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Posts Tagged ‘media’

Mayor May Not

Sarah Thomson’s slight discrepancy

Sarah Thomson (Image: Joey Schwartz)

First the Sun did it. Then the Post did it. And last weekend, the Star did it. Over the past month and a half, Toronto media have dutifully repeated the story that mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson, to quote her bio, “came within 200 votes of winning” a seat on Hamilton’s city council in 1997. The only problem? She didn’t. The numbers don’t add up.

A quick e-mail to the Hamilton city clerk’s office reveals the 1997 results for Ward 1:

Mary Kiss: 4,560
Marvin Caplan: 4,123
Cam Nolan: 3,848
Sarah Whatmough [Thomson's maiden name]: 3,059

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| 36 Comments » March 18, 2010 | 8:49 am | Andrew D'Cruz

Pretty Young Things

Justin Bieber = Bieger than Jesus?

Justin Bieber, Stratford’s teen pop sensation, will make TV history next week when he becomes The View’s first musical guest to perform on two consecutive days. (We can only imagine this will beget another groundbreaking event: the first time any female under 30 tunes in to The View.)

The Biebs has been popping up in the darndest places lately: yesterday, the New York Times devoted space to his just-announced North American tour (and let’s not forget the paper’s lengthy profile back in December), and our tender-hearted Ontario peach recently sang the first verse of the “We Are the World” redux and the last lines in the Young Artists for Haiti’s “Wavin’ Flag” video. As if that weren’t enough, it turns out the lesbian community’s got a bit of a crush, too.

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| 1 Comment » March 17, 2010 | 4:11 pm | Greg Hudson

Telling Tales

Sarah Jessica Parker makes a cameo at The Bay

A dress from the Halston Heritage line

In the competition for celeb endorsements, The Bay scored a serious victory against Holts last night when Sarah Jessica Parker—gracious, gorgeous and, yes, incredibly tiny—glided into the Yonge and Queen store in her four-inch Ferragamo heels.

She was there as the newly minted chief creative officer of Halston, the American design house that made its name in the gaudy glam ’70s. The usual mass of Toronto fashion media and socialites (and a surprising appearance by Laureen Harper) huddled around her as she smiled warmly. With all the hubbub, it’s hard to say how long she stayed, but by our estimate, it was about 20 minutes, just long enough to pose for pictures in her minuscule purple tube dress (Halston, of course) and leave an overall impression of effortless effervescence.

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| 4 Comments » March 17, 2010 | 2:45 pm | Rachel Heinrichs

Slow News Day

Toronto has a wealth of lame loos, but a dearth of story ideas

(Image: Eric Schmuttenmaer)

In a story remarkably similar to one done by Citytv two weeks ago, the Toronto Sun spent 741 words last weekend discussing the fact that public toilets are—wait for it—gross. Both pieces start with reader submissions on where the city’s worst bathrooms are (apparently subway stations; Kennedy and Kipling are the worst offenders), followed by a list of where the cleanest washrooms are. Here is how each media outlet described Kipling station:

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| Leave a Comment » March 17, 2010 | 11:40 am | Karon Liu

The Fame Monsters

Karl Lagerfeld opposes gay marriage, plus eight other things learned from his interview with Bruce LaBruce

Toronto filmmaker slash smarty-pants smut-monger Bruce LaBruce’s Q&A with designer Karl Lagerfeld in Vice has been circulating around the fashion media, even getting a mention in Shinan Govani’s column today. For the time crunched, nine highlights from the seven-page interview.

1. Lagerfeld opposes the idea of gay marriage: “I’m against it for a very simple reason: in the ’60s, they all said we had the right to the difference. And now, suddenly, they want a bourgeois life.” LaBruce agrees.

2. Lagerfeld doesn’t like to take off his glasses, which he calls “a burka for a man,” because he is nearsighted.

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| 3 Comments » March 17, 2010 | 11:25 am | Karon Liu

The Feds

Harper’s YouTube snoozefest reaches out to young Canadians, lulls them to sleep

In his live Web video last night, Prime Minister Stephen Harper tried to reach out to Canada’s youth but apparently didn’t stop to look at what normally passes for decent YouTubery. The interview, which ran the gamut of issues from childcare to the economy and even briefly touched on marijuana policy, was predictable and redundant, with Harper repeating the canned responses Canadians have encountered in the papers and on TV.

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| 4 Comments » March 17, 2010 | 10:53 am | Greg Hudson

Mother Atwood

The blogosphere’s love of Margaret Atwood’s love of hockey snowballs

It looks like Margaret Atwood isn’t the only one handing out tips. Last Wednesday, we wrote about La Peggy’s involvement in the film that swallowed Canada’s celeb pool whole, Score: A Hockey Musical, and linked to her truly righteous “celebrity tip” segment about goaltending on Rick Mercer’s Monday Report. The Guardian followed suit yesterday morning, Salon linked to the Guardian’s piece a short while later, and the ladies over at Jezebel had showed some love by suppertime. Now if only we could find a way to work in a reference to Pierre Berton’s how to roll a joint celebrity tip… OK, that was easy.

• Margaret Atwood sings in ice hockey film musical [The Guardian]
• Margaret Atwood: hockey star [Salon]
• You don’t deke Margaret [Jezebel]
• Celebrity tip with Pierre Berton [YouTube]

| Leave a Comment » March 16, 2010 | 3:52 pm | Stéphanie Verge

Telling Tales

The convenient truth behind Canada’s MP3 player tax bill

NDP copyright critic Charlie Angus has delivered a private member’s bill that would tax MP3 players and prolong users’ rights to make copies of digital content. If passed, the bill would add a small tax to devices that reproduce media, including MP3 players and computers. Currently, Canadians pay this tax on “blank media,” such as CDs and DVDs, with the money from the tax put in a fund for artists and record labels, meant as compensation for copying.

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| Leave a Comment » March 16, 2010 | 3:04 pm | Natalie Goldenberg-Fife

Gossipmonger

Miss J. finds Toronto’s next top runway model

Ciara Hunt's winning walk (Image: Karon Liu)

“Would our first model please come out?” cooed Miss J., the statuesque America’s Next Top Model runway coach, in the Bloor Street Holt Renfrew this weekend for a “celebrity walk-off” slash promotion for his new book, Follow the Model.

Breakfast Television’s Dina Pugliese was first up. “Girl, I think if the shoe fits, wear it,” critiques Miss J. “If the shoe is a little too small, sweetie, you have to make it work.” Pugliese took off her stilettos for her second attempt. “I’ll have to take off a point ’cause she took off her shoe,” he told the panel of judges: gossip king Shinan Govani, MTV sweetheart Jessi Cruickshank and Canada’s answer to Tim Gunn, model agent Elmer Olsen.

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| 1 Comment » March 15, 2010 | 4:08 pm | Karon Liu

The Fame Monsters

Gene Simmons finally signs a band to his Canadian label

The Envy is first Canadian band to woo Gene Simmons

One famously long tongue is wagging as Toronto band The Envy becomes the envy of other local new wave start-ups.

It was announced this week that after 16 months of searching, Gene Simmons has signed the first band to his revolutionary Canadian label, Simmons Records. The organization is a partnership with Universal Music Canada and Belinda Stronach, whose interest in heavy metal apparently extends beyond her work at Magna International.

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| 1 Comment » March 12, 2010 | 5:14 pm | Greg Hudson