Thursday, June 11, 2009

Man With Brooms invades Hollywood
















Everybody’s favourite movie-star curler, Paul Gross, isn’t resting on his Passchendaele laurels. The man who once had a slide delivery more solid than that of many TCN readers has not one, but two new projects coming soon... and an award is headed his way this weekend.

CTV and ABC (in the U.S.) have both picked up “Eastwick”, a TV adaption of the 1987 film “The Witches of Eastwick”. Gross plays the part of The Devil, in a very juicy role made famous by none other than... Jack Nicholson.

Gross will also appear in the comedy western “Gunless”, as a nasty American gunfighter nicknamed The Montana Kid (photo above).

In addition, the Men With Brooms maven will receive the NBC Universal Canada Award of Distinction at this year’s 30th anniversary Banff World Television Festival, now underway in Calgary... where delegates will also have the opportunity to be “In conversation with Paul Gross”.

A preview of the famed festival can be found here and a Calgary Herald story summarizing all these Gross adventures can be found here.

And in a more hardcore curling vein...


Bachelorette Jillian Harris told the media a few things about the “curling date”, from this one:

“I really love the curling date. Curling is – and I hate to say it because curlers are going to hate me – that quintessential, Canadian, nerdy sport. I find it really nostalgic. I did it a lot as a kid, hanging out in lounges. The guys really got into it.”

... to this one:

“This was such a nostalgic date for me. I remember curling bonspiels when I was just a kid — so much fun! To my delight … the guys loved it too!”

Nah, we don’t hate you Jill... after all, since the episode has turned out to be such a hit for tourism in Vancouver, we expect local curling clubs to have their voicemail systems jammed full with messages over the summer.

A note to the curious: Harris’ current hometown may be Vancouver but she’s really an Alberta gal, from Peace River, and that’s where her young curling memories come from ...

• DID YOU KNOW: that curling columnist, editor and book writer Bob Weeks made an early appearance in this leadership convention video for Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff?

• CITY GOOD: PEI’s Charlottetown Curling Club was recently honoured at the Mayor’s Citizen and Recognition Awards night. As the citation reads, “Founded in 1887, the Charlottetown Curling Club has remained a source of recreation, entertainment and camaraderie for the City of Charlottetown and its surrounding communities for 122 years.” Boo-yah!

• CITY BAD: A big boo to the town of Cochrane, Alberta. City councillors have stomped all over the curling club’s request to add two sheets of ice to their facility ...

Luber’s Lounge has posted the tentative Manitoba Curling Tour schedule for the 2009-10 season ...

• DID YOU KNOW II: that the Ontario Curling Association van in which ED Doug Bakes zips around the province each season is now for sale? Well, giddyap ...

• Toronto’s 13th Annual East York Summerspiel gets underway tomorrow and finishes Saturday. The bonspiel theme is based on the movie Grease, and the club is heavily decorated and awaits the 36 teams that have entered. The curling starts on Friday night at 6:00pm and there will be a live band that night at the club ...

• And finally, we were planning to reveal the incredibly bizarre curling posting from a blogger named Bliss, but Skip Cottage beat us to it. Here is Bob’s take on the eccentricity, which of course simply must lead you to click through and see it for yourself ...

No comments: