Every fall, packs of critics mingle with devoted cinephiles at the Toronto International Film Festival. Red carpets are unfurled for celebrity strutting.
Over the past 37 years, the small but ambitious festival has continued to grow and attract more and more moviegoers to the city.
Think you know TIFF? Test your trivia knowledge with our quiz below.
To all lovers of the perfectly weighed word, Seamus Heaney offered hope on this side of the grave.
Heaney, 74, died Friday in a Dublin hospital some 18 years after he won the Nobel Prize in literature and gained global recognition as Ireland's greatest poet since William Butler Yeats.
He left behind a half-century's body of work that sought to capture the essence of his experience: the sour smells and barren beauty of Irish landscapes, the haunting loss of loved ones and of memory itself, and the tormented soul of his native Northern Ireland.
As one of the world's premier classicists, he translated and interpreted ancient works of Athens and Rome for modern eyes and ears. A bear of a man with a signature mop of untamed silvery hair, he gave other writers and fans time, attention, advice – and left a legacy of one-on-one, life-changing moments encouraged by his self-deprecating, common-man touch.
"He was a wonderful nature poet, a love poet, and a war poet. He certainly addressed the darkness of what we call 'the troubles'," said Michael Longley, a Belfast poet and longtime Heaney confidant, who recalled chatting happily with Heaney over whiskey and pints of beer earlier this month at a western Irish literary festival.
"I told him I'd been re-reading his early works from the 1960s, and I just couldn't believe that as a young man he was capable of writing such miracles. He continued to write miracles throughout his life," Longley said. "He was a poet of extraordinary complexity and profundity, so it's surprising and remarkable that he also could be so popular ... It's not popular poetry. Seamus made it popular."
His most quoted lines came from The Cure at Troy, a 1991 adaptation of a Greek play by Sophocles set in the Trojan War. His version, rooted in a Northern Ireland that he hoped could reach "the far side of revenge," sought to draw a line under a conflict that featured Irish Republican Army hunger strikes and the IRA killing of hundreds of police officers.
"A hunger-striker's father
stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
faints at the funeral home.
History says, Don't hope
on this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
the longed for tidal wave
of justice can rise up,
and hope and history rhyme."
Scores of world leaders have borrowed those lines for their peacemaking proclamations.
John Hume, a Northern Ireland leader of the Irish nationalist side who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998, said Heaney's work offered "a special channel for repudiating violence, injustice and prejudice, and urging us all to the better side of our human nature."
Bill and Hillary Clinton, who met Heaney during their several visits to Northern Ireland in the 1990s, and mined The Cure at Troy to close speeches, praised him as "more than a brilliant artist."
A photo dated May 1, 1970 of Seamus Heaney. (File photo/Associated Press) "His mind, heart, and his uniquely Irish gift for language made him our finest poet of the rhythms of ordinary lives and a powerful voice for peace. And he was a good and true friend. We loved him and we will miss him," the Clintons said in a statement.
Heaney rarely turned down requests to speak, and kept globe-trotting to university lectures and cultural seminars, despite a 2006 stroke that forced him, temporarily, to slow down. Audiences sought to hear his readings in person, delivered in his melodic baritone. He inspired respect and love.
"We cannot adequately express our profound sorrow at the loss of one of the world's greatest writers," said Heaney's London publisher, Faber & Faber. "His impact on literary culture is immeasurable. As his publisher we could not have been prouder to publish his poetry over nearly 50 years. He was nothing short of an inspiration to the company, and his friendship over many years is a great loss."
The eldest of nine children from a farming village, Heaney went to Catholic boarding school in Northern Ireland's second-largest city, Londonderry, a bitterly divided community that soon became the crucible of "the troubles," the quaint local euphemism for a four-decade conflict over the British territory that has claimed more than 3,700 lives.
His early work was rooted in vivid description of rural experience, such as in 1966's collection Death of a Naturalist, when his poem Digging describes his father's labor cutting turf bricks from a bog – and concludes with his own decision to work with a pen, not a shovel.
As Northern Ireland's sectarian divisions exploded into civil war in the early 1970s, Heaney's writing grew more sociological and political as he dug into the slippery psychology of his homeland.
In 1972, the most deadly year of Northern Ireland's conflict, Heaney left his academic post in Queen's University in Belfast to settle in the Republic of Ireland. That year, he published Wintering Out, a collection of poems that offered only oblique references to the bloodshed.
His follow-up 1975 collection, North, offered much more direct commentary on the conflict. His poem Whatever You Say, Say Nothing became a Northern Ireland catch phrase for the art of concealing one's loyalty – whether Irish Catholic "Pape" or British Protestant "Prod" – in response to strangers' probing questions.
Heaney was the fourth Irishman to win the Nobel Prize in literature, joining Yeats, Samuel Beckett and George Bernard Shaw.
Heaney's focus on the approaching inevitability of death was evident in his final collection of poems, Human Chain, published in 2010. One stanza reflected on the recent death of a longtime friend:
"The door was open and the house was dark
Wherefore I called his name, although I knew
The answer this time would be silence."
In 2011, he donated the files of his life's work to the National Library of Ireland, including all written and typed manuscripts and revisions from 1963 to 2010, his scripts of university lectures, and his myriad projects translating the work of non-English poets from ancient Greece to modern Poland.
And in one of his final public appearances this month at an event celebrating Yeats, he initially described Human Chain as "my last book" – then, with a wry chuckle, switched his words to "my latest collection." While hundreds had brought copies of his works seeking his signature, he unusually declined.
Heaney is survived by his wife, Marie, and children Christopher, Michael and Catherine. Funeral arrangements were not announced.
Giller Award-winning author Joseph Boyden is taking readers to the origins of Canada in his latest novel.
The Orenda, due out on Sept. 10, takes place just after Jesuits made first contact with First Nations in what became known as Upper Canada, and then Ontario.
The perspective veers between a Jesuit priest, a captured Iroquois girl and a Huron leader named Bird, who tries to make peace with them both.
In an interview with the CBC, Boyden described his reasons for fleshing out the First Nations who inhabited the continent long before anyone from across the Atlantic Ocean arrived.
Joseph Boyden's latest novel, The Orenda, is due in stores Sept. 10. (Hamish Hamilton publishing) "These were incredibly complex, sophisticated people that have been around for 10,000 years when the Jesuits arrived, as complex a spiritual system, as complex a society, as complex a social system as anyone in the world," says Boyden.
"This novel, in a way, is an exploration of this first wrestling with different world views – that we still see today, in First Nations life versus the western world."
Boyden's first novel, Three Day Road, won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Price in 2005. His 2008 novel Through Black Spruce won the Scotiabank Giller Prize that year. Born in Willowdale, Ont., of Irish, Scottish and Métis heritage, Boyden writes about First Nations characters and life both in modern and historical settings.
Check out the video above for the CBC's full interview with Joseph Boyden.
Miley Cyrus perform at the MTV Video Music Awards. (Scott Gries/Invision/AP)Creator of the iconic foam "No. 1 hand" Steve Chmlear won't be cheering in the front row of a Miley Cyrus concert any time soon.Commonly used among sports fans to root for their idols, the foam finger was recently used by Cyrus a prop during her controversial MTV Video Music Awards performance.
"She took an honorable icon that is seen in sporting venues everywhere and degraded it," said Chmlear in an interview with FoxSports this week. "If I had a choice between Julie Andrews singing 'The Sound of Music' and Miley Cyrus doing 'Can't Stop,' I'd go the Julie Andrews route." 
A giant foam finger modeled after the one created by Chmlear in 1971. (iStock)
Now 59, Chmlear says he invented the prop in 1971 at the age of 16 to support his high school basketball team in Iowa.
Cyrus used the finger to gyrate and twerk with during her sexually-charged VMA performance on Sunday evening.
"I would say that it certainly misrepresented its intent to encourage team support," said Chmlear. "Fortunately, the foam finger has been around long enough that it will survive this incident. As for Miley Cyrus, let's hope she can outlive this event and also survive."
But Lisa Katnic, who designed this specific foam hand for Cyrus to use at the VMAs, feels differently.
"Honestly, of any person I've worked with, [Miley]'s the nicest, most genuine celebrity I've met ..." she said to Yahoo! Music. "She's 20 years old, hot and having fun. What college-age person wouldn't?"
What are your thoughts? Does the creator of a particular product have the right to complain over how it is used publicly?
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Actor James Spader, seen speaking at a panel discussion for The Blacklist, will play Ultron in the sequel to Marvel's The Avengers. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) Marvel announced that Spader will play killer robot Ultron in The Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Spader is perhaps best known as attorney Alan Shore in The Practice and Boston Legal. The role won him three Emmy Awards. Sci-fi fans might recognize him from 1994's Stargate as Dr. Daniel Jackson. He recently appeared in Steve Spielberg's Lincoln and will star in NBC's upcoming drama The Blacklist.
Ultron is a sentient robot with murderous intent and incredible power in the Marvel Comics universe, who first appeared in Avengers #55 back in 1968. In the comics, Ultron went out of control after being built by Avenger Hank Pym, a.k.a. Ant-Man.
Director Joss Whedon has said that while Ultron's origin in the film won't be the same, his murderous intent will remain intact.
Ultron is a powerful sentient robot in the Marvel Comics universe. (Marvel) "He's always trying to destroy the Avengers, goddamn it, he's got a bee in his bonnet," Whedon told Entertainment Weekly. "He's not a happy guy, which means he's an interesting guy."As for Dr. Pym, he's currently slated to join the Marvel film universe in his own film, Ant-Man, directed by Edgar Wright.
Film buffs noted that this isn't the first time Robert Downey Jr., who plays Tony Stark/Iron Man, and Spader starring in a film together. Spader played Rip, the drug dealer to Downey Jr.'s Julian Wells, way back in 1987's Less Than Zero.
Comments on this story are pre-moderated. Before they appear, comments are reviewed by moderators to ensure they meet our submission guidelines. Comments are open and welcome for three days after the story is published. We reserve the right to close comments before then.
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Note: The CBC does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comments, you acknowledge that CBC has the right to reproduce, broadcast and publicize those comments or any part thereof in any manner whatsoever. Please note that comments are moderated and published according to our submission guidelines.
Every fall, packs of critics mingle with devoted cinephiles at the Toronto International Film Festival. Red carpets are unfurled for celebrity strutting.
Over the past 37 years, the small but ambitious festival has continued to grow and attract more and more moviegoers to the city.
Think you know TIFF? Test your trivia knowledge with our quiz below.
Brent, a chimpanzee at Chimp Haven in Keithville, La., outpolled chimps across the United States to win the $10,000 prize for his art work, right. (AP photos courtesy of Chimp Haven) A painting by a primate that applies colour with his tongue instead of a brush has been deemed the finest chimpanzee art in the land.
Brent, 37, a retired laboratory animal, was the top vote-getter in an online chimp art contest organized by the Humane Society of the United States, which announced the results Thursday. The chimp won $10,000 for the Chimp Haven sanctuary in northwest Louisiana.
A Chimp Haven spokeswoman said Brent was unavailable for comment Thursday. "I think he's asleep," Ashley Gordon said.
But as the society said on its website, "The votes are in, so let the pant hooting begin!" — pant hooting being the characteristic call of an excited chimp.
'I think he's asleep.'— Ashley Gordon of Chimp Haven on winning chimp Brent
Five other sanctuaries around the country competed, using paintings created during "enrichment sessions," which can include any of a wide variety of activities and playthings.
Chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall chose her favourite from photographs she was sent. That painting, by Cheetah, a male at Save the Chimps in Florida., won $5,000 as Goodall's choice and another $5,000 for winning second place in online voting, Humane Society spokeswoman Nicole Ianni said.
Ripley from the Center for Great Apes in Florida, won third place and $2,500.
More than 27,000 people voted, Ianni said in a news release. The organization is not giving vote totals "to keep the focus on the positive work of the sanctuaries and not necessarily the 'winner,"' she said in an email. The sanctuaries care for chimpanzees retired from research, entertainment and the pet trade. Chimp Haven is the national sanctuary for those retired from federal research.
A profile of Brent on the Humane Society's website says he has lived at Chimp Haven since 2006, is protective of an even older chimp at the sanctuary and "loves to laugh and play." It continues, "Brent paints only with his tongue. His unique approach and style, while a little unorthodox, results in beautiful pieces of art."
Cathy Willis Spraetz, Chimp Haven's president and CEO, said she chose a painting by Brent partly because of that unusual method. She said she later held a canvas up to the mesh of his indoor cage so she could watch him at work.
Some other chimps use brushes or point to the colours they want on the canvas, but Brent comes up to smush pre-applied blobs of child-safe tempera paints with his tongue, she said.
"If we handed the canvas to them where it was on the inside, they might not want to hand it back," she said. "They might throw it around and step on it."
Seamus Heaney, Ireland's foremost poet who won the Nobel literature prize in 1995, died Friday after a half-century exploring the wild beauty of Ireland and the political torment within the nation's soul. He was 74.
Heaney's family and publisher, Faber & Faber, said in a statement that Heaney died in a Dublin hospital. He had been recuperating from a stroke since 2006.
The Northern Ireland-born Heaney was widely considered Ireland's greatest poet since William Butler Yeats. He wrote 13 collections of poetry, two plays, four prose works on the process of poetry, and many other works.
Heaney was the third Irishman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, joining Yeats and Samuel Beckett.
The eldest of eight children, Heaney went to Catholic boarding school in Northern Ireland's second-largest town, Londonderry.
Life in 1950s Londonderry — where Catholics outnumbered Protestants two to one but were gerrymandered from power — provided Heaney his first real taste of injustice and ambiguity Irish-style.
His early work was rooted in vivid description of rural experience, but gradually he wedded this to the frictions, deceptions and contradictions rife of his divided homeland.
In 1972, the most deadly year of Northern Ireland's conflict, Heaney left Queen's University in Belfast to settle in the Republic of Ireland. That year, he published Wintering Out, a collection of poems that offered only oblique references to the unrest in the north.
His follow-up 1975 collection, North, captured the Irish imagination with his pitch-perfect sense of the evils of sectarianism.
Funeral arrangements were not immediately announced.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays a man and his doppelganger in Enemy, Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Jose Saramago's novel The Double. (Toronto International Film Festival)
Cementing the Toronto International Film Festival's place at the top tier of the world's cinematic circuit, hard-working programmers have once again snagged an enviable slate for movie-loving audiences.
Still, with 366 films (including feature-length and shorts) overall, one can understandably feel overwhelmed by TIFF's vast offerings.
There are inevitably a crop of films each year that separate from the overall pack, whether due to powerhouse performers, the return of a talented filmmaker, buzz from a previous outing or perhaps an auspicious debut.
CBC News highlights TIFF-bound films already causing chatter among moviegoers.
After widespread kudos for his searing films Hunger and Shame, British artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen tackles the Civil War era with 12 Years a Slave. Based on the biography of Solomon Northup, a free-born black man sold into slavery, the impressively cast drama stars the phenomenally talented Chiwetel Ejiofor, surrounded by equally strong performers including frequent McQueen muse Michael Fassbender, Paul Giamatti, Paul Dano, Alfre Woodard and Brad Pitt, who is also a producer. TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey, who left his first screening of an unfinished version only to learn that legendary film critic Roger Ebert had died, said he knew instantly that he wanted 12 Years a Slave in this year's lineup.
Putting aside its highly prominent slot as TIFF's opening film, the WikiLeaks origin story The Fifth Estate would still be one of this year's buzziest titles. It checks all the boxes, including a veteran Oscar-winning director (Bill Condon), a ripped-from-the-headlines topic, and one of today's hottest and most respected stars -- Brit Benedict Cumberbatch -- turning in what already seems like a mesmerizing turn as activist editor Julian Assange.
With a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award already under its belt, the darkly comic, cruelly honest and entertaining drama August: Osage County required some Hollywood heavyweights for a significant movie adaptation. Consequently, producers (who include George Clooney) enlisted the doyenne of American cinema -- Meryl Streep -- and an impeccable and star-studded cast (including Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Dermot Mulroney and Sam Shepard) to bring to life playwright Tracy Letts's darkly comic, heart-piercingly honest and entertaining dysfunctional family tale.
One of several celebrated Canadian filmmakers now on Hollywood's radar (after his searing, French-language films Polytechnique and the Oscar-nominated Incendies), Quebec's Denis Villeneuve offers an intense one-two punch for his big-budget and English-language debuts. Incidentally, both highlight noted Hollywood actor Jake Gyllenhaal. In Enemy, he adapts author Jose Saramago's thriller about a man who discovers he has a doppelganger and sets out to find him, while Prisoners (also headlined by Hugh Jackman, Terrence Howard, Viola Davis and Maria Bello) revolves around the desperate search for a pair of missing children.
Xavier Dolan directs and stars in his latest film, the psychological drama Tom at the Farm. (TIFF)
The brilliant bad boy of Quebec cinema and one of Canada's most promising and evolving young filmmaking talents, Xavier Dolan is on a furious pace, bringing his latest to TIFF just a year after his sumptuous and unconventional romantic epic Laurence Anyways. In the psychological drama Tom at the Farm, Dolan portrays a grieving man who attends the funeral of his lover, only to discover his existence is completely unknown to the family of the deceased.
Labour Day, starring Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin and Gattlin Griffith, is a departure for director Jason Reitman. (TIFF)
Jason Reitman has become one of the most consistently interesting and reliable young Hollywood directors. After an award-winning track record that includes Up in the Air, Juno and Thank You for Smoking, he takes a step in a different, more dramatic direction with latest endeavour Labor Day, about an escaped convict who holes up with a reclusive single mother and her preteen son during a holiday weekend in the mid-1980s.
Has it really been seven years since Children of Men? Noted Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron has been holed up working on his followup to that apocalyptic tale, teaming up with his son Jonas to pen space thriller Gravity, starring Oscar winners George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. Special effects for the 3D production reportedly delayed the film's debut, but from the dread-inducing trailer alone, we're intrigued.
Hip hop artist André Benjamin stars as Jimi Hendrix in the biopic All is By My Side. (TIFF)
OutKast's undeniably creative hip hop funkmaster André 3000 as legendary guitar hero Jimi Hendrix? How can anyone resist?
Post-Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe is tackling quite an eclectic cinematic slate. He's one of a few actors (alongside equally busy Cumberbatch and Mia Wasikowska) with a trio of TIFF offerings this year. The versatile star appears as Beat poet Allen Ginsberg (Kill Your Darlings), a lovestruck young man stuck in "friend mode" (The F Word), and a murder suspect who develops a paranormal appearance and talent (Horns).
One of the films already garnering pre-awards season buzz is Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. In the twilight of Mandela's life, there have already been multiple film and TV productions revisiting the South African icon's story. Still, the brilliant Idris Elba is turning heads for what some are touting as the standout, seminal interpretation of the anti-apartheid hero.
Any new film from Oscar-winning Japanese auteur Hayao Miyazaki causes a stir, but the maestro of animation has also sparked controversy with his latest, The Wind Rises. Already a box office smash in Japan, his fictionalized portrait of a real-life Second World War fighter plane designer has been blasted by some for celebrating Japanese militarism. On the opposite end of the spectrum, conservatives have criticized the left-leaning filmmaker for the film's message about the futility of war.
A headline-grabber at Cannes for its prolonged and graphic lesbian love scenes (which also raise the ire of Julie Maroh, author of the originating graphic novel), Blue is the Warmest Color nevertheless left La Croisette triumphant, as winner of that festival's top prize. TIFF will be a wider, North American audience's first look at this French-language coming-of-age tale.
Matthew McConaughey has dazzled of late with a variety of strong, memorably scene-stealing turns (from Killer Joe and Mud to The Lincoln Lawyer and Magic Mike). Insiders are now predicting awards season kudos for the Texan's next venture. In Canadian Jean-Marc Vallée's Dallas Buyers Club, he plays a rough-living cowboy who, floored by an HIV diagnosis during the 1980s AIDS crisis, becomes an unlikely hero of sorts when he begins to smuggle and sell alternative, unapproved anti-viral treatments to his fellow afflicted.
Otherworldly performers Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston portray centuries-old vampires in the modern world, as imagined by indie filmmaker-musician-poet Jim Jarmusch. Yes, please!
John Turturro directs and stars opposite the incomparable Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Sofia Vergara and Vanessa Paradis in this quirky rom-com about a middle-aged florist-turned-male escort. An unlikely plot? Perhaps. But the nostalgia-inducing trailer harkens back to Allen's cinematic portrait of Manhattan and Turturro highlights the legendary director at his "Woody Allenest."
Jeff Barnaby was self-deprecating at TIFF's Canadian lineup announcement in August, but festival staffers were abuzz about the young director's feature-length debut, Rhymes for Young Ghouls, which arrives after several highly praised short films. Once the trailer rolled, we all saw why: Barnaby promises to deliver a dark, drug-infused tale about an aboriginal teen who plots revenge against her reserve's sadistic and corrupt Indian agent. TIFF programmer Steve Gravestock memorably branded the stylish-looking thriller "S.E. Hinton on hashish."
Alex Gibney had unprecedented access to disgraced champion cyclist Lance Armstrong for his doc The Armstrong Lie. (TIFF)
When Alex Gibney was first commissioned to make a film about cycling champion Lance Armstrong's return to the Tour de France in 2009, it came a few years before the devastating flood of revelations that would be his undoing. Granted unprecedented access to interview Armstrong and his inner circle, the Oscar-winning documentarian proceeds to weave together the explosive accusations, the cyclist's emphatic denials and -- after Armstrong's eventual admission to talk show diva Oprah Winfrey earlier this year -- new interviews with the disgraced star for a more detailed account of his double life.
A sculptor is turning a much-loved, centuries-old tree from Old Ottawa South into a masterpiece.
The city cut down the Brighton Beach Park oak tree two years ago and now sculptor David Fels is giving the last remaining chunk new life.
He has turned the first four meters of the tree into a sculpture on display at Carleton University and is working on another two-tonne piece that's turning heads.
The final sculpture will be the centrepiece at Carleton's first International Accessibility Summit next summer.
You can see Fels sculpting with a chainsaw outside Carleton University, or in Ashley Burke's story above.
Warner Bros. upcoming Superman and Batman team-up movie is expected to film in Michigan after getting the OK for $35 million US in state incentives.
The Detroit Free Press reports the sequel to "Man of Steel" is expected to include $131 million US of in-state spending to begin shooting in the Detroit area in the first three months of 2014. Announcement of the approval was made this week by the Michigan Film Office.
Directed by Zach Snyder, the film is expected to feature Ben Affleck as Batman and Henry Cavill as Superman.
Snyder says in a statement that Detroit "will make the perfect backdrop for our movie."
The filming is expected to include more than 400 Michigan workers. Thousands of extras are expected to be needed for the movie.
Sunday, Windsor Essex Economic Development Corporation CEO Sandra Pupatello, who is a former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister, tried lure the production to Windsor, Ont., directly across from Detroit.
Ontario allows a 45 per cent tax break to production companies if they shoot in the province.
The Canada Aviation and Space Museum is extending its blockbuster run of an exhibit based on the Star Wars movie franchise.
Star Wars Identities opened May 10 and was set to run until Sept. 2.
On Tuesday, the museum announced that it's extending the exhibit's run until Oct. 14 "due to overwhelming demand."
Star Wars Identities is now running at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum until Oct. 14. (CBC) Figures released by Ottawa Tourism earlier this month showed that while most museums in Ottawa saw a drop in attendance this spring, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum enjoyed an 83-per-cent increase compared to the same time in 2012.
Star Wars Identities features detailed histories of the fictional Luke and Anakin Skywalker, as well as the characters they met along their journeys throughout the film series. It explores human identity through the Star Wars universe and its characters.
The exhibit made its world premiere in April 2012 at the Montreal Science Centre.
It was conceived and created entirely in Quebec by X3 Production.
The exhibit features more than 200 artifacts from LucasFilm archives, according to the museum's website, and also allows viewers to create their own Star Wars identities.
Have you gone to see the Star Wars Identities exhibit?
The U.S.-based Parents Television Council has made a complaint to MTV after former child star Miley Cyrus's raunchy performance at the Video Music Awards.
"This much is absolutely clear: MTV marketed adults-only material to children while falsely manipulating the content rating to make parents think the content was safe for their children," said PTC director of public policy Dan Isett. "How is this image of former child star Miley Cyrus appropriate for 14-year-olds?"
The former star of Disney's Hannah Montana stole the show on Sunday in infamous fashion, bumping and grinding alternately with R&B singer Robin Thicke and a foam finger while dressed in a nude-coloured latex bikini.
The PTC also took issue with Lady Gaga's performance at the beginning of the show, and the airing of commercials for condoms and R-rated movies.
"Viacom has a set of corporate broadcast standards that were obviously broken in this case for financial gain," said PTC advisory board member Paul Porter, adding, "Heads should roll at MTV."
Cyrus seemed undaunted by the wave of criticism, at least publicly. On Monday she tweeted, "Smilers! My VMA performance had 306.000 tweets per minute. That's more than the blackout or Superbowl!"
Cyrus's fourth album Bangerz hits stores in October. Her father, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, sits on the PTC's advisory board.
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg is set to release details on hundreds of thousands of ancient artifacts that were found at the site where the museum was built.
Archeological teams unearthed about 400,000 artifacts between 2008 and 2012, while the museum was under construction, in what officials say was the largest block excavation ever to be conducted in Manitoba.
Museum president Stuart Murray and other officials will announce the results from the archeological work at a news conference Wednesday morning.
The excavation produced major findings about the significance of the museum's location — at The Forks, where the Red and Assiniboine rivers meet — for the province's early inhabitants, said museum spokesperson Angela Cassie.
Members of an archeological crew work on the museum excavation site in November 2008. (Canadian Museum for Human Rights) "We've learned some new elements about the site that will really inspire people about The Forks and confirm a lot of the indigenous teachings related to this location as a meeting place and a trading place," she told CBC News on Tuesday.
Cassie said sacred materials and evidence of early farming practices were discovered among the artifacts.
As well, some non-local designs were found on ceremonial pipes that could provide evidence of some kind of sophisticated long-distance trade network.
Some of the recovered artifacts will be put on display at Wednesday's event, in the presence of aboriginal elders and archeologists.
The museum is currently slated to open next year.
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Renowned Canadian tenor Ben Heppner will expand CBC Radio 2's operatic range in September with a new program to follow Saturday Afternoon at the Opera.
Backstage with Ben Heppner, an hour-long weekly show, will launch on September 7, 2013 at 4 p.m. (5:00 AT, 5:30 NT), immediately following Saturday Afternoon at the Opera on CBC Radio 2. The show will also air on Sunday mornings at 10:00 a.m. (10:30 NT).
Heppner will feature both Canadian and international classical music, including opera as well as orchestral favourites. He will also share personal stories from his decades-long career that has taken him to stages and theatres around the world.
"This is an incredibly exciting journey for me," says Heppner, who described his vision for the new program.
"It's all about music and stories, and my idea is to be telling [stories] about my life as an opera singer when I'm out on the road, and also I think I want to let people know what's behind the curtains - so a little bit backstage."
Heppner was previously announced as the host of Saturday Afternoon at the Opera in July.
In January, he returned to one of his most famous roles - Tristan in Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde - for Toronto's Canadian Opera Company. It was his first appearance on with the COC in 17 years.
Heppner was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 1999. His rank was elevated to Officer in 2000, then Companion of the Order of Canada in 2008.
Ten of the world's best young string quartets are in Banff for a major competition that begins Monday.
Held every three years, the Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC) is open to string quartets whose members are all under 35 years of age. String quartets consist of two violinists, a violist and a cellist.
During the week-long competition, the quartets play five complete works for the judges. The groups also perform a piece comissioned from a Canadian composer. This year's commission is the work of Edmonton native Vivian Fung.
The winning quartet receives cash and other prizes worth $150,000. That includes a recording residency at the Banff Centre, a set of custom bows and a tour of Europe and North America arranged by the Banff Centre.
Past winners of the BISQC — including Canadian groups the St. Lawrence Quartet and the Cecelia Quartet — have gone on to successful international performing careers.
CBC Music, in partnership with the Banff Centre, will host a live video stream with a blog and provide daily updates and highlights.
It may not be a good thing for her, but Miley Cyrus had the most memorable moment at the MTV Video Music Awards, held at the Barclays Center in New York.
The provocative pop singer was the hot topic at Sunday night's show: Cyrus eclipsed Lady Gaga's opening performance of her new single, Katy Perry's closing rendition of her latest hit and Kanye West's artsy set. The 20-year-old even grabbed more attention than Justin Timberlake's performance with his 'N Sync band mates.
Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke perform Blurred Lines during the 2013 MTV VMAs in New York. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) Cyrus twerked and gyrated, stripped and swayed. She sang, too.
She had a helper at the VMAS: Robin Thicke. After performing her edgy hit, We Can't Stop, she sang the first verse of Thicke's Blurred Lines and then grinded on the R&B singer in a nude-coloured latex bikini. The wild child also ran a foam finger along her body and slapped a girl's butt onstage.
Call it the "Blurred Lines" music video 2.0., which aired live from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, for a first time.
"Amazing. I thought it was awesome," Selena Gomez said of Cyrus's performance backstage. "I love Robin Thicke, too, so I like that they collabo'd."
Artist to watch winner Austin Mahone also seemed to enjoy the performance: "I thought it was pretty creative. I thought it was pretty cool."
Community Blog: Was Miley's turn on VMAs 'trashy' or 'brilliant'?
Twitter said early Monday that Cyrus was mentioned 4.5 million times on the social network site, ahead of Timberlake's 2.9 mentions. Cyrus and Thicke's performance led in tweets per minute peaks with 306,100.
Lady Gaga was overdressed to perform the song Applause before appearing in a seashell thong bikini. (Charles Sykes/Invision/Associated Press) Though they were attention grabbers and nominated for four moonmen each, Thicke and Cyrus walked away empty handed Sunday night.
Timberlake earned three awards, including video of the year and best male video for Mirrors. Days ahead of the VMAs, his rumoured reunion with 'N Sync dominated headlines, and he and his former band mates delivered at the awards show.
As Timberlake performed a medley of his solo hits, JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick emerged from the bottom of the stage in suits to sing some lines from their hits Girlfriend and Bye, Bye, Bye.
Gomez, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and possibly the entire venue were giddy as the boy band danced like they did a decade ago. Even rappers Wiz Khalifa and Juicy J admitted on the red carpet they were excited to see 'N Sync hit the stage.
"Half of the moonmen I've ever won, I won with those four guys right there," Timberlake said of his band mates when he accepted the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award. "So above all else, I'm going to share this — we can keep it my house — but I'm going to share this award with them."
Cyrus wasn't the only pop singer with edge at the VMAs: Swift also turned heads. The 23-year-old, who won best female video, appeared to utter an expletive to Gomez when Swift's rumoured ex, One Direction member Harry Styles, was onstage. The boy band also earned boos when they won best song of the summer for "Best Song Ever," beating out Gomez, Thicke, Cyrus, Daft Punk and Calvin Harris.
Taylor Swift presents the award for best male video to Bruno Mars for Locked Out of Heaven. (Charles Sykes/Invision/Associated Press) Rapper A$AP Rocky also provided an awkward moment Sunday when standing next to NBA player Jason Collins, who were both announcing Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' performance. Collins, who recently said he was gay, spoke about coming out as A$AP Rocky looked uncomfortable and awkward.
"The next artist is a good friend of mine and he stands up for everything he believes in as far as everybody being equal, colour, homosexuality," the rapper said as he pointed to Collins in another awkward moment.
But that was followed with touching performance of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' same-sex anthem Same Love. It featured the song's original vocalist, Mary Lambert, as well as Jennifer Hudson. The video won best video with a social message, while their hit Can't Hold Us won best hip-hop video and best cinematography.
"I never dreamt I would be on a stage accepting an award, any of the awards, in particular for that song," Macklemore said of Same Love backstage. "It's much bigger than the music. It's equality, so that was the most special for me tonight, but all of them were incredible."
Bruno Mars, who best male video and choreography for Treasure, twirled with his two moonmen backstage, while Gomez admitted she thought Thicke's Blurred Lines should have won best pop video instead of her seductive Come & Get It.
Lady Gaga kicked off the awards show in a less dramatic fashion compared to her past performances. She did change her clothes — and hair — various times onstage while dancing and singing her new hit Applause. She finished in a thong, revealing her toned body.
Katy Perry closed the VMAs under the Brooklyn bridge in a boxing ring, singing her smash hit Roar.
An exhibition at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia of artwork by famed American photographer Annie Leibovitz will be delayed until January because of repairs to the gallery's sprinkler system.
Ray Cronin, director and CEO of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax, said he had hoped the collection would be shown sooner but it took longer than expected to replace the sprinkler system in the north building.
The north building, which houses the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia's permanent collection and temporary exhibits, has been closed since May.
"We have been having some challenges. We weren't expecting to have a good percentage of the gallery closed all summer," Cronin told CBC News.
The problem with the sprinkler system was found during a maintenance check by the provincial Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, which took over managing the gallery's buildings last year.
The north building was renovated in 1988 and the system had been worn down over time, officials said.
Meanwhile, the gallery is trying to finalize which 120 Annie Leibovitz photographs to display to the public. They will likely include some of the 63-year-old's most iconic photographs, such as John Lennon and Yoko Ono embracing, a naked and pregnant Demi Moore, Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg in a milk-filled tub, the Blues Brothers and the Queen.
Cronin said donor Harley Mintz and the 63-year-old photographer are both planning to attend the opening of the exhibit.
"Certainly Annie wants to come to do something, to be here at the opening and perhaps do a lecture or something like that," he said.
The collection includes 2,070 images — 1,307 editioned prints and 763 vintage file prints — and was gifted to the gallery by the Al and Faye Mintz family of Toronto.
When the donation was publicized in June, the gallery said the exhibition would open in the fall.
"It takes time to get everything settled," said Cronin.
"It's going to be one of the biggest exhibitions we've ever done, if not the most popular exhibition we've ever done. There's not point in doing something like this if you don't do it absolutely right."
Leibovitz faced a massive debt several years ago that led to the sale of some of her vast collection, but she managed to avoid bankruptcy.
(Note:CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external links.)
The National Ballet of Canada has announced that a former Bolshoi prima ballerina will join its team as a principal featured guest in the 2013/2014 season.
Svetlana Lunkina has danced for Russia's Bolshoi Theatre ballet troupe since 1997, but has resided in Toronto since fall 2012. In January, she announced her decision to stay in Canada instead of returning home, due to threats and blackmail she received there.
Lunkina has been taking classes with the National Ballet and danced for the company in June for its Mad Hot Ballet: Dangerous Love event.
The Bolshoi itself has been mired in controversy and power struggles, which made international headlines in January when a masked assailant threw acid into the face of the Russian company's artistic director, Sergei Filin.
Karen Kain, the National Ballet of Canada's artistic director, announced on Wednesday that Evan McKie would also become a principal guest artist, with Matthew Golding and Jiri Jelinek joining the troupe as guest artists.
(Note:CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external links.)
A new day has come for Canadian pop superstar Céline Dion on social media.
The Quebec chanteuse started an official Twitter account Thursday morning, writing in her first tweet: "Hello Twitter! How are you? Excited to talk to you more."
She then tweeted a short video from the mobile app Vine in which she promoted her upcoming English-language album that's due out this fall.
"Hi everyone. Very excited about my new album Loved Me Back to Life. Can't wait for you to hear it. Ciao."
By Thursday afternoon, the Twitter account had just those two tweets but had already amassed over 28,000 followers.
Dion is performing a three-year stint at Caesars Palace casino in Las Vegas.
Last month, the five-time Grammy winner visited Quebec City to pick up her Order of Canada medal and sing in concert.
Actor and screenwriter Wentworth Miller, best known for his leading role in Fox television drama Prison Break, came out as a gay man on Wednesday in a letter declining an invitation to attend a Russian film festival in light of Moscow's recently adopted anti-gay laws.
Miller, 41, turned down an offer to attend the St. Petersburg International Film Festival as a "guest of honor" in a letter posted on the website of advocacy group GLAAD, which monitors media representation of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people and issues.
"Thank you for your kind invitation. As someone who has enjoyed visiting Russia in the past and can also claim a degree of Russian ancestry, it would make me happy to say yes. However, as a gay man, I must decline," Miller wrote to festival director Maria Averbakh.
Miller wrote that he was "deeply troubled by the current attitude toward and treatment of gay men and women by the Russian government," and did not want attend a festival in a country where "people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly."
Russia's parliament banned the spread of gay "propaganda" among minors in a law passed in June, which includes imposing fines on those holding gay pride rallies, has attracted international condemnation.
Miller, who played incarcerated structural engineer Michael Scofield in Fox's Prison Break from 2005 to 2009, has recently turned his hand at screenwriting, penning the script for this year's dark thriller Stoker, starring Nicole Kidman.
Miller's letter comes after Bravo channel host and executive producer Andy Cohen told E! News last week that he would not be co-hosting Donald Trump's Miss Universe pageant this year in Moscow because he "didn't feel right as a gay man stepping foot into Russia."
Ben Affleck will don Batman's cape and cowl.
Warner Bros. announced Thursday that the 41-year-old actor-director will star as a new incarnation of the Dark Knight in a film bringing Batman and Superman together.
The studio said Affleck will star opposite 30-year-old Henry Cavill, who will reprise his role as Superman from Man of Steel. The movie will also feature Man of Steel stars Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Laurence Fishburne as Perry White and Diane Lane as Martha Kent.
The big-screen DC Comics superhero mash-up was first revealed by director Zack Snyder at last month's Comic-Con International in San Diego.
Snyder, who will direct the sequel written by Man of Steel screenwriter David S. Goyer, said in a statement that Affleck will provide an "interesting counter-balance" to Cavill's Clark Kent.
"(Affleck) has the acting chops to create a layered portrayal of a man who is older and wiser than Clark Kent and bears the scars of a seasoned crime fighter, but retain the charm that the world sees in billionaire Bruce Wayne," said Snyder. "I can't wait to work with him."
Production on the as-yet-untitled film is expected to begin in 2014 for release July 17, 2015.
It won't be Affleck's first time in superhero garb. He played a blind Marvel crime fighter in 2003's Daredevil and portrayed 1950s Superman actor George Reeves in 2006's Hollywoodland.
Affleck's Argo, which he starred in and directed, won the Academy Award for best picture earlier this year.
Christian Bale most recently played Batman in director Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy.
Marian McPartland, a U.K.-born jazz pianist and host of the National Public Radio show Piano Jazz has died in New York. She was 95.
An NPR spokeswoman says she died of natural causes Tuesday night at her home.
Her career spanned more than six decades. She became a fixture in the jazz world as a talented musician and radio personality.
McPartland recorded more than 50 albums for the Concord Jazz label and played in venues across the U.S.
CBC Music: McPartland 'a wonderfully melodic player'In 1978, she brought her talent for composition and status as a jazz insider to radio and began hosting the Peabody Award-winning Piano Jazz. On the show, she hosted hundreds of jazz professionals.
In 2007, the Kennedy Center named McPartland a Living Jazz Legend. Among her many recognitions, she was named an NEA Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2000.
Born Margaret Marian Turner in England, she began playing classical piano at the age of 3. At 17, she was accepted to the prestigious Guildhall School of Music. She left in her third year to play piano with a touring vaudeville act – to the chagrin of her parents, who she said were "horrified."
Marian McPartland was a fixture on New York City's 52nd Street during the 1950s. (Michael Ochs Archive) She came to live in New York in 1953. She turned her keen ears toward her contemporaries, writing articles and essays that immortalized the people and places of the jazz world in the 1950s and '60s.
In one essay, included in McPartland's collected works, You've Come a Long Way, Baby, she wrote about her experiences as a woman striving to be taken seriously by male musicians.
"Once a man stood at the bar watching me intently, and when the set was finished he came over and said with a smile, 'You know, you can't be a respectable woman the way you play piano,"' she wrote. "For some reason or another, this struck me as a great compliment."
McPartland continued to tour and perform into her 80s.
"I can't walk. I'm in miserable pain. But at the piano, I don't feel a thing," McPartland said during one appearance.
Quick-thinking good Samaritans, including television's Dr. Oz, helped save the life of a British tourist whose leg was severed by a runaway taxi in midtown Manhattan.
The 23-year-old victim, Sian Green, was struck in a Rockefeller Center plaza Tuesday.
Union plumber David Justino fashioned a tourniquet with his work belt for one of Green's legs. He used a dog leash for the other injured leg.
Mehmet Oz, who was walking in the area, rushed over when he heard the accident. He credits Justino for saving the woman's life.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Wednesday the woman's family is en route from Leicester, England. She remains sedated.
Police say the cab driver was issued a summons for being an unauthorized driver. The accident is under investigation; he could face other charges.
Whenever a gaggle of nerds gets together, you can always count on one thing — a big chunk of them are going to be in costume.
And at this weekend's Fan Expo in Toronto, they'll be out in full force. There'll be more than a few Batmans, a Stormtrooper or two and likely some video game characters in incredibly detailed (and often homemade) costumes.
It's called cosplay — and it's a staple at conventions that is growing ever larger as underground subcultures permeate pop culture.
'I'm a girl on prom night, and I don't want anyone to wear the same dress as me.'—John Clemens, costumer
"It's a bonding experience," said Claudia Amendola, a 25-year-old teacher in the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board. "Being asked to have your photo taken is awesome. It's like you're a celebrity."
Amendola has been going to Fan Expo for the last three years, and got a costume together for the first time last year. This year, she'll be going as Harley Quinn, the Joker's girlfriend who originally popped up in the Batman animated series in the 90s.
Last year, she dressed as X-23, who is the female version of Wolverine from Marvel Comics. She posed for dozens of photos with onlookers. "Mostly men," she laughs.
On its busiest days, over half the people at the convention will be in costume, she says. Considering 91,000 people came out in 2012, that's no small feat.
The convention was founded as the Canadian National Comic Book Expo back in 1994. Originally centred mostly on comics, it has since branched out to include video games, horror, collectables, toys, anime and even a sports panel.
Some big names will be there this year: Bobby Orr, Hulk Hogan, Alice Cooper, David Hasselhoff, Stan Lee and more.
Lots of fans show up in iconic costumes, like Spiderman, Batman and Star Wars characters.
But John Clemens gravitates towards smaller, supporting characters so he doesn't end up in the same threads as someone else.
"I'm a girl on prom night, and I don't want anyone to wear the same dress as me," the 32-year-old west Mountain resident laughed. "It's no different than dressing up as a kid on Halloween."
"It's a silly thrill."
Clemens has been assembling two different costumes — Union Jack, a British Marvel Comics character, and Beta Ray Bill, a knock-off of Thor.
Clemens has been making costumes on and off since the 90s, but this year is the first time he has built something from scratch. "We have to go all in to keep up with the Jones'," he laughed.
He says he doesn't catch too much flack from his friends about the hobby. "Most of them are nerds, so they kind of get it," he said. "Though my mom was kind of skeptical at first."
Amendola hasn't been quite so lucky with her family. "My family thinks it's really bizarre," she said. "They always say, 'please don't tell me you're dressing up.'"
Fan Expo runs from August 22 to 25 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. For more information on pricing, scheduling and guests, visit Fanexpocanada.com.
(Note:CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external links.)
The National Ballet of Canada has announced that a former Bolshoi prima ballerina will join its team as a principal featured guest in the 2013/2014 season.
Svetlana Lunkina has danced for Russia's Bolshoi Theatre ballet troupe since 1997, but has resided in Toronto since fall 2012. In January, she announced her decision to stay in Canada instead of returning home, due to threats and blackmail she received there.
Lunkina has been taking classes with the National Ballet and danced for the company in June for its Mad Hot Ballet: Dangerous Love event.
The Bolshoi itself has been mired in controversy and power struggles, which made international headlines in January when a masked assailant threw acid into the face of the Russian company's artistic director, Sergei Filin.
Karen Kain, the National Ballet of Canada's artistic director, announced on Wednesday that Evan McKie would also become a principal guest artist, with Matthew Golding and Jiri Jelinek joining the troupe as guest artists.
Movie stars Daniel Radcliffe, Keira Knightley, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman and Keanu Reeves will share the spotlight with filmmakers Robert Lepage, Jason Reitman, Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner and many more at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival next month.
Organizers unveiled the full 2013 film schedule today, including the remaining batch of titles joining the official lineup and issuing a lengthy list of stars expected to walk its red carpets.
Filmmakers, industry figures and celebrity guests expected to descend on Toronto range from A-list actors such as Michael Fassbender, Julia Roberts, Jake Gyllenhaal and Scarlett Johansson to Bollywood up-and-comer Parineeti Chopra, British filmmaker Steve McQueen, artist Marcel Dzama and former Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor.
"Unquestionably, Toronto is now positioned as one of the key — if not the key — festivals for awards-season launch, so of course many of the stars will come to the festival as well as the major directors," festival director Piers Handling told reporters on a conference call Tuesday.
"They've looked at the track record of Toronto over the last 15-20 years, which is very impressive. Many films go on to multiple nominations and we've had a track record of picking best picture as well as many of the best actors over the years."
New titles by noted cinematic auteurs were among Tuesday's additions, including the latest from dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi (the drama Closed Curtain, co-directed by Kambozia Partovi) and French filmmaker and writer Catherine Breillat (autobiographical tale Abuse of Weakness starring Isabelle Huppert).
Also joining the program are two films spotlighting major music events: Amir Bar-Lev's 12.12.12, a film about the star-studded concert that saw acts like Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Alicia Keys take the stage to raise funds for Hurricane Sandy relief, and Ron Howard's Made in America, which examines rap mogul Jay Z's debut as a curator for a music festival in Philadelphia.
Both films are also part of Mavericks program, which offers onstage chats with the creative minds behind several high-profile TIFF titles. Taylor, one of the main architects of The Canadian Caper, will also take part to discuss his new documentary Our Man in Tehran.
TIFF also announced the addition of CBC's Glenn Gould Studio as its newest venue, with the auditorium to host the Mavericks screenings and talks as well as a host of industry conferences and sessions.
The Toronto International Film Festival opens Sept. 5 with the premiere of the WikiLeaks drama The Fifth Estate. It runs through Sept. 15.
With files from The Canadian PressAcclaimed American crime novelist Elmore Leonard, whose witty, gritty and undeniably cool stories were turned into Hollywood hits such as Out of Sight, Jackie Brown, Get Shorty and TV's Justified, has died at the age of 87.
Leonard "passed away this morning at 7:15 a.m. at home surrounded by his loving family," according to an update posted Tuesday on his website.
The writer, based for decades in Bloomfield Township, Mich., northwest of Detroit, died of complications from a stroke suffered in early August, according to his longtime researcher, Gregg Sutter.
Though born in New Orleans, he and his family eventually settled in Detroit in the mid-1930s. After serving in the U.S. Navy in the mid 1940s, he enrolled in the University of Detroit and studied English and philosophy.
Despite a busy career as an advertising writer during the 1950s, Leonard started a career writing fiction on the side. His dedication was evident in his work ethic: he would wake in the early hours to spend time writing Westerns before heading in for a day at the Campbell-Ewald Agency.
He published dozens of short stories (such as 3:10 to Yuma), a handful of novels (including his debut, The Bounty Hunters, and the acclaimed Hombre) and sold movie rights to several projects before feeling comfortable enough to quit advertising to focus on fiction full-time in 1961. Even then he maintained a dedicated schedule of writing from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day.
'I try to leave out the parts that people tend to skip'—Elmore Leonard
During the 1970s and 1980s, Leonard began to gain a devoted and ever-larger following with a switch to crime novels, including The Big Bounce, Glitz, Get Shorty, Rum Punch, Out of Sight and The Switch.
Influenced by Ernest Hemingway, he become known and was celebrated for his crisp and spare writing style, snappy dialogue, punchy noir tales, dark humour and stories full of entertaining, morally ambiguous characters: schemers, con men, crooks and killers.
Leonard, who often said his axiom was " to leave out the parts that people tend to skip," shared his "10 Rules of Writing" with the New York Times in 2001. That list was published in book form in 2007.
Since his breakout success in the 1980s, he earned a host of honours, including the Hammett Prize from the International Association of Crime Writers, the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America, the Diamond Dagger Award from the Crime Writers' Association of Great Britain and, most recently, an honorary U.S. National Book Award for lifetime achievement in 2012.
Leonard was married three times: to the late Beverly Cline in 1949, the late Joan Shepard in 1979 and, at the age of 68, to Christine Kent in 1993 (the couple divorced in 2012). He is survived by five children from his first marriage and grandchildren.
A devoted writer until the end, Leonard had been working on his 46th book when he suffered the stroke earlier this month, according to Sutter.
Inspired by the producers of critically acclaimed cable TV series Justified, which is based on his novella Fire in the Hole, Leonard had published his 45th novel, Raylan, in 2012. Other adaptations of his stories are also set to hit the big screen, including the film Life of Crime, based on his story The Switch, which will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
"I probably won't quit until I just quit everything — quit my life — because it's all I know how to do," he told The Associated Press in 2012.
"I do have fun writing, and a long time ago, I told myself, 'You got to have fun at this, or it'll drive you nuts.'"
With files from The Associated PressBoth Brian Browne and his son Sean have wrestled with demons so often associated with jazz music.
"I was smoking weed at eight years old," the younger Browne told CBC Hamilton. "I was driving my dad down the Don Valley Parkway when I was 11 and he was pissed drunk."
Both father and son endured years of addiction, some decades apart. Brian was one of Canada's hottest jazz pianists in the early 60s. Back then, he starred in weekly CBC radio and TV shows like Adventures in Rhythm and was profiled with American jazz pianists Erroll Garner, Bill Evans and Marian MacPartland for a CBC TV show called Jazz Piano.
But booze, pot and a host of other drugs slowed his career. By the late 80s, Browne was managing a pool hall in New York City — reportedly one of the biggest in the country at that time. He also wasn't playing piano professionally anymore.
"He told me when he quit, he hated music," Sean said. "He couldn't look at a piano."
Sean also struggled with addiction. It's a jazz musician's curse, he says. "When you're high, you can play the s--t out of it," the younger Browne said. "When you're straight, you just don't feel it the same."
"You know every jazz musician struggles with drugs and alcoholism."
Both Brownes have now been sober for years. Brian stopped drinking in 1979 and got off drugs by 1991. His son has been clean for years, too. Now they enjoy sometimes playing together — and they'll be doing just that this Friday at The Pearl Company as part of the first Steel City Jazz Fest.
Sean is a self-taught upright bass player, and has lived in Hamilton for the better part of 15 years. He's played with his father before — most recently at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
When asked how he feels about playing with his father this week, Sean answers simply, "Scared s---less."
"Sometimes I'm a little bit intimidated because I'm hanging on by a hair trying to keep up with him," he said.
"He's a professional, and I'm not. He turned pro at 17."
But if Sean is worried onstage, his father hasn't noticed. "He has heard me play since the time he was born," the elder Browne told CBC Hamilton from Ottawa, where he lives. "He has this instinctive feel that no one else has."
"It's wonderful."
Steel City Jazz organizer Chris Ferguson first heard Sean play at Humble Pie on James Street North during an Art Crawl. The Brownes contacted him about finding a spot in the festival, and he was thrilled.
So thrilled, in fact, that they're shipping in a grand piano from Oakville just for use during the performance. "I'm just really excited to have them involved," Ferguson said.
Compared to other jazz festivals in Ottawa and Montreal, Hamilton's version is smaller. That's because larger festivals tend to branch out of jazz music and bring in out of town acts, Ferguson says. "We wanted to highlight Hamilton."
The festival starts on Thursday, and plays out on four stages in the city until Sunday. Aside from The Pearl Company, there are also stages at Baltimore House, the Waterfront and Homegrown Hamilton.
Ferguson says the jazz genre lends itself to a festival atmosphere because it can be an intimidating type of music to get into because of its technicality and cache. "A festival gives you a new way to enjoy the music," he said. "It becomes more of an event and helps to break down barriers."
It's been a few years since Hamilton has had a festival that is heavily jazz focused, he says — but he thinks it's about time. "There's certainly an appetite here," he said.
"Everyone I've talked to has seemed interested and supportive."
Tickets to all Steel City Jazz Festival performances can be purchased at the door of the performance. The cost per ticket varies depending on the venue and performer, but all tickets are $10 or less.
Brian and Sean Browne play at The Pearl Company on Friday night at 10 p.m. For more information on the festival, visit Steelcityjazzfest.com.
Brown was scheduled to headline the Energy Rush festival in Halifax, Toronto, Saint John and Winnipeg.
"After ongoing conversation and consultation with this year's headline act Chris Brown, and in light of the performer's recent personal and health-related issues, a decision has been made to cancel all four scheduled performances," said Stephen Tobin, owner of Drop Entertainment Group, in a statement Monday.
The promoter said Energy Rush can't go ahead without a headliner so it has been postponed until next year.
In Halifax, Brown's show at Alderney Landing came under fire as soon as it was announced.
Many ardently argued the city shouldn't support Brown, who was convicted of assaulting his then girlfriend, pop star Rihanna, in 2009. The show stoked outcry on social media, with some people calling for a boycott.
A handful of sponsors — Rogers, Molson Coors Brewing Co., esthetics company Touch of Radiance and the Halifax campus of the Centre for Arts and Technology — pulled their support once Brown was revealed to be the headline act.
Even Halifax Mayor Mike Savage voiced his disapproval.
Tobin said the cancellation has nothing to do with the controversy.
Brown's publicist Nicole Perna said the performer needs time to focus on himself and a new album.
Energy Rush organizers said this isn't the end of their plans and they hope to reschedule the show for next year. They said the event had strong ticket sales, although they didn't specify any numbers.
Refunds will be available starting on Thursday.
The controversy in Halifax came as a judge in Los Angeles revoked Brown's probation in July after reading details of an alleged hit-and-run accident in May. Brown was not ordered to go to jail.
Lee Thompson Young, who began his acting career as the teenage star of the Disney Channel's The Famous Jett Jackson and was featured in the film Friday Night Lights and the series Rizzoli & Isles, was found dead Monday, police said. He was 29.
There was no official cause of death, but Young's manager, Paul Baruch, said the actor "tragically took his own life."
Young's body was found at his North Hollywood home by police Monday morning after he failed to show up for work on TNT's crime drama Rizzoli & Isles, police Officer Sally Madera said. The Los Angeles Fire Department was summoned and pronounced him dead at the scene, she said.
Los Angeles police robbery-homicide detectives and the Los Angeles County coroner's office were investigating because it is a high-profile death, she said. Madera had no details about the cause of death.
In the TNT series, Young played fledgling police Detective Barry Frost, who's computer savvy but squeamish. Earlier Monday, the channel announced it was renewing the series that stars Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.
"We are beyond heartbroken at the loss of this sweet, gentle, good-hearted, intelligent man. ... Lee will be cherished and remembered by all who knew and loved him, both on- and offscreen, for his positive energy, infectious smile and soulful grace," TNT, studio Warner Bros. and series producer Janet Tamaro said in a joint statement.
They sent condolences to his mother and other family members.
According to a biography from TNT, Young was inspired to pursue acting when, at age, 10, he played Martin Luther King Jr. in a play in Young's hometown of Columbia, South Carolina.
In 1998, Young began starring in The Famous Jett Jackson, playing a TV action hero who returns to his roots for a less high-profile life. The series ran until 2001.
Young followed it with roles in TV series, including The Guardian, Scrubs and Smallville and in the films Akeelah and the Bee and The Hills Have Eyes II. Young joined Rizzoli & Isles when it debuted in 2010.
"I'm the youngest member of the cast, so I really take advantage of the wealth of knowledge that I find myself surrounded by," Young said in a 2011 interview with the website Rolling Out.
Young, a graduate of University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, was an as an avid photographer, traveller and student of martial arts, according to his biography.
A group of international terrorists who call themselves The Engineers are launching an escalating series of deadly attacks on the United States. Their ultimatum to the U.S.: pull back your military presence from multiple locations around the world or the attacks, code named the Blacklist, will continue.
The plot might sound like a testosterone-driven Hollywood film, but this a made-in-Canada video game: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. The first game from Ubisoft Toronto hits stores today on all major videogame platforms, and the stakes are high for the studio's team, as well as for the province's video game industry.
In 2009, the Ontario government announced a $263 million grant to Ubisoft, the Paris-based game company, to found a Toronto studio with the intention of creating 800 jobs in 10 years. Four years later, Ubisoft Toronto has a staff of about 300 and says it's well ahead of schedule in terms of the 800-job target.
Toronto has become known for critical darlings produced in the indie sector, including DrinkBox Games' Guacamelee and Capy Games' Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP. But the rationale for the grant was that a blockbuster AAA game the likes of Splinter Cell could attract greater numbers of both experienced and aspiring developers to the city.
The province is also supporting other studios with financial incentives. Rockstar Toronto, for example, received government assistance to start an expansion at a location in Oakville, Ont. The studio, which has worked on the Grand Theft Auto series and 2012's Max Payne 3, reportedly received $2 million in grants.
But Ubisoft Toronto is by far the Ontario government's biggest gamble in the games industry. And this first project is no minor game or a second-line title — Blacklist is the sixth entry in a longstanding series of espionage action games. So this week, all eyes in the Canadian game development industry are on Ubisoft Toronto to see whether it can deliver.
The most controversial change in Blacklist was the loss of voice actor Michael Ironside, who had played the role of the grizzled Fisher since the series' outset. (Courtesy Ubisoft) Debuting in 2002 with combined sales of more than 22 million copies, Splinter Cell is one of Ubisoft's tentpole franchises alongside the likes of Assassin's Creed and Rayman.
Several members of Ubisoft's long-standing Montreal team moved to Toronto to seed the company's second major Canadian location. Managing director Jade Raymond, one of the producers of 2007's Assassin's Creed, was joined by creative director Maxime Béland and senior producer Alex Parizeau.
Béland's no stranger to the pressure. "The sad answer is that every game I've made has the most pressure I've ever seen," he told CBC News.
"It's always stressful, it's always big. The pressure is always at the maximum. And I don't think it's only on AAA games. If you're passionate, if you're an artist or a creator and you're working on something that you care about, you self-impose stress and tension and all that onto yourself."
In 2006 he headed the launch of Rainbow Six: Vegas, another game in the Tom Clancy universe. He also served as creative director for 2010's Splinter Cell: Conviction. But its introduction of more gunplay, direct confrontation with enemies and an overall greater emphasis on action over stealth soured some fans on the series. (Fun fact: when you type Maxime Béland into Google's search bar, the first autocomplete phrase that appears is "Maxime Béland ruined Splinter Cell.")
Criticism from gamers didn't seem to sway the actual critics, however: Splinter Cell: Conviction was praised as the best game in the series, and currently enjoys an 85/100 rating on Metacritic, the reviews aggregator site.
The team is taking even more risks with Blacklist. Early previews in the games press have been promising, but fans have so far expressed a more reserved optimism.
The most controversial change was the loss of voice actor Michael Ironside, who had played the role of the grizzled Fisher since the series' outset.
Ironside was replaced by Edmonton actor Eric Johnson, who appeared on television's Rookie Blue and Smallville. Ubisoft said it wanted voice talent that could also perform motion capture for their characters.
The team has also made changes to Splinter Cell's strategic recipe, allowing players to put a greater emphasis on lurking in the shadows rather than running and gunning, a return to the approach taken by the series' older games.
Game director Patrick Redding said that getting that balance between accessibility and complexity was a challenge that he embraced as a self-described masochist.
"At the end of the day, regardless of how great the production values are, or how big your budget is, games are based on mechanics," he says. "That's what makes them different from other mediums. It's what allows them to be interactive, it's what allows games to produce experiences, or allows players to produce experiences for themselves that are unique. It's what gives games their power."
Several members of Ubisoft's Montreal team moved to Toronto to help start the new studio, including managing director Jade Raymond, one of the producers of the 2007 hit game Assassin's Creed. (Courtesy Ubisoft) Despite the pressure for success, the team still managed to have a bit of fun with shout-outs to the studio's home town. One of the multiplayer maps, while based on the U.K. Millennium Mills, is named Landsowne Mill, after the Toronto street closest to Ubisoft's studio. And minor characters were given the names of local sports players, including the Blue Jays' J.P. Arencibia and the Maple Leafs' Leo Komarov.
But with the amount of provincial grant money and so many jobs riding on the success of the game, the question is whether the changes and themes chosen by the Toronto development team will resonate with an international audience.
The early signs are positive. On Metacritic, the game currently boasts an 82/100 average rating. The National Post said that, despite "some rough patches," Ubisoft Toronto has made "a game which excels by making all of its moving pieces work together in unison."
Raymond adds that the pre-orders for the game at retail were filled and stores have had to order more copies to meet the demand.
And even as the champagne corks are popped for the launch of Blacklist, the studio is already working on five separate projects, including collaborating with Ubisoft Montreal on an unannounced game in the Assassin's Creed series.
"Setting up a new studio from scratch, hiring over 300 people in three years and shipping the biggest game ever to come out of Ontario and the biggest game in the franchise to date is quite an accomplishment," says Raymond.
"The game industry and our team here is full of people who want to outdo ourselves each time, so we're setting the bar even higher with all of our next projects."
Acclaimed American crime novelist Elmore Leonard, whose witty, gritty and undeniably cool stories were turned into Hollywood hits such as Out of Sight, Jackie Brown, Get Shorty and TV's Justified, has died at the age of 87.
Leonard "passed away this morning at 7:15 a.m. at home surrounded by his loving family," according to an update posted Tuesday on his website.
The writer, based for decades in Bloomfield Township, Mich., northwest of Detroit, died of complications from a stroke suffered in early August, according to his longtime researcher, Gregg Sutter.
Though born in New Orleans, he and his family eventually settled in Detroit in the mid-1930s. After serving in the U.S. Navy in the mid 1940s, he enrolled in the University of Detroit and studied English and philosophy.
Despite a busy career as an advertising writer during the 1950s, Leonard started a career writing fiction on the side. His dedication was evident in his work ethic: he would wake in the early hours to spend time writing Westerns before heading in for a day at the Campbell-Ewald Agency.
He published dozens of short stories (such as 3:10 to Yuma), a handful of novels (including his debut, The Bounty Hunters, and the acclaimed Hombre) and sold movie rights to several projects before feeling comfortable enough to quit advertising to focus on fiction full-time in 1961. Even then he maintained a dedicated schedule of writing from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day.
'I try to leave out the parts that people tend to skip'—Elmore Leonard
During the 1970s and 1980s, Leonard began to gain a devoted and ever-larger following with a switch to crime novels, including The Big Bounce, Glitz, Get Shorty, Rum Punch, Out of Sight and The Switch.
Influenced by Ernest Hemingway, he become known and was celebrated for his crisp and spare writing style, snappy dialogue, punchy noir tales, dark humour and stories full of entertaining, morally ambiguous characters: schemers, con men, crooks and killers.
Leonard, who often said his axiom was " to leave out the parts that people tend to skip," shared his "10 Rules of Writing" with the New York Times in 2001. That list was published in book form in 2007.
Since his breakout success in the 1980s, he earned a host of honours, including the Hammett Prize from the International Association of Crime Writers, the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America, the Diamond Dagger Award from the Crime Writers' Association of Great Britain and, most recently, an honorary U.S. National Book Award for lifetime achievement in 2012.
Leonard was married three times: to the late Beverly Cline in 1949, the late Joan Shepard in 1979 and, at the age of 68, to Christine Kent in 1993. He is survived by his third wife, five children from his first marriage and grandchildren.
A devoted writer until the end, Leonard had been working on his 46th book when he suffered the stroke earlier this month, according to Sutter.
Inspired by the producers of critically acclaimed cable TV series Justified, which is based on his novella Fire in the Hole, Leonard had published his 45th novel, Raylan, in 2012. Other adaptations of his stories are also set to hit the big screen, including the film Life of Crime, based on his story The Switch, which will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
"I probably won't quit until I just quit everything — quit my life — because it's all I know how to do," he told The Associated Press in 2012.
"I do have fun writing, and a long time ago, I told myself, 'You got to have fun at this, or it'll drive you nuts.'"
With files from The Associated PressAi Weiwei's list of accolades includes the Vaclav Havel prize for creative dissent, Man of the Year nods from Time magazine and GQ, and ArtReview magazine has twice included him on its list of the top 100 most powerful artists, but when an exhibit of his work opens at Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario on Saturday he will not be in attendance.
The dissident Chinese artist is subject to a kind of house arrest in China, but that has not prevented his work from travelling abroad.
Ai's politically charged multimedia artworks have raised the ire of China's government, resulting in him being stripped of his passport after being jailed in 2011 for tax evasion — a charge his supporters claim was punishment for his activism.
The exhibit According to What? is on a North American tour, and the AGO is its only Canadian stop.
"It's pretty big for us," said AGO director Matthew Teitelbaum.
The installation piece, He Xie, is the artist's response to the demolition of his studio in Shanghai, representing a meal of crabs he served to supporters in protest of the studio's destruction. He Xie is the Chinese word for river crab, and the piece is composed of some 3,000 porcelain crabs. (Evan Mitsui/CBC) "We're interested in artists who engage the community in conversation and Ai does that," Teitelbaum told CBC News when asked if hosting an Ai Weiwei exhibit was a "good get" for the gallery.
According to What? is one of the most significant exhibitions of contemporary art the AGO has hosted in years and the lengths to which the gallery went to install it are a testament to the artist's stature.
Ai is "very important," said Scott, who invokes the names of Warhol and Picasso when describing his art and influences.
Contemporary artists like Ai "live in our time and experience the world we all experience," said Scott.
His visibility through social media (Ai's Twitter account, which was shut down temporarily, has over 200,000 followers) and his image as a champion of human rights in China has earned the artist a global following typically associated with rock stars. His popularity is in part due to his "situation," said Scott, referring to Ai's inability to leave China.
Scott said there were challenges installing Ai's more expansive pieces without the artist's presence.
The hundreds of ceramic crabs that compose the installation piece He Xie arrived at the AGO in 20 crates, and Kippe — composed of over 6,000 pieces of ancient reclaimed temple wood and iron bars — weighs hundreds of kilograms.
The AGO exhibit also includes a massive white wall lined with the names and birth dates of the 5,212 children killed in the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan province and a sculpture composed of over 38 tonnes of rebar collected from the disaster site. Teahouse, an installation that incorporates three miniature houses made of densely packed dried tea weighing more than one tonne each, required a structural engineer to install.
"It's the heaviest show we've ever put on," said Teitelbaum.
Along with the installations, According to What? showcases a range of the 55-year-old artist's work, including the pop-inflected remixes of Han Dynasty urns titled Coloured Vases, a bouquet of wooden Qing Dynasty stools and hundreds of photographs.
For Ai, there is "no difference" between art and politics, said Mami Kataoka, the curator of the artist's North American tour. It's an opinion Kataoka formed through numerous meetings and conversations with the artist at his Beijing studio.
"Art gives people the strength to respond to our social-political conditions," Ai wrote in an email exchange with The Canadian Press.
"I live in one of the most extreme political societies of the world, and it sees freedom of expression as an enemy of the state," Ai said.
His artwork is best known for its political undertones exemplified in his artistic response to his country's handling of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In the same year, Ai designed the Beijing Olympics' iconic Bird's Nest stadium, only to disavow it, saying it had become a symbol of autocracy. In 2009, he underwent surgery to relieve bleeding in the brain, which allegedly occurred at the hands of police.
"More than anything, I wish Ai could see this exhibition," Scott said. "Every time we make an exhibit with a contemporary artist, it's a time to celebrate that artist."
Despite the acclaim, the fame that has followed him continues to puzzle Ai.
"I'm surprised that somebody like me would even become famous, just for demanding very basic truths and seeking ways to survive with some dignity," Ai told The Canadian Press.
According to What? runs at the AGO from Aug. 17 until Oct. 27.
With files from The Canadian PressMohawk actor August Schellenberg died Thursday night in his home at Dallas after a battle with lung cancer. He was 77.
The actor's agent, Jamie Levitt, said Schellenberg died Thursday surrounded by his family.
She described Schellenberg as a loving family man and an iconic Canadian actor. He was married to Canadian actress Joan Karasevich and is the father of three daughters.
Born in Montreal to a Mohawk-English mother and Swiss-German father, Schellenberg was a champion diver and boxer in his youth. He graduated from Montreal's National Theatre School of Canada in 1966. He lived in Toronto from 1967 until 1995, and later moved to Dallas.
His extensive list of appearances in theatre, film and television include Black Robe, Free Willy and CBC's North of 60. He received three Genie award nominations, winning once for his role in Black Robe.
In 2007, he was nominated for an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for his role as Chief Sitting Bull in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
In 2012, Schellenberg played the titular role in an all-First Nations version of Shakespeare's King Lear at Ottawa's National Arts Centre.
"August Schellenberg had been thinking about mounting King Lear in 1967, just two years before the NAC opened its doors in Ottawa," said Peter Herrndorf, NAC president and CEO. "Through his friendship and collaboration with our former artistic director of English theatre, Peter Hinton, that dream was realized in our theatre in 2012. It was a ground-breaking and proud production."
"Words cannot explain how much you will be missed," tweeted the NAC's communications officer Sean Fitzpatrick.
"Augie had an incredible wit, and an incredible sense of humour," said Jani Lauzon. She co-starred in Schellenberg's Lear as both the Fool and Cordelia.
"He was such an incredible role model on the screen, but [also] an incredible actor. His performance and what he brings to every role was extraordinary."
The National Arts Centre has lowered its flag today in his honour.
With files from The Associated PressBroadcaster and former longtime CBC-TV host Roy Bonisteel has died at the age of 83.
Bonisteel's family said he died Friday morning at his home near Trenton, Ont. His family said he was being treated for cancer.
Bonisteel hosted the CBC Television program Man Alive, a magazine-style show that looked at religious issues, from 1967 to 1989. He received numerous awards over the span of his career, including two ACTRA honours.
A recipient of the Order of Canada and, more recently, a citizenship judge, Bonisteel had lived since 1971 just a short distance from his boyhood home in the Bay of Quinte area.
Bonisteel will also be remembered by some Saskatchewan journalists. He was a visiting professor at University of Regina's journalism school in the 1990s and later become the head of the program.
Nelson Bird, a producer and anchor with CTV Regina who attended the university in 1995, said Bonisteel was not a typical teacher.
"We would sit in his class every week and he would tell stories about his life, his experiences, how he did things...how he told the stories of other people and shared them with the world," said Bird.
"As prominent as he was in Canadian media, to us he was just a regular guy who liked to tell stories and laugh a lot," Bird continued.
Bonisteel is survived by his daughters, Mandy and Lesley, his son Steven, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
A memorial is planned for a later date.
