Top Chef Canada host, actress and beautiful person Lisa Ray took to Twitter this week to announce her engagement to her consultant boyfriend (hey, if Twitter is good enough for Prince William, it’s good enough for the rest of us). The tweet reads: “ ‘Delicious update’: ENGAGED to the love of my life. Jason Dehni proposed in Napa” and is accompanied by a shot of Ray with her newly minted fiancé and a big ol’ rock. Does this mean the upcoming season of Top Chef Canada will be heavy on the canapés, buffets and wedding cake? She does have her nuptials to plan (yes, we know it was filmed in advance, but imagine if she could have dictated the challenges?). Read the entire story [Times of India] »
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Top Chef Canada’s Lisa Ray gets engaged in Napa Valley (proving, once again, that wine + diamonds = romance)
Q&A with Lisa Ray, the new host of Top Chef Canada, on the joys and perils of eating for a living
(Image: Top Chef Canada/Insight Productions)
Yesterday we told you that actress and former model Lisa Ray had been pegged to replace Thea Andrews as host of Top Chef Canada. We caught up today with the 39-year-old Torontonian to try to pry some secrets about the second season, which airs March 12 on Food Network Canada. For the most part, we failed. Still, Ray did tell us a bit about working with Mark McEwan, turning into a professional eater and learning about food on the job. Read our Q&A with her after the jump.
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Lisa Ray named new host for season two of Top Chef Canada
Top Chef Canada’s new host Lisa Ray, with head judge Mark McEwan (Image: Top Chef Canada/Insight Productions)
Top Chef Canada returns for a second season this spring, and a new Torontonian has been pegged to host the show: actress and model Lisa Ray. “I am a big fan of the Top Chef series and thrilled to help spotlight some of the amazing culinary talent right here in my hometown,” she said in a release. “I’m looking forward to a challenging yet delicious season.” The well-travelled actress has starred in Water, Cooking with Stella and Bollywood Hollywood and has plenty of hosting experience, including the Giller Prize gala earlier this month, the 2006 Genie Awards and her own entertainment show in India. She has also been celebrated for her fundraising to support research into multiple myeloma, a disease she was diagnosed with in 2009. Last season’s host Thea Andrews left the show to take care of her second child. Returning for season two, which premieres on March 12, will be head judge Mark McEwan, the grand prize of $100,000 and a GE Monogram kitchen and, we’re sure, a little product placement here and there. No word yet on whether horsemeat will make a comeback.
TIFF announces its official selection for this year’s Short Cuts Canada program
TIFF’s Short Cuts program is 43 films strong this year and features actors like Lisa Ray and Hugh Dillon, while the directors involved include Flashpoint’s Enrico Colantoni. The films come from almost every province, including Nunavut, Newfoundland, British Columbia and Ontario, and explore the lives of jealous dogs, feral children and cabbage. Where do we sign up? Check out the full list of Short Cuts Canada selections after the jump.
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The International Indian Film Academy Awards took over an industrial complex in Brampton last night
In Brampton, Bollywood is kind of a spectacle. (Image: Matthew Hague)
On a typical Thursday night, the parking lot of Brampton’s Trinity Common Mall, surrounded as it is by big-box outlets of Addition-Elle, Suzy Shier and Home Depot, is about as sexy as the thought of Stephen Harper stripped to his skivvies. But last night, it hosted the first major event of this year’s Indian International Film Academy Awards—the world premiere of action-comedy Double Dhamaal—and although it was still obviously a parking lot in Brampton, the Bollywood star power made the humdrum surroundings sparkle like a maharaja’s jewellery. Find out which Bollywood stars walked the carpet last night in our gallery after the jump.
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The Weekender: Samsara, TD Toronto Jazz Festival and six other events on our to do list
Coeur de Pirate, The Roots’ Black Thought and Lisa Ray
1. TD TORONTO JAZZ FESTIVAL
Somehow, the organizers of this annual music fest always manage to book musicians that even non-jazz fans are dying to see. Case in point: this year’s lineup, which features Aretha Franklin, The Roots and Los Lonely Boys alongside more straight-up jazz offerings like Kurt Elling and Nikki Yanofsky. The Queen of Soul kicks off the entire festival with a free concert at Metro Square this Friday. June 24 to July 3. Various locations, 416-870-8000, torontojazz.com.
2. SAMSARA (FREE!) Read the rest of this entry »
We have a not-so-secret love of Bollywood, but no amount of dedication could score us tickets to the International Indian Film Academy Awards this weekend. Luckily for us, there’s this free street fest. Faisal Anwar has curated a film series of old and new Bollywood dance sequences. There are also two performance stages, one dedicated to classical music and dance and the other to all things fusion. Local girl Lisa Ray will rock the runway during two of the four scheduled fashion shows. June 25. Rogers Centre, 1 Blue Jays Way, toronto.ca/iifa2011.
Clive Owen, Steve Nash and Juliette Lewis celebrate Strombo at the Hazelton Takeover party
The man of the (half-) hour (Image: Stefania Yarhi)
The plebs swarmed Yorkville last night in droves, and the red carpet and photographers stationed outside the Hazelton Hotel acted as a honing beacon for star-seeking hopefuls. “Is that a celebrity? Who is that everyone’s looking at? That’s that model–she’s famous in Canada and internationally.” That would be Stacey McKenzie, sometime Top Model guest and Toronto party scenester, who had to push through a thick group of onlookers to get inside for the CBC’s Hazelton Takeover party, a bash for George Stroumboulopoulos’s new half-hour show, George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight.
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Canadian filmmakers, Lisa Ray and an OC mom party at the Spoke
Last night, the Spoke Club launched the film festival season with its annual Canadian Filmmakers party, hosted by actress Lisa Ray, who looked fresh-faced and fabulous, as usual, and Ben Mulroney, who looks more like dad Brian every year. The frigid temperature and grey sky spitting rain didn’t mar the festivities; guests huddled around propane heaters on the rooftop patio and warmed up by dancing to Motown jams downstairs. Industry insiders and Spoke members lapped up the free Skyy TIFF-themed cocktails, but actual celebs (other than the OC‘s Melinda Clarke) were few and far between.
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Lisa Ray is now cancer-free (and hotter than ever)
In happy Earth Day news, one of the planet’s hottest citizens, Lisa Ray, announced today that she’s cancer-free. The Canadian actor (Cooking With Stella, Water) was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in June of last year and underwent a stem cell transplant in January. She has written extensively (and honestly) about aspects of the experience, like losing her hair, on her blog, The Yellow Diaries. Ray’s hair has now grown into a short pixie cut; she says, “It is looking awesome right now. I am just loving it. It is the sleekest and most well put together I have ever looked.” We can’t disagree.
Don McKellar named Canada’s George Clooney
Stellar McKellar pleases his fans at TIFF (Photo by Karon Liu)
Don’t get us wrong. We’re fans of Don McKellar, but it’s hard to see him as Canada’s version of Clooney, as the Montreal Gazette declares, or even as the nation’s “ultimate male role model.” (We’re pretty sure Sidney Crosby is the Canuck who’s setting young male hearts aflutter.) Cooking With Stella, the new comedy from Dilip Mehta, co-written with his sister Deepa, opens this week. In it, McKellar plays the husband of Maya (Lisa Ray), who struggles to accept class differences when the couple moves to India—with, presumably, hilarious results.
But it’s not just the Gazette gushing over Stellar McKellar’s artistic chops. Dilip is doing his fair share, too, telling the National Post:
Had I made him into the Terminator, if he was a surgeon or if he was a CIA operative, I’d say no problem. I asked him to play the quintessential Canadian; not naive, simple, a little apologetic, nice. To act that is not simple.
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Rickshaws and Lisa Ray at Cooking with Stella premiere
Don McKellar and Lisa Ray arrive at the gala for Cooking with Stella (Photos by Karon Liu)
Yesterday’s Cooking with Stella red carpet was much like the Chloe premiere: most of the fans lining up were actually waiting for the next premiere (in this case, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits starring Natalie Portman and Lisa Kudrow). Still, people’s celeb hunger was insatiable, and most lingerers wanted a glimpse of those on the red carpet, even though they had no idea who they were—or, as a heavily accented older woman cruelly put it, even though they were “not populars.”
Director Dilip Metha arrived first, not in the black Cadillacs to which we’ve grown accustomed, but in a rickshaw decorated with streamers. Next up was star Lisa Ray, in a sexy purple number, who arrived on rickshaw with co-star Don McKellar.
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- Don McKellar and Lisa ray arrive at the gala for Cooking with Stella
Cooking with Tyler at Mildred’s Temple Kitchen
Lisa Ray: rickshaw rider (Photo by Karon Liu)
Serving Indian food to the Indian stars of a film about cooking—Dilip Mehta’s Cooking With Stella, to be precise—sounds like a challenge of Padma Lakshmi’s devising. Luckily for dinner-skipping attendees, Mildred Temple Kitchen’s chef Tyler Cunningham was up for it. The Liberty Village resto became a “Temple of Taste” for last night’s Mongrel Media soiree, the warmest and most savoury we’ve attended this week. Rose petals clothed every table, an elaborate rickshaw dazzled on the red carpet, and Lisa Ray held court in a violet sari, and yet the food—curry potato dumplings, succulent shrimp on naan—was the most beautiful thing there.
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Today at TIFF: September 16, 2009
Our daily roundup of the most buzz-worthy opening galas, parties and screenings.
• The Last Waltz free public screening, Yonge–Dundas Square, noon
• Tillie’s Punctured Romance free public screening, Yonge–Dundas Square, 3 p.m.
• Cooking with Stella premiere, Roy Thomson Hall, 6:30 p.m.
• From Venice to MaRs party in celebration of Italian filmmakers (guests include Tilda Swinton), MaRs Discovery District, 8:30 p.m.
• My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done premiere, Visa Screening Room, 9 p.m.
• Love and Other Impossible Pursuits premiere, Roy Thomson Hall, 9:30 p.m.
• Cooking with Stella party (guests include Lisa Ray, Don McKellar and Deepa Mehta), Mildred’s Temple Kitchen
Skyy’s the limit: three celeb-inspired cocktails for TIFF
Splashmakers: Ellen Page, Lisa Ray and Sandra Oh have all been turned into beverages (Photo by Kenny)
Oscar buzz and party chatter were not the only things served up at the Hazelton Hotel’s TIFF event last week. Official sponsor Skyy Vodka unveiled its annual trifecta of celebrity-inspired cocktails, each with an unsurprising dose of—what else?—Skyy Vodka (although our preliminary research indicates that any kind of vodka can be used). The full list, after the jump.
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Oscar buzz, vodka and stalking advice doled out at the Hazelton Hotel
To be Blunt: early rumblings suggest Young Victoria could be Emily Blunt's big break (Photo by chloe004)
With two weeks left until the opening gala of the Toronto International Film Festival, reporters gathered at the Hazelton Hotel to get a rundown on the buzziest films (Precious), parties (One X One), possible Oscar contenders (Mo’Nique, the woman from Soul Plane) and TIFF-inspired cocktails (Skyy vodka for all).
CTV film critic Richard Crouse said the Oprah-backed film Precious could mean a possible Oscar nomination for Mo’Nique, while co-star Mariah Carey can finally shake off the tarnished glitter from, well, Glitter. Closing film Young Victoria also got a thumbs-up and was predicted to be Emily Blunt’s big break. But the most intriguing film tidbit (and a brilliant marketing move to boot) was that everyone who went to the pre-screening of Heath Ledger’s last film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, had to sign a waiver that forbid them from talking about it.
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