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Link: Media personality Mike Bullard charged with criminal harassment

From The Globe and Mail (via The Canadian Press):

Link: Media personality Mike Bullard charged with criminal harassment
A published report says Toronto media personality Mike Bullard has been charged with criminal harassment but his lawyer isn’t commenting on the matter.

Asked about the report, Bullard’s lawyer, Arthur Stern, told The Canadian Press that the charges are a matter of public record but says he has no instructions from his client to comment. Continue reading. 

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Corner Gas, CTV, Vancouver’s Arts Club Theatre Company and Stratford Festival mourn the death of Janet Wright

From a media release:

The producers and cast of CORNER GAS, CTV, Vancouver’s Arts Club Theatre Company, and Stratford Festival extend its deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of distinguished actress and director Janet Wright.  Wright passed away this morning in Vancouver at the age of 71.

Janet played the beloved role of ‘Emma’ on CORNER GAS,  Canada’s most successful sitcom.  In 1974, Wright co-founded the Persephone Theatre In Saskatoon with Brian Richmond and Susan Wright.  The first dramaturge at Vancouver’s Arts Club Theatre Company, Wright appeared in and directed more than 40 productions for the company.  During her seven seasons at Stratford she shone as a director and in many key roles as an actress.  In 2011, Wright returned to Stratford after more than a decade away, giving an unforgettable performance as ‘Ma’ in the acclaimed production of The Grapes of Wrath and portrayed a hilarious ‘Mistress Quickly’ in the The Merry Wives of Windsor. In 2014, Wright reprised her role as ‘Emma’ in CORNER GAS: THE MOVIE, which reached more than 7 million TV viewers in Canada.

“Janet was like no other person I’ve ever met.  She had a giant wit, a giant heart, and was one of the strongest human beings to ever stride around this planet,” said Brent Butt, Creator and Executive Producer, CORNER GAS. “She was so great to work with.  When you looked at the call sheet in the morning, and saw you were doing scenes with Janet, you knew you’d be laughing that day, and probably at something terribly inappropriate.  We had this running thing, where if there was a scene with just our characters, I’d write it at the kitchen table, with our characters eating macaroni and cheese.  We were both trying to watch our weight, but she said if “our characters” were eating the stuff, it wasn’t really us.  I truly, honestly loved her.  We all did.”

“Both direct and loving, Janet was as honest in life as she was with her characters,” said Scott Henderson, Vice-President, Communications, Bell Media. “As the beloved Emma Leroy, Dog River’s frequent voice of reason on CORNER GAS, she entertained millions of Canadians with Emma’s quick wit and no-nonsense approach. We were blessed to have her as a member of the cast. She will be sorely missed by everyone at CTV and in Canada’s acting community.”

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of actress/director/multi-talented Janet Wright,” said Bill Millerd, Artistic Managing Director, Vancouver’s Arts Club Theatre Company. “She was a powerful actor and inspired director who created intelligent and challenging theatre for our audiences. We will miss her immense talent, her caustic wit, and her incredible strength in facing tragedy. Our love and condolences to the Wright family.”

“Janet was an artist on an uncompromising search for the truth in all its unvarnished beauty,” said Stratford Festival Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino, who directed Ms Wright as Ma Joad in the 2011 production of The Grapes of Wrath. “She was a profoundly talented actress, director and ?champion for the importance of the arts. I will never forget her passion and forever be inspired by her commitment to our work.”

“Janet had a huge heart and an insatiable passion for the arts,” said Alicia Jeffery, Agent with the Characters Agency. “She was a lightning rod for the truth in all her performances and in life and never ceased to mentor younger actors, both as a director and as a fellow performer.  Nothing gave her more joy in our many calls than to sing the praises of a young actor or director she’d recently worked with.  Her loss is a hole in the fabric of our community that will never be truly mended.”

In honour of Janet’s memory, CTV will rebroadcast CORNER GAS: THE MOVIE on Saturday, Nov. 26 at 8 p.m. ET.

Vancouver’s Arts Club Theatre Company will be hosting a Celebration of Life for Wright, with further details to be released.

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Link: Award-winning Corner Gas star Janet Wright dies at 71

From the Canadian Press:

Link: Award-winning Corner Gas star Janet Wright dies at 71
Award-winning stage and screen actress Janet Wright, best known for her portrayal of the long-suffering matriarch on “Corner Gas,” has died at age 71.

Wright played Emma Leroy on the hit Canadian sitcom, which ended its six-season run in 2009, and returned with a big-screen adaptation in 2014.

Wright’s character Emma was the wife of Oscar Leroy, played by Eric Peterson, and mother to Brent, portrayed by series creator and star Brent Butt. Continue reading.

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Gary’s written another novel? Blame Canadian TV.

By Gary Pearson

I’ve written a lot of TV, for shows like MadTV, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Corner Gas. I’ve had a hand in creating shows too, like That’s So Weird, and Sunnyside, which I created with Dan Redican. Sunnyside was the show that was “as brilliant as it was canceled,” as in “completely.” I’ve won some awards too. Check it out on IMDB. I look at my page there about twice a day.

Where do I get my ideas for TV shows? I have no clue. What I do know is, I have no shortage of them. I have ideas in the shower, I have ideas when running, I even have ideas when watching other TV shows—although sometimes those ideas are like, “I know—how about an ad agency in the 1960s where the lead character is a handsome alcoholic womanizer with a mysterious troubled past?”

Watch, I’ll come up with an idea right now: The Burger Burgher. The private life of the A&W commercial spokesman—there’s much more to him than telling people his meat doesn’t have hormones! And that’s just what I was able to think of while sitting in this A&W restaurant.

Now the problem is, Canadian TV simply isn’t big enough to contain all my brilliance. Or, frankly, the brilliance of dozens of other writers and creators I know. You’ll be surprised to learn that I have had literally dozens of ideas turned down by networks and production companies over the years. Pitch after brilliant pitch. Some of them were even better than that pure gold A&W idea you just read.

So, what’s a writer to do if you can’t convince a TV network that it is worth spending a million bucks a half-hour on one of his poorly-conceived whims? Write it as a novel and put it out yourself. Some people will read it and you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing your idea saw the light of day—if not actually in the form it was originally intended. I have now done this three times.

My first book started as a pitch to CBC, that I crafted along with Geri Hall. You probably are familiar with Geri, the hilarious red-head best known for her stint on This Hour Has 22 Minutes. At the time, she was hot on the heels of being arrested by the RCMP for approaching Prime Minister Stephen Harper while armed with her wit. She was the most famous handcuffed Canadian since Conrad Black. Geri had a development deal with CBC and somehow I convinced her that I should create a show with her.

Geri and I threw many ideas at CBC, but the one that stuck was called “Slapshot of Love.” I had just watched the reality TV show, The Bachelor and frankly hated everything about it. I wanted to peel the artifice back and see what really went on with so-called reality TV. I wanted to see what it would be like if a smart and funny woman, modelled after Geri Hall herself, were to be on a show like that, instead of the usual air head TV wannabe models.

CBC loved it … at first. Then the executives at CBC changed. The new regime didn’t want to do an idea that was developed before they came in the door. Here’s a hint for you aspiring TV creators out there: try to get your TV show made before the executive in charge of your development moves on. It has happened to me twice.

web-book_marooned-in-space

So, I had something I really liked and nowhere to go. So, I wrote the planned 13 episodes of TV, as a novel instead, and put it out myself through Amazon. Anyone can put a credible-looking book out now, for not too much money. I plugged the hell out of it on Facebook as anyone who used to be my Facebook friend will tell you. Something weird happened—a lot of people bought the book. Turns out “sports romance” is a hot category for Kindle eBooks from Amazon. Who knew?

This all happened between 2010 and 2013. Now there is a backstage at a reality dating show drama on TV called Unreal. Maybe the writers had the idea before me, but I doubt it. CBC could have been there first. But I suppose they are doing fine without the likes of me.

Then, later in the midst of the Rob Ford crack scandal, I wrote another TV pitch called “Me and the Crack Mayor.” It was about a young speech writer who gets entangled in the world of a corrupt Mayor of Toronto who blatantly smokes crack, drives drunk, speaks profanely, fondles women, lies constantly and hangs out with gun-toting gang members. You know, fiction. Canadian networks wouldn’t touch it. Too dangerous. So that became book No. 2.

Now Canada lately has done some great science fiction shows, and I’m supposedly a comedy expert, so my next pitch was for a sci- fi comedy. I wanted to do a story about real, average people, not the Captain Kirks of the world, but the regular joes, getting marooned in space. I called it “Marooned in Space!” The exclamation mark makes it more exciting. I pitched that one to a few production companies but they assured me that no Canadian network would be interested in such a show. Nobody makes science fiction comedies. How about movies like Guardians of the Galaxy, or Deadpool? How about Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or the new Supergirl, or Dr. Who—they certainly go for comedic moments in those ones. And anyway, shouldn’t we do something original, as opposed to stuff that everyone else is doing? “Not in Canada,” they said.

So that became my third book—Marooned in Space! If you’re out there TV network types, I’d still happily adapt it to TV. When you read it, you’ll see it has a nice open ending, perfect for an ongoing television adventure—you’d get 100 episodes out of these funny and relatable characters, without breaking a sweat.

“When you read it!” Ha! I certainly do have an active imagination.

Before you get too far into your novel, I should tell you, I didn’t get rich, from any of this, but I did have artistic satisfaction. And there is always the hope out there that your book will be like Fifty Shades of Grey or The Martian, the billion-dollar properties that began life as modest self published books.

Hold on to your dreams, folks! People are always knocking the Canadian TV network system for not producing enough original content to reflect our great writers and creators, but in this case, you have to give Canadian TV the credit, or the blame, for making me a three-time novelist.


All of Gary Pearson’s novels, including his new one Marooned in Space! are available all over the world from Amazon in both paperback and Kindle formats. Ancillary rights to Marooned in Space! for film, television, streaming and merchandise are currently available.

 

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Link: Remembrance Day is now different, as we recognize what lingers

From John Doyle of The Globe and Mail:

Link: Remembrance Day is now different, as we recognize what lingers
The remarkable series War Story (made by Barry Stevens) exists as several startlingly powerful statements. In previous productions, the emphasis has been on allowing actual stories to be told only through the personal reminiscences of witnesses of the events of war. The singularity of the voices, without the interruption of a narrator or pundits, is intimate, unmodified and stunningly forceful. Continue reading.

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