Author Truman Capote, who was born on this day in 1924 (he died in 1984), was known for three things: his 1958 novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s, his 1965 “non-fiction novel” In Cold Blood, and for being Truman Capote. He was a gossip-hound who did everything he could to become the kind of rich, eccentric celebrity he had always idolized.
So he would probably be very pleased at the meal that got whipped up in London to mark the opening of the West End production of Breakfast at Tiffany’s (or B@T’s as I have just decided I like to call it) … Read More
According to John Krasinski, one of the stars of television’s The Office (Season Six began airing last week), he’s been looking for the “perfect” motion picture role to do during his short hiatuses between seasons of The Office ever since the Americanized version of Ricky Gervais’ British comedy sensation hit North American airwaves. Although he has snagged lead roles in such films as the George Clooney-directed Leatherheads and License To Wed (with Robin Williams), both ended-up box office and artistic disappointments.
“I’m always looking for a film that will challenge me as an actor,” Krasinski insisted a few years ago. “I’m always waiting for that role that will blow me away and make me push myself as an actor.” Krasinski would find what he was looking for when Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes (American Beauty) phoned him with an offer to star in the comedy Away We Go. Thinking the offer was a ruse, courtesy of his pal George Clooney, Krasinski almost passed on the part. “I’m so glad it wasn’t one of George’s pranks,” he admits, “because it’s one of the best gifts I’ve ever been giving as an actor in a movie. It’s one of those great one-of-a-lifetime parts.” (Krasinksi’s interview plus this week in home video, after the jump.)
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David Miller, Toronto’s high-profile mayor, made the surprise announcement last Friday that he would not run for a third term next year. Miller says he had made the decision not to run back in 2007, and only just got around to letting everyone know, but that’s a little hard to believe, given that, according to some stories, many of his closest political backers only heard about Friday morning, just before he went public. There were even some people on the inside who only heard when Miller went in front of the mikes.
So why’d he do it?
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Ending Sept. 26, Ottawa – This weekend is your last chance to take in the SAW Gallery’s special exhibition “Works of Art Made by Animals.” If the title of the exhibit is not sufficiently self-explanatory, this is a show consisting of dozens of works of art created by both pets and zoo animals. It may sound bizarre, but they are dead serious about it.
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After Johnny Caspar takes over as the ruling crime boss in Miller’s Crossing, acquiring new money and power, but also a whole lot of new headaches, he complains: “Runnin’ things… it ain’t all gravy.”
Caspar was only expressing something that all those in charge eventually discover, something that Kublai Khan, who was born on this day in 1215, would have been very familiar with.
Khan, grandson to Ghenghis, fought off all pretenders to the throne — including his younger brother — and expanded the Mongol empire until it encompassed a fifth of the planet’s inhabited territory.
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Known for his performances in such contemporary comedy classics as Knocked Up and Pineapple Express, Vancouver-born comedian/actor Seth Rogen goes for the funny bone in Observe & Report, but the laughs are uncomfortable ones in this black comedy. With Rogen says he tackled one of his most demanding roles of his career in Observe & Report, and came up on the right side of the law — chalking up another hit to list on his already impressive cinematic résumé.
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At last year’s Formula One Grand Prix in Singapore, Renault team driver Nelson Piquet Jr. slammed into the wall, totalling his car and temporarily stopping the race. The incident allowed his teammate, Fernando Alonso, to win everything. Piquet eventually admitted the crash was deliberate — he was told to do so by team boss Flavio Briatore. (Personally, I imagine that conversation unfolding somewhat like an old Bob Newhart “guy on the phone” routine: “Yeah sure, anything, Flavio: You name it. Um, what’s that? You want me to what? No, it’s just, those walls are hard, Flavio…”) According to leaked testimony, Piquet was even shown on a map of the track where to go all crash-test dummy.
The World Motor Sport Council of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) delivered its judgment this morning on “Crashgate”, and it sounds like Renault got off fairly easy:
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The 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize has released its longlist, and it includes Colin McAdam’s second novel, Fall, published by Hamish Hamilton/Penguin Canada. McAdam, as you probably know, has a great piece of short fiction entitled “Red’s Warning” in our Sept. issue. “Red’s Warning,” a taut dialogue between a kid and his bike-riding drug dealer, features characters from Fall, so really, it’s like we have been longlisted, too…
Congratulations, Colin.
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The American system of government is a shockingly messy and complicated one, but the way it gets covered –- with glitzy, big-money races for the presidency every four years, a narrative that elides congressional and Senate races, the electoral college, the actual responsibilities of the three branches, etc. — makes it seem like a simple war between two roughly equal opposing camps. Even the players like to pretend that there are two “benches,” thus encouraging all kinds of pointless armchair quarterbacking.
In comparison, parliamentary democracies at least have the decency to keep a lot of their complications right out in the open. All the same, here in Canada, because we were so used to majority governments mostly being passed back and forth between two parties, with one (the NDP) acting as spoiler, we saw our government as essentially simple, too.
The recent string of minority governments should have taught us all a lesson, but it hasn’t.
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Sept. 20 - 27 — Perhaps because literary types like things a bit autumnal, fall is a big season for book/author/reading festivals. Though Toronto’s International Festival of Authors, which takes place at the end of October, is the big kid on the block — especially this year, its 30th (more on that here, BTW) — there are a number of festival’s in smaller cities that bring in both big-name authors and word-hungry crowds.
Winnpeg’s week-long “Thin Air” festival, now in its 12th year, takes place mostly at the CanWest Global Performing Arts Centre, and this year features such authors as Guy Maddin, Robert Charles Wilson, Bonnie Burnard, Laureen Kirshner, Robert J. Sawyer, and Jake MacDonald. There will also be a business breakfast on the 25th featuring “culture commentator” and Peep Diaries author Hal Niedzviecki yakking about “The New Rules of Social Media: Why the Customer Doesn’t Care about Privacy—and What You Should Do About It.”
(Image by Isaac Leedom)
