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How running became the city’s collective obsession

By Rachel Heinrichs | Photography by Sandy Nicholson

The Running Cult

Last year I turned 30, broke up with my long-term boyfriend and moved into a tiny apartment for one. The domestic vision I’d had for my future—marriage, a semi-detached fixer-upper, kids with endearingly arcane names, homemade pie—dissolved overnight. When I tried to reformulate a picture of my future, alone, my imagination failed. Usually when I’m lonely or stressed out, I run. I’ve been running non-competitively for 10 years. It eases my anxieties more effectively than anything else I’ve tried: psychoanalysis, yoga, eBay buying sprees, binges on HBO series, even anti-depressants. When I run, for one blissful unmeasured hour, my brain stops spinning.

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The Goods

Manly Men

July 18, 2011 | 2:00 pm

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Oh, brother: Oprah Winfrey teams with Carson Kressley to create a “no-nonsense” travelling makeover show

Carson Kressley changes lives (Image: Dan Cox)

Last we saw, Carson Kressley was dressing dumpy men—who, frankly, looked better when they weren’t wearing the Kressley-prescribed crocodile-skin pointed shoes and distressed 7 for All Mankind jeans—on TV’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Now Kressley has a new lease on his TV life: Oprah Winfrey has given him his own show, Carson Nation, a travelling makeover show akin to Queer Eye that premieres tonight on OWN Canada. The once-novel concept of taking America’s worst-dressed ducklings and turning them into swans has reached its peak, thanks to TLC’s What Not to Wear, but it seems Oprah Winfrey will try anything to give her baby of a network a kick in the pants (following early reports of very poor ratings), including reformatting hackneyed concepts. Maybe Oprah knows something we don’t or, given her power, perhaps she’s thinking of a metrosexual throwback. This, however, will be a revamped throwback, considering Kressley refers to his show as a “make-better” show, as opposed to a makeover show (seriously). Carson Nation will include the heart-wrenching and now formulaic real-world reality TV examples of a) wife whose husband has left for Afghanistan, and b) single mother with a child who has overcome cancer (both situations that immediately scream, ”Girl, you need a new summer ‘do!”).

Carson Nation premieres on OWN Canada tonight at 7 p.m.

• Carson Kressley brings queer eye to small-town America [CTV]

The Hype

Quoted

May 20, 2011 | 3:30 pm

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Sign of the Apocalypse #5: Oprah records final interview

Oprah Winfrey seen holding on until the world ends (Image: whoohoo120)

We don’t think there could be anyone more accomplished than Oprah Winfrey. She’s managed to draw out Tom Cruise’s inner four-year-old (enough that he jumped hysterically on her interview sofa), donated millions of dollars worth of product during her Favourite Things episodes and even erected a Leadership Academy for Girls. When we heard that she had recorded her last episode today (to air May 25), we figured she, in her infinite wisdom, had anticipated the world’s untimely demise. We echo the Big O: “Look under your chairs everyone—some of you may or not be getting an afterlife!”

• Oprah’s Farewell Countdown: Video 4 [Oprah.com]

Apparently, the earth is coming to an end pretty damn soon—on Saturday, to be exact. In honour of this auspicious occasion, we’ll be watching for signs of the Rapture until we lie in our eternal resting place. Stay tuned

The Hype

Prime Time

January 5, 2011 | 10:35 am

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Oprah’s OWN gets a perky taste of Canada

Spreading perky cheer on OWN (Image: Anna Wallner and Kristina Matisic)

On New Year’s Day, Oprah Winfrey’s OWN Network launched to solid ratings, and two Canadian ladies were happy to be in on the action. Vancouver cooking show Anna and Kristina’s Grocery Bag debuted weekdays at 3 p.m. on OWN this week, and show creators and stars Anna Wallner and Kristina Matisic are reportedly thrilled to be a part of the Oprah empire.

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The Hype

Prime Time

October 29, 2010 | 12:42 pm

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Christopher Plummer and the rest of the Sound of Music cast reunite on Oprah

Though he’s probably still best known as the strict Captain von Trapp in the classic film adaptation of The Sound of Music, Canadian film and theatre icon Christopher Plummer has always been far too dignified to discuss the feel-good Oscar-winning romp in public. Then he got The Call.

That’s right, the Oprah call.

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The Hype

Cinemania

October 1, 2010 | 2:41 pm

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Christopher Plummer’s really good year continues with role in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

(Image: Courtney)

Good news for Captain Von Trapp fans, Stratford junkies and anyone with a thing for silver foxes: Christopher Plummer has joined the cast of the hotly anticipated American version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The Tony winner will play Henrik Vanger, an old man who hires a reporter (played by Daniel Craig) to find out what happened to his missing niece. Having read the book (like everyone else on the planet), we think this is pretty solid casting. Plummer can do mysterious in his sleep, and as far as portraying family patriarchs goes, need we remind you what this man looks like in a pair of lederhosen? Speaking of which, only 29 days till the entire Sound of Music cast reunites on Oprah. Woot!

The Hype

Prime Time

September 27, 2010 | 4:52 pm

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Christopher Plummer will try to fake interest during Sound of Music reunion on Oprah

Despite the widely known fact that Christopher Plummer referred to The Sound of Music as “The Sound of Mucus” and “S&M,” the Canadian actor will be reuniting with Julie Andrews and the cast that played the von Trapp kids on Oprah on October 29 to celebrate the musical’s 45th anniversary. Plummer doesn’t exactly hate the film, but he doesn’t consider it a highlight of his career. Perhaps he is hoping for a free trip to Australia.

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The Hype

Prime Time

August 13, 2010 | 9:21 am

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A Canadian idol on American Idol? Shania Twain considered for JLo’s judging spot

Shania “Man, I feel like a woman” Twain is being lined up for a judging position on American Idol if Jennifer Lopez drops out, and it’s likely that she will. Twain was fingered for her “mainstream appeal”—she has a personal improvement show in the works for Oprah Winfrey’s network. And, let’s not forget, the lady rivals JLo for skimpy costumes and head-to-toe animal print:

• ‘Idol’ eyes Shania [New York Post]

The Hype

Leave It to Bieber

May 12, 2010 | 10:24 am

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Oprah names Justin Bieber one of the world’s most talented kids

Oprah dares to tousle the Bieber bob (Image: Gawker TV)

Yesterday, teen dream Justin Bieber appeared on Oprah as part of her World’s Most Talented Kids episode, taped in front of a studio audience of hysterical teen girls. In one of the insanely over-the-top pre-taped clips (see them on Gawker TV), producer L.A. Reid compares the Biebs to Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. But our favourite clip is the last one, in which he performs a drum solo. We’re pretty sure the video capture had syncing issues and he actually is playing the drums, but are there any drummers out there who care to analyze the vid? His next act will be turning water into grape juice.

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The Hype

The American Invasion

April 15, 2010 | 9:57 am

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Blacklisted from the States, Oprah biographer heads to Toronto for book tour

(Image: Karon Liu)

After being denied media coverage from David Letterman, Larry King and Barbara Walters, author Kitty Kelley is promoting her unauthorized Oprah biography in Toronto, where news outlets are apparently out of Oprah’s firing range or desperate for any celebrity gossip that doesn’t involve Avril Lavigne’s relationship with that guy from The Hills.

In an interview with the Star, Kelley, who has previously come under fire for her biographies of Frank Sinatra and Nancy Reagan, says even her publisher, Random House, was nervous about bad-mouthing Oprah. Still, Kelley has had no problems arranging interviews in Toronto.

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The Dish

Aprons & Icons

February 23, 2010 | 12:10 pm

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Oprah gets a chocolate set because she’s Oprah

The chocolate set (Photo from Harpo)

Last week, Oprah managed to hoard a supply of elusive Olympic mittens for her audience. Yesterday, her entire set was made out of Godiva chocolates, and she invited the audience to come up to the stage to eat it at the end of the show.

The set consisted of a grandfather clock, table, books, chess set, fireplace and a vase of flowers (all made of chocolate) and was created with 7,000 Godiva bars and 2,400 truffles over the course of 1,400 hours. There was also a chocolate chandelier made from 1,500 pieces of chocolate.

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The Goods

Shop Talk

February 22, 2010 | 11:20 am

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Olympic mittens reach the holy grail: The Oprah Winfrey show

And so we reached the peak of mitten frenzy on Friday afternoon, when Oprah waved her hands adorned in those red mittens that people are surely rioting over by now. The Today Show’s Matt Lauer broke down all the Olympic it items for O via satellite from Vancouver as he gave his pair of mittens away to an excited onlooker. But since it’s all about the US of A, Lauer spent most of the segment shilling the Ralph Lauren Olympic collection (Oprah was wearing a customized polo with her name stitched below the giant logo).

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Toronto International Film Festival 2009

September 22, 2009 | 2:53 pm

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The final goodbye: this is TIFF.TO, signing off

The accumulated detritus of our TIFF life (Photo by Jen McNeely)

We went into TIFF feeling like a groomed and glowing Jessica Simpson and came out looking like Mickey Rourke after a bender. What begins with clinking glasses of Moët and bumping hips with George Clooney at a Bridle Path mansion descends into glamorous gluttony: Dolce and Gabbana swag littered in a pile of dirty laundry, espresso stains, broken pumps and scattered taxi receipts. We are now ready to trade in stalking Oprah Winfrey for life in the country with a pint-sized pony and some Cookstown greens. It was swell drinking Grey Goose martinis with Clive Owen and hobnobbing with boldface names, complaining to coiffed socialites that our party schedule was maxxed out, but we now find ourselves yearning to float down from the elevated eclipse of seductive fantasy and find solace in googling how to start a hobby farm. Nikki Beach? No thanks; we are dreaming of greeting a Kincardine sunrise with a bowl of oats. Call us extremists, but as TIFF comes to a close, the last thing we want is a free cocktail and cured meat. Just give us a stack of hay to lie in, far away from Yorkville. If we can’t have that, then we’ll settle for an oxygen facial and an afternoon at Body Blitz. That should carry us through until next September, when we’ll be ready to do it all over again.

Toronto International Film Festival 2009

September 22, 2009 | 2:03 pm

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The best and worst of TIFF 2009

The after party for The Men Who Stare at Goats. Not many people can say they were at a house party on the Bridle Path with George Clooney and Jeff Bridges.

TIFF is toast for 2009, so we asked our team of writers and photographers report back on the best and worst, the scary and the sublime, the hot and the lame of this year’s festival. Here are their harrowing responses.

: Without a doubt, George Clooney, for having a bottomless pit of facial expressions, headline-worthy quotes and spending 20 minutes signing autographs for the entire line of fans.

: Eating smoked meat and kosher pickles with the dudes from Schwartz’s Deli. For The Trotsky after party at Pravda, Alliance Films flew in the Montreal meatheads, put them up at the Royal York, and paid them to feed a CanCon crowd with real-size sammies. Through full stomachs, our hearts were won.

: A glass castle on the Bridle Path, enormous and cubist, like something out of a Bret Easton Ellis novel. (People in glass houses probably shouldn’t throw parties, but we’re glad they do.)

: Getting chastised by a security guard for walking on the Duchess of York’s dress train at the InStyle party (although this moment would have been amazing had we not noticed and she kept walking).

: Hearing a group of middle-aged male photographers sing Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” while waiting outside the press conference room.

: “So, you’re an actress?”, generally followed by a shocked, “No? Really?” when we shook our heads. Look, we can tell by your loafers that you’re from out of town, but come on—we’re holding a press pass, eating majorly caloric pastries, and carrying our own not-it bag. Nothing about this screams “movie starlet.” Kristin Booth is probably here somewhere, so please move on.

: The Grey Goose martini we sipped alongside Clive Owen while sitting on a TTC subway car in the secret Bay station.

: We had a hunch that Drew Barrymore would turn up at Sweaty Betty’s, as she has in the past, and we were right. We got there in time to see her behind the bar of our local watering hole, swigging beer in an Alexander McQueen gown.

: How to tell a celebrity’s non-famous date to get out of a shot without being rude. This is what happened during Colin Farrell’s now-infamous red carpet debacle. A bunch of photographers wanted a solo shot of the brooding Irishman, so they all yelled at his date to get out of the shot during the frenzy. Farrell took offence because his date was his sister. Pictured is a clear shot of Paula Patton, snapped after Alan Thicke’s son stepped out of the way.

: Colin Farrell for saying “cheers” to every reporter at the Ondine press conference after a photo of him grabbing a photographer made the front page of The Sun.

: Tyler Perry, who made a beeline for the red carpet at the Precious premiere and didn’t even look at the fans.

: Nikki Beach. It was supposed to be a huge deal, attracting all kinds of celebs, but turned out to be packed with rather horny, smashed girls from Thornhill.

: Being one of the few photographers who snapped a photo, albeit a slightly blurry one, of Robert DeNiro at the Precious premiere.

: Michael Cera’s shyness pays his bills, but his one-word answers do nothing for reporters.

: The barrage of camera shutters at press conferences. They peak whenever a celebrity smiles or talks with their hands.

: “Oprah, we are all so grateful to you for helping the children in Africa. I was born in Kiev, Ukraine [pictured], and not many people know that there are 200 orphanages there and over 100,000 orphans. I just want to know if anybody reached out to you or approached you to help out the country.”

: A tie between Edward Norton’s and Oprah Winfrey’s. In both cases, the barricades we were standing behind started to lean forward as the celebs walked past. It took two security guards to push everyone back.

: Waiting two and a half hours for Megan Fox outside Cheval. She didn’t show up.

: A woman on the 501 streetcar gushing about how one time, she waved to Carla Collins outside the Hazelton and Carla Collins waved back! Because “stars are just normal people, you know?”

: Falling asleep on the sidewalk while waiting for Natalie Portman. For 10 minutes, we slept on the street.

: The fans sang “Smelly Cat” in hopes of luring Lisa Kudrow back to the barricades at the premiere of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits. It didn’t work.

: The men’s bathroom on the second floor of the Sutton Place Hotel; we saw director Atom Egoyan exiting, adjusting his belt.

: It’s a tie, and both involve Drew Barrymore (although neither was her fault). The first was at the Whip It press conference, when a reporter asked how her family felt about roller derby (Barrymore famously filed for emancipation at the age of 15). The second was a question about Patrick Swayze’s passing; the actor didn’t know about Swayze’s death until that moment.

: A journalist from a certain national news network asking Eva Avila to take a photo with him on the red carpet.

: The Axe body spray haze at Tryst during the PETA fashion party.

: Natalie Portman saying TIFF is more about the films than celebrities as a wall of photographers snapped away at her.

: Surprisingly, not the hangover. The biggest ache was in our feet after 10 days of standing and partying.

: “Do you have anything to say about the death of Patrick Swayze?”

: Notorious paparazzi hater and fame eschewer Edward Norton at the premiere of Leaves of Grass at Ryerson, where he proceeded down the entire line of fans with a big, unforced smile and posed for a lot of photos.

: The after party for The Men Who Stare at Goats. Not many people can say they were at a house party on the Bridle Path with George Clooney and Jeff Bridges.

: Oprah Winfrey for giving perfectly packaged quotes and knowing how to pose for cameras. Also, people clapped every time she said something at the press conference.

: Grovelling to kitchen staff by the back door vents of the Windsor Arms and basically begging them to sneak us into the InStyle party through the garbage room.

: Jessica Paré. Lips of velvet.

: Remington’s, the infamous gay male strip club on Yonge Street, holds the same party every year at the same time. Sure, it takes place during TIFF and is full of TIFF-goers, but they are in no way connected.

(Images from Flickr.com are greatly appreciated and used under the Creative Commons license found here.)

Toronto International Film Festival 2009

September 19, 2009 | 2:56 pm

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All stories relating to Oprah Winfrey

(Images from Flickr.com are greatly appreciated and used under the Creative Commons license found here.)

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