I never met Paul Newman. Never read a bio or followed any of his off-screen adventures. To be honest, I've probably only seen about half of his movies. And yet his passing this week brought back a flood of memories and a deep sense of loss.Of course, I wasn't alone in that. Front page obits were everywhere, including apparently the state newspapers in Iran and North Korea -- places that don't have time for much that's American,...

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Willis tagged me yesterday, seeking an answer to the musical question -- "Is there a song that sums up what it means to be a writer?" Tough one for me, because I never intended to be a writer and even now spend most of my time pursuing the craft of producer in order to support and protect the writing of myself and others.I don't talk about the writing process much. Mostly cause it's kind of personal...

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Well, it's that time again. Over the next couple of weeks, TV networks will roll out the bulk of the new shows they're offering. The premiere process isn't exactly like it used to be. Television debuts are pretty much a continuum now, a combination of upstart and wannabee channels targeting gaps in the broadcast schedules of the majors and the big players trying to speedily replace what didn't work...

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If Stephen Harper and the federal Conservatives are "the killers of Culture" Calgary must be a thoroughly unwelcoming place where Artists and their Art die lonely, broke and unappreciated. That would sort of make sense, wouldn't it? I mean, the town is Mordor Central to modern Canadian Conservatism and the righter-wing, even more scary Fundamentalist Evangelical Reform movement that fathered it. Big Oil lives here with all...

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My addiction to newspapers began when I was studying theatre in England. Every Sunday the local news agent was suddenly filled with an avalanche of thick broadsheets with everything from celebrity exposes and semi-nude Page Three cuties to in depth essays on literature and politics by some of the world's great thinkers.Cheap as hell and filled with the promise of addressing any of my current interests...

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Richard Monette was the first actor I knew who achieved stardom working in Canada. There might've been others who preceeded him or succeeded concurrently. But Richard was special.When I arrived in Toronto in the early 1970's to pursue an acting career, Richard was already well-known for his 1968 Crest Theatre performance as "Hamlet". It was a piece of work still described with awe and endlessly compared to the Geza Kovaks and...

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Unless you're a fan of Minor League hockey, you've likely never heard of Brandon Sugden, "Sugar" to his teammates. That moniker is a play on his last name, not a discription of the sweetness of his on-ice personality. Nope, "Sugar" is a tough guy, an enforcer -- to some a "goon". He made his rep not by scoring goals or defending his Goal but primarily by pounding opponents into the ice. Like it or...

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Over the last couple of months the ruling Conservative government in Canada has slashed over $60 Million in Arts funding. Coming on the heels of backing a tax amendment bill (C-10) which would have gutted the film and television industry's ability to finance production and an ill-conceived copyright bill (C-61) intended to protect corporate interests more than those of content creators, many in the Culture community began predicting...

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I swear I heard Brad Paisley sing this song about three or four years ago. It sent one of those "This is gonna be a huge hit!" shivers through me and I couldn't wait to hear it again. But I waited. And waited. And waited.I started thinking maybe I'd caught some kind of preview. Maybe the song wasn't even on an album or the album wasn't out yet. Maybe it wasn't the first song the record company chose...

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There was a Screenwriters gathering in Toronto Thursday night, organized by Ink Canada's irrepressible Karen Walton to coincide with the opening of this year's Toronto International Film Festival. A couple of hundred professional scribes were gathered, happily partying, serene in the knowledge that none of them would have to take the rap for "Passchendaele".Yet, I noticed one forlorn face in the crowd. It belonged to Will Pascoe,...

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I've always been intrigued by that phrase -- "A Captain of Industry". If it's meant to describe someone with great corporate power, how come the middle-management rank? Are there no Generals or Admirals of Industry? These days, Captains fly commuter routes, haul in lobster pots or point to which guy's going to carry your bags to a hotel room. Is that all it takes to run a company?Or do I think that way because I'm Canadian? We...

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I spent last week in Nashville setting up a pilot that promises to be not only fresh and exciting but will, of course, change the face of television. I've been in a lot of American cities this summer as we get that project rolling and many of them aren't doing very well economically. Plants are closing. Jobs are exported overseas. Homes are being foreclosed. But Nashville is thriving. There are line-ups outside the Belcourt...

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