By Gillian Shaw

PARIS — A Samsung representative led a contingent of international journalists into a gallery Tuesday at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, pointing out one wall covered with framed art.

The challenge?

To pick out the 12 pieces on the wall that weren’t static artworks. Interspersed among the art were 12 television sets — a model dubbed The Frame — Samsung’s soon-to-be-released TV that represents a collaboration between the company and Swiss designer Yves Béhar.

For some the giveaway came when the screen changed but for other TVs, set in art mode, the screen looked like the other pieces of art with automatic controls adjusting their lighting to show them off as if they were fixed prints or paintings in a gallery.

“We wanted technology to come into your home in a way that isn’t disruptive of your social life, it doesn’t distract you from what’s important,” said Béhar.

“What you see there looked so simple. It is very humble — the Samsung logo only appears on the side — it takes a lot of confidence to do it this way.”

Painting or pixels? A wall of The Frames, Samsung’s soon-to-be released TV that is a collaboration between the company and Swiss designer Yves Béhar, at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris. When that rectangle on the wall is not a TV set it shows art, and could be easily mistaken for a framed print.

Béhar said with people living in smaller and smaller dwellings and an increased interest in curating what comes into their lives, The Frame works as a piece of art for the hours outside of the four or five a day that the average television is actually being used.

“It’s a platform,” he said. “We can see ourselves collaborating with galleries and with museums to offer further collections of art in the future.”

The Frame, to be available in Canada starting in May, at an as-yet undisclosed price but in two versions — a 55-inch and a 65-inch — has light sensors to determine the right amount of dimming requiring for the settings so the artwork looks like it is printed on paper. It also has a motion sensor, so when no one is around to enjoy the art the screen fades to black.

In an era when less is more when it comes to decorating our dwellings, with their size shrinking as fast as prices climb, The Frame tries hard to be no more intrusive than a framed print. It hangs from recessed hardware, flush against the wall, giving the back of the TV as seamless a profile as the front.

The Frame comes with a library of more than 100 pieces, from nature to street scenes, drawings and a wide range of art works. It also comes with so-called “invisible” wiring which, while not strictly invisible, strips down the usual tangle of wires to a single, almost transparent cable. The Frame comes in three basic wood finishes, including white, which you can paint to customize your own design, and there will be interchangeable bezels in a range of colours and patterns.

Samsung’s Global TV launch in Paris also featured the company new QLED TVS, which also have the nearly invisible connection cable replacing clunky wires.  Every new step up in TV technology promises the best and brightest picture, but the ultra-thin QLED takes quite a leap, using Quantum dot display technology to deliver 100 per cent colour volume and viewing angles that make it easier to see an undistorted picture even if you’re not sitting right in the front of the TV.

It’s the first of the next generation television tech that uses nano technology with LED and it’s a difference that even the most casual TV viewer could notice in a side-by-side test, but it doesn’t come cheap.

A 55-inch version at $4,100 Canadian and a 65-inch version at $5,800, are available for order starting this week in Canada, with the first to start arriving on store shelves next week.

Related

• Victoria teen's Facebook tool to plan homework gains popularity overseas
• Digital literacy doesn't come naturally, even to the young: UBC researcher
• Tech predictions for 2017 include drones, VR goggles, security services

CLICK HERE to report a typo.

Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.

Valeria Costa, who designed model Isa Souza’s ensemble for Rio de Janeiro’s Carnaval parade, reprised it when Jamal Abdourahman, right, launched the 17th annual Vancouver Fashion Week.

FROM IPAMENA: The first of 30,000 attendees packed the Chinese Cultural Centre hall when Djibouti-born Jamal Abdourahman opened his 17th annual Vancouver Fashion Week. Its 25 international designers include Brazilian Valeria Costa, whose show was the evening’s highlight. Her angel-winged ensemble would certainly enliven Vancouver streets. And why not? Model Isa Souza previously paraded the glistening silver creation on Rio de Janeiro’s Rua Marques de Sapucai during Carnaval celebrations there.

SHOE HOP: Centre A, the Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, held a fundraiser in Gastown’s Fluevog Shoes store recently. It acknowledged Japan’s White Day, when men give marshmallows to exceed the goodies received from women on Valentine’s Day. No footwear, though, as giving shoes in Asia implies ending relationships. Take a hike, in other words. The centre may do that soon to double the size of its East Georgia Street facility.

Kyle Archibald’s homemade Archimallows s’mores are roasted, dipped in Bailey’s liqueur and drizzled with chocolate syrup before serving.

ROASTMASTER: Respecting White Day, Archimallows owner Kyle Archibald served s’mores composed of his home-made marshmallows — salted caramel is the top seller — torch-roasted, dipped in Bailey’s liqueur, drizzled with chocolate sauce and sandwiched between Graham crackers.

UNLACED: Look for a million-dollars’ worth of Fluevog and other brand-name shoes March 29 when fleet-footed Army & Navy store owner Jacqui Cohen and Maynards Liquidation Group offer inventory from Roger Hardy’s shoeme and shoes.com online outfits that went soles up Jan. 27.

Gary Segal will aid Dr. Rick Hodes’s Ethiopian spinal surgery and care program when he and wife Nanci chair the Bring Back Hope gala on June 8.

GIVING BACK: Gary and Nanci Segal founded Bring Back Hope in 2012. The $1 million raised furthered the quarter-century of spinal surgery and care provided by Dr. Rick Hodes, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee director for Ethiopia. Also aided was Christian Baptist Dr. Ohbena Boachie-Adjei’s similar work for all religions and ethnicities in Ghana. The UBC Branch for International Surgical Care then partnered them. Thirty-seven spine surgeries and treatment for 14,000 children followed, including dramatically reconstructing a TB-deformed Ethiopian youth named Tesfaye. A Segal family member during six months of treatment here, he’ll return June 8 for Bring Back Hope’s second running. So will Dr. Hodes, whom Gary Segal called “a saint, a mensch, a hero” to supporters at a reception recently.

Ballet B.C. board chair Dr. Kevin Leslie feted artistic director Emily Molnar for “kicking it out of the park” with recent record ticket sales.

STEPPING UP: Six years of posting modest cash surpluses was a triumph for once-bankrupted Ballet B.C. So was having executive director Branislav Henselmann head-hunted to be Vancouver’s managing director of cultural services. Florida-raised successor John Clark arrived for artistic director Emily Molnar’s recent three performances that set ticket sales records. “Kicking it out of the park,” said board president-chair Kevin Leslie who, though no dancer, understands solid footings. Respecting mega-philanthropist Michael Audain’s maxim that board members “give, get or get off,” Dr. Leslie is listed as a $15,000-to-$24,999 donor to Ballet B.C.’s Founders’ Council.

Vancouver artist Marie Khouri is readying her four fountains for the Place de la Concorde façade of Paris’s soon to reopen Hotel Crillon.

STEPPING OUT: City-based artist Marie Khouri will furnish a Ballet B.C. backdrop showing such global cities as Paris. She’s there now, readying four self-designed fountains for the Hotel Crillon’s Place de la Concorde façade. The 1758-built Crillon will reopen soon following a three-year renovation.

APPLES TO APPLES: Regarding 35 million Canadians welcoming 35,000 Syrian refugees last year, Khouri said 1.1 million live among her native Lebanon’s six million. If that ratio pertained here, Syrians, who now match Port Moody’s population, would equal everyone living in the three Prairie provinces.

Hindi-turned-global movie star Kabir Bedi appeared in Kamal Sharma’s Jagjit Singh tribute concert and at a Fraserview Hall banquet later.

ONE MORE TIME: Impresario Kamal Sharma’s debut production in 1994 brought since-deceased singer Jagjit Singh to the Vogue theatre. Sharma came almost full circle recently with Tauseef Akhtar’s song-tribute to Jagjit Singh at the Hard Rock Casino. Akhtar and narrator Kabir Bedi also attended a Fraserview Hall banquet. Bedi vaulted from Hindi film roles to international movie, TV, stage and radio fame with 60 pictures to his credit. In one, Octopussy, his Gobinda character opposed James Bond (Roger Moore) throughout but perished by falling from an aircraft while Bond leaped to safety. Addressing banqueters, B.C. justice minister and frequent Fraserview attendee Suzanne Anton likely banked on similar salvation in the May 9 election. Nine days earlier, Sharma will have singers Kumar Sanu and Alka Yagnik and a 60-piece orchestra play the PNE’s Agrodome.

Rebecca Rilling served a beer at the St. Regis pub which was rather more austere during columnist Parry’s first-night-in Vancouver visit.

HAPPY DAY: Marking the anniversary of a journalist-to-be’s first full day in Canada, he revisited the St. Regis hotel pub. Back then, taciturn men served one brand of draft lager in a plain room with little food and less entertainment. Not that a young man toasting his adopted country needed any. Today, St. Regis patrons choose from many dishes and cocktails, watch sports (for now) on large monitors, see passersby through once-verboten windows, and have Nelson-raised Rebecca Rilling serve best-selling Red Truck beer from one of many taps. Far more rewarding than pub evolution, though, is how Canada welcomed that first-day immigrant and more than fulfilled his every expectation and dream. Happy 150th, Canada. Here’s mud in your eye.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: With New Zealand’s Whanganui River now legally a human, perhaps a urologist will advise on any flow difficulties.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456

Prison Break

April 4, 9 p.m. | Fox

After years on the lam the TV series Prison Break is coming in from the cold.

The Fox series that ran from 2005-2009 will debut its fifth season with nine new episodes on April 4.

Created by Paul Scheuring and shot in Vancouver, the season picks up the story seven years later, with Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell) discovering, through a very juicy source, that his brother Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) is not dead but still very much smouldering, tattooed, and alive.

However, nothing is simple with these folks, and Michael isn’t living on a tropical island running a fishing camp — his existence has been erased. Through a cryptic message Lincoln, with help, figures out baby bro is locked up in a prison in Yemen. Yikes.

Lincoln does some sleuthing (spoiler alert: there’s a grave and a shovel involved) and takes what he learns to Michael’s former wife and mother of his child Dr. Sara Tancredi (Sarah Wayne Callies). And, you guessed it, things get real — again.

Dominic Purcell and Sarah Wayne Callies as Lincoln Burrows and Dr. Sara Tancredi in a scene from Prison Break’s fifth season. Photo: Ed Aqaquel.

Along with the brothers and the good doctor Tancredi, also back in the Prison Break lineup are fan favourites — the cellmate with a heart of gold, Fernando Sucre (Amaury Nolasco); newly enlightened Benjamin Miles “C-Note” (Rockmond Dunbar); and, of course, one of the best TV villains ever — Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell (Robert Knepper).

Robert Knepper is Theodore ‘T-Bag’ Bagwell on Prison Break.

Now the focus is getting Michael out of prison, and getting out of Yemen. 

“A lot of us as characters have tried to change, to become better people. Have tried to exhume elements of identity that we are uncomfortable with,” said Wayne Callies, who was born in Illinois, raised in Hawaii and has called B.C. home for 10 years.

“Part of the story of the fifth season is that there are certain things that are fundamental to who we are, and maybe they don’t change. Maybe who you are and who love don’t change.”

A hit series during it’s original run, it was no surprise that fans embraced the news of a return and flocked to online promos. A trailer on Facebook has close to 60 million views.

“I certainly didn’t expect it. By and large when shows are cancelled it is a permanent death. But the Prison Break fans have been an entirely unique breed. They are so passionate. They are so vocal. They are so involved,” said Wayne Callies over the phone from Texas where she was working on the military drama The Long Road Home.

Vancouver based actor Sarah Wayne Callies is back as Dr. Sara Tancredi for the new fifth season of Fox’s Prison Break.

It was those fans that put up a big fuss after Wayne Callies’ character was killed off at the end of the second season. In season four it was revealed that Lincoln had misidentified Tancredi’s body, and Wayne Callies was working again.

“I was hugely surprised. I was also completely ignorant about the whole thing I just had a baby. My life was diapers and nighttime feedings. I was off the grid. I more or less came to, and it had all happened. I am not sure why. I think if any of us knew preciously why Sara Tancredi or the show as a whole resonated so much with people then it would be replicated, and that kind of success would be enjoyed all over the place.”

BEGIN OPTIONAL CUT HERE

Prison Break isn’t Wayne Callies first experience of elevated and motivated fandom. She played Lori Grimes on AMC’s The Walking Dead.

“Any time a show hits and enjoys that kind of success you have to give thanks for the fairy dust and double down and work twice as hard to earn it,” said Wayne Callies, who is also a cast member of USA Network’s Colony.

END OPTIONAL CUT HERE

Working on Prison Break last year was a treat for Wayne Callies as she got to stay home with her family, something that hasn’t happened much in this busy actor’s career.

“It is actually ironic in this way of life. We bought our home in B.C. and I proceeded not to work in B.C. for, I think, six years,” said Wayne Callies.

“I worked in Saskatchewan. I worked in Ontario. I worked in Quebec. I worked in almost every other province in Canada but I didn’t work in B.C. for a number of years. The film industry there has kicked back up, and so I think I have done two or three projects there in the last couple of years.”

When she isn’t acting, Wayne Callies makes time for work with the International Rescue Committee. Most recently she was lending a hand in Dallas with refugees who arrived in the U.S. just days before President Trump’s travel ban took effect.

“I think there is a PR war being raged against refugees right now. They are being painted as uniformly Muslim, and then being painted as uniformly violent. To me it is a little like if you were going to take the Westboro Baptist Church and extrapolate that they reflect the beliefs and actions of all Christians.

BEGIN OPTIONAL CUT HERE

“Every refugee I have known — whether they are Buddhist, or Hindu or atheist or Christian or Muslims or Jews — every one of them is someone who has been the victim of violence and wants to live the rest of their lives in peace to a degree none of the rest of us can understand. So characterizing these populations as violent is libellous and slanderous, and is costing people their lives.”

END OPTIONAL CUT HERE

Wayne Callies says she wishes the media would expand its coverage of the refugee crisis and look to the good and successful stories. But in the meantime, she says she will continue to speak out and work on this issue.

“I’ve been doing this for 10 years I will be doing it for another 10,” said Wayne Callies.

“I feel refugees are being slandered and I am going to raise my voice on their behalf because they can’t. This is not a du jour issue for me. I am planting my stake in the ground, and my stake will be in this ground whatever happens.”

dgee@postmedia.com

twitter.com/dana_gee

Related

• Click here to read the latest Metro Vancouver arts news
• Looking for something to do? Click here to read our comprehensive event listings

CLICK HERE to report a typo.

Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.

NEW YORK — A museum is asking fans of Jim Henson’s Muppets to help pay for an exhibition featuring original puppets of beloved characters like Elmo, Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog.

The Museum of the Moving Image launched a Kickstarter campaign on Tuesday seeking $40,000 to help preserve the puppets for posterity.

“Jim Henson’s work has meant so much to so many people, myself included,” actor Neil Patrick Harris says in a video on the Kickstarter page. “His humour and inventiveness have inspired people to find their own creative voices.”

The Queens museum owns hundreds of Henson puppets and other objects including costumes and props, all donated by Henson’s family in 2013. Henson died in 1990.

Museum staff members are working to conserve the items along with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, which was founded by Henson in 1979 and carries on his work, and fine-arts conservators.

Curator Barbara Miller said the museum has never turned to crowdfunding before but it made sense for the Muppet exhibit “because the community of fans is so active.”

“This is one element of an effort to cross the finish line for fundraising,” Miller said.

Donors will get perks including T-shirts, artisanal chocolate and naming rights to a puppet pedestal.

Museum officials are hoping to open the exhibit this summer.

Besides the puppets, the exhibit will feature rarely seen video footage and photographs going back to Henson’s early work in television in the 1950s.

A travelling exhibition using objects from the collection will open May 20 at Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture.

NEW YORK — Erin Moran, the former child star who played Joanie Cunningham in the sitcoms Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi, died Saturday at age 56.

A statement from the sheriff’s department in Harrison County, Indiana, said the dispatcher “received a 911 call about an unresponsive female. Upon arrival of first responders, it was determined that Erin Moran Fleischmann was deceased. An autopsy is pending.”

The dispatcher confirmed to The Associated Press that the woman was the actress, who had been married to Steven Fleischmann.

Erin Moran of the TV show Happy Days in a 1982 photo. She never recaptured the success of the hit series.

“Such sad sad news. RIP Erin,” Happy Days star Ron Howard tweeted Saturday. “I’ll always choose to remember you on our show making scenes better, getting laughs and lighting up TV screens.”

A Burbank, California, native, Moran began acting in TV and movies before she was 10 years old. She had several years of experience when she was cast in 1974 in Happy Days as Joanie Cunningham, the kid sister to high school student Richie Cunningham, played by Howard. Other cast members included Tom Bosley and Marion Ross as Joanie’s parents and Henry Winkler as the lovable tough guy Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli.

“What happened with all of us was like we were this family,” she told Xfinity in 2009. “It was so surreal with all the cast members. … They were my family, get it?”

Debuting at a time of nostalgia for the seemingly innocent 1950s, the sitcom was set in Milwaukee and became a long-running hit. Howard and Winkler were the show’s biggest stars, but the smiling, freckle-faced Moran also became popular.

In 1982, she was paired off with fellow Happy Days performer Scott Baio in the short-lived Joanie Loves Chachi. Moran returned to Happy Days in 1984, the show’s final season.

“I would love to do a feature (film), I’d love to do a play,” she told CNN in 1981 when asked what she’d like to do after Happy Days.

Her more recent credits included The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote, but she never approached the success of Happy Days and was more often in the news for her numerous personal and financial struggles and was reportedly homeless at times.

In 2011, she and Ross and former Happy Days actors Anson Williams and Donnie Most sued CBS, saying they were owed money for merchandising related to the show. The lawsuit was settled the following year.

Moran told Xfinity that she had been working on a memoir, called Happy Days, Depressing Nights.

“OH Erin… now you will finally have the peace you wanted so badly here on earth,” Winkler tweeted Saturday. “Rest In It serenely now.. too soon.”

Coronation Street: Peter Barlow — Prodigal Son Tour

Molson Canadian Theatre at Hard Rock Casino

Friday, May 5 | 8 p.m.

Tickets: $69.50, $39.50, $29.50 (plus service charges) | HardRockCasinoVancouver.com

When Peter Barlow swung back onto Coronation Street last fall, viewers knew they’d be in for a new roller-coaster ride with the cobbles’ charming but feckless underachiever. Back from Portsmouth with lots of unanswered questions and much evasiveness, the character’s reappearance was a signal of an expanded Barlow storyline, thanks to new show runner Kate Oates.

Chris Gascoyne, who portrays Barlow, admits without leaking any spoilers that producer Oates has some big plans for the Barlows. Gascoyne says Oates knew what she could do if they brought back the younger Barlow boys, Adam and Daniel.

“If you have history, then you have conflict. That’s exactly what she’s done. It’s always the best thing if you have characters who have a conflicted history there. There’s always drama straight away,” Gascoyne says. “She’s very smart on that. I think she wanted to make the Barlows the centre of the show, a kind of dynasty, which she’s working towards.”

Oates was instrumental in drawing Gascoyne back to the show after leaving in 2014. Peter Barlow’s move down south clearly left the door open for him to return.

“She’s very good, Kate Oates. I met her. We had a chat. She’s a very bright producer, and she’s very hands-on on everything. She’s very open and approachable. I thought if I’m going to go back, I thought this would be the person to do it with,” he says.

Gascoyne did return briefly in 2015 for Peter to attend the funeral of his stepmother Deirdre after Anne Kirkbride, the actress who portrayed her, died. Understandably, it was an emotional time for all cast members, many of whom had worked with Kirkbride for decades.

“I was doing a play at the time and they asked if I’d come back and do a couple of days. I said yes right away because I thought it was right for the show and then also for me to kind of realize that Annie is not there anymore.”

He admits filming the funeral was difficult for the cast but says they talked about Kirkbride throughout the day and had a lot of laughs, so that if became a “healing process in a way.”

All of which made it easier to return to the street when he came back full time, but there was still a period of adjustment.

“The strange thing was that everybody else who works there had got used to Annie not being there, but when I went back it was only the second time since she died for me to be in that building, on those sets,” he says. “So it took a little bit of time for me to come to terms that she still wasn’t there.”

Actress Anne Kirkbride, pictured in 2014, played Deirdre Barlow on Coronation Street. Kirkbride’s death in January 2015 at age 60 brought back her character’s stepson, played by Chris Gascoyne, for a short period of time. Gascoyne has since returned to the venerable series full-time.

Back on the show for about six months now, Peter Barlow’s storyline is heating up. Even being behind the U.K. broadcast schedule, Canadian viewers can already see him heading for disaster once again, despite his best efforts at reform.

“I don’t think he’s, from my point of view, a bad man. He just gets things very wrong most of the time,” Gascoyne says, chuckling at his character’s misfortune. “It’s bad decisions. I think at the moment (referring to CBC’s schedule at the time of the interview) he’s in a lot of trouble but he’s not actually done anything wrong. He’s tried in a sense to do all the right things, and even when he tries to do the right things it tends to go wrong for him.”

None of the Barlows are immune to life’s vagaries in the upcoming story arc. Even Tracy, Peter’s somewhat psycho sister who has avoided consequences for her outrageous behaviour, will face some unexpected challenges.

“There’s an incident that happens with Ken, and things change for all of us,” Gascoyne hints.

He adds the storyline involves all the family members at different times and that none of the actors know the outcome despite the scenes they have filmed.

The ramped-up storylines for various characters and families is the strategy for adapting to the additional day on Corrie’s broadcast schedule. Going from five to six days, which happens sometime in June in the U.K., will have a big impact on production.

“So many things that have to go in place for that. The area around Coronation Street will be bigger. They’re building a park, I think. They’re also building some more streets that obviously we never see but these will be a part of the set. We’ll see these on a regular basis because of course the street’s expanding. We need more places to film because we can’t all film on the street, so the whole show because of this one episode (per week) is expanding massively.”

Chris Gascoyne is back playing the charming, but irresponsible, Peter Barlow on Coronation Street after a one-year absence.

Gascoyne is unsure whether there will be many more new characters as there are already 70 characters on the street. With that size of cast, he says there’s a character who can appeal to everyone. He references Coronation Street creator Tony Warren, who once said, “If you don’t like someone at No. 1, you’ll like someone at No. 2, you’ll like someone at No. 3.”

The cast, unlike many of the characters, are a really good group, says Gascoyne. Working 12-hour days, five days a week means a lot of time together, and he says they can’t take themselves that seriously.

“To be honest, most of the cast, 99 per cent of them, are just fantastic, down-to-earth normal people and very funny. All of them, in fact, are very funny,” he says.

And Kate Ford, who plays his snarky sister Tracy, fits that description perfectly.

“Kate, of all of the people, is possibly the furthest away from anything that Tracy is like. She’s not at all like the character she plays,” Gascoyne says. “Kate doesn’t have a bad bone in her body.”

When Gascoyne’s Canadian Corrie chat tour lands in the west, it will be his second trip to Canada. The first one in the Maritimes was a remarkable experience, and he was surprised by the responsiveness of the audiences and how much they love the show.

“When I walked on that stage, I was really nervous. I thought, ‘How was I going to sustain this for two hours, talking about what I’d done as an actor and then Coronation Street?’ We just went along and it seemed like 10 minutes because of the audiences’ enthusiasm for that show.

“All the Coronation Street actors who have been (on Canadian tour) say there’s nowhere like that,” he adds. “The best fans are in Canada and I’m not just saying that because I’m coming to Canada. Everybody who has done the Canadian tour or been to Canada will tell you that.”

Related

• Vancouver Sun television coverage

CLICK HERE to report a typo.

Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.

With all the parallel worlds and dimensions in The CW’s live-action series The Flash, almost no one in the cast has just one role. Tom Cavanagh knows this well. His character, Dr. Harrison Wells, has had five variations over three seasons. He also plays the ultra-villain, Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash. By comparison, the Ottawa-born-and-raised actor only had to do one role for his Golden Globe-nominated turn in the NBC series Ed.

Perhaps that is why he decided to add directing into the mix, helming the Once and Future Flash episode written by Carina Adly MacKenzie that aired on April 25. It shows the Flash heading into the future to try to inspire his team following a major tragedy.

“There is something very much of a bucket-list item being answered here with directing and I’m so happy that I had the opportunity to do it for a show like this,” said Cavanagh. “It’s a very different thing to do, as you not only have to work with Grant Gustin (who plays the Flash) and the rest of the cast as actors, but you need to always be considering what is done by the exceptional effects teams, too. For instance, a fight scene between Grant and myself as Reverse-Flash might include us working out choreography of throwing punches, but also have us running around walls taking swings at the air so that these seven beats in a 25-beat sequence can be put in digitally.”

Cavanagh admits that it has been exciting learning about the processes that go into making such shot-in-Vancouver, hit-franchise titles as The Flash, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow. An actor whose career really kicked-off with a series of big Broadway musicals such as Shenandoah, A Chorus Line, Urinetown and Grease, he says that these programs arrived at a tipping point for superheroes. When he signed-on, the CW was known for a completely different kind of “tweenie dramas.” Today, it’s home to some top-rated, adult-oriented programs.

“Superhero films were taking off at the theatre when we started and, at the same time, the budgets and the sophistication of digital effects enabled what was needed for the programs to work,” he said. “You can’t do The Flash without speed sequences that look good enough for you to suspend your disbelief and, to be honest, some of the previous attempts to make that work fell too far short of that goal. What you see as a result is that our show is getting the kind of numbers that the big-boy network hits are and we are a speedboat not an ocean liner.”

As to how deeply ingrained the whole comic-book world was to the actor before his arrival on The Flash, Cavanagh notes he was never into TV growing up. But pulling out a comic book was always an entertainment option. The “boy suffers loss and grows up to avenge loss”  storylines contained enduring universality. He figures that this has a lot to do with why Hollywood is quite happy to bank on the Marvel and DC Comics properties.

“There have been successes in the past with these already established superhero stories: Superman works, Batman works, The Flash works and they have nearly a century of those stories being around,” he said. “But now, you can bank-on that idea with really incredible effects, which means there is also the opportunity to really develop the character drama as well. Plus, when you get into that Reverse-Flash suit it is something kind of awesome going on.”

While the DC Comics film franchises haven’t exactly taken off — Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice bombed — the TV side of the picture looks good to go for quite some time. Perhaps coming Wonder Woman and Justice League movies will be able to tackle behemoths such as Thor: Ragnarok or Avengers: Infinity War. Either way, The Flash speeds into the future and Cavanagh hopes to get more opportunities to direct.

“The day after The Flash wraps, Grant Gustin and I am starting on a short film that I wrote and directed where we play the world’s two worst bank robbers,” he said. “We are shooting here in Vancouver with a local crew and it should be lots of fun. As for the Flash, it’s going to be impossible to kill and the CW knows what to do with this stuff and set-up the teams to take-up the reins and make all of it happen.”

A New York resident for the past 20 years, Cavanagh says that working in Vancouver is always a pleasure. He cites the incredibly talented and professional community in the city as “being as good as they get.” Better yet, he says that it’s possible to take a big-budget show like The Flash and handle all of its demands locally, resulting in a product that really shines onscreen. 

The Flash returns for another season this fall.

sderdeyn@postmedia.com

twitter.com/stuartderdeyn

CLICK HERE to report a typo.

Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.

Best.Cover.Ever is a new, exclusively YouTube-based talent competition developed with Ryan Seacrest Productions and Endemol Shine North America. Fans get the chance to enter in their best-video cover version of a song by Demi Lovato, the Backstreet Boys and Jason Derulo and others in any style or genre they choose and then compete for prizes and a chance to record with one of these stars. 

Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist Ludacris is the official host of the broadcast, where hopefuls can chase their dreams of stardom.

Canada is figuring big-time in the mix for the firm as the country has been one of the most successful at taking performers from bedroom-posting to arena-packing. Examples of Canadians rapidly rising to fame fuelled by YouTube exposure include Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepsen and recent breakout artist Alessia Cara, who began her own YouTube channel at age 13.

YouTube head office reports that two Canadian songs are in the top-10, most-covered songs on the site. Bieber’s Love Yourself is ranked No. 2 and the late Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah is at No 4. The song is also the most-covered song to be recorded before 2010, and they still awarded Bob Dylan the Nobel Prize.

Nicole Bell, head of public affairs at Google/YouTube Canada, discussed the program in more detail:

Postmedia News: What is it with posting cover versions that has become such a huge part of the YouTube experience?

Nicole Bell: “It’s so crazy that YouTube has become the home for cover songs and there are some incredibly Canadian examples of where that can take you. Justin Bieber got his start with his mother posting videos of him performing covers by artists such as Sarah McLachlan. Alessia Cara was discovered by management on YouTube. It’s a phenomenon.”

Q: It’s a phenomenon that shows no sign of slowing down either, does it?

A: Exactly, look at Winnipeg’s Maria Aragon who did a cover version of Born This Way by Lady Gaga, and Lady Gaga was so impressed that she commented on it. Then she flew Maria all the way to Toronto to perform the song with her live on stage. There are so many magical stories like this.

Q: Is there something particularly Canadian about the cover-songs-to-riches story?

A: “This is a massive cultural phenomenon and, obviously, generates millions upon millions of hits all over the world. While I don’t think there is something different about that here, Canadians certainly do seem to have a knack for success.”

Q: If you could have posted cover versions when you were young would you have done it?

A: “I think back to myself as a kid singing into my hairbrush in front of the mirror and it was such a part of fandom to do that. Now we do that in this incredibly social way, and to be part of that community of people that do that sharing of your cover version with others. I’m particularly fond of when completely different directions are taken such as when Walk Off the Earth did its hit cover of Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know and had a huge viral hit with it. 

Q: So Best.Cover.Ever is encouraging people to upload songs chosen from the participating artist’s catalogues and then having them judge their favourites, correct?

A: “Exactly, and if you are selected the best by, say Demi Lovato, then you will get flown to L.A. to record a duet with Demi that will go up online. We are looking to the back half of 2017 for the actual broadcast, but people can start uploading versions soon. Just go to the site and you can get the details, as Ryan Seacrest Productions is obviously expecting a huge volume of submissions and will be needing time to edit them into the program, as well as make some fun mash-up videos and such.”

So there may be hope for that country version of Backstreet’s Back after all. Bell notes that YouTube has become something of a replacement for artists and repertoire at labels, as so many acts are discovered through the site. Who knows, perhaps you could be next?

sderdeyn@postmedia.com

twitter.com/stuartderdeyn

CLICK HERE to report a typo.

Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.

Raymond Burr, the New Westminster-born star of TV’s Perry Mason and Ironside, is being posthumously honoured by his hometown on what would have been his 100th birthday.

The Raymond Burr Performing Arts Society, Douglas College Foundation and Burr 100 committee have established a legacy endowment to provide funding to theatre arts students at Douglas College for generations to come honouring the talent and inspiration of the past with our own local celebrity, Raymond Burr.  

Burr, who died of cancer in 1993 at the age of 76, was born on May 21, 1917 and would have turned 100 on Sunday.

Related

• This Week In History: Raymond Burr dies of cancer in 1993

RBPAS has committed $5,000 to the endowment and is seeking community support to raise $25,000 to endow Douglas College’s annual Raymond Burr Performing Arts Society 2nd Year Entrance Award Of Distinction. Donations can be made online.

“I soundly applaud your concerted efforts on behalf of Raymond’s 100th birthday. Your connection with Douglas College is exactly what Raymond would have done were he still with us,” said Robert Benevides, Burr’s longtime partner and honourary chair of the Burr 100 Committee.  

HERE ARE FIVE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT RAYMOND BURR

He was B.C.’s first TV star

Burr was a busy motion picture character actor in the late 1940s and early 50s, but it was on the small screen that he achieved stardom as super attorney Perry Mason. The original Perry Mason series ran for nine seasons and 271 episodes on CBS. Burr won two Emmy Awards (1959 and 1961) for best actor in a leading role. Burr reprised the role for the 1973 revival series The New Perry Mason and starred in 26 Perry Mason Returns TV movies (1985-1993) for NBC. In April, Burr was named an honorary member of the New Westminster Bar Association.

He was an entrepreneur

Burr and partner Robert Benevides owned an orchid and coconut plantation in the Fiji Islands and vineyard on a 40-acre ranch in the Dry Creek Valley of California. Burr and Benevides hybridized an estimated 1,500 varieties of orchids, including one named for actress Barbara Hale, who played secretary Della Street on Perry Mason. Burr, who was briefly married to actress Isabella Ward in 1952, met Benevides, a young actor, on the set of Perry Mason in 1960. They remained a couple until Burr’s death. 

Raymond Burr in Rear Window.

Villains and monsters

Before his career-defining role as Perry Mason, Raymond Burr was best known as the villain in the 1964 Alfred Hitchcock classic Rear Window opposite Hollywood legends Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly. He also played American reporter Steve Martin in 1956’s Godzilla, King of Monsters. All of Burr’s scenes were edited into the original Japanese version of Godzilla.  Burr appeared in more than 90 feature films.

Raymond Burr is buried in New Westminster’s Fraser Cemetery.

Buried in New West

Raymond William Stacy Burr moved to Vallejo, Calif. at age six with his mother after his parents divorced. Despite only living B.C. for a few years, Burr retained a love of the Royal City, making one final trip to be buried in the family plot at Fraser Cemetery.

An actor until the end

Although he battled cancer for the final three years of his life, Burr continued working and starring in his Perry Mason TV movies. Left frail from the disease, Burr would show up on set at 4 a.m. in a wheelchair and scenes would be re-written to allow the actor to perform sitting down.

sbrown@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/Browniescott

With files from Brian Morton, the San Francisco Examiner and The Australian

Where do the stars nosh while filming in Vancouver?

Where do movie crews throw back drinks at the end of a long day/night of shooting?

Hollywood types dished out their favourite local hangouts in a recent issue of the Hollywood Reporter.

In the story, Where to Eat, Sleep, Drink in Vancouver: An Insider’s Guide to Hollywood North, actress Constance Zimmer, of Entourage and House of Cards fame, told the entertainment industry magazine that when filming in Vancouver she is partial to dining at popular downtown brunch place Cafe Medina and West End hole-in-the-wall Legendary Noodle. 

When in Vancouver, actress Constance Zimmer brunches at Cafe Medina.

“Legendary Noodles is one of these places with 10 tables. They hand-pull the noodles right in front of you,” Zimmer said.

Other eateries to get the Hollywood North stamp of approval include Rodney’s Oyster House, Tavola, Nook, Market in Shangri-la, and Joe Fortes.

“Joe Fortes off of Robson Place is a legendary seafood place. I sit at the bar with my iPad and learn my lines, and someone will inevitably come up to me and start chatting,” said veteran character actor Spencer Garrett.

For drinks, Stacy Rukeyser, executive producer on unReal, heads to Gastown.

“The new place for us is the Alexander in Gastown. It’s actually owned by Terry Chen, one of our actors,” Rukeyser said.

Uva wine bar and the Keefer Bar in Chinatown are also favourites of the Hollywood North crowd.

The hotels of choice among film industry insiders include Shangri-La, The Loden, Opus and, of course, the Sutton Place, which has been a favourite haunt of the film industry for decades.

In an accompanying Hollywood Reporter story, The Life and Death of Vancouver’s Hollywood-Powered “Slutton” Party Scene, reporter David Walters details the transformation of the Burrard Street hotel from a party palace — when it earned the nickname “Slutton Place” — to a dealmakers hangout.

“In the mid-’90s to the early 2000s, it was very rocking, a lot of drinking at the bar,” said Garrett, who, according to the story, has filmed in Vancouver 20 times in the last 15 years.. “I think the days of the Slutton are bygone. The new owners were likely not wild about that nickname, which is probably why the hookers were exiled.”

His recollections of debauchery at the Sutton are confirmed in the story by a Sutton Place staffer.

“Back in the day, if you couldn’t find a date, you could pay for one,” Ryan the bartender told Walters. “This place really misses the hookers.”

No prostitutes, but you will a find a decent happy hour there with $5 craft beer and $2 oysters. So that’s good.

The Sutton Place was renovated in 2014 with the addition of the Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar, which earned a thumbs up from Vancouver Sun restaurant critic Mia Stainsby.

sbrown@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/Browniescott

Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and B.C. Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon attended a Canadian Club luncheon.

VISIONS WE HAVE FOUND: Beverley McLachlin’s judicial career has led her from the Vancouver County Court to chief justice of the B.C. Supreme Court to, in 2000, the Supreme Court of Canada. At the Terminal City Club this week, soon-to-be-published novelist McLachlan attended the 20th annual luncheon of the Canadian Club of Vancouver whose president Raymond Greenwood’s nickname is Mister Fireworks. Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon, who attended, likely anticipated pyrotechnics herself when dealing with that day’s unveiling of the NDP-Green party pact. Meanwhile MC Peter Legge paid tribute to the late Order of Canada and Order of B.C. member Grace McCarthy. Vancouver Symphony Orchestra music director then played Amazing Grace variations on the club’s piano. Historic coincidence played, too, when McCarthy, who resurrected B.C.’s Social Credit Party after its 1972 electoral defeat by the NDP, was memorialized on the same day that the Socred-succeeding Liberals looked about to be toppled. Honorees then saw soprano Catherine Campolin lead the Henry Hudson Elementary intermediate choir through English and French renditions of O Canada and This Is My Home. Perhaps that home will eventually witness one of the youngsters installed on its top bench or even as prime minister.

Mission Hill Family Estate Winery owner Anthony von Mandl, escorted mother Bedriska, 101, to an event for other OC and OBC members.

BELL RINGING 101: Mission Hill Family Estate Winery owner Anthony von Mandl brought an extra-special vintage to the Canadian Club event. That was his 101-year-old mother, Bedriska Mandl-Schlesinger, who weighs less than one sixth the 277 kg of the bell named for her at the West Bank winery. Its cast-in dedication: “Purpose Courage Preservation Discernment Dignity Progession.”

Martin Creed’s neon sculpture backed artist Ian Wallace when his multi-decade exhibition opened at the Wing San Building’s Rennie Museum.

NO-J3RK5: Order of Canada member Ian Wallace’s exhibition of photographic-conceptual works filled the Rennie Museum recently. Some hadn’t been seen publicly since 1988. An eight-panel series titled Poverty1982 greeted opening-day arrivees who, with drinks plentiful, might have welcomed a reprise performance by Wallace and famous fellow artists Jeff Wall and Rodney Graham’s 1979 band, UJ3RK5. No such luck, although the three and 19 others are participating in the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Pictures From Here exhibition to Sept. 4. As for Wallace’s personal archives, they, like a recent $12-million donation from Rennie’s collection, will go the National Gallery of Canada. “That will make it absolutely the place of reference for Ian’s career,” Rennie said.

Rescue dog Cooper accompanied furniture designer-maker Kate Duncan when she launched her Address show for Pacific Northwest designers.

ADDRESS KNOWN: Many were surprised while jam-packing the Main-off-National Ellis Building for the opening of furniture designer-manufacturer Kate Duncan’s Address show. It wasn’t just that the event doubled last year’s B.C.-only exhibitors to 39 with newcomers from Alberta, Washington and Oregon. Rather it was part-time detention-centre teacher Duncan saying “the man of my dreams” was snoozing upstairs. Turns out it was golden retriever Cooper, a six-year-old rescue dog whose laid-back mien and slowly sweeping tail complemented the ever-exuberant Duncan. Her annual display of talented and often younger designers is bound to grow.

Architect David Yustin and Fabulous Furnishings owner Celina Dalrymple launched the Liveable Luxury furniture line at the Address show.

SEATMATES: David Yustin, the Zacharko Yustin Architects partner who first graduated in interior design, often has clients add his self-created furniture to high-end homes they commission. Fabulous Furnishings principal Celina Dalrymple once dedicated an armchair to Lady Gaga. Their firms now conspire on the Liveable Luxury line that the two debuted at the Address show with a $19,000 velvet sectional. Sofas run from $7,000 to $11,000, Dalrymple said.

EYE-OPENER: When city ophthalmologist John Richards, 82, conducted the first of 5,000 eye operations, “patients would be in hospital for at least six days.” Undergoing cataract surgery himself recently, “I went in at 7 a.m. and was out at 8:20,” he whistled.

Top Drop co-organizer Kurtis Kolt welcomed Antoine Clasen who brought his wines from Luxembourg to the annual terroir-focused tasting.

MULTO BENELUX: Kurtis Kolt and Jeff Curry enjoy offering something different when their Top Drop tasting features 200 terroir-focused wines and fewer beers and ciders from generally smaller domestic and global operations. They sure did this year when the Caves Bernard Massard concern’s Antoine Clasen poured five wines from rarely heard-from Luxembourg. After neighbouring Belgium, Quebec is the firm’s top client, he said.

Rogers Communications’ Philip Lind greeted artist Paul Wong at a reception for the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Pictures From Here exhibition.

BEAR WITH US: Rogers Communications vice chairman Philip Lind and president/CEO Joe Natale had guests meet Ian Wallace and other contributing artists for drinks before viewing the VAG’s Pictures From Here exhibition their firm sponsored. TV-series producers wishing to have Rogers view their pictures included city-based Omnifilm Entertainment’s Michael Chechik and Gabriela Schonbach. Their Smithers-shooting Wild Bear Rescue sees former German zookeeper Angelika Langen and family operate the world’s reportedly sole legal rehab centre for orphaned grizzly-bear cubs.

A Jason Matlo gown and Tiffany pendant hardly hid Annabelle Hawksworth’s 2007 pregnancy from husband and restaurateur-to-be David.

TEN YEARS AGO: David Hawksworth’s self-named restaurant was four years in the future and his Nightingale nine when another project preoccupied him. That was the unhurried appearance of wife Annabelle’s first baby. Referring to Vij’s restaurant, Hawksworth said: “We’re going to Vikram’s tomorrow for a curry. That should fix it.” It didn’t. Still, Heston John Hawksworth arrived a week later, possibly drawn by the prospect of papa’s slow-cooked squab with caramelized onion and bacon tarte fine.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: To perceive his accommodation with the NDP more clearly, Andrew Weaver could put on Green Fade eyewear.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456

Star watchers may catch a glimpse of Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas in Vancouver this month as the Hollywood power couple are reportedly living in a Yaletown luxury condo while Zeta-Jones films the Lifetime biopic Cocaine Godmother.

Based on the life of Miami drug queenpin Griselda Blanco, Cocaine Godmother started filming on Monday and is scheduled to wrap on June 30. It will air on Lifetime sometime in 2018.

Inspired casting: Catherine Zeta-Jones will play drug lord Griselda Blanco.

Meanwhile, some of Zeta-Jones’s neighbours in the Drake Street strata building where she’s staying are a little miffed with the star’s daily workout schedule. A tipster tells us the Oscar winner posts two guards/assistants outside the condo’s common exercise room to keep other tenants away while she works out in privacy.

Chow Yun Fat

• Hong Kong action legend Chow Yun-Fat (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) is expected to be in Vancouver next month to shoot the Chinese-language gangster movie Project Gutenberg. Felix Chong, who penned Internal Affairs, which Martin Scorsese remade into The Departed, is directing. Aaron Kwok, another Hong Kong superstar, plays a gang member recruited by police to catch a counterfeiting mastermind played by Yun-Fat. The movie, which has already started filming in Asia, is scheduled to shoot in Vancouver under the production name “One of a Kind” from July 13-31.

• Academy Award winning director Robert Zemeckis will be in Vancouver this summer to film a big budget feature starring Steve Carell, Leslie Mann and Janelle Monae. The film, currently carrying the clever working title of “Untitled Robert Zemeckis Project,”is based on the 2010 documentary Marwencol which explored the life of photographer Mark Hogancamp, who sought recovery from a brutal attack by building a 1/6th scale Second World War-era Belgian town in his backyard. Zemeckis, whose credits include the Back to the Future franchise, Forest Gump, Romancing the Stone and Flight, will begin shooting Aug. 14.

Mercurial actor/director Mel Gibson will be in Vancouver this summer.

• Former Hollywood pariah Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn will team together to star in the crime thriller Dragged Across Concrete for Lionsgate Films. The film is written and directed by S. Craig Zahler, who helmed the very grisly but highly entertaining Kurt Russell western Bone Tomahawk, and will be start shooting in Vancouver on July 17.

sbrown@postmedia.com

Wayne Gretzky wines were served when CTV anchor Mike Killeen attended and Global rival Sophie Lui was MC at the Rick Hansen event.

MOTION MAINTAINED: Thirty years after his Man in Motion wheelchair journey around the world, Rick Hansen took the elevator to a Rick Hansen Foundation fundraiser in the Hotel Georgia ballroom. Other than still using a chair, the decades appear to have been good for Hansen. Ditto for wife Amanda, who was called in when Rick needed a physiotherapist for 1984-Olympics-trials hurts. “Make her a pretty one,” he cracked prophetically. Called again three days into his world tour, Amanda stayed on. Today, she recalls a two-week break in New Zealand “when Rick’s system began to break down and he had to start moving again.”

Along his multi-nation way, Rick was heartened when many folk likened him to Terry Fox and to “what he did for the country and disabled persons. He epitomized the spirit of most Canadians.” Another Canadian exemplar was represented at the Hansen reception in the form of Wayne Gretzky Estate Winery products, although none from the ’99 vintage.

Kenneth’s father Henry Lee played a $50,000 Fender guitar at the old Tom Lee Music locale in 2006 before leaving for Hong Kong head office.

During a reception at Tom Lee Music’s Granville Street store, busker-like Kenneth Lee strummed a $10,000 National Reso-Phonic Dobro.

PRESTISSIMO: That was the cue last December when the Tom Lee Music company began demolishing premises for its relocation two blocks north on Granville Street. When VP-director Graham Blank hosted an opening reception there recently, Kenneth Lee, 28, re-enacted father and then-company president Henry’s 2006 photograph as a Granville Street busker. But instead of papa’s $50,000 Fender “Harley Davidson” guitar, he chose an acoustic $9,999.99 National Reso-Phonic dobro. Career-wise, they’re on the same page, though. In July, Kenneth will join the global Tom Lee Group in Hong Kong where Henry is chief financial officer.

At relocated Tom Lee Music, Jane Coop saw a $600,000 Steinway she may play to launch her cross-Canada, New York and London recital tour.

STEINWAY OR THE HIGHWAY: It will be both for city pianist Jane Coop this fall when she begins a Victoria-to-Halifax tour of 13 cities, with New York and London to follow. She’ll rehearse the Beethoven-Rachmaninoff repertoire at home, relishing her personal Steinway 7B instrument’s “warm and expansive sound.” For the tour’s Vancouver recital, though, she may play the $600,000, nine-foot Steinway Model D named Kuniisii for the supernatural figure that Haida artist Jay Simeon applied with its ground-argillite acrylic finish.

NEVER LOST IT: When a 1961 Vancouver park board byelection prompted her political debut, Canadian Florist of The Year Grace McCarthy reflected: “I guess I felt a little obligated to give something back. It sounds a bit mundane, I know, to say I thought I owed it to the community, but I still have that strong sense of responsibility.”

Consul General Massimiliano Iacchini congratulated Luigi Aquilini and Lucio Sacchetti on Italy conferring different knightly honours on them.

THAT’S AMORE: Attending National Day celebrations at the Italian Cultural Centre, Consul General Massimiliano Iacchini conferred his government’s Commendatore status on CMC Engineering Group president-CEO Lucio Sacchetti. In Rome, meanwhile, President Sergio Mattarella had honoured Aquilini Group founder Luigi Aquilini and 24 other industrialists as Cavalieri del Lavoro, meaning Workers Knights. Formalities over, celebrants looked forward to Sunday, June 11, when they’ll join artists, merchants, restaurateurs and others packing 14 blocks of traffic-closed Commercial Drive for the Amore-themed Italian Day on The Drive festival.

At the Leo Awards, Michael Eklund, here with Eadweard co-star Sara Canning, won no prize but raised the bar on topknot-and-beard styling.

ON TOP: Leo Awards Founder Walter Daroshin was thrilled when the 19th annual running named winners from 1,295 entries by B.C. films, TV productions and performers during three Hotel Vancouver events.  Hello Destroyer was named best motion picture, and its Jared Abrahamson was named best male actor. The Hollow Child’s Jessica McLeod was best female actor. Oddly, veteran actor Ben Ratner was overlooked when his remarkable depiction of a punch-drunk boxer in Ganjy was, like the short film itself, not nominated. Any transformative-appearance award would likely have gone to 2015 Eadweard star Michael Eklund whose bleached-blond mohawk, shaved dark sides and two-tone beard may make auditions challenging. Then again, wacky dos haven’t harmed certain living or dead dictators or today’s US president.

Director Alex Law and producer Mabel Cheung screened Echoes of the Rainbow to launch the Cinematheque’s post-1997 Hong Kong series.

DIFFERING VISIONS: It was 1992 when the then-colony of Hong Kong’s final governor, Chris Patten, cheered Vancouver listeners by mentioning a “bridge fabricated across the ocean from this great and civilized land to a rock in the South China Sea.” That rock became China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 1997, and the bridge still stands. Contemporary filmmakers crossed it recently with the eight-production Creative Visions program screening at the Cinematheque to June 23. It opened with writer-director Alex Law and producer Mabel Cheung’s Echoes of the Rainbow, wherein a boy dies of leukemia amid 1960s Hong Kong’s inequalities and corruption.

Former U.S. consul general Lewis Lukens, here with wife Lucy, countered Donald Trump’s post-terror rudeness to London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

WITH HONOUR: Former city-based U.S. consul general Lewis Lukens was minding the fan in London recently when President Donald Trump flung something that way. Following a multi-death terrorist attack in the British capital, Trump, a.k.a. Tweeter the Great, called Muslim mayor Sadiq Khan’s appeal for calm “a pathetic excuse.” With Washington’s London embassy having no ambassador since Jan. 18, chargé d’affaires Lukens took the dignified and daring step of praising Khan’s leadership while expressing U.S. sympathy and solidarity. Current Vancouver consul general Lynne Platt likely will be equally gracious at her approaching Fourth of July reception.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Anyone recall a third-party review for Glen Clark’s fast ferries fiasco?

malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456

Jillian Harris is no stranger to reality television.

As a former star of both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, and a longtime co-host of the home renovation show Love it or List it, the 37-year-old has spent her fair share of time in front of the camera. 

So, when she and her partner Justin Passuto began seriously tossing around the idea of growing their own family — yes, before marriage, much to the chagrin of some of their fans although the couple has since gotten engaged — and building or buying a new home in order to accommodate their growing gang (the pair already shared a fur baby by way of their dog, a boxer named Nacho), a TV show documenting their new home seemed like a no-brainer. 

That is, until the cameras started to roll. 

Justin Passuto, Jillian Harris and their son Leo are featured in the new television show Jillian & Justin.

“After the cameras spent a couple of days with us, the network came back and said there’s a lot of good stuff here, but we don’t want to do this show with you anymore. We’d rather do a documentary,” recalls with a laugh. “So, Justin and I said, ‘OK.'”

As it turns out, the house wasn’t destined to be the star of the show after all. Rather than document the trials and tribulations of a home renovation (although the demolition drama is alluded to several times during the docu-series’ first episode) the cameras would capture Passuto and Harris’ relationship — what they don’t already share with their combined 700,000-plus Instagram followers, of course. 

The four-part series, aptly titled Justin & Jillian was the result. Through the show, the pair says they hope the cameras shine a more realistic light onto the seemingly perfect lives they share through their social-media feeds. 

“I think the show is going to show exactly that — that we’re not living in a picture-perfect world,” Passuto says. “We have issues, just like everybody else. There are hurdles that we need to overcome and real-life decisions to make. Jill and I are really good about keeping it as light as we possibly can, but we also crank up the serious knob when we need to.”  

Passuto says their fans can expect to get a real, behind-the-scenes glimpse at what goes on beyond the perfectly polished photos of luxury kitchens, spotless style and smiling faces in picturesque locales they’re used to seeing on their carefully groomed social accounts. 

“It’s a whole strategy and a business, in a sense,” Passuto says of their edited online personas. “For us, (the show) was an awesome opportunity to show the chaos behind the scenes. It’s like, hurry up, rush, fight, cry and scream, and then, all of a sudden, it’s rainbows. There’s the photo.

“People will get to see the chaotic circus that Jill and I live day to day,” he says with a laugh. 

But the show won’t be all drama. The pair promises there will be a few good laughs, too (some intentional and others not). During a joint telephone interview, the pair’s lighthearted jesting and provocations allude to the playful relationship dynamic that will prove to be fodder for the on-air fun.  

“I didn’t know how it was going to be to be on camera, and I was a little worried about it,” Passuto admits of his first few attempts in front of the lens. 

“He didn’t really know what he was getting into,” Harris interjects. 

“I don’t think I’m very funny, so I just kept telling myself, don’t try to be funny,” he says. “Because, when you try to be funny and you don’t end up being funny, you just end up looking really, really …”

“Stupid,” Harris supplies with a laugh. 

“For me, it was about the rush and the adventure. It was a new experience and I didn’t want to shy away from a cool opportunity,” says Passuto, who was a former professional snowboarder before starting his own mobile boat-detailing business in Kelowna dubbed Scrub Captain.

“And, I mean, if Jill can do it, how hard can it be?” 

But, all joking aside, the duo had to decide just how much of their lives they were willing to share with viewers. This is, after all, a couple that has shared much of their day-to-day — from pregnancy and car accidents, to vacations and engagements — with their fans.  

“I wanted Justin and I to be the realest and the rawest we could be … but there were definitely times, especially on the way to the hospital, when I thought, why am I doing this? This is a private moment,” Harris admits. “But, Justin always reminded me that I love storytelling, I love oversharing and Justin said, we’re going to have a documentary about the first year of our life together.” 

Harris says there were times throughout filming where they would wake up in the morning in their bed at home and find the camera crew in their room already filming. 

“We have opened our home and our hearts to the network, crew and our viewers,” she says. 

The pair also admits they regularly shot their own footage for the show on their iPhones or GoPro cameras in order too capture authentic moments. 

“Everything is a real moment,” Passuto says. 

The resulting series is a true — well, as true as reality TV can be — look into their wild world of work, play — and new parenting. (The couple welcomed their son Leo into their lives in August 2016, which is chronicled in the show’s first episode.) 

“It’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life,” Passuto says of being a father. 

“Notice he didn’t say exhausting,” Harris adds with a laugh. 

“I’m a champion, Jill,” he fires back. “But I have to say, I couldn’t do it without Jill.” 

That support system serves the two well in their parenting — and also in creating a united front against any online vitriol they face, which Harris and Passuto admit they face their fair share of. 

“We got a lot of scrutiny for getting pregnant before we were married — or even engaged,” Passuto says. 

“I love how people can scrutinize your life decisions,” Harris says. “A lot of people were really upset that we were pregnant and not married.”

“At the end of the day, I almost didn’t want to propose, for that simple fact that I wanted to show people. We were both raised from traditional families and ethics, but at the end of the day, if the baby comes before the ring, or the wedding comes after your two kids, … you do what works for you,” Passuto continues.   

“We know in our hearts that we’re good. And moving forward, it’s wedding or a baby — it’s going to be whatever honestly works.”

The couple has each developed their own coping mechanisms for the critics, but it’s something Harris admits she’s still working on. 

“Justin’s awesome. He gives them a piece of his mind after he reads the comment, and then he moves on,” she says. “I know I put myself out there, so I know I’m going to be subjected to all these different opinions. And 95-per cent of the opinions are positive, but no matter how many times I’ve dealt with it, it always breaks me down. I just end up having anxiety or I cry.

“People say, well, don’t read the comments, but the comments are what makes me happy. That’s how I like connecting with our readers, followers and fans,” she says. “That’s probably the only con to this career that I’ve decided to take on. That not everyone is going to like me. And I just don’t like that. It’s hard, but I guess I just have to accept that.”

Jillian & Just premieres June 21 at 10 p.m. on W Network.

Aharris@postmedia.com

Creator Talk: DGC Meet the Showrunners

June 17, 2 p.m. | Vancity Theatre

Tickets: $35 (includes reception) at viff.org or dgconline.ca

“I left the dogs off my resumé,” said Hollywood veteran Eric Overmyer.

That’s solid advice for someone heading into TV production with aspirations of becoming a showrunner one day.

Why point out the crummy stuff when you have a CV that includes credits like The Wire, The Affair, Boardwalk Empire, Law & Order, Homicide: Life on the Street and now the Emmy Award-winning Vancouver-shot The Man in High Castle drama for Amazon.

Overmyer will have other bits of wisdom from television land when he joins Vancouver’s Chris Haddock (Da Vinci’s Inquests, Boardwalk Empire, The Romeo Section) for the Creator Talk: DGC Meet the Showrunners event on June 17 at Vancity Theatre.

Vancouver Chris Haddock creator, writer and producer of The Romeo Section will be taking part in the Creator Talk: DGC Meet the Showrunner event at Vancity Theatre on June 17, 2017.

The Directors’ Guild of Canada series brings successful industry types and puts them in front of aspiring industry types for candid conversations. This event is hosted by producer/director Kevin Eastwood (The Romeo Section, Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World).

“I’ve been really fortunate to work on some very good shows. I’ve worked on some bad ones, too. The bad ones are harder to do then the good ones, really,” said Overmyer over the phone from Los Angeles. “I was lucky to start out on St. Elsewhere and Tom Fontana (series writer/producer) was a friend of mine from New York and I learned a great deal from Tom. I’ve worked with him a couple of times. I worked for him on Homicide, too.

“He taught me the importance of meeting deadlines and being careful and scrupulous about the writing,” added Overmyer who is currently working on scripts for Season 3 of The Man in the High Castle.

For those not in the business. the showrunner is just that, the guy who runs the show and has the final word creatively.

“It varies a little from show to show but it really is the producer who is in charge of the scripts. And depending on the show, has a great deal to say about the casting and the creative direction of the show,” said Overmyer.

“It’s still a very collaborative effort but the responsibility for the writing is ultimately the showrunner’s in conjunction with the other creative people.”

Overmyer started his career 30 years ago as a “lowly story editor,” on St. Elsewhere.

“I gradually worked my way up into the writing, producing ranks and eventually after quite a long time to being a showrunner,” said the Boulder, Colo. resident. “So the amount of responsibility has increased. What’s really changed is, well, when I started there were three networks. Now we’re in this whole other streaming world.

“The TV business has changed a great deal. But making a television show, well, that hasn’t changed. You write, shoot it, edit it.”

Both Haddock and Overmyer will be fielding questions at the DGC event. Overmyer expects one question for sure.

“The question that comes up the most is how do I get started? I really scratch my head over that,” said Overmyer. “It’s different for everybody and also I got started so long ago.”

For the record, Overmyer is a big fan of learning the game from the ground up so he suggests get a job, any job, with a production company. And always keep writing. Something he does when he has time.

He’s optimistic about today’s TV world and feels now is a great time to get into the business of shows.

“Sure it’s about luck and hard work, but one thing about today’s world is there are a lot of jobs,” said Overmyer. “There’s a lot of work going on. There’s even an actor shortage in fact.

“You hear casting directors complaining that they can’t find people. It’s a good time to be in the TV and movie business.”

He said his own production people for The Man in the High Castle are finding it tough to find locations and actors in Vancouver.

“It goes in cycles I think,” said Overmyer. “People talk about the golden age in television now but there has been other golden ages.”

And there will be more in the future.

dgee@postmedia.com

twitter.com/dana_gee

CLICK HERE to report a typo.

Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com

Wild Bear Rescue

June 23, 10 p.m. ET/ 7 p.m. PT | Animal Planet

With bears in the news this week escaping from a Lower Mainland shelter and bruin sightings rising across B.C., the timing couldn’t be better for Animal Planet’s Wild Bear Rescue to start airing. 

As noted in a Vancouver Sun story last July, Omnifilm’s reality series, Wild Bear Rescue, gets inside the daily efforts of staff and volunteers at the Northern Lights Wildlife Society in Smithers.

Founded in 1990 by immigrant German zookeepers Angelika and Peter Langen, the society has nursed 369 bears back to health to date. Of these, under three per cent have ever come into human contact post-release back into the wild.

With a track record dating back decades, with hits such as Ice Pilots and Jade Fever to its credit, Omnifilm is well-positioned to get into the nitty-gritty of the society’s operations.

With up-close and intimate portrayals of bear cubs suffering from severe stress after the death of their parent and sibling, to impossibly cute shots of orphaned newborn baby squirrels being fed with eyedroppers, Wild Bear Rescue is prime family viewing.

You’ll want to be prepared to have some discussions to contextualize what you’re watching. But this is a great chance to address topics ranging from animal and human interaction in the wild to other aspects of conservation. It’s a big issue of late with increased human and bear interaction leading to more orphaned or lost cubs.

To say there is some serious cuteness going on watching cubs getting their style back post-trauma, it’s some kind of awesome indeed. 

sderdeyn@postmedia.com

twitter.com/stuartderdeyn

CLICK HERE to report a typo.

Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.</p

X-Files actor David Duchovny, who moonlights as a singer-songwriter, will perform a concert at Vancouver’s Imperial theatre on Oct. 14.

The concert, presented by Timbre Concerts, provides us with a good hint of when Duchovny and co-star Gillian Anderson will be returning to town to shoot the latest batch of X-Files reboot episodes.

Fox and X-Files creator Chris Carter announced in April that the sci-fi series would be returning to TV with 10 new episodes for the 2017-2018 season. 

In this Friday, Jan. 15, 2016 file photo, actors David Duchovny, from left, Gillian Anderson and creator/executive producer Chris Carter participate in “The X Files” panel at the Fox Winter TCA in Pasadena, Calif.

The series filmed in Vancouver for the first five seasons of its original nine-year run (1993-2002) and then returned to Vancouver during the summer of 2015 for production of a six-episode event series that aired last year.

Related

• X-Files actor David Duchovny to play two concerts in Vancouver
• Meet David Duchovny’s doppelganger
• Hollywood North: Fox hasn’t closed the book on The X-Files

While filming the reboot, Duchovny performed a pair of concerts, playing songs off his debut album Hell or Highwater, at the Alexander in Gastown.

Tickets for his Oct. 14 concert, which cost $25 (plus fees), go on sale Thursday through Ticketweb.ca. Meet and greet tickets are $150 (plus fees).

Wherever you go, you can always come home.

Award-winning, locally filmed web series The Drive – which follows the lives and loves of friends residing on Commercial Drive in east Vancouver – has wrapped principal photography on its second season and will soon be headed into post-production.

“I feel like this time around, we knew what we were in for,” said executive producer Nick Hunnings. “We tried to raise the bar for everything, in terms of our writing, the characters and where we wanted to go.”

Hunnings and the East Van Entertainment team began developing the script in 2010. In 2013, an Indiegogo campaign raised $7,500 to cover production costs; the team then received a Telus Optik Local grant in late 2014 that allowed them to go ahead with getting the web series onto screens.

The series premiered on Telus Optik TV’s video-on-demand platform in 2015 and since then, it has snagged Leo Awards for best web series and best actress in a web series (Jen Cheon in the role of Gina), TO Web Fest recognition for best ensemble cast, and Vancouver Web Fest recognition for best director (Stuart Gillies).

The series also received five nominations at L.A. Web Fest, and the award of excellence at the Accolade Global Film Competition. It has screened in Spain and has found distribution in Europe and Latin America.

“We were really kind of blown away by how well it was received,” said Hunnings. “It definitely exceeded what we were anticipating.”

He said the international reception has served to reinforce the production team’s belief that there is universal appeal in the human stories being told, even if they are anchored in something as local and specific as a 20-block street in east Vancouver.

In the period after the first season and before filming for the second season began, Hunnings and his wife, fellow producer Lindsay Drummond, also became first-time parents to a baby boy.

“As a filmmaker, it just broadens the scope in which you see the world,” Hunnings said of how the changes in his personal life affected his contribution to The Drive. “Season 2 is about family and that theme became more and more recurring as we were writing so it definitely seeped into the storyline for sure.”

Nick Hunnings (left, as Leo) and Jen Cheon (right, as Gina) film a scene for East Van Entertainment’s award-winning web series The Drive. The series follows a group of 20- and 30-somethings and the challenges they face while living on Commercial Drive.

The second season will see most of its main characters reuniting after the death of a patriarch, including Cheon and Zach Martin as Chris. Behind the camera, Gillies will return to direct alongside much of the same production team with a few new additions.

Shooting took place earlier this month up and down the popular strip of east Vancouver, with returns to Renzo’s Cafe, Grandview Lanes, and more, while Juno winner and local talent Dan Mangan curates the soundtrack.

The Drive: Season 2 will have seven episodes and is expected sometime in fall 2017 on Telus Optik TV, along with what Hunnings hope will be a local premier party open to the community.

sip@postmedia.com
twitter.com/stephanie_ip

California tax credits have lured yet another Vancouver-filmed television series to the Golden State.

Timeless, an NBC time-travelling drama that shot its inaugural season in British Columbia, is moving Season 2 production to Hollywood where it will receive $9.9 million in production tax credits from the state.

Timeless joins three other TV series (Lucifer, Legion and Mistresses) to relocate from Vancouver to California under Program 2.0, a film and television tax credit program administered by the California Film Commission.

TV shows in California receive a 20 per cent tax credit, but TV series that relocate to the state receive a 25 per cent rate.

Film and television productions in B.C. receive production services tax credits of 28 per cent.  The Liberal government reduced the rate from 33 per cent in October.

“We’re pleased to welcome Timeless to the growing list of TV series that have relocated from other locales, including Canada, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Louisiana, Florida and Texas,” said California Film Commission executive director Amy Lemisch.

The commission says Timeless is on track to spend $40 million in California and employ approximately 250 cast, 220 crew and 3,000 extras.

X-FILES BEGINS SHOOTING IN AUGUST

A new batch of X-Files will opened on Aug. 8. 

That’s when production starts in Vancouver on a new 10-episode season of the science fiction series from executive producer Chris Carter.

The first five seasons (1993-97) of the original show were filmed in Vancouver before it closed out its nine-year run in Los Angeles.

Carter, along with stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, returned to B.C. during the summer of 2015 for production of a six-episode event series that aired last year.

SNOWPIERCER PILOT FILMS VANCOUVER

Snowpiercer, a TV pilot for TNT based on director Bong Joon-ho’s thrilling 2013 feature, will begin filming in Vancouver on Aug. 28.

Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) and Tony winner Daveed Diggs (Hamilton) star in the show which is set in a dystopian future aboard a train — divided into two feuding classes — travelling around the globe.

OKJA ON NETFLIX

Meanwhile, Joon-ho’s latest feature film, Okja, a fantasy fable about giant pig-like animal which was partially filmed in Vancouver last year, is now streaming on Netflix.

The movie, which boasts an impressive cast that includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Tilda Swinton, Lily Collins, Steven Yeun and Paul Dano, is getting mostly positive reviews with an 84 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Postmedia’s Liz Braun says Okja moves seamlessly between fairy tale, action caper and crime drama.

“Magical scenes of Okja’s life in the idyllic South Korean countryside lead into the frantic adventure that takes our young heroine and her beloved piggy to America; finally, there are dark scenes of Okja’s potential fate in a New Jersey slaughterhouse,” Braun wrote.

CABLE READY

Ryan Reynolds is no longer the only A-list star ready  to cause mayhem on the streets of Vancouver.  

His Deadpool 2 costar Josh Brolin has also reported for duty.  The second generation Hollywood heavyweight (his dad is James Brolin) is playing mutant super soldier Cable opposite Reynolds’ Deadpool. 

Brolin gave us our first kinda, sorta look of Cable with this Instagram post from the makeup chair.

sbrown@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/Browniescott

A former Vancouver Bachelorette and her personal trainer fiancé are back in town this weekend with their popular cross-country boot camp tour.

Kaitlyn Bristowe, 32, and Shawn Booth, 31, met during season 11 of ABC’s reality dating show The Bachelorette in 2015. After a whirlwind season of international jet-setting and fantasy dates, Booth proposed to Bristowe in the finale which was filmed at the infamous Bachelor mansion in Agoura Hills, Calif. The bachelorette then uprooted her life from Vancouver, B.C. to be with Booth in Nashville, TN.

Former Vancouverite and Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe (not pictured), her fiance Shawn Booth (left, foreground), and celebrity trainer Erin Oprea (right, foreground) have teamed up to bring CitySTRONG, a fitness boot camp tour, to Vancouver, B.C.  (ZACK HARRISON PHOTO)

Booth, a Nashville-based personal trainer, said he was cycling with friend and celebrity trainer Erin Oprea when the duo came up with the idea to host large-scale workouts in outdoor venues that showcase a city’s skyline and scenery.

“We were always trying to figure out how to bring health and fitness to a larger scale and to make it fun,” said Booth. “So we decided that we should tour the country — and even other countries now — and put on a large group workout and get as many people out there as possible and just have a good time and show people that fitness can be fun.”

The trio have since hit the road with CitySTRONG, a high-energy boot camp workout tour for all skill levels, set against the natural backdrop of cities across North America. Previous stops have brought out more than 500 people on average of all ages, though the majority tend to be fans of the Bachelor and Bachelorette franchise.

Booth and Oprea lead the workouts while Bristowe, who loves music and grew up dancing, soundtracks the events and provides motivation as a hype girl. Occasionally, a familiar face from the ABC show may appear as a guest.

CitySTRONG has since been hosted in nearly a dozen major cities in venues such as concert venues, public parks, and waterfront plazas. The Vancouver stop takes place this Saturday at the Concord Pacific plaza in False Creek, nestled between Rogers Arena and the Telus World of Science, and is the first CitySTRONG event hosted in Canada.

“Luckily, it looks like a perfect day for it,” said Bristowe of Vancouver’s occasionally challenging weather.

As alumni of a popular reality TV franchise with millions of fans, it’s often hard to avoid the chatter and the attractive business opportunities that come after the season has ended.

While Bristowe and Booth remain in touch with friends and producers from the show, they’ve made a conscious effort to enjoy their long engagement, to “be normal after a somewhat abnormal situation,” as Bristowe puts it, and to focus on their passions.

Booth is currently training for his first Ironman triathlon, set to take place in a couple of weeks, while Bristowe is taking advantage of the musical resources Nashville has to offer.

“I’ve just kind of got to work with some pretty cool people, writing music, and I’ve got three songs recorded and I’m just trying to decide when I want to do something with it but it’s scary,” she said.

“We’ll see what happens. I’ll release something eventually but I need a few more songs under my belt and we’ll go from there.”

Former Vancouverite and Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe (middle), her fiance Shawn Booth, and celebrity trainer Erin Oprea (left) have teamed up to bring CitySTRONG, a fitness boot camp tour, to Vancouver, B.C. (ZACK HARRISON PHOTO)

It’s also no secret that those who appear on the show become public figures almost instantly, amassing hundreds of thousands of social media followers. It allows the show’s alumni to become Instagram influencers and sign contracts to sell anything from sunglasses to watches, from hair growth gummy bear candies to teeth whitening kits.

The pair, who have dubbed themselves the Boothstowes, said CitySTRONG as a business pursuit allowed them to combine Booth’s love of fitness and Bristowe’s passion for the performing arts and to share that with others.

“We think that we’ve been very careful with what we’ve decided to do after the show and kind of align ourselves with a brand that we truly believe in and kind of steer away from everything that every other Bachelor contestant is doing so we wanted to be true to ourselves and who we are,” said Booth.

“Kaitlyn — she gets to be on stage and doing what she loves, which is performing. She’s up on stage, entertaining the crowd, she’s rapping, she’s making everyone laugh.”

Bristowe interjects: “I just like microphones, OK?”

So what about standup comedy?

“Don’t put any ideas in her head,” Booth joked.

Tickets for the Vancouver stop of CitySTRONG are available online at http://citystrong.com/vancouversignup. The event is suitable for all fitness levels, with modified exercises included.

sip@postmedia.com
twitter.com/stephanie_ip