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All stories relating to Jian Ghomeshi
Four things we learned from Justin Vernon, a.k.a. Bon Iver, on Q today
Bon Iver coos out his oft-inscrutable songs to a DC crowd (Image: angela n.)
Justin Vernon, the voice behind Bon Iver, gave a revealing and Canada-praising interview this morning to Jian Ghomeshi on Q. Bon Iver first made its way onto the indie music scene in 2007 when the album For Emma, Forever Ago became an international hit. Since then Vernon has recorded and performed with a number of different collaborators, including Gayngs, Volcano Choir and perhaps most notably Kanye West, whom Vernon supported during Kanye’s headlining performance at the Coachella Music Festival in California. Check out four things we learned about collaborating with Kanye, the latest album and Vernon’s Canuck love life, after the jump.
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What can Toronto expect at Charlie Sheen’s Violent Torpedo of Truth stop at Massey Hall?
It’s old news now that Charlie Sheen’s live show, My Violent Torpedo of Truth, bombed at its Detroit debut (and there are plenty of videos to prove it). With 80,000 tickets sold for the rest of the tour—including those for two Massey Hall sessions later this week—organizers knew they had to revamp the show. To do so, they relied on Joey Scoleri, a former Toronto radio personality and Violent Torpedo co-producer. The native son overhauled the show, turning it into a Q&A—a straightforward format that allows Sheen to interact with fans. The reviews so far are mixed. It was reasonably well-received in Chicago, but New Yorkers, who were privy to the actor’s antics over the weekend, had polarized reactions. The question for us is: will the show be up to snuff for its Toronto debut on Thursday?
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Reaction Roundup: what the city is saying about last night’s Billy Elliot premiere
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Movies don’t always make the best stage productions (see: 2004’s musical production of When Harry Met Sally, starring Alyson Hannigan and Luke Perry), but the Toronto production of Billy Elliot the Musical seems to be an exception to the rule, just like its London and New York iterations. The cross-genre musical debuted last night at the Canon Theatre under the watchful gaze of Sir Elton John (who wrote the music for the production) and his Canadian husband, David Furnish. So far, Billy has received high praise from Toronto critics, not to mention an impromptu standing ovation from the audience during the second act. Here, we round up what the city is saying about Mirvish Productions’ hot new show.
Six things we learned about Ken Finkleman from his interview on CBC’s Q this morning
Ken Finkleman, the creative mind behind CBC hits like The Newsroom and Paramount non-hits like Grease 2, has a new show coming out called Good Dog. So it’s not surprising that he would come to a CBC Radio show like Q to sit and chat with host Jian Ghomeshi. What is surprising, however, is that the two of them almost managed to talk about everything but Good Dog.
The interview can be heard here, but we’ve compiled six things that we learned about the storied media man.
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Revealed! Easy ways to get Jian Ghomeshi’s abs
Not just a bod for radio (Image: Brenda Lee)
Everyone knows that if you want to work in radio, you have to have a really great body. For all of you would-be hosts puzzling over how to get the sculpted physique that matches the dulcimer tones of the CBC’s Jian Ghomeshi, puzzle no longer. The 43-year-old host of the daily arts show Q on CBC Radio was kind enough to let the Globe and Mail join him at one of his personal training sessions at Toronto’s Good Life Fitness. The four-photo spread features Ghomeshi medicine-balling his way to a more energetic on-air personality. Accompanying the photos is an article detailing the former Moxy Fruvous rocker’s health habits.
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The fashion party of the year? The A-list shows support for The Bay
Charlotte Dellal
In what may go down as the fashion party of 2010, The Bay hosted a tribute to British designers and the first anniversary of its swank couture boutique, The Room. Celebrating our Commonwealth heritage, the God Save the Queen party last night was the place to be. Out went racks of designer duds from the space and in went bottles of bubbly. Such fashion bold-faces as Giles Deacon, Canadians Erdem Moralioglu and Mark Fast, Nicholas Kirkwood, Charlotte Olympia, Jonathan Sanders and Marios Schwab all had designs showcased at the swishy event, and the society queens came in droves. Even the servers were A-list—we spotted musician Gentleman Reg carrying trays of cocktails.
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Introducing: Frye’s pop-up shop
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The place: The latest in the city’s string of pop-up shops is Frye, which has taken up residence inside Ron White’s swanky Bloor Street store. It has the biggest selection of the brand’s boots, shoes and bags in the country. Frye was founded in 1863 and is the oldest continuously operating shoe company in the United States. Its boots were worn by soldiers during the Civil War, and Teddy Roosevelt and now by Barack Obama.
Stars singer Amy Millan tells Festival House guests to have sex
Stars performs at Festival House (Image: Fraser Abe)
Festival Music House, the three-day Canadian music showcase during TIFF, opened last night with performances by hit DJ Chilly Gonzales, Coeur de Pirate, Basia Bulat, Royal Wood and Stars. The purpose of the event is to put homegrown talent in front of Hollywood producers, execs and stars. We spotted such familiar Toronto faces as Jian Ghomeshi, Bruce McDonald, Feist and Michael Riley, a.k.a. Dr. Tom from Being Erica, at the Roosevelt Room.
The biggest draw was Stars, who had the room packed with people dancing (perhaps more accurately described as swaying) to songs from the new album The Five Ghosts. The band threw rose petals at the crowd, and male lead singer Torquil Campbell vamped, doing his best Ray Charles on the keyboard, joked about a spec script (“If anyone wants to develop that shit, let’s talk”) and played a rad-looking harmonica-piano hybrid, as singer Amy Millan bellowed, “If you go home and have sex tonight, you should really call it TIFF.” Good idea, Amy. Let’s get Dan Savage on this—maybe he can start a grassroots campaign to make “TIFFing” the new term for sex.
= Find this story on our Celebrity Sightings Map, where we plot the locations of stars spotted throughout Toronto
George Stroumboulopoulos to star in zombie movie, TIFF film count at two
In the battle of the CBC it boys, George Stroumboulopoulos is out-buzzing Jian Ghomeshi with his acting roles. While Ghomeshi recently made a brief appearance on the reality series The City, Strombo has a cameo in Score: A Hockey Musical, the TIFF opening-night film. The film festival is getting even more George now that George A. Romero’s next zombie flick, Survival of the Dead—in which Stroumboulopoulos plays *drum roll* a TV host—will have its North American premiere at the fest. The movie’s premise: a war-weary band of soldiers take refuge in Earth’s last paradise, only to be confronted by flesh-eating zombies. The film will have an exclusive one-week run at the Toronto Underground Theatre on Spadina Avenue before TIFF starting August 20.
Thompson Hotel opening: pillow fights, pool parties and an hour wait for the rooftop
The roof pool at the Thompson Hotel (Image: George Pimentel)
By 10 p.m. last night, the wait for the elevator was an hour long, and the rooftop patio was at capacity. We shouldn’t have been surprised that the place was packed. Yes, yes, everyone was there. To drop some boldfaces, Kelly Rowan, Trevor Born, Jeanne Beker, the boys of Greta Constantine, Jeremy Laing (who designed the fabulous dresses the servers wore), Stacey Kimel, Ben Mulroney, Galen Weston Jr., teen blogging sensation Tavi Gevinson, Society gals Ashleigh Dempster and Amanda Blakley, Jian Ghomeshi, DJ Tony (from Ellen), et al.
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Jokes abound as Disney mulls moving into the CBC building
For lease: the CBC Centre (Image: Ryk van Toronto)
There are several ways to tackle the subject of the CBC renting space in its downtown office to Disney, which is looking for offices in Toronto and will pay roughly $4 million for the space. We can’t decide which is best.
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Toronto society turns out for the Joe Fresh show and celeb model Crystal Renn
Model Crystal Renn (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)
Joe Fresh Style, as we all know, is the show to see and be seen at each season. And, since it conveniently follows the Pink Tartan show (conveniently designed by Mrs. Joe Fresh, Kimberley Newport-Mimran), most of fashionable Toronto society—Galen Jr. and Alexandra Weston, Lynda Reeves, Tommy Ton, Jian Ghomeshi, Tanya Kim, Trevor Born, Susur Lee and so on—turned up to have their photo taken by George Pimentel, their names bold-faced by Shinan Govani and to pledge allegiance to the Mimran fan club. A big-name model always opens Joe; this year, it was the very gorgeous, very trendy and very famous “plus-size” model Crystal Renn (quotation marks are necessary, since Renn was hardly any larger than the other models) and one of the faces of the ’90s grunge scene, Kirsten Owen. Oh, there were clothes, too (view them in our slide show below), but who goes to Joe for the clothes, anyway?
See all the looks from the Joe Fresh Style show >>
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Evan Biddell’s fall collection creates a scene
(Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)
After opening his new Ossington store, Oz Studio Boutique, Evan Biddell was in full scenester mode Tuesday night with his runway show, Prehistory. Such Toronto notables as Keshia Chante (who made an appearance in a video prior to the show), Jian Ghomeshi, Adrian Mainella and Stacey McKenzie all came out to show support.
We’d love to say the most exciting part of the evening was before the show, when Robin Kay sauntered down the runway and personally handed us Lagerfeld-style hand fans, but Biddell’s collection stole the spotlight. Models trotted out in sunglasses fit for Daft Punk or Robocop, wearing leggings with Warhol-esque prints. Though it’s hard to imagine some of the pieces off the runway, the clothes—like oversized hoods in animal prints and ballooning jodhpur pants—are for the kind of gal who socializes at The Social. And so it was fitting that the evening ended with an after party (where else?) on Ossington, at Böhmer. It was a tame evening—after all, it was only Tuesday, and there’s plenty more to see today.
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