April has been a cruel month. So many departures it is hard to keep up.Rita MacNeil, the pride of Cape Breton, charmed millions with her musical TV specials in the ’80s and ’90s. Shy and humble, she touched many who saw in her somebody they knew and loved and could relate to. Canadian singing superstars
Buble knows how to play to a big room I was worried The Junos may have gotten off on the wrong note Sunday night when Leonard Cohen was named songwriter of the year. What year was this–1968?But, really, what do I know about music. As for television, well, the more I watched, the more impressed
For a variety of reasons, last week’s radio chat with CHML’s Scott Thompson is just getting posted now. The buzz last week was the return of Mad Men, and there is much discussion of that here.The second episode of the season, directed by Jon Hamm, ran this past Sunday. Hamm has directed the past two
Regular readers of this site may be asking if this is now a daily obituary blog. No, but the death of Roger Ebert, Annette Funicello, Johnny Esaw, Jonathan Winters and now Frank Bank in the span of one week sure makes it seem that way.Sadly, Boomers are in for a steady parade of death notices
“If Jonathan Winters is ever accused of anything, he’s got the perfect alibi,” Jack Paar once told his audience. “He was someone else at the time.” Winters was a wonder on television, unlike any other comedian in that he never told jokes, he just inhabited characters. Not crazy, made up characters either, but astoundingly real,
Laurence Fishburne spent several months in Toronto this winter shooting Hannibal. Episode Two airs tonight at 10 p.m. on NBC and City. The Tony and Emmy Award winner fielded questions from behind the desk of his character, FBI Behaviour Sciences Head Jack Crawford, when I visited the set along with some international reporters a few
From Tuesday night’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon: A prop phaser gun from the “Star Trek” TV show recently sold for $231,000 at an auction — making it the most expensive thing you can point at someone right before they beat the crap out of you.
News of Annette Funicello’s passing Monday at age 70 sent me scrambling through a box of old cassette tapes. Thanks to my friend Lorraine Santoli, a former Disney publicity manager who authored a book on the Mouseketeers and who formed a close bond with Funicello, I was able to interview the Disney princess. That memorable