of talents which complement each other, so you never end up
stepping on each other's toes. Did you know that was going to happen the first
time you got together?
CT: No, the first time we got together, it was just like you see in the first
movie. Jackie didn't speak much English, and I didn't know Chinese at all. I
brought that out in Rush Hour 1, like when I screamed, "Do you know the
words that are coming out of my mouth?" That's basically what I wanted to
say to him the first time I met him. So, no, we didn't know, but the chemistry
was perfect. I think that was because it came from a real place. What you see
on film is the same friendship and relationship between us you see in real
life.
KW: So, was that "Do you know the words that are coming out of my
mouth?"
line improvised, or was it in the script?
CT: Improvised.
For full interview by Kam Williams, go HERE.
Anne Hathaway Straight Laced No More
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - John
Hiscock, Special To The Star
(August 3, 2007) BEVERLY HILLS–Portraying the young Jane
Austen in the romantic drama Becoming
Jane had Anne Hathaway tied up for ages. Literally. "It was
awful," said the New York-born actor, who was obliged to wear a corset for
the entire three months of filming. "I was wearing it too tight for
the first couple of weeks and it would cut off the circulation in my body, so
when I would go home my face would turn bright red for about five hours and
everybody thought I was a morbid alcoholic." The restrictive corset also
prevented Hathaway from eating properly. "It was not healthy and Coco
Chanel should be commended for liberating women from the corset." On the
other hand, having her ribcage compressed every day did help her get into
character. "The movie takes place at a time that was very repressive for
women and the corset helped with that feeling," said Hathaway. The
24-year-old actor can laugh now as she sits in a comfortable suite at the Four
Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, but the time she spent in Ireland filming the
fictional story of the writer's romance with a roguish Irishman, played by
James McAvoy, was not at all funny. "The movie was wonderful and beautiful
and tortured and poetic and difficult and freezing," she recalled.
"Everything was challenging and every single day was a battle with
something – with the accent, with the dress and with the weather, always with
the weather." On the plus side, portraying the author of such
classics as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility inspired
her to do some writing herself, scribbling poems and private thoughts in a
diary which she intends to keep to herself.
"It was a profound experience," she said. "I loved making this
movie and it taught me so much. I felt like I grew so much while I was working
on it. It's wonderful to have a record of it, not that I'll ever show it to
anybody." To perfect an English accent, she spent a month in London,
working with a dialogue coach and taking to the streets to practice on
strangers, asking directions and making small talk. "I had a very
posh apartment in Knightsbridge so I went to Harrods. It was very tough
research," she joked. Hathaway began acting as a child in New York
stage productions and movie audiences first saw her in The Princess Diaries in
2001. She appeared in the sequel, and then co-starred in Brokeback Mountain and
The Devil Wears Prada. She has just finished filming Get Smart,
the movie version of the zany '60s television series, in which she plays Agent
99. "To go from playing a centuries-old British icon to a modern American
one was wonderful," she said. "Jane Austen was a very sweet person in
a very repressive society and 99 is a woman who never takes `no' for an answer
and who believes she can do anything. I was so happy to go from one to the
other." When not filming, Hathaway works with her boyfriend, property
tycoon Raffaello Follieri, on his charitable foundation, which is dedicated to
helping underprivileged children in Central America. Although they have
been together for three years she has no wedding plans yet because, she said
with a laugh, "he hasn't asked me." But she added: "I see
marriage and children and a white picket fence in my future and I can only
assume things are taking their time and progressing the way they are meant to
be and if it's meant to happen it will. I'm very happy. "I couldn't
love him more if we were married and to be honest, I kind of hope he doesn't
ask me any time soon because I'm too busy to plan a wedding."
Jennifer Lopez: The El Cantante
Interview With Kam Williams
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com – by Kam
Williams
(August 7, 2007) *Born in the South Bronx on July 24, 1969,
Jennifer Lynn Lopez has come a long way from her humble roots
to her lofty station as an adored pop icon and perhaps the most influential
Hispanic entertainer in America. Besides being the first singer/actress
to have a #1 movie and #1 album at the same time, J-Lo was voted #1 on FHM's Sexiest
Women list, has been chosen as one of the World's 50 Most Beautiful People by
People Magazine, and is acknowledged to be the richest Latino in Hollywood.
Even though none of her movies has grossed $100 million at the box office,
domestically, Lopez nonetheless has enough name recognition to command $15
million per picture. Here, she talks about starring in and producing El
Cantante, a bio-pic about the rise and fall of Hector Lavoe, a celebrated salsa
singer from the Seventies. Her real-life husband, Marc Antony, handles the
title role as is the ill-fated, drug-addicted front man, while she plays Puchi,
his long-suffering wife.
Kam Williams: What interested you in making and starring in El Cantante?
Jennifer Lopez: This was one of the first things with my production
company that I felt like, "This is something I really want to make. This
is something I really want to make." The script was brought to me, I
guess, about four or five years ago now, through Puchi, who had done interviews
with the very first writer on the screenplay, David [Darmstaedter], and David
Maldonado brought it to my manager at the time, saying "Read it, it's the
Hector Lavoe story, and Puchi wants Jennifer to play her." I read it, and
I'll be honest, much like when I did Selena, I knew of the music, and I knew a
little bit of the story, but I didn't know the whole story. When I read it, and
started learning more about it, I just became obsessed and impassioned with the
whole idea of the project and their lives. And once I really got to know the
music, I was like, "Wow! This is important." And then, it being a
Puerto Rican story, and my production company being Nuyorican Productions, what
better movie to be the first movie for Nuyorican Productions than this?
KW: Was Puchi an easy role for you, given that she's Puerto Rican and the
wife of a famous Latino singer?
For full interview by Kam Williams, go HERE.
Matt Damon's Career Bourne Again ... And
again
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Amy
Longsdorf, Special To The Star
(August 02, 2007) Matt Damon can
still remember where he
was when he got the offer to play amnesiac spy Jason Bourne in The Bourne
Identity, the first in a trilogy of films that has, to date, grossed more
than $300 million (U.S.) at the box office. "I was sitting backstage
in London, doing a play on the West End," he recalls. "Nobody had
offered me a movie in six months. "It was like the rose-coloured
lenses had come off and I thought, `Okay, I get it. If you're in a hit, you
have a career and if you're not in a hit, you don't matter any more. They might
think you're a real nice guy, but they're not hanging a movie on you.'"
And then Damon was Bourne again. The spy thriller came out in 2002 and
exceeded industry expectations by grossing $122 million (U.S.). "The
Bourne character completely changed my life," says the actor. "The
movie opened, hit big and by that Monday, I had 20 offers." With his
career back on track, Damon landed a role in the Ocean's trilogy and
went on to make three dream projects: Syriana, The Departed and The
Good Shepherd.
Through the years, the actor has stayed true to Jason Bourne, appearing in The
Bourne Supremacy in 2004 and The Bourne Ultimatum. "There
hasn't been a role that's had a bigger impact on me, except for maybe Good
Will Hunting (which he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck) because it pulled
Ben and I out of total obscurity." For Damon, the Bourne
movies work on many different levels at once. They're popcorn pictures, but
they're also reflections of the times in which they're made. "The
first one came out in 2002 and it's definitely a post-9/11 movie," he
says. "All of the paranoia is there. "The second one came out
in 2004, when things were starting to turn in Iraq. Jason Bourne, this iconic
American figure, is apologizing and atoning for his misdeeds, for things that
he's done. He's taking responsibility. "Now you have the 2007 movie
and Bourne is pulling a gun and putting it to the head of the person who lied
to him all these years. Bourne's saying, `I see now that you've led me into
something under false pretenses.'" Damon is more of a homebody these
days than when he first signed on for the Bourne films. A native of
Cambridge, Mass., the actor married Luciana Barroso in 2005. They have a
1-year-old daughter Isabella and he's adopted her daughter Alexia, 8.
At first, fatherhood knocked him for a loop. "I didn't think that this
would happen to me," he says. "Other people ... were always showing
me baby pictures or trying to hand me the baby, and I was like, `Get that thing
away from me. I don't want to touch your kid! Give me a break.' "But
I'm totally into it now. I was scared at first, because I was kind of excited
for my daughter to be 2. I was excited for her to start talking and walking and
toddling around, but I didn't realize how much personality little people have
right off the bat. So it's just been fun." Damon says he lives to
hear his daughter giggle. "This morning, she pointed at the ceiling
and started laughing. I said, `Now, I don't know what's funny about that.' ...
I'm trying to figure out what's going on in her head." Damon is also
trying to figure out the key to a long and successful career. "Ben and I
look at George Clooney and Clint Eastwood and they're definitely doing it
right," he says. "They're acting, they're writing, they're directing
and they're doing it on their terms. "I love everything about making
movies. I love writing and acting and I'd really like to direct. It's so hard
to have a long career in this business. I'm still here after 10 years. And
everyone is probably a little amazed by that. So, at this point I just want to
try and be smart about the work that I do and have integrity about the choices
I make."
Damon sounds a bit envious that Affleck, whom he calls "my hetero life
mate," beat him to the director's chair. Affleck recently finished helming
Gone Baby Gone, which is set for an October release. "I've
seen the movie that he directed and it's really good and the performances are
great. Every actor is going to want to work with him after they see this thing.
Now that he's a director, our relationship has changed. Now he's someone that
can give me a job." How would Damon feel about being directed by his
best friend? "I would love it," he says. "It's been
10 years since Good Will Hunting and, in the last decade, we both put
our heads down and worked pretty hard. Now, we've woken up with careers and
families and all the things that we wanted. "Hopefully the next 10
years will be about doing better work. Maybe doing a little less of it but
doing better stuff. And doing movies together."
Featurewell
Nicholas Campbell On Why Acting Is 'The
Most Powerful Drug In The World'
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com
- Gayle Macdonald
(August 1, 2007) In
the first scene of the Toronto production of
Fabuloso, at the SummerWorks Theatre Festival, Nicholas Campbell
reveals a trick of the trade that “Sir” entrusted to him three decades ago.
“Sir said, ‘Get your entrance perfect, so the audience can relax,' “ Campbell
says between careful bites of a mayonnaise-drenched submarine sandwich, after
rehearsal at a studio in Toronto's east end. “ ‘Secondly,' he said, ‘at some
point, perform one bit of stage business that gives them a circus thrill.' “
Sir was Sir Laurence Olivier, who happened to be Campbell's private tutor after
the Toronto-born, Montreal-raised Campbell took a detour from Queen's
University (after attending exclusive Upper Canada College) to attend London's
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the 1970s. The future star of CBC-TV's Da
Vinci's Inquest met Olivier while playing alongside him in a British TV
version of Come Back, Little Sheba in 1976. Their relationship did not
begin well. “First day on set, tea time, a wardrobe lady tells me I have to dye
my hair,” Campbell remembers. “Without thinking I say, ‘No way.' Sir heard me –
that's what you called him, ‘Sir' – and races over.” Imitating Olivier,
Campbell tilts his nose and begins clipping consonants: “He doesn't want to be
a blond, does he? The little twit, I was a blond when the King knighted me. I
was playing Hamlet at the time.”
Despite Campbell's tantrum, Olivier was soon dining regularly with his suddenly
platinum-haired colleague. Campbell reveals a native scepticism explaining
Olivier's interest. “Maybe he liked me,” he says, shrugging. “Maybe I was the
only one who hadn't heard his stories.” In any case, Campbell took Olivier's
many lessons to heart. That much is apparent watching the 55-year-old actor
rehearse his entrance to the comic farce Fabuloso – a frantic sequence
that has him racing about like a penalty-killing hockey forward fighting off a
five-on-three power play. The less active actors – the power play (Jonathan
Higgins, Linda Kash and Angela Asher) – have retired from the stage, breathing
easily. Campbell, however, has collapsed in a folding chair, raining sweat on
his lunch. “Two rehearsals a day,” he says. “When I get home, I throw on Coronation
Street, and I'm asleep before it's over. But you have to break the speed
limit doing a farce. Otherwise the play falls right through the floor.”
Campbell acknowledges that doing a theatrical comedy is a shock to his system
after a decade in TV and film, much of it playing crusading coroner Dominic Da
Vinci in Da Vinci's Inquest and Da Vinci's City Hall. “With Da
Vinci, [creator-writer] Chris Haddock used to say, ‘Dare to go small,' ” he
remembers. “That's film acting. This is stage acting,” he says, wiping his
forehead of perspiration. Campbell may not have been knighted for his fictional
role as the coroner, and then mayor, of Vancouver, a character based in part on
the man who is now Senator Larry Campbell (no relation). But he did receive a
Gemini Award on his way to becoming one of Canada's most recognizable TV
actors. “It's incredible, riding streetcars, at the track, I get a dozen ‘Hey,
how you doings?' an hour,” he says.
It's not surprising that transit riders and $2 punters relate to Campbell. As
Da Vinci, he played the most Canadian of heroes, a civil-servant everyman who
afflicted the comfortable and comforted the afflicted. Campbell says Da Vinci,
in fact, had multiple inspirations: “He was Chris Haddock doing Larry Campbell,
and every good cop I met on a sudden-death scene [researching the series].” In
providing the third source for his great creation, Campbell offers some insight
into his own curious departure from the UCC-Queen's path. “There was also a bit
of my father in Da Vinci,” he says. “My dad was born in Forest Hill in Toronto
in the lap of luxury, but when his father died, something went wrong with the
family business, Campbell Cake and Flour. He had to sell the company, and
became a horticulture salesman, travelling the country. “My dad wasn't the kind
of guy to go to your hockey games, but every year he took me on the road, and I
saw how he treated customers. That empathy, that can't be a tactic: It has to
be in you,” Campbell says. After a pause, he adds, “You know, my dad would have
been happier as a sports fisherman than a businessman.” Nick wouldn't make the
same mistake, abandoning Queen's for the adventure of filmmaking. The films he
has directed, Stepping Razor: Red X, an investigation into the life and
death of Rasta superstar Peter Tosh, and Boozecan, a raffish meditation
on after-hours nightclubs, suggest that Campbell, who has been married five
times to three different women, probably wasn't cut out for a lawyer's life in
Rosedale or Westmount. “Sometimes I'm at the track, and a guy will come up to
me and say, ‘My son, he's smoking pot. I wonder if you can have a word with
him,' ” Campbell says, smiling. “I tell him, ‘Sir, I'm an actor. You're
confusing me with a character on television. But if your son has good stuff,
I'll be glad to meet the young lad.' ”
With the cancellation of Da Vinci's City Hall last year, Campbell
learned the wisdom of Sir's last lesson: “Every actor can be replaced.” “It was
hard, I won't kid you,” he says. “Actors are nomads, but I'd really got to rely
on that job every summer. I used to bring my three boys from two different
wives to live with me. I didn't have that this summer, and I could cry in a
second thinking about that.” (He doesn't.) Still, he's working steadily, if all
over the place. He says he loves Fabuloso, by American playwright John
Kolvenbach. “Three months rehearsing, and I still can't bust this guy,” he
exclaims. “As an actor, you usually get to the point where you go, ‘Oh God, not
this part,' but there are no dead parts here.” In the fall, Campbell will
return to CBC Television in the miniseries The Englishman's Boy. From a
Governor-General's Award-winning novel and screenplay by Guy Vanderhaeghe, it's
set in the Cypress Hills of Saskatchewan and combines a story of the Wild West
with a look at Hollywood's take on cowboys and Indians. Campbell, who plays a
character named Shorty McAdoo, says it's “the best acting I've ever done.”
Campbell also understands that Da Vinci gave him something an actor
needs: a ready audience. “I get ordinary guys coming up to me and mumbling,
‘You know, I don't usually watch the CBC, but I loved your show.' Like they're
saying, ‘I'm not a fag, eh, but I like you.' I love it, every actor wants
people to see his work.” Campbell says he hasn't figured out yet how to execute
Sir's command to provide a “circus thrill” in his new play. Sometimes the
inspiration happens onstage, he says. And when it does, the actor invariably
gets more from the trick than the audience. “I remember seeing Sir in Long
Day's Journey Into Night,” Campbell remembers. “He was so sick with cancer,
he had to cantilever himself upright from a chair offstage. Yet in the play, at
one point, he leapt off the table, nimble as a gymnast. I couldn't believe my
eyes. Acting is the most powerful drug in the world.” Fabuloso runs at
Toronto's Tarragon Theatre on Aug. 3, 5 ,8, 9 and 12 (Tickets:
www.summerworks.ca or 1-888-222-6608).
Théroux To Head Alliance Competitor
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com
- Gayle Macdonald
(August 02, 2007) One year after veteran film distributor
Patrice Théroux was very publicly
dismissed by his 18-year employer, Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture
Distribution LP, the 45-year-old executive has re-emerged as president of a new
multinational distribution arm to be launched by Toronto-based Entertainment One. Théroux,
who was fired as chief executive officer of MPD along with the company's senior
counsel after a vicious battle with MPD's board, will effectively go
head-to-head against his former employer, which is by far Canada's largest
distribution company with powerful clients such as New Line Cinema, Focus
Features and The Weinstein Company. Until now, Entertainment One has flown
under the radar in Canada, quietly beavering away and making millions as
Canada's largest wholesaler of DVDs, CDs and video games. Recently, the company
- which is publicly traded on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange -
decided to set its sights further afield, purchasing the British-based
Contender Entertainment Group, (an independent distributor of DVDs now more
aggressively acquiring films to release in theatres). It also owns Koch
Entertainment, the largest independent record label in North America and a leading
independent distributor of music and video in the United States. In all, the
company has roughly $650-million in annual revenue. Yesterday, Théroux refused
to discuss his former employer, saying only that "what happened at
Alliance has been discussed enough."
He did add, however, "it feels great" to be back in the game. "I
spent 25 years in the film business, first in Montreal and for 18 years at MPD.
It's what I do for a living, and I'm really excited and focused on this new
adventure. It's a new start with a well-capitalized company that already has
some critical mass and the means to build a global distribution
infrastructure." Théroux added that the Toronto International Film
Festival will be his first major market. He's looking for art-house, mainstream
and crossover feature films to be released in 2008. Théroux worked for close to
two decades at MPD under its combustible chairman Victor Loewy, where their
team also oversaw Momentum Pictures in Britain and Aurum Producciones in Spain.
The drama at Alliance Atlantis began in mid-July last year after a fractious
board meeting, where Théroux and counsel Paul Laberge were fired. Loewy quit in
protest. MPD's unit stock price immediately nosedived. At the time, the company
said the removals of Théroux and Laberge were for cause, and alleged the former
executives were fired for "willfully deceiving the board," including
misusing company funds and information for personal use. A month late - in a
plot twist worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster - Loewy was rehired (to save a
deal with his long-standing client New Line) and MPD dropped court charges
against Théroux and Laberge (who were not rehired).
Alliance Atlantis has since been sold to CanWest Global Communications and
Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, which are divvying up the assets into three
distinct groups: its 13 broadcast channels controlled by CanWest; the
entertainment business owned by the investment bank; and MPD, owned by
Toronto-based Edgestone Capital Partners (with equity from Goldman). The MPD deal
is set to close Aug. 15. Théroux is not fazed about competing with his former
employer. "We compete everywhere, around the world, with somebody. I see
Canada as a great opportunity. Yes, there's a dominant player - and I used to
be there - but it's a good time right now for a well-capitalized company to be
a new entrant in the market." Ironically, the British hedge fund Marwyn
Investment Management LLP had offered to buy MPD last summer, but was rebuffed.
Marwyn is a part owner of Entertainment One. Théroux's new distribution arm,
Filmed Entertainment, will come on board the same time as other industry
players are planning to set up shop. Film producer Robert Lantos is launching
an independent domestic distribution company with two former employees, Charlotte
Mickie and Tony Cianciotta, that will operate in-house at his company
Serendipity Point Films. There are also rumours that cinema giant Cineplex
Entertainment has been making noises about wanting to muscle its way into
distribution. "I can survive," says Théroux, referring to the
newcomers. "New studios are setting up in the U.S. who will need Canadian
distribution (Summit Entertainment, Overture Films), so the timing's right.
Frankly, in addition to that there's a lot of independent Canadian material to
be acquired. We're very set on exporting Canadian movies to the world."
Ole! Flamenco Festival To Do More Than
Just Tease
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
Paula Citron
(August 8, 2007) Lionel and Alexandra Felix
are following
their dream. They have quit their day jobs and put up $70,000 of their own
money to mount what they hope will become the annual Toronto International Flamenco Festival. Running Aug. 10 to
15, their festival is the first of its kind in Canada, and only the third in
North America after New York City and Albuquerque, N.M. Flamenco festivals are very specific in nature, be they in France,
England, Germany, Italy, Japan or Spain. Concerts by top-notch and emerging
flamenco artists anchor the evenings, but the days are devoted to intensive
workshops. Says Lionel Felix: "Touring flamenco shows are teasers. They
come to town for a single concert, but leave nothing in the local market. A
flamenco festival showcases top artists not only as performers, but as teachers
who provide professional development and personal enrichment." As the
Felixes point out, however, not all superstar flamenco dancers are gifted teachers.
Their research led them to Alicia Marquez, who has not only performed with the
greatest flamenco companies in Spain, but whose Seville studio is regarded as
one of the top flamenco training centres in that country. Marquez's career
reads like a who's who of flamenco. She has danced for Jose Antonio, Antonio
Gades, Paco Pena, and filmmaker Carlos Saura.
This first festival is, understandably, of modest proportions. Marquez
has put together an original show, Aire Flamenco, which kicks off the
festival with shows Aug. 10 and 11 at The Music Hall. The following week,
Marquez, her dance partner Nano, singer Jesus Corbacho Vasquez and guitarist
Manuel Perez will each give intensive classes in their specialties. Of
particular note is a Felix innovation. Nano will be teaching a styling class
for men only. The curated evening concerts at a local watering hole will
feature performances by dancers, singers and guitarists attending the festival.
With Toronto flamenco star Carmen Romero acting as interpreter, Marquez was
reached by phone in Seville. As she says about her beginnings: "I started
taking dance classes when I was 4, and by 11, flamenco was my life."
Marquez, who is 35, was born in Seville. Her father was a perfume salesman and
her mother a housewife. Marquez was exposed to all things artistic and
creative, including painting, singing and dance. While Marquez excelled at
everything, it was in dance that she found the greatest freedom to express
herself. When asked what inspires her in flamenco, Marquez points to the
philosophical lyrics of the songs. "It's their profound verses and
musicality that touch my heart," she says.
Her mother chose her teachers very carefully. When she was 8, Marquez was put
with the legendary Matilde Coral, who gave her a solid technique because along
with flamenco, she also taught regional and classical Spanish dance. Marquez
remained with Coral until she was 18. Every flamenco dancer has his or her own
personality. Marquez's trademark is her consummate elegance, powerful expressiveness
and exquisite femininity. Her specialty is the alegrias, a dance
performed with a long train, or the bata de cola, which involves great
technical skill. According to Marquez, the train must become an extension of
the dancer's own body as a manifestation of her womanly wiles. In 2000, Marquez
started to put together her own shows, although she still continues to work
with others when the great ones call. "I wanted to see what I had, what I
was made of. I had to find out if I had my own vision," she says. In fact,
she was an instant success; Aire Flamenco is Marquez's North American
debut under her own name. The title of the show was chosen by Marquez and Nano
as they were creating the solos and duets they are bringing to Toronto. Because
they both breathe flamenco differently, they thought the title expressed their
individualities. Valencia-born Nano, who started dance training in 1991,
represents the new generation of flamenco artists. He cut his teeth in the
company of the great Cristina Hoyos, and in 1998 won first prize in Madrid's
prestigious Spanish Dance and Flamenco Choreography Competition. Says Marquez:
"I chose Nano to work with me because of his heart."
Marquez is married to her first boyfriend, whom she met when she was 14. His
business is dental prostheses, and the couple have a four-year-old daughter,
Gabriela. Marquez opened up her own teaching studio when she was 24 and her
focus is building strong technique in her students. When asked why this Toronto
flamenco festival is important, Marquez says it is a way of communicating
first-hand the strength, the power and the passion of flamenco from people who
live it and breathe it. Romero agrees. "Canadian dancers, guitarists and
singers have to diversify their training. It is essential for growth in any art
form, and this festival means they can do that here in Canada. While the
festival is importing Spain to Toronto, Toronto, in a way, is exporting Spain
to all the people who come here to study. It makes the city a top flamenco
centre." And a final word about the ambitious Lionel and Alexandra Felix,
who are as unlikely candidates to start a flamenco festival as could be
imagined. Lionel was born in Haiti, grew up in Montreal, and was a star
football player at the University of Waterloo, where he graduated in actuarial
science. Toronto-born Alexandra is of Italian heritage. She got her masters in
French translation at the University of Montreal and worked in marketing for a
French company. They have two children, Jenna, 4, and Jonas, 2. When a knee
injury sidelined Lionel in his third year of university, he took up ballroom
dancing as rehabilitation. The couple met at a Toronto salsa club and became
dance partners, good enough to reach the gold level in competition. However,
Lionel was so driven by dance that he wanted to pursue the art form intensively
on his own and not be dependent on a partner. That led him to flamenco. "I
don't look like a traditional flamenco dancer," he says with a laugh.
"I have the build of a football player." The enterprising Lionel
began a company, The Art of Expression, in 1996 to fill a need in the flamenco
community. He imports top-quality, handmade flamenco shoes and portable dance
floors from Spain, and now has customers all over North America. Alexandra has been
the nuts-and-bolts organizer who has devoted a year and a half of her life
putting the festival together. Lionel is the artistic arm and resident dreamer.
Says Lionel: "You could say our passion outstrips our budget." The
performances of Alicia Marquez's Aire Flamenco take place at the Music Hall,
Aug. 10 and 11 (416-870-8000). For festival details, visit http://www.torontoflamencofestival.com.
Out Of A Claire Blue Sky
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
Alwynne Gwilt
(August 8, 2007) Since her days on the critically praised TV
series My So-Called Life, Claire
Danes has certainly embraced stardom, taking on
such high-profile projects as The Mod Squad, The Hours and Terminator
3, as well as such quieter fare such as Polish Wedding and Shopgirl.
But her role in Stardust, which opens Friday, takes Danes's celebrity to
new heights: In the whimsical drama, the slender blonde portrays an actual star
fallen from the heavens. “I wouldn't have called it,” she says, laughing,
of playing an actual celestial body. “But I had a good time doing it,” she adds,
sitting back and relaxing on a couch at the SoHo Metropolitan Hotel in downtown
Toronto. In her portrayal of Yvaine, Danes, 28, takes on an otherworldly
character brimming with filmic beauty, a lost star whose sudden landing on
Earth leaves her perplexed and angered, but who perseveres, and traverses
through the magical land of Stormhold. Onscreen with her in the high-profile
fantasy flick are such real-life luminaries as Robert De Niro, Sienna Miller
and a cackling Michelle Pfeiffer, whose character, an evil witch, wants to eat
Yvaine's heart.
Danes fell for her latest character as soon as she read the script, which is
based on an illustrated novel by English-born, Minnesota-based science-fiction
writer Neil Gaiman. “She's millions of years old, she's very sophisticated in
some ways and she has observed human behaviour from a distance,” says Danes,
delicate hands waving in front of a low-cut peach blouse. “But she's actually
very inexperienced, has never had to live and doesn't know what it is to feel.”
Aside from learning to ride a horse in the English countryside and
filming “in Scotland, which is particularly stunning,” Danes says the scenes
between Yvaine and the film's young hero, Tristran, played by British actor
Charlie Cox, were some of her favourites. “There's these really
wonderful, playful kind of scenes with Charlie when they're starting to flirt,
so it was great to be in these sweeping environments and goof off,” she says,
adding that Cox, whose earlier roles include Lorenzo in 2004's The Merchant
of Venice (opposite Jeremy Irons and Al Pacino), has remained a “very dear
friend.” Stardust is directed by Matthew Vaughn, perhaps best known for
directing the 2004 Brit gangster flick Layer Cake, starring a
not-yet-007 Daniel Craig, and for producing the 2002 Madonna flop Swept
Away. But Danes said she was never worried about Vaughn's
interpretation of the fantasy land of Stormhold. “I felt safe in his hands,”
she says, adding that the director “was always really clear that he wanted to
tell an adult, sophisticated version of this children's story.” Danes considers
the film a coming-of-age tale – a genre she knows something about: The actor
became a beloved figure for a generation of teen girls thanks to her work in
1994's My So-Called Life. In it, she starred as a 15-year-old struggling
with the usual problems of a 15-year-old – boys, school, parents. Her realistic
portrayal earned her an Emmy nomination for best actress. But the buzz wasn't
enough to save the show, and it was cancelled after 19 episodes.
Dane further cemented her teen-icon status in 1996, when she took a lead role
in Baz Luhrmann's bracingly modern Romeo + Juliet, opposite a youthful
Leonardo DiCaprio. But her untarnished image took a hit in 2004, when she
struck up a romance with Stage Beauty co-star Billy Crudup, whose
then-partner, actor Mary-Louise Parker, was expecting Crudup's child. The new
couple denied that anything took place before Crudup and Parker split, but an
ugly dispute played out in the tabloids. Her love life has moved on since then:
Now living in her native New York, where she grew up with an artist mother and
photographer father, she is these days dating another co-star, Evening actor
Hugh Dancy. On a professional level, meanwhile, Danes has embraced the
unapologetic romance of Stardust and its story of searching for true
love in a strange land, while dealing with no end of adversity and danger – all
attractions for the actor, as was the bonus of beautiful costumes. “I
loved my star costume because it was so loose,” she says of the silvery,
flowing number her character dons for the first half of the movie. “The other
one was a corset, so it was a little painful, especially after lunch,” she
adds. In the coming months, Danes will move away from the somewhat restrictive
world of “falling in love in the movies,” which, for all its fantasy fun, is a
variation on a mould that is “kind of what's asked of young women.” The
Flock, a thriller in which she stars opposite Richard Gere, opens later
this year. And heading to Broadway in September, she is set to take to the
stage as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion. In the meantime, although she
says she doesn't keep “a filing system of what I've learned and when,” the
actor is no doubt hoping the star qualities that have taken her this far will
shine brightly enough in Stardust to keep earthbound critics – and
audiences – happy.
FILM TIDBITS
Andre 3000 Details Sammy Davis Biopic
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
(August 1, 2007) *Andre 3000 will star as legendary
entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. in the
feature film “Sammy and Kim,” one of three movies currently in the works about
the late performer. “Actually, I
just got the script," Andre told MTV. "I am checking it out now, and
we will see where it goes from there." The OutKast rapper said
“Sammy and Kim” will follow the volatile relationship Davis had with white
actress Kim Novak. Their interracial union was cause for constant drama at the
time. In the meantime, Andre will follow up big screen performances in
"Four Brothers" and "Idlewild" with The Battle in
Seattle," a drama about the World Trade Organization starring Woody
Harrelson and Charlize Theron, and "Semi-Pro," a basketball flick
co-starring Will Ferrell. "I am playing a 1970s basketball star
showoff on the team, and we are trying to make it to the NBA. It's hilarious,"
he tells MTV.
Wesley Snipes As Thelonious Monk?
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com -
(August 1, 2007) *Leon Ichaso, director of the new film “El
Cantante” starring Marc Anthony and his wife Jennifer Lopez, says he would love
to have Wesley Snipes star in his planned biopic of jazz legend Thelonious
Monk. "Wesley Snipes is aware of the project... I think he's
kept the same innocence that Thelonious had and something very specific about
the face. He looks like him,” Ichaso said at a recent press junket.
"Thelonious has almost like an ebony-etched kind of a face and an
innocence and I think that would be a fit for Wesley.” Ichaso’s “El Cantante”
is a biopic about salsa legend Hector Lavoe, who famously struggled to balance
his incredible talent with the turmoil of his personal life, which included
drug addiction and a suicide attempt. Lavoe died of HIV-related causes in 1993
at age 46. For his Monk biopic, Ichaso hopes to portray the jazz
legend’s battle with similar personal demons. "Monk is a man
who had all the odds stacked against him and became one of the most influential
jazz and bebop musicians," said Ichaso.
Actress Tamara Tunie Ready For
Directorial Debut
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 7, 2007) *Tamara Tunie, the
actress seen
performing autopsies every week on NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU,” is set to make
her feature directorial debut on indie romantic comedy "See You in
September," starring Estella Warren and Justin Kirk ("Weeds").
According to Variety, Tunie is also a producer on the film along with
Jennifer Maloney and Joe Cilibrasi. The trio also teamed to produce Broadway’s
Tony-winning "Spring Awakening," as well as "Legally
Blonde" and August Wilson's "Radio Golf." The script,
based on an idea by Cilibrasi and penned by Victoria Rinaldi, centers on a
successful Manhattan woman who's in therapy to deal with her fear of
commitment. Just as she's on the verge of a breakthrough, her therapist goes on
vacation for the entire month of August, prompting her to organize group
therapy for other patients similarly ditched by their therapists going on
vacation. The film shoot, which began yesterday, is scheduled to run for
five weeks in Manhattan. Co-stars include “NYPD Blue” vet James McDaniel, David
Eigenberg, Michael Hyatt and Liza Lapira.
::TV NEWS::
Enraged Fans Raise Jericho From The Dead
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
Andrew Ryan
(August 3, 2007) Even the most casual viewer knows that a
TV show lives and dies by its ratings. There is no greater measure of a
program's worth than Nielsen numbers. Each fall, the U.S. networks stack their
prime-time schedules with a few dozen new series - the majority of which are
gone and already forgotten when the TV season winds down eight months later.
Cancellation is normally the final chapter in the life of a series, but
sometimes a show comes back - if viewers make enough noise. The walls very
nearly came tumbling down on Jericho (CBS, 9 p.m.), currently rebroadcasting its first
season on Friday nights. CBS is giving viewers a second chance to sample the
low-rated show after its recent decision to bring the show back next season for
a limited run. In TV terms, the resurrection of Jericho is a miracle. Few
programs experienced the rocky ratings ride of Jericho last season. The sci-fi
drama set in a small Kansas town in the wake of a nuclear attack on America
attained cult-viewer status, at best, and the show spent most of its first
season mired way down in the U.S. Nielsen ratings. CBS put Jericho on midseason
hiatus and when the show returned three months later, it had lost more than
one-quarter of its previous audience. The show's cancellation in mid-May surprised
no one. "Naturally we assumed that getting cancelled was the end of the
road," says Skeet Ulrich, who plays the central Jericho character of Jake
Green. "But it only woke up the show's real fans." For the record,
precious few network programs have made the trip back from the graveyard
through viewer intervention. The only known examples of save-our-show campaigns
working in the past: Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey and the military
drama JAG, which did come back, but on a different network.
Jericho fans demonstrated considerable pluck, however. The mercy mission to
save the show began a few days after its official death notice. Devoted
followers mounted a global online campaign in support of the show and
petitioned CBS to reverse its cancellation order. British actor Lennie James,
who plays the enigmatic Robert Hawkins, had already moved his family back to
London. "One of the other cast members phoned me up and asked, 'Are you
aware of what's happening on the Internet?' " James recalls. "The
push to save the show kept building; more conversations were started and the
momentum kept building. And not long after, there was the nuts."
Specifically, the peanuts. The call to arms included a well-advertised campaign
that beseeched Jericho fans to send bags of peanuts to CBS headquarters. The
choice of peanuts as a form of protest referred back to the season finale,
titled Nuts, which in turn was the famous response uttered by U.S. General
Anthony McAuliffe when, during the Second World War, he was informed by the
German military that he had no choice but to surrender. CBS reportedly received
more than 20 tons of peanuts. Incredibly, it worked. CBS reversed its decision
last month and ordered seven new episodes of Jericho, which are scheduled to
air midseason (following the inevitable demise of one or more of the network's
new fall dramas). And CBS has attached a stipulation to its stay of execution:
If the show's audience doesn't edge up into more mainstream viewer numbers
during the seven episodes, the network really would pull the plug - once and
for all. But instead of cowering, the troops of Jericho appear galvanized.
"You don't get many second chances in this business," Ulrich says.
"The best way we can thank the fans is to make the best show we can, and
to keep moving the story forward."
Terrence Howard Back On PBS
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 8, 2007) *Terrence Howard returns
this fall as host
of the Emmy-winning PBS series “Independent Lens," which kicks off its
sixth season Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 10 p.m. with the broadcast premiere of the box
office hit "Wordplay." The film takes
an intimate look at New York Times puzzle editor Will Shortz. Director Patrick
Creadon explores the inner workings of his contributors and fans, including
such crossword aficionados as Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, Jon Stewart, Ken Burns,
Mike Mussina and the Indigo Girls. Other highlights of the upcoming
season include "Banished," which explores the ugly history of
American towns that violently expelled their African American communities; and
"Iron Ladies of Liberia," which offers an intimate documentary that
goes behind-the-scenes with Africa's first female head of state, President
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. "The quality of this series is consistently
first-rate," notes Howard. "I've learned so much by watching these
stories from all over the world and if I can help bring more people to these films,
it's an honour."
Other fall programming on “Independent Lens” include: "An Unreasonable
Man," which documents the life and times of Ralph Nader; "Miss
Navajo," a look at a unique Native American pageant that challenges
mainstream ideas of beauty by focusing on the traditional Navajo woman --
including mastering the Navajo language and the butchering of sheep; "King
Corn," which follows two college graduates as they embark on a mission to
see where America's food comes from and challenge the role of subsidies and
agro-business by growing it themselves; and "Mapping Stem Cell Research:
Terra Incognita," which chronicles a prominent neurologist's journey to
find a cure for his paralyzed daughter.
TV TIDBITS
Whoopi takes Rosie's chair on The View
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Associated
Press
(August 02, 2007) NEW YORK–Whoopi
Goldberg will bring
no celebrity feuds with her when she joins The View, at least none that
she's aware of. "Who knows?" she told The Associated Press.
"Anybody could say `I don't like her.' That's okay. I just won't come to
your home." That already sets Goldberg apart from her predecessor. The
View, putting Rosie O'Donnell in its rearview mirror, officially introduced
Goldberg to the show's audience as its moderator yesterday. She'll start
full-time after Labor Day. O'Donnell announced this spring she was leaving
ABC's daytime talk show after less than a year filled with controversy and
feuds with Donald Trump and co-star Elisabeth Hasselbeck, among others. But
Goldberg, 51, is no stranger to political controversy. Goldberg was dumped from
a Slim-Fast ad campaign in 2004 after mocking the Bush administration at a
political rally and using the president's surname as a sexual
reference. As moderator, Goldberg will be expected to steer the
discussion and keep the show running on time. "I just figure I'm going to
be me," she said. "They know who I am and know what I do, so nobody
will be surprised if I disagree strongly but not meanly. I'll never be mean.
It's just not in me."
CRTC tells History TV to pull CSI: New
York
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com
- Gayle Macdonald
(August 1, 2007) Toronto — The federal broadcast regulator has slapped a final
ruling on History Television's airing of CSI: New York, saying the forensic crime show does not meet the
specialty channel's mandate to air programs that are historically significant
to Canadians. The CRTC gave the channel's owner, Alliance Atlantis, until
January to get CSI off its schedule, where it typically appears twice a
day. The CRTC decision came seven months after the Writers Guild of Canada
filed a complaint.
Rick Fox And AMC Team For Hoops Drama
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 6, 2007) *Cable channel AMC double teams with
former Los Angeles Lakers star Rick
Fox to develop a drama series that explores
the public and private lives of professional basketball players. Fox, whose
crossover into acting was fuelled by a run on HBO’s “Oz,” will executive produce
the untitled project with "300" producer Mark Canton, according to
the Hollywood Reporter. Rob Sorcher, executive vice president of programming
and production at AMC says it’s too early to say whether Fox, formerly married
to Vanessa L. Williams, will also star in the series. But "he'll certainly
be informing this project as we develop it," Sorcher said.
::THEATRE NEWS::
The Duke meets the Bard
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Ashante
Infantry, Pop & Jazz Critic
(August 02, 2007) New York–Mercedes Ellington's Manhattan
apartment is a treasure trove: floor-to-ceiling books, vibrant paintings,
posters of shows she's starred in or choreographed, and everywhere, memorabilia
of her legendary grandfather, bandleader/composer/pianist Duke Ellington. The eldest of the musician's
four grandchildren will be in Stratford on Sunday to deliver a free lecture
about her famous ancestor, tied to the 50th anniversary of his band's
performance of Such Sweet Thunder at the drama festival. The
12-part suite, written specifically for that appearance, pays tribute to
Shakespearean characters, giving them nicknames such as Lady Mac, Hank Cinq and
Sister Kate. On Monday, the 15-member Duke Ellington Orchestra, led by
Barrie Lee Hall Jr, one of Ellington's original trumpeters, will play the piece
in its entirety along with gems from the extensive catalogue of the master who
died in 1974. Mercedes has a strong resemblance to and unabashed zeal for
the dashing jazz icon she called Uncle Edward – "I think it was because he
didn't want the ladies to think he was old enough to have grandchildren; just
to take the onus off things he used to call me Aunt Mercedes."
She eagerly provided a visitor with back stories of Ellington photographs
displayed prominently around her residence and trotted out a copy of the
Pulitzer Prize the Washington, D.C. native was posthumously awarded in 1999.
The dancer/actor is particularly fond of Such Sweet Thunder whose title
is drawn from A Midsummer Night's Dream: "I never heard so musical
a discord, such sweet thunder." She hopes to turn the 35-minute recording,
which creates drama through beautiful melodies, ominous chords and unexpected
tempo changes, into a Broadway musical. "It would give play to a new view
of these pieces and also fulfill something that I felt my grandfather always
wanted to do: he always wanted to be a playwright." She sees similarities
between Shakespeare and the nonpareil musician. "They both were kind of
renaissance guys; Duke Ellington's palette was his orchestra and Shakespeare
used his actors." Others agree.
Duke and the Bard were self-taught composers who "drove the university
wits to liquor, wrote for individual characters and wrote for performance, not
archive," said former English Lit major and trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis
who recently premiered an updated octet version of Such Sweet Thunder.
"While Shak was probably not the socialite that Ellington was, his work
affected all levels of society. And both mastered a variety of forms. One
example in this work is how Ellington composed the sonnets to mirror the form
of the English poetry – 10-word lines, 14 times." Added Stratford Summer
Music director John Miller: "Duke's music is sophisticated, it's
multi-layered, it's intelligent; there's such insight and thoughtfulness around
it, and those are precisely some adjectives I want to use when I describe
Shakespeare." The titles of Such Sweet Thunder's movements,
such as "Madness in Great Ones" (Hamlet), "The
Star-Crossed Lovers" (Romeo & Juliet) and "Sonnet in
Search of a Moor" (Othello), demonstrate "a very sophisticated
awareness of Shakespeare," he noted. Acts like Count Basie, Billie Holiday
and Oscar Peterson were commonplace at Stratford when Ellington made his second
appearance with Such Sweet Thunder (actually recorded in New York months
earlier) on Sept.5, 1957, but ended in the '60s, because organizers found the
costs prohibitive. The orchestra's concert this weekend is the first jazz show
since the Summer Music program began in 2001. Mercedes thinks that's fitting
since her grandfather loved taking his music to every nook and cranny.
"From Saskatchewan to Sri Lanka, everywhere I have gone with my dance
company, he has been before me. He always said, `Home is where the work is.' As
long as he had his bible and a piano, he was cool.
"When I was in Sri Lanka some musicians came to me at the hotel and
brought their Duke Ellington albums, signed by him and all of his band members,
and told me he had given two of their musicians money to get them through music
school." She wants to start a non-profit performing arts centre in
his name, but fundraising is problematic since a young half-brother from whom
she's estranged runs the Duke Ellington estate. That back-story is a
drama of Shakespearean proportions. Long story short: Ellington died without a
will. His only child Mercer inherited everything. When Mercer died in 1996, he
left control of the estate, including the orchestra, to his third wife, to the
chagrin of Mercedes (daughter of his first wife) and Richard and Gaye (children
of his second wife). When Mercer's widow died last year, the mantle passed to
their son, Paul. All four siblings share recording royalties, but Paul, 28, has
sole charge of the Duke's estate and divides the proceeds with a non-Ellington
brother by his mother. "Everything became so complicated and such a total
mess; now we stand as a family kind of separated by lawyers," said
Mercedes, whose version alleges sick bed wills and mismanagement. "I am
running the estate with the help of people who know what they are doing and we
are exploiting it positively in the best of ways, which is going to positively
affect all the kids," said Paul from Vancouver where he attends film
school. The family's disharmony may be attributed to his having "the
prestige of being the executor of the estate," he surmised. "I
guess I can understand that. I'm the youngest by at least 40 years. But I've
studied my granddad back and forth and if you were to ask me some questions on
him I could probably answer most of them; so it's not that I'm not well versed.
I never met him, but it's not my fault I wasn't born early enough."
Paul, who was 18 when he assumed control of the orchestra, admits he's
not a natural musician. "I kinda play piano. It didn't come as
easily, but the music theory I grasped well. I learned how to write music
fairly fast." If film turns out to be the forte of Paul Mercer Ellington,
who is co-producing an Ellington movie starring Laurence Fishburne, his
grandfather would probably approve. In his program notes for the 1957 Stratford
performance, Ellington wrote: "Somehow, I suspect if Shakespeare were
alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself – he'd appreciate the combination
of team spirit and informality, of academic knowledge and humour, of all the
elements that go into a great jazz performance. "And I am sure he
would agree with the simple and axiomatic statement that is so important to all
of us: when it sounds good, it is good."
For more information about the Elegant Ellington Weekend visit
stratfordsummermusic.ca, or call 1-866-288-4313.
Will They Love Him Now That He Can Dance?
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Erin Kobayashi, Staff Reporter
(August 02, 2007) Nobody puts Jake Simons in the
corner.
Except Toronto's Dirty Dancing audition panel, which requested that
Simons, the actor cast as dance instructor Johnny Castle, brush up on his dance
moves. "Rachael Mirvish had given us a call because we needed to train him
for the role," says Estelle Nicolaidis, director of City Dance Corps,
where Simons trained. "He didn't know anything. He didn't know the mambo,
the cha cha, he had no idea about anything in partner work." A Johnny
Castle who doesn't know the mambo? Or the cha cha? Casting an actor instead of
a dancer in the role of Castle is a new precedent in the hit stage production.
In the London, Sydney and Hamburg Dirty Dancing stage shows, the lead
role was given to professional dancers: Josef Brown and Martin van Bentem, both
criticized for their wooden performances. "We worked a lot on mambo and on
body movement with him that you don't get in jazz. A real Latin dancer moves
their body in a certain way, they feel the rhythm and you don't get from just
learning choreography," says Tina Nicolaidis, who founded and directs the
dance studio with her sister.
"It's working on feeling, how to feel the movement the right way. Not just
learn the movements or it will not look right." As the Nicolaidis sisters
talk, they begin to sound like Johnny Castle themselves. In fact, Estelle
reveals that she auditioned for the part of Baby and finds it amusing that she
got to teach Johnny Castle how to cha cha. But Simons, a Randolph Academy
graduate, does have a dance background. "When I was younger, I started
dancing because of break dancing when I was 11, back in the '80s," Simons
says. "And that led to jazz, tap and ballet lessons. I did a bunch of
musicals but wanted to concentrate more on the acting end of things and I
stopped taking dance lessons." Hired by the casting agency as a reader to
help performers audition for other roles, Simons was interested in the role of
Robbie, a part that requires no dancing. But when there was a lack of
male dancers to partner with females dancers auditioning, the casting director
suggested that Simons step in. "That was the first time I saw him
dance," says associate choreographer of the show, David Scotchford.
"He has a great masculinity and sexuality, and a strong physical
presence because he is quite tall and big. I could see he had a lot to
offer." "Eleanor (Bergstein, the creator) saw in him more traits of
Johnny and thought he'd be a fantastic Johnny," he adds. Bergstein was
right. After training at City Dance Corps for six weeks, Simons danced the
mambo for his audition and nailed it. Currently, the 33-year-old father
of one is working on his ballroom and ballet dancing at Viva Dance Studio in
Thornhill before starting an intense rehearsal period for the show. But forget
ballroom and ballet, how is Simons' dirty dancing? "It's great,"
confirms Scotchford.
Richard Monette's Final Bow At Stratford
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Richard
Ouzounian, Theatre Critic
(August 05, 2007) Richard Monette raises a glass of white
wine against the sparkling sunlight of a summer afternoon in Stratford.
"Like Edith Piaf," he intones in his plummy actor's voice, "Je
ne regrette rien." I regret nothing. It's a bold statement for a man to
make when he's retiring after 14 years as the artistic director of the largest
theatre in North America, but, on reflection, he deserves it. Conventional
wisdom in recent years has been to mock Monette for his easy populism, his
crowd-pleasing musicals and his obsession with the bottom line, but after an
exclusive interview in which he analyzed the complex arc of his career, it
becomes easier to see why he made the decisions he did. Fade In: Stratford,
1993. "The place was in deep trouble," recalls Monette. There had
been an annual deficit for three straight years, one of them a whopping $1.3
million. And the shows weren't always noble artistic failures; in 1991, the Star's
theatre critic Robert Crew pronounced some of the shows presented during David
William's regime as "among the worst I've ever seen at the Festival."
Although Monette refuses to attribute the shortfall to William, his
predecessor, ("It was the recession, the GST, the times; it wasn't
David"), the elitist quality of William's programming had something to do
with the fact that audiences were staying away in droves.
It's no wonder that Monette looked so attractive as the Sir Galahad who could
save the festival. The actor born in Quebec in 1944 had joined the Stratford
company in 1973 and zoomed to national prominence in 1980 when his ringing cry
of "Bullshit!" interrupted the public meeting that was supposed to
canonize British director John Dexter after the board had fired a four-person
Canadian directorate. Following that outburst, he stayed away from Stratford
for nearly a decade, but started honing his directing skills. When he returned
in 1988 with a 1950s staging of The Taming of the Shrew that sublimely
blended Fellini and Shakespeare, some people thought that the festival had
found the populist leader it had sought for so long. A courier du bois As
You Like It and a commedia dell'arte The Comedy of Errors convinced
many people that Monette was the man the Stratford Festival needed. The only
person who wasn't convinced was Monette. After initially applying for the job,
he sent a letter to the board on a Friday night, withdrawing his application.
The next morning, the president of the board was at Monette's front door,
offering him the job. "I loved the Stratford Festival," says Monette,
recalling that long-ago moment. "I wanted it to be in good hands and I
thought no one else would do it. I said yes, thinking it would be for three
years at the most.' Monette smiles. "There was a full moon shining the
night I agreed to accept. I thought I was either mad or blessed."
He turned the place around instantly. Marti Maraden's production of Alice
Through the Looking Glass brought the theatre into a nearly million-dollar
surplus for the first year. Since then, Monette's fiscal record has been
unsurpassed. Every one of his seasons has resulted in a financial surplus and
the Festival now has a $53 million endowment fund and a $5.5 million
"stability fund," neither of which existed before his tenure. But to
some critics, this success has cost the Festival some of its artistic soul,
with the emphasis being placed on lucrative musicals and the middle-brow
"family experience" shows like this season's To Kill A Mockingbird.
"I know I'm maligned in the press for this," concedes Monette,
"but I had my priorities straight, I took care of the money, I took care
of the audiences, I took care of the future." Monette answers those
detractors who say that Shakespeare has taken a back seat during his regime by
pointing out that he produced the entire Shakespearean canon during his 14
years. His annual number of shows by the Bard equals or surpasses his
predecessors. But when it gets down to discussing how good or bad these shows
actually were, Monette throws his hands in the air. "Now we get down to a
question of taste. You, or other critics, may not like what I've done, but I'm
very proud of my work. Who is right? That's impossible to say."
Monette leans forward, speaking with sudden urgency. "There's something
you have to understand. Being the artistic director of Stratford is a public
service job. You're responsible for the livelihood of this town. It's not just
whether a play will do well or not. It's whether the people packing bags in the
grocery store are going to be able to support their families. "Critics don't
understand this. You think you're just pronouncing judgement on a play. You're
not. You're influencing the entire life of a community." Looking across
the table at this man who has held the most powerful job in Canadian showbiz
for 14 years, he doesn't seem pushed by a need for personal financial gain. The
normal issues of ego gratification appear to be a thing of the past. Then what
has driven him? And what keeps driving him, right until the end? The answer is
a secret from his impoverished youth on the streets of Montreal. "You can
always remember sadness," he says with a grave wisdom. "As an actor,
you can always access tears. The joy of life, that's harder to find, but the
pain is there forever." He pauses and looks across the table, deciding
whether to tell this story. "I had a little rag doll called Pom-Pom,"
he begins, "and I loved that doll. I loved it so much. "My mother
decided that because I was going off to school, I had to be a man and cast
aside these childish things. She threw Pom-Pom down the garbage chute, where I
knew there was an incinerator at the bottom." "I raced down the
stairs, but of course, I was too late. Pom-Pom was gone into the flames. That
was the day when I lost my innocence." His eyes are filled with tears,
unashamed. "In every show I have ever done since then, I have put a little
rag doll. The audience may not know it's there, but I do." Suddenly,
Monette's whole career clicks into place: the sentimentality, the need for
acceptance, the desire to be loved at all costs. For 14 years – both for good
and ill – the shadow of a little rag doll has hung over the Stratford Festival.
Now the curtain can finally fall on the past and a new day will begin.
Le Rêve Awakens To New Look
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Richard
Ouzounian, Theatre Critic
(August 08, 2007) LAS VEGAS–The only thing this city likes
better than a big success is a giant failure. And the only thing it prefers to
either of those is someone who goes against the odds, bets everything they've
got and turns a loser into a winner. And if the guys behind this scenario are
two of this city's biggest players (financial and cultural), so much the better.
Neither Steve Wynn nor Franco Dragone really need an introduction.
Wynn is the man who took the art of the hotel to new heights in Las Vegas,
first with the Bellagio and now with Wynn Las Vegas, which opened in the spring
of 2005. Dragone is the former mime teacher from the National Theatre School of Canada, who
latched onto the Cirque du Soleil star, created epics like Mystere and O,
as well as staging Céline Dion's long-running Vegas triumph, A New Day.
Is it any wonder excitement was running high about the revised version of Le Rêve (The Dream), Dragone's show at
Wynn Las Vegas, which began previewing a different show Friday night? What
looked like a surefire $110 million flop when it premiered two years ago is now
beginning to smell like a winner and while everyone's fingers are still
crossed, the surest of all barometers is on their side. "Thank God,
they've finally made it work!" sighed an usher who stood watching the show
on Saturday night. Her fellow workers shared her relief and I'd have to agree
with her, although I was one of the small minority of critics in 2005 who found
a lot to admire in the original Le Rêve. But a little history about what
went wrong is necessary to understand what's now going right. Le Rêve was
originally a 1932 painting by Pablo Picasso acquired by Wynn, a major modern
art collector. He debated christening his new extravagant hotel after the work
he admired so much but finally decided to put his own name on the building and
commission the hotter-than-hot Dragone to stage a trademark show to launch the
project. The state-of-the-art, theatre-in-the-round Dragone commissioned, with
more than four million litres of water flowing around it, cost $75 million (all
figures U.S.). The rest of the show, with its cast of 75, raised the tab
another $35 million. But Dragone's work needed time, experimentation, a sense
of discovery. Some of the Vegas Cirque shows had delayed their openings by up
to three months while everything was fine-tuned. That wasn't how Wynne worked.
And when he said a hotel and show were going to be open on a certain date, by
God, they were. So when Le Rêve debuted on April 27, 2005, nobody was
happy: not Dragone, not Wynn, not the audience and least of all the critics.
The problems started with the show's subtitle: "a small collection of
imperfect dreams." At $110 million, people wanted size and perfection.
There were also some of Dragone's more bizarre fantasies, including pregnant
women who kept floating through the air, which didn't delight anyone. But most
of all, there was an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. Despite a 25-meter grid
above the pool that allowed people to fly in and out, Dragone seemed to be
recycling tricks from his previous aquatic success, O. The damage was
done. Performances were cut, audiences were sparse. "Like, where is
everybody?" asked Britney Spears, who sat behind me in the summer of 2005.
Wynn looked long and hard at what was wrong with the show and realized that a
lot of the mystic Cirque du Soleil poeticism Dragone had coasted on for well
over a decade had worn out its welcome. At first, there were reports of
acrimonious fights and rumours of Dragone being bought out of the project, but
in the end, Wynn realized you should stick to your guns and he got Dragone to
enlist a new team to fix Le Rêve. The cost was $8 million and the
show closed twice – for a month each time – so that changes, new equipment and
other refinements could be brought in. The final touch was added last weekend,
when lighting designer Jules Fisher, an eight-time Tony Award winner, (and his
colleague Peggy Eisenhauer) were in town to redo the show's illumination,
rendering it a symphony of multi-coloured, pinpoint precision that takes your
breath away. If Le Rêve No. 1 was "a small collection of imperfect
dreams," then Le Rêve No. 2 is one big beautiful dream come true.
But you needed a visionary like Dragone and a great big dreamer like Wynn to
make it happen. Only in Las Vegas.
::OTHER NEWS::
Tales Of Afghanistan Aim To Help
Students Heal
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
Jill Mahoney
(August 7, 2007) The book begins with Jameela waiting in the
garden for her little brother to return from school. Life at home has not been
happy since "that bad day" when her uncle died and her father lost
part of his leg in a land mine explosion. The story of 10-year-old
Jameela and her family is the story of Afghanistan's children. In the course of
a year or so, the farming clan is devastated by the land mine, their village is
bombed and they flee to a displaced person's camp before finally returning
home. A Journey of
Peace, a 16-part series about the family's
struggles to cope with the trauma of war, will soon be introduced to all Afghan
students as part of a school-based healing and peace-building program. The
series was developed, written and illustrated half a world away in Hamilton, by
a group of mental-health experts, peace activists and Afghan refugees.
"We've never had stories this rich here," Susan Wardak, an
adviser to Afghanistan's minister of education, said in an interview from
Kabul. "It's really reflecting the Afghan reality; it's really meeting
their needs." The books, which are illustrated with soothing
watercolours and come with hand puppets, convey a positive, Afghan-centred
message. Behind the stories, which are dotted with references to Allah and
depict girls and women in head scarves, are lessons about post-traumatic stress
disorder, ethnic tolerance, non-violence, equality and dispute resolution.
As part of a pilot program, Ms. Wardak read the books to a group of youngsters
in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan and asked one girl what she thought.
"She told me about the effect of communication in reducing conflict and
violence, which to me is quite shocking because an 11-year-old girl really got
the message," said Ms. Wardak, an Afghan-Canadian whose husband helped
develop the series. A Journey of Peace was designed to extend far
beyond the schoolyard. Many Afghan adults have lived their entire lives amid
war, which has dominated the past 30 years. Teachers will use the books with
students of all ages and will assign home and community activities, such as
recounting the stories to their families, talking about their feelings, helping
others and planting peace gardens. "In a way, it's kind of trying to
raise peace literacy in a population in the hope of having that contribute to
sustaining peace," said Joanna Santa Barbara, a retired child psychiatrist
and one of the books' four authors. Mary-Jo Land, another author, trained
teacher-educators in the curriculum last month in Kabul and said she was met
with "absolute overwhelming gratitude for bringing this to them." "One
woman ... at the end of the workshop, she just took my hand and her eyes just
welled up," said Ms. Land, a child psychotherapist, play therapist and
McMaster University psychology student, as tears formed in her own eyes.
Afghanistan's education system is still ravaged by the war. Many schools
are closed or damaged. An estimated two million primary-school-age children -
especially girls - do not attend class. Literacy rates are low. Resources are
scarce, and some teachers have up to 70 pupils of varying ages. The books,
which can be downloaded at http://www.journeyofpeace.ca, are part of a larger focus on
bringing peace to the country by the Hamilton group, which is associated with
McMaster's Centre for Peace Studies. The team began developing the books
before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States and finished
them in 2002. Although Unicef soon agreed to fund an initial print run in
Afghanistan of 42,000 sets in both Dari and Pashto, it took until February to
produce them because of the continuing instability and limited electricity.
(The group is seeking funding to print more books and pay Afghan widows to sew
additional puppets.) As the books start arriving across Afghanistan in the next
couple of months - each school is slated to receive three sets - supporters
hope they will soon begin sowing seeds of peace. "With some healing
of the emotional status of the entire population," Ms. Land said,
"then the capacity for peace-building will be growing from the children
up."
Staying Gold For 40 Years
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com
- Micah Toub
(August 02, 2007) It may be odd to think of The Outsiders,
S.E. Hinton's landmark young-adult novel about the rough side of teenage life,
as being over the hill. But having reached its 40th year of publication, that's
finally become the case. Of course, great books don't age the way people do
and, according to Hinton, certain authors don't either. "It's
amazing to realize that your first novel is older than you are," she
deadpanned to an audience of about 300 educators and literacy experts at the International
Reading Association's annual meeting, which took place in Toronto earlier this
summer. Later, she changed her story: "Well, now that the book is 40 years
old, I think I'll come clean and tell you that I wrote it when I was 6."
The amazing thing is, she's not exaggerating by that much. Hinton was a mere 15
when she started writing from the point of view of 14-year-old Ponyboy, a
greaser whose gang of blue-collar friends are in conflict with the posh kids
from the East Side, known as the Socials (he calls them Socs, for short). Three
years later, when the book was published, it wasn't an immediate bestseller and
Hinton says she didn't become a star author right away, either. The book dealt
with serious themes of violence, abuse and alienation that hadn't been yet broached
in teen fiction, so parents had to come around to it slowly. They eventually
did though, and after Francis Ford Coppola made a film of the book in 1983,
which starred a gang of budding actors that included Patrick Swayze, Matt
Dillon, Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe and Ralph Macchio, The Outsiders and Hinton
were forever ingrained into the minds of people worldwide.
Relaxing over a glass of white wine after her speech, Hinton says that even now
- 40 years down the road - she doesn't feel famous. "I don't get up
in the morning and go, 'Whoa, I'm S.E. Hinton!' I get up and go, 'Whoa, I need
to clean the cat box.' " Yet the book has now sold more than 13.4 million
copies, is requisite reading in schools worldwide and Hinton receives far more
fan mail than she can respond to. Truth be told, she doesn't always feel
deserving of it. "A lot of kids think, 'Reading this book blew my
mind, if I could just get a hold of her personally, think what would happen.'
And I'm thinking, 'You don't need to get a hold of me personally. You'd be
badly disappointed. I'm a middle-aged woman just doing my laundry.' It's in the
book. Anything I've got to give to the public, it's in the book."
The draw of the book is something she does understand. "They
identify with the feeling that they're an outsider, even sometimes in their own
group. Like Ponyboy - nobody in his group read books or liked to go to movies
like he did." According to Hinton, she was driven to write the story out
of anger at seeing kids in her school marginalized. Two young boys die in The
Outsiders, and though it never came to that in her own life, she feared it
would. "I could see if [the conflicts] escalated much further, then
somebody was going to end up getting killed, accidentally or whatever."
The tragic parts of The Outsiders have turned out to be sadly prophetic
in light of the rise of school shootings over the past decade and the book is
perhaps more relevant now than ever. Hinton, whose sister has schizophrenia,
says she thinks the Virginia Tech shooting had more to do with the difficulty
of getting help for mentally ill individuals than with bullying, but Columbine
is a different story. "There seems to be enough evidence that those
guys were picked on and excluded until they started having revenge fantasies,"
Hinton says. "When that happened, I told my own son, 'Look, I know you
would never be involved in something like this, but what I don't ever want to
think is that you'd be involved in driving somebody to commit that kind of act
either.' " But again, Hinton stresses that although she is often asked to
act as the teen expert, she is not one. "Believe me, when my kid hit 14, I
was as horrified as anybody. He was sweet, he was funny, we all got along
great, and then all the sudden, he was like, 'Don't ask me how my day was. It
was horrible. It was horrible yesterday! It'll be horrible tomorrow!' "
Hinton says she blamed growing up poor for her anger as a child until she saw
her own son go through the same thing. "Now, I realize it's just hormonal."
While Penguin's 40th-anniversary edition of The Outsiders, to be
released next month, will create the most buzz for Hinton this year, she's
personally more excited about her new, and 10th, book, Tim's Stories,
which she says is her "best book yet." I'm sure it is, but she can't
escape the burning question from all 13.4 million (and more) of her fans: When
will she write the sequel to The Outsiders? "I could never be
Ponyboy again," she says. "To me, the book is over, and the very fact
that so many kids don't want it to be over with is a sign that I ended it in
the right place." And if she suddenly needed a huge amount of cash?
"I still have my original manuscript, which might make me a pretty good
price on eBay. It's typed up and it's got chocolate icing on it. That's my
little nest egg." That's unlikely to happen anyway. Selling more copies
last year than ever, it appears The Outsiders is going to, as the moral
of the book goes, "stay gold."
::SPORTS NEWS::
Irvin, Thomas, Sanders Enter NFL Hall Of
Fame
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 6, 2007) *Michael
Irvin, Thurman Thomas and
Charlie Sanders were among the six
NFL veterans inducted into the Pro
Football Hall of Fame during
a ceremony Saturday night in Canton, Ohio. Irvin lauded the Dallas
Cowboys family and his own family for inspiring him to make it through tough
times. During his emotional speech, Irvin asked sons Michael, 10, and
Elijah, 8, to stand before he recited the prayers he gives up for his sons.
"Help me raise them for their kids, so that they can be a better father
than I," Irvin said. "I tell you guys to always do the right thing so
you can be a better role model than dad. Look up, get up, but don't ever give
up." Buffalo Bills running back Thomas, who set a record by leading the
NFL in total yards from scrimmage four consecutive seasons, rubbed the head of
his bronze statue when it was unveiled, and mentioned "it's really, really
scary up here." He later turned to wife Patti, seated in the crowd of
12,787, and asked if, after nearly 20 years together, she would marry him
again.
Former Detroit Lions tight end Sanders, whose mother died when he was two, spoke
of always wanting to say “Hi Mom" to the TV cameras following a touchdown,
as most NFL players did following a score. Fighting tears, Sanders said:
“I thought it was something that was always special and I would want to do, but
couldn't. So I take this time, right here and right now, in Canton, Ohio, at
the Pro Football Hall of Fame, to say, `Hi Mom.'" Other inductees on
Saturday included offensive linemen Bruce Matthews (Houston Oilers/Tennessee
Titans), Gene Hickerson (Cleveland Browns) and safety Roger Wehrli (St Louis
Cardinals).
Raptors Reach Deal With CBC To Put Hoops
Back On Network TV
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com
- William Houston
(August 2, 2007) After an absence of four
years, the Toronto
Raptors are returning to main network television.
The club announced yesterday a three-year agreement with the CBC to air games
on Sunday afternoons during 2007-08. The network will carry eight to 10 games
in the first year of the contract. The schedule will be increased to 15 to 20
games for the second and third years. "It's terrific to be on the
CBC," Tom Anselmi, the chief operating officer of Raptors owner Maple Leaf
Sports and Entertainment, said. "The CBC's interest illustrates the
improved performance of the team. And we get into 11 million homes."
Raptors audiences on television have been slow to grow, partly because of
limited distribution, particularly on club-owned Raptors NBA TV, a digital
service reaching less than one million households. Sources describe the deal as
a time buy. The Raptors will purchase air time on the CBC and sell their own
advertising. Decisions about on-air personnel haven't been reached. CBC Sports
will want to use its own people. MLSE will make a strong case for Raptors voice
Chuck Swirsky in the booth. This is a good deal for the CBC as well as the
Raptors. It gives the network a sports property that attracts a young, diverse
audience. And it bolsters the CBC's lineup of sports properties, which includes
the NHL, Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto FC.
"The Raptors, to me, are similar to soccer in that they bring a different
audience to the CBC," Scott Moore, the head of CBC Sports, said. "I
think that's important. I'm also interested in the synergy of airing Sunday
afternoon noon Raptors games after we've had Hockey Night in Canada on
Saturday night. I think MLSE liked that combination. And the team is playing
great." The CBC's 2007-08 schedule of games will be taken from those
earmarked for Raptors NBA TV. The Raptors already have 2007-08 television
agreements in place with TSN, The Score and Rogers Sportsnet, and they can't be
changed. Specifics, such as when the CBC's season will begin, are unavailable.
The 2007-08 NBA schedule has yet to be released. Global Television, which
pulled out after 2002-03, was the last broadcaster to carry Raptors games. TSN
deal close TSN is moving closer to reaching a contract extension with the NHL.
A new agreement for national cable rights is expected to be completed in a few
weeks. "They're focusing on it getting done before the start of the
season," a source said. Highlights to look for: More games involving
Canadian teams, including more Toronto Maple Leafs games; The opportunity for a
Canadian match-up in the playoffs; Broadband streaming rights to games
televised on TSN. The length of the contract will almost certainly match the
six years that takes the CBC's NHL deal to 2013-14, starting in 2008-09.
Earlier this week, TSN's French-language partner, Réseau des Sports, announced
six-year contract extensions with the Montreal Canadiens and NHL, beginning
immediately. The combination deal, involving both the club and league, is
probably worth about $35-million - $20-million to the Canadiens and $15-million
to the NHL. RDS will air all 82 Canadiens regular-season games and a full NHL
playoff schedule. The RDS sports news channel, RIS, will carry up to 55 NHL
games and playoff matchups. Broadband rights are included in the agreement. RDS
president Gerry Frappier said increased interest by competitors in Canadiens TV
rights prompted RDS to expedite a deal with the club and league. Canadiens
audiences over the past five years have almost doubled, growing from an average
of 399,000 in 2001-02, when three networks aired the games, to 717,000 last
season, when RDS was the sole carrier. If the NHL had gone to market, Radio
Canada and perhaps the Quebec network TVA would have made bids. "Our
overall ratings success surely awakened a competitor that maybe did not see
sport in the same light in the past," Frappier said. As for TSN, the
rights fee that it will pay the NHL isn't known, although it would be in the
$50-million range, perhaps more. The CBC is paying the league $100-million
annually for a more comprehensive national schedule that includes a Leafs game
almost every week, most of the playoff series involving Canadian teams and the
exclusivity to the Stanley Cup final. TSN's new contract is unlikely to kick in
until the current deal expires at the end of 2007-08, although it's possible
broadband rights would start immediately.
SPORTS TIDBITS
Barry Bonds Is The New Home Run King
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 8, 2007) *Whew! He finally did it. Barry Bonds has
become the all-time home run king. Last night at AT&T Park in San Francisco
he hit the 756th home run of his career. Bonds, whose chase for the
record has been dogged by suspicions of steroid use, launched a 3-2 pitch from
Mike Bacsik over the right- centerfield fence with one out in the fifth inning
of the San Francisco Giants home game against the Washington Nationals.
That historic home run by Bonds, who singled, doubled and scored twice in
his first two at-bats, gave the Giants a 5-4 lead, but they eventually
lost the game 8-6. Bonds, 43, raised both arms in triumph while the ball sailed
into the stands as fireworks exploded. He again raised his arms as he got to
home plate and hugged his son Nikolai, who was one of the Giants' batboys. He
then received congratulations from his teammates and his godfather Willie Mays
-- who's fourth in major- league history with 660 homers -- all while the crowd
continued to give him a standing ovation. A video tribute from former
record-holder Hank Aaron, who'd said he wouldn't attend, was shown on the
scoreboard, before Bonds addressed the crowd in a short ceremony. He was
replaced in left field by Rajai Davis the next inning. For extended
coverage from Fox Sports click here.
Spielberg May Resign From Olympics Role
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Associated
Press
(August 02, 2007) BEIJING – Beijing's Olympic organizing
committee said Wednesday it did not know that top Hollywood director Steven Spielberg might be planning to resign as an
artistic adviser to the 2008 Games. Spielberg sent an open letter to President
Hu Jintao in April urging China to take a harder line against Sudan over the
Darfur crisis, and last week ABC News and other U.S. media cited the director's
spokesman Andy Spahn as saying he was considering dropping out of the Olympics
because of China's inaction over the crisis. At a news conference Wednesday,
Zhao Dongming, director of cultural activities for the 2008 Beijing Olympics
organizing committee, was asked to confirm Spielberg's possible exit. "I
was not aware of that," Zhao said. "I had not heard of that."
More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been uprooted in the
ethnic conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. China, which imports two-thirds
of Sudan's oil and sells arms to Khartoum, has been criticized for supporting
the African country, and has opposed United Nations sanctions. The UN
unanimously agreed Tuesday to send a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force to Darfur
no later than the end of this year.
Tiger Wins In Akron
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(August 6, 2007) *Tiger
Woods dominated the field to win
his sixth Bridgestone Invitation at Firestone Sunday in Akron, Ohio. The golfer
made a 12-foot par putt on the final hole that kept him bogey-free during a
rainy final round. He closed with a 5-under 65 for an eight-shot victory over
Rory Sabbatini and Justin Rose, tying a PGA Tour record for most victories at
one golf course. Next up is Southern Hills and the PGA Championship for the
final major, something Woods has failed to win this year. “This might just give
a little more confidence," Woods said.
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
