Breaking Bad finale draws curtain on series

Any Breaking Bad fan could be forgiven for concluding that Sunday's finale held no major surprises.

That's because this AMC drama series has delivered surprises, shock and "Oh My God" moments dependably since its premiere five seasons ago.

Just like it did on its final episode.

SPOILER ALERT: For those who don't want to be reading how yet, stop reading! And let's take a few moments for you who aren't ready to find out what happened to tear your eyes away from this article.

OK. Ready?

The finale closed the loop on a scene that began Season 5, and found Walt (series star Bryan Cranston) with a beard and a full head of hair at an Albuquerque, New Mexico, Denny's restaurant. There he made a swap for a different car than the Volvo he had stolen and driven cross-country from New Hampshire, where, until the final moments of last week's episode, he was holed up, a most-wanted fugitive from the law. More to the point, Walt in that deal at the Denny's men's room became the owner of a very serious rifle.

The scene, flashing forward several months ahead to Walt's 52nd birthday, was no less tantalizing than bewildering to viewers when it aired. On the finale, it revealed itself as a key piece of the series' finished puzzle.

As the finale began, Walt — cancer-stricken and a hunted man — was headed back home to Albuquerque for a last showdown.

In a byzantine and sinister arrangement with the couple who had become tycoons from a pharmaceutical company Walt co-founded but received no benefit from, Walt made sure his children would get the $10 million drug money he left behind with the couple — or else.

Walt then dropped in on his estranged wife, Skyler (Anna Gunn), who had made it plain she hated him.

"Why are you here?" she asked him coldly.

"It's over," he said, "and I needed a proper goodbye."

After all this time, he justified out loud his descent from life as a meek, ill-paid chemistry teacher to a life as a legendary drug lord. Before, he had always insisted he did it for his family, to leave them provided for after his death from his terminal cancer.

"I did it for me," he declared to Skyler. "I liked it. I was good at it. And I was alive."

Walt's former meth-cooking sidekick, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), was still enslaved to a group of bad guys forcing him to cook crystal-meth for them using the laboratory-pristine process Walt had pioneered and prospered with. Walt rescued Jesse: His assault rifle mowed down the bad guys by remote control from the trunk of his car.

Freed, Jesse was last seen speeding off, screaming in hysteria, rage and gratitude. Against all odds, he had lived to face another day.

For Walt, the outcome was much different. As the cops descended at the scene of the mass slaughter to seize him, he was lying on the floor, dead, apparently from a stray bullet from his own rifle. An inadvertent suicide, he had successfully escaped from the law, his foes and the cancer that was stalking him.

And, yes, Walt used the ricin he had held in reserve for ages. He poisoned Lydia Rodarte-Quayle, who had shown the bad judgment to collude with Walt's enemies on more than one occasion. He substituted it for the sweetener she thought she was putting in her tea.

The episode, and series, ended with Badfinger's "Baby Blue" ("Guess I got what I deserve").

So did viewers, with a finale that was surprising in its relative lack of carnage, that tied up loose ends and seemed organically fitting, however outlandish at times ("Breaking Bad" never insisted on stark realism).

The final episode created a buzz on social media. One Twitter feed described it as "the most satisfying series ending for any show on TV, ever."

Many critics have noted the show became better with every season and every episode.

"Breaking Bad saw its audience more than double in the last season," CBC's Louise Martin said.

"It was the most popular non-football program on Sunday nights, with 6.4 million viewers on average," she said.

Written and directed by Vince Gilligan, the series' creator, this series went out as it came in, and stayed: wicked, twisted and wildly creative. Certified with its conclusion as perhaps the best TV drama series of all time, Breaking Bad remained as pure a product as the crystal meth Walt White cooked, to his peril and demise.

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Toronto Raptors to bring rapper Drake on board

The Toronto Raptors are turning to a rapper to help the team rebrand after a poor showing on the court in recent years.

The team is expected to announce today that Drake, the hugely popular Toronto-born musician and Raptors fan, will join the team in an as-yet-undefined consultant role some have described as a "global ambassador."

Drake will also be called on to help rebrand the team ahead of its 20th anniversary in 2014-15.

A news conference was set for 11 a.m. where it was expected the club would also officially announce Toronto as the host of the 2016 all-star game.

Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri, NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver and Mayor Rob Ford were all scheduled to attend.

CBC.ca will carry the news conference live. You can watch it by clicking on the video player image that will appear at the top of this story.

Speaking ahead of Monday's announcement, CBC business reporter Scott Peterson said the team is hoping Drake will add some much-needed bling to its brand.

"They're hoping he'll generate some excitement and get more people out to the games," he said.

Peterson also said the move is aimed at helping the Raptors attract top-level free agents, something they've struggled to do in the past.

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Lisa Moore, Lynn Coady up for Writers' Trust fiction prize

Lynn Coady's Hellgoing, Lisa Moore's Caught and Cary Fagan's A Bird's Eye are among the finalists for the Rogers' Writers Trust Fiction Prize.

Organizers announced the annual literary honour's five finalists at Ben McNally Books in Toronto today. The $25,000 fiction prize is awarded to the year's best novel or short story collection,

Miranda Hill, past winner and a 2013 juror of the Writers' Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, announced the finalists for that award. The $10,000 Journey Prize, which marks its 25th anniversary this year, goes to the best short story by a new or developing writer first published in a Canadian literary journal.

"These awards recognize our world-class Canadian talent, giving the finalists affirmation from a jury of their peers, and bringing their work to the attention of readers from across the country," Mary Osborne, executive director of the Writers' Trust of Canada, said in a statement.

Finalists for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize are:

• Krista Bridge, The Eliot Girls (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Lynn Coady, Hellgoing (House of Anansi Press)
• Cary Fagan, A Bird's Eye (House of Anansi Press)
• Colin McAdam, A Beautiful Truth (Hamish Hamilton Canada)
• Lisa Moore, Caught (House of Anansi Press)

St. John's-based Moore and Edmonton author Coady are also nominated for this year's $50,000 Giller Prize.

Finalists for the Writers' Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize are:

• Doretta Lau, How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? (Event)
• Eliza Robertson, My Sister Sang (Grain)
• Naben Ruthnum, Cinema Rex (The Malahat Review)

The winners of both prizes will be announced at an gala in Toronto on Nov. 20. Both prizes, along with four other Writers' Trust awards to be presented that night, will amount to $114,000 in prize money for authors.

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Marcella Hazan, Italian food guru and cookbook author, dies

Marcella Hazan, the Italian-born cookbook author who taught generations of Americans how to create simple, fresh Italian food, died Sunday. She was 89.

Hazan died in the morning at her home in Florida, according to an email from her son, Giuliano Hazan, and posts on Facebook and Twitter from her husband and daughter-in-law.

Hazan was best known for her six cookbooks, which were written by her in Italian and translated into English by Victor, her husband of 57 years. The recipes were traditional, tasty and sparse — her famous tomato sauce contained only tomatoes, onion, butter and salt — and mirrored the tastes of her home country, where importance is placed on the freshness of food, rather than the whiz-bang recipes inside a chef's mind.

She eschewed the American-style Italian food that suffocated mushy pasta in grainy meatballs and tasteless cheese. She begged home cooks to use more salt and once wrote that if readers were concerned about salt affecting one's life expectancy, to "not read any further." On the topic of garlic, Hazan took a sharp view.

"The unbalanced use of garlic is the single greatest cause of failure in would-be Italian cooking," she wrote in her 2004 cookbook "Marcella Says..." "It must remain a shadowy background presence. It cannot take over the show."

Marcella Pollini was born in 1924 in Cesenatico in the Emilia-Romana region of Italy. She didn't intend to be a professional cooking teacher or author; she graduated from the University of Ferrara with a doctorate in natural sciences and biology.

But then she met Victor Hazan, who was born in Italy but raised in New York. The couple married in 1955 and moved to the U.S., and she realized she needed to feed her husband, who longed for the flavors of Italy. One year, she went to take a Chinese cooking class, but the instructor cancelled the class; the other students decided they wanted Hazan to teach them to cook Italian food.

So she began offering cooking classes from her New York City apartment. Those classes blossomed into a lifelong business of teaching. She and Victor opened a cooking school in Bologna, then in Venice, where classes took place in a 16th century palazzo with a custom designed kitchen.

Hazan gave birth to a son, Giuliano, in 1958. He shared his parents' love of food and also became a cookbook author. Giuliano and his wife run a cooking school in Verona. He also makes frequent visits to the Today Show, teaching his mother's recipes. Earlier this year, Giuliano Hazan published Hazan Family Favorites, drawing on his memories of his parents and grandparents and the food they ate for decades.

"The world of cooking has lost a giant today," daughter-in-law Lael Hazan tweeted Sunday afternoon.

'I use my head, but I cook from the heart'- Marcella Hazan

It was Hazan's 1973 cookbook, The Classic Italian Cookbook, that led gourmands to draw comparisons between Hazan and another larger-than-life cookbook author: Julia Child.

The two women were longtime friends; Child told People Magazine in 1998 that Hazan was "forbidding because she's rough ... that's her manner, and she's got a good heart."

In 2000, Hazan was awarded the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.

Marcella and Victor Hazan retired to a condo on Longboat Key, Fla., in the late 1990s. There, the couple renovated the kitchen, which overlooked the languid blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Punctuated by calls and visits from fans and reporters — and occasionally making appearances in her son's cookbooks and at cooking classes in the northeast — Hazan returned to the thing she loved doing most: cooking for her husband.

On Sunday, Victor Hazan wrote on Facebook: "Marcella, my incomparable companion, died this morning a few steps away from her bed. She was the truest and best, and so was her food."

In 2004, Marcella Hazan wrote, "Simple doesn't mean easy. I can describe simple cooking thus: Cooking that is stripped all the way down to those procedures and those ingredients indispensable in enunciating the sincere flavour intentions of a dish."

Hazan said the Roman dish spaghettini aio e oio — thin spaghetti with garlic, oil, parsley, chili pepper and nothing else — embodies the simple-yet-complex nature of Italian food. Dishes should nourish and please, she added, not "dazzle guests with my originality or creativity."

"I am never bored by a good old dish and I wouldn't shrink from making something that I first made fifty years ago and my mother, perhaps, fifty years before then," she wrote. "I don't cook 'concepts.' I use my head, but I cook from the heart, I cook for flavour."

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Rush captures the risk-taking world of 1970s car racing

Based on the true-life tale of rival race car drivers, swashbuckling James Hunt and cool customer Niki Lauda, Rush is the latest from director-producer Ron Howard.

One of the Hollywood blockbusters shown at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, the movie captures the pair's gladiator-like showdown that made the 1976 Formula One season infamous. It also revisits the excitement and dangers of the sport during that era.

"It's crazy to think they would step out on the track and for entertainment there was a twenty percent risk they were going to die, each time they got in a car," Chris Hemsworth, who portrays Hunt, told CBC News earlier this month.

"That was fascinating as far as what kind of personality is attracted to that. These guys, like James, the character I play, would continually search for that high, adrenalin-fuelled existence in everything he did. And become addicted to it."

In the attached video, Hemsworth, Daniel Bruhl, co-star Olivia Wilde and Howard talk with CBC News about what they learned about the daredevil world of 1970s race car driving through the making of Rush.

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Don Jon's Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Scarlett Johansson

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The addictive allure of TV's Breaking Bad

After five seasons, the dark and addictive TV series Breaking Bad comes to an end this weekend.

Bryan Cranston's acclaimed turn as chemistry teacher-turned-villainous meth-maker Walter White has earned the veteran actor a trio of consecutive best-actor Emmys as well as a place among American television's recent pantheon of compelling antiheroes, joining the late James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano, Michael C. Hall's Dexter Morgan and Jon Hamm's Don Draper.

"Walter White is a Shakespearean tragic character," TV screenwriter and producer Denis McGrath told CBC News.

"It is absolutely out of the playbook and I think that's what makes [the show] have such resonance."

In the attached video, Eli Glasner explores why Breaking Bad became must-watch television.

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Tom Power's new music preview: Shad, Hedley and Neko Case

In a new CBC Arts feature, CBC host Tom Power previews hot new music released in Canada.

This autumn's harvest cuts a broad swath of styles and sounds, starting with Shad, the man CBC Music chose as the second greatest Canadian rapper ever. His new recording Flying Colours will be released Oct. 15 and "it doesn't matter if you like Perry Como or you like Jay Z, there's something to love about Shad," says Power.

B.C. rock band Hedley releases Wild Life on Nov. 11 and the first single from the multiple award-winning, multi-platinum-selling band is already making news as a send up of music video tropes, including a nod to Robin Thicke's controversial Blurred Lines. The band takes a fresh approach to the concept of an album release party too, with an intimate show in Banff National Park billed as "the quietest concert ever" for an audience decked out in headphones.

An "honorary Canadian" who made her name singing with Vancouver's The New Pornographers, Neko Case recently released The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You. That mouthful of a title comes courtesy of the artist Power likens to Lucinda Williams, Tom Waits and Emmylou Harris.  

Watch the attached video to check out excerpts of new music from Shad, Hedley and Neko Case. 

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Matthew Good returns with Arrows of Desire

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FILM REVIEW: Rush

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Glee season debut has brief reminder of Cory Monteith

Cory Monteith and Lea Michele, his Glee co-star and real-life girlfriend, film a scene from Glee on location in Central Park in New York on April 26, 2011. Monteith died in July.

There was a subtle, sad reminder of late Glee star Cory Monteith in the TV show's fifth-season debut episode.

The hour began Thursday with Lea Michele's character, Rachel Berry, at a callback audition for a Broadway production of Funny Girl.

After she overhears the director and star (Peter Facinelli, Ioan Gruffudd) suggest she might be too green, a dejected Rachel walks through Manhattan singing the Beatles' melancholy Yesterday.

At one point, she pauses to gaze at a photo on her cellphone: It's a group shot of her old high school glee club pals, among them Monteith's Finn Hudson.

"Oh, yesterday, love was such an easy game to play. Now I need a place to hide away. Oh, I believe in yesterday," she sings.

Monteith, 31, died in July of a drug and alcohol overdose. He and Michele's real-life relationship was mirrored by their characters' on-screen romance.

"Couldn't have picked a more beautiful & perfect song to start the year with," Michele tweeted in August, as production on the Fox show got underway.

The new season of Glee is beginning with a two-episode salute to the Beatles' songbook. A tribute to Monteith is planned for episode three, airing Oct. 10, titled The Quarterback after his character's high school football role.

Monteith was among a handful of stars given an individual remembrance at Sunday's Emmy Awards.

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Jimmy Kimmel and Kanye West are feuding — or are they?

Jimmy Kimmel and Kanye West either are engaged in a bitter feud or a wild parody of one.

A skit poking fun at West on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday provoked an irate call from the rapper about an hour and half before Thursday's show, Kimmel said in his monologue.

"He is very angry because of a bit we aired this week," Kimmel said, in which a child re-enacted an interview that West gave to Britain's BBC. It was "pretty innocuous," the late-night host said.

But West ordered him to make a public apology and said Kimmel's life would be "much better" if he did so, Kimmel said, adding that West also called himself the most powerful voice in media.

Then came more than a half-dozen tweets posted on West's official Twitter site. One called Kimmel out of line for spoofing what West called "the first piece of honest media in years," and another referred to photographers trying to get shots of West's baby daughter with Kim Kardashian.

"Jimmy Kimmel, I don't take it as a joke. ... You don't have scum bags hopping over fences trying to take pictures of your daughter," West tweeted. Other tweets used profanity and coarse language, while one mocked Kimmel by saying his former girlfriend Sarah Silverman is funnier than him.

"Finally, I'm in a rap feud. I always wanted to be in a rap feud," a smiling Kimmel said.

Representatives for Kimmel in Los Angeles and West in New York didn't immediately respond to requests for comment made early Friday, outside of business hours.

In a tweet Kimmel posted before the show, he said West's attack was "not a prank, I promise," unless West was playing one on him. Kimmel has done his share of high-concept comedy, including a show in which Matt Damon tied him up onstage and took over as host.

West is known for his outbursts, not his humour.

The incident capped a big week for Jimmy Kimmel Live, with shows including Hollywood street concerts with Paul McCartney and Justin Timberlake.

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Grieving family finishes late son’s claymation film

In this 2010 YouTube video, Cameron explains how to make clay men. (YouTube)

A family in Cape Breton took on the daunting task of finishing a video their son started, but was never able to complete before his death.

Cameron MacLeod died from an inoperable brain tumour a year and a half ago.

This weekend his clay animation short film will premiere at the Lumiere Arts Festival in Sydney.

Kelly and Ken MacLeod said their son was like any other 12-year-old boy before the diagnoses: he loved video games and playing with his friends and art. He was especially drawn to making figures out of clay and using them in stop-motion videos.

In 2011 he was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour.

Along with their other son, Jordan, the MacLeod's packed as much as they could into the year they were given, including a trip to Disney World and Canada's Wonderland.

 They celebrated Cameron's 14th birthday, just weeks before he died.

"Cameron's spirit is just, like it's always with me," said his mother.

After his death, Kelly decided to take Cameron's more than 1,000 pictures of clay men and finish the project he had started.

Cameron also left his family a large catalogue of video diaries. The videos show him being goofy and explaining how to create clay people.

Kelly says the project helped with her grieving."When I saw this incomplete, I wanted to complete it for him. I wanted people to see his legacy, one of his legacies," she said.

The video is "about a clay man that died and went to heaven and there's a group of clay men that gather around, they're kind of relaxed at first and then they decide, 'Well, let's go help him.'"

As they laboured on the video the MacLeods said they thought of entering Lumiere, the annual arts festival in downtown Sydney.

They applied and were accepted.

Ken MacLeod said it's what his son would have wanted.

"Cameron would be proud and he would be excited to know that his project would in Lumiere, and we know he would be thrilled," he said.

The short film will be shown at Rascal Kidz Clothing on Saturday night.

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No women authors on U of T literature syllabus

David Gilmour says when students leave his class on the Russian writer Anton Chekhov, he hopes they will "run down the street and buy Chekhov."

But when students want to read female authors, he hopes they will take another course.

Gilmour, a literature instructor at the University of Toronto's Victoria College, told Random House this week he does not want women writers on his syllabus.

"I'm not interested in teaching books by women," he says, making an exception for one female writer.

"Virginia Woolf is the only writer that interests me as a woman writer, so I do teach one of her short stories," he says. "But once again, when I was given this job I said I would only teach the people that I truly, truly love."

Instead, Gilmour says, "[w]hat I teach is guys. Serious heterosexual guys. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Chekhov, Tolstoy. Real guy-guys. Henry Miller. Philip Roth."

Gilmour, who is also an award winning author and former CBC television host, was the recipient of the Governor General's Literary Award in 2008 for his novel A Perfect Night to Go to China. His recent novel Extraordinary is on the Giller long list.

Despite his bona fides in literature, though, he says he is not equipped to teach writing by women. Or at least not well enough.

"I teach passionately," he says, defending his position. "One way I'm an effective teacher is when I teach what I'm passionate about. I'm not passionate about books by Chinese authors, or by female authors."

The revelation caused minor shock waves on social media. Gilmour has heard some of the complaints, admitting "for some reason this seems to have struck a nerve."

He told CBC News on Wednesday night that he was "really, deeply surprised" at the response to what he called "an offhand interview done in my office."

"I choose all material for my courses according to people whose lives I feel are vaguely close to mine, but whose work I really adore," he said. "There are a lot of other people who are equally good writers. I don't teach them not because they're not equally good, but because I don't emotionally connect with them as I do with other writers."

Universities and the literary canon have historically skewed toward a male perspective. But that's a tradition Gilmour says he's not following.

"I teach middle-aged men writers not because they are better or because women are not as good," he says in the interview with Random House. "I only teach what I adore and can communicate. I'm simply not passionately enough engaged in female writers. That's all."

Gilmour says he is one professor among hundreds, and that if you want Alice Munro or Margaret Atwood, go down the hall where "there are people who teach women writers much, much better than I can."

He admits that every year, arms go up in his class to ask where the women writers are. But overall, he tells CBC News his class approves of the curriculum.

"I'd say 90 per cent of the class are women. They choose the course based on that curriculum," he says. "That's middle-aged male writers taught by a middle-aged man."

A written statement from Victoria College said that neither the college nor the University of Toronto endorses Gilmour's views.

"Mr. Gilmour, a noted Canadian author and journalist, teaches elective seminars on his area of expertise, leaving other areas of literature to be taught by colleagues who can do so most effectively based on their areas of specialization," the statement reads.

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Erotic aboriginal art show celebrates native sexuality

A new art exhibition celebrating native erotica opens in Vancouver Wednesday night.

"There is a lot of eroticism, but it's just never seen very often outside of our community and even behind closed doors," said co-curator Kwiaahwah Jones.

The exhibition includes woven pieces of clothing, suggestive carvings and two traditional headdresses, which were used to shame a cheating spouse.

Jones and her co-curator, Haida artist Gwaai Edenshaw, say that part of the reason for the exhibit is to have a bit of a laugh about sexuality.

RezErect:Native Erotica is located at the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art and is open Wednesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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Heather Conway plans to take CBC 'to the next level'

Heather Conway has been formally appointed as the CBC's next executive vice-president of English-language services, a position that puts her in charge of media products in what she calls "the most important cultural institution in the country."

'You have to engage people. You have to be meaningful, and that's our challenge.'- Heather Conway, CBC's new executive vice-president of English-language

"I have butterflies; I think they're good butterflies," Conway told CBC's Suhana Meharchand. "I'm very, very excited to be here. I'm just thrilled.

"I think the CBC is the most important cultural institution in the country."

Conway said Canadians come to the CBC for a national perspective on world and local events, and that she wakes up regularly listening to CBC Radio's Metro Morning.

"It's the place where Canadians come to tell Canadian stories. It's where the Canadian point of view around the news and how we look at the world all happens," she said.

Conway joins the public broadcaster's senior executive team after a tenure at the Art Gallery of Ontario, where she was chief business officer overseeing human resources, digital services, marketing, and corporate and public affairs, among other operations.

As head of CBC/Radio-Canada's English-language services, she will be in charge of television, radio and online properties, including:

• CBC Radio One.
• CBC Radio 2.
• CBC Television.
• CBC News Network.
• CBC.ca.
• Documentary and digital operations.

Amid budget cuts at the public broadcaster, Conway said ensuring the content comes first will be particularly important for managing on-air and digital products.

"When you're in a public-sector organization and in particular a cultural one, employees and management alike are mission-driven, right? You're not here for the money; you're here because you care about public broadcasting and you believe in it, and I believe in that," she said.

On audience engagement, Conway said viewers, listeners and readers are attracted to content that's meaningful to them.

"You have to engage people. You have to be meaningful, and that's our challenge," she said. "And I actually think the CBC does a pretty good job of that. And you've got to keep doing that and take it to a new level."

Under Conway's tenure at the art gallery, it achieved its highest membership levels and saw attendance rise by 20 per cent.

Conway has also held top executive and consulting positions in the private sector, working with TD Bank Financial Group, Hill & Knowlton and The Neville Group.

She spent six years as executive vice-president at Alliance Atlantis, responsible for strategic marketing, publicity and on-air creative plans for 13 Canadian cable specialty channels.

Conway is currently a member of the boards of directors of IGM Financial and American Express Canada. In 2001, she was named as one of Canada's Top 40 Under 40.

In a memo explaining why Conway got the job, CBC's president and CEO Hubert Lacroix said he was looking for a leader with a particular set of attributes.

"A person with a business focus to decision-making, and a reputation of nurturing and developing teams," he wrote. "A person who is as comfortable in a corporate boardroom as she is on the newsroom floor. And a person who has delivered results in a wide variety of circumstances."

Conway, who joins the CBC in December, replaces Kirstine Stewart, who left in April to become the head of Twitter Canada.

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AGO David Bowie exhibit's coolest items

The Art Gallery of Ontario opens David Bowie Is, a sprawling exhibit featuring the legendary performer's music, art and clothing, this week in Toronto.

CBCNews.ca brought Jian Ghomeshi, Bowie superfan and host of CBC Radio's Q, along to check it out. Among hundreds of Bowie artifacts, Ghomeshi picked out some interesting pieces: a photograph of entertainer Little Richard that a 10-year-old Bowie coveted, hand-drawn sketches of stage fashion Bowie made when he was a teen and the handwritten lyrics to his classic song Heroes.

David Bowie Is opens Wednesday and runs until Nov. 27.

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Polaris winner critical of award gala in a 'time of austerity'

The winner of the 2013 Polaris Music Prize, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, is challenging the need for an award gala in a "time of austerity and normalized decline" after being handed the $30,000 award Monday night in Toronto.

In a statement released on Tuesday the band was both thankful for the nod, and critical of the annual award gala which honours a Canadian band without looking at genre or sales history.

'Maybe the next celebration should happen in a cruddier hall, without the corporate banners and culture overlords. and maybe a party thusly is long overdue.'- Godspeed You! Black Emperor

"Thanks for the nomination thanks for the prize - it feels nice to be acknowledged by the Troubled Motherland when we so often feel orphaned here," the statement said.

The band went on to suggest that "organizing a gala just so musicians can compete against each other for a novelty-sized cheque doesn't serve the cause of righteous music at all.

"Maybe the next celebration should happen in a cruddier hall, without the corporate banners and culture overlords. and maybe a party thusly is long overdue," the band said.

The event was being held at a new venue this year, The Carlu on Yonge Street. Previously it was at the Masonic Temple.

The Montreal-based band will use their prize money to support music education in Quebec prisons.

"We're gonna use the money to try to set up a program so that prisoners in Quebec have musical instruments if they need them," the band said.

Feist, the winner of last year's award, was on hand to present Godspeed You! Black Emperor as the winner. A spokesperson for the band accepted the prize.

The band's statement also took issue with the Polaris ceremony for asking Toyota to help pay for the gala "during a summer where the melting northern ice caps are live-streaming on the internet." It said that "comes across as tone-deaf to the current horrifying malaise."

Scion Canada — a division of Toyota Canada — was the presenting sponsor of this year's Polaris.

The band's members rarely grant interviews or choose to speak about their music publicly. The Polaris-winning record, Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!  is a four-song movement that stands as the outfit's first new album in 10 years.

Toronto new-wave band Metric, Montreal jazz saxophonist Colin Stetson and Calgary twins Tegan and Sara were the only artists to make a return appearance on the 10-album Polaris short list.

The award gala was hosted by singer Kathleen Edwards and rapper Shad, both two-time Polaris contenders.

The ten finalists for 2013 were:

• The Montreal-based, orchestral-ambient band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, for their album, Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
• Toronto hip hop artist Zaki Ibrahim's Every Opposite.
• Toronto super-group Metric made the shortlist with the album Synthetica.
• Toronto alt-rockers, METZ, for their self-titled album.
• Purity Ring, with members hailing from Edmonton and Halifax, for their album, Shrines.
• Avante-garde saxophone soloist Colin Stetson, based in Montreal, for New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light.
• Tegan and Sara's seventh studio release, Heartthrob.
• Ottawa-based electronic DJ crew A Tribe Called Red's Nation II Nation.
• The Hamilton, Ont. folk duo Whitehorse for The Fate of the World Depends on This Kiss.
• Montreal-based alt-pop group Young Galaxy's Ultramarine.

The Polaris prize is awarded by a jury of music journalists, broadcasters and bloggers from across Canada and was established to celebrate creativity and diversity in Canadian music  — without regard to musical genre or sales history. Polaris Prizes have previously been awarded to Feist, Arcade Fire, Karkwa, Patrick Watson, Caribou and Final Fantasy.

The $30,000 Polaris Music Prize is awarded to the artist who produced Canada's top album of the year.

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Gabrielle nabs Canada's nomination for foreign language Oscar

Telefilm Canada has announced Louise Archambault's feature film Gabrielle as Canada's pick for a possible nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category at next year's Oscar awards.

The Quebec director's second film had its North American premiere at this month's Toronto International Film Festival.

Gabrielle is produced by Luc Déry and Kim McCraw from micro_scope production company. The film was funded through the Telefilm's Canada Feature Film Fund.

"This announcement makes my heart sing," Archambault said after the announcement in Montreal. "It's really a nice recognition to represent Canada with my film and I'd like to share this with everyone who inspired me to make this film."

'Gabrielle has won over audiences internationally, and there's no question that the Academy members will succumb to its charms as well.'- Carolle Brabant, Telefilm Canada executive director

A drama about a developmentally challenged woman's desire for sexual freedom and independence, the film was awarded an audience prize at the Locarno International Film Festival in August.

The film stars Gabrielle Marion-Rivard, who has Williams syndrome. One of the producers surprised her with the news on Tuesday and said she screamed for joy.

Telefilm chairs the pan-Canadian Oscar selection committee, which includes 22 voting members from government agencies and national film industry associations.

"Gabrielle has won over audiences internationally, and there's no question that the Academy members will succumb to its charms as well," said Carolle Brabant, Telefilm's executive director.

The film's selection also marks the third time in four years that micro_scope has represented Canada in the Oscar race.

The company worked on Denis Villeneuve's Incendies nominated in the foreign-language film category at the 83rd annual awards, and Philippe Falardeau's Monsieur Lazhar for the same category the following year.

Dery said receiving an Oscar nomination is "very difficult" because "there are films submitted by 71 countries and they're all good films.

"The competition is huge ... but we think we have a good film for this process," he said. "The film is super charming, it touches people, there's a real subject matter but it's far from being a sure bet."

This year, Kim Nguyen's child-soldier drama, Rebelle (War Witch), was in the race for Oscar glory but lost out to Amour.

Canada's last win in the category was in 2004 for Denys Arcand's The Barbarian Invasions.

The nominations for the 86th Academy Awards will be announced on January 16, 2014.

The Oscars will be hosted by Ellen DeGeneres on March 2, 2014.

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James Bond returns in William Boyd's new novel Solo

Bond is back, much as we remember him but also subtly different. To the latest Bond author, the dashing secret agent looks a bit like Daniel Day-Lewis.

British writer William Boyd, who has written a new official James Bond novel authorized by creator Ian Fleming's family, says Day-Lewis would be perfect to play the 007 he has created in Solo.

Boyd says Fleming once described Bond as "looking like the American singer-songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. Daniel Day-Lewis looks like Hoagy Carmichael."

So readers are advised to banish images of Sean Connery or Daniel Craig when they read Solo.

The novel, set in 1969, takes the suave British spy — 45 years old and feeling his age — from London's plush Dorchester Hotel to a war-ravaged West African country and onto Washington on a perilous lone mission.

Boyd, 61, who has won the Whitbread and Costa book prizes, follows writers including Kingsley Amis and Sebastian Faulks as a successor to Fleming, who died in 1964.

Espionage is familiar ground for the author, whose books include the spy thrillers Restless and Waiting for Sunrise.

Boyd has been a Bond fan since he read From Russia With Love as "an illicit thrill" after lights-out at his 1960s boarding school. His novel stays faithful to Fleming's character, from his meticulous approach to clothes to his fondness for cigarettes and whisky to his love for attractive women.

"There's a lot of eating and drinking. There's a lot of interest in clothes. Bond is a sensualist," Boyd said Wednesday.

Although the novel includes two enigmatic female foils for 007, Boyd is not keen on the expression "Bond girl."

"Bond has relationships with women," he said. "It seems to me he wants a relationship — it's not just casual sex."

Solo was launched Wednesday with a suitably glamorous photo call — at the Dorchester, naturally — involving vintage Jensen sports cars and flight attendants. Seven copies of the books were driven in a Jensen convoy to Heathrow Airport, destined for seven cities around the world with ties to Boyd or Bond — Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Zurich, New Delhi, Los Angeles, Cape Town and Sydney.

The book hits British bookstores on Thursday and will be published Oct. 8 in the United States and Canada.

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Emmys triumph for Breaking Bad

The Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra added to its haul in Los Angeles on Sunday night during an Emmy Awards ceremony that didn't see one show dominate, but departing series Breaking Bad earn the coveted best drama trophy nonetheless.

The night's final two awards — best comedy series and best drama series — went to TV favourites Modern Family and Breaking Bad, respectively.  

Behind the Candelabra added a trio of trophies to the leading eight awards it picked up at last week's Creative Arts Emmy ceremony. Along with being named best miniseries or movie, it also earned kudos for director Steven Soderbergh and actor Michael Douglas, who starred as the internationally renowned, closeted gay performer Liberace.

"This is a two-hander and … you're only as good as your other hand," Douglas said as he acknowledged his co-star and fellow nominee Matt Damon, who portrayed Liberace's younger one-time lover Scott Thorson.  

"You were magnificent and the only reason I'm standing here is because of you, so you really deserve half of this," Douglas declared before adding saucily, "So, you want the bottom or the top?"

Ensemble comedy Modern Family picked up its fourth consecutive Emmy as American television's top comedy, adding to an earlier win for direction.

Primetime Emmy winners:

• Comedy series: Modern Family
• Actress, comedy series: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
• Actor, comedy series: Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
• Supporting actress, comedy series: Merritt Weaver, Nurse Jackie
• Supporting actor, comedy series: Tony Hale, Veep
• Writing, comedy series:Tina Fey, Tracey Wigfield, 30 Rock
• Direction, comedy series: Gale Mancuso, Modern Family
• Dramatic series: Breaking Bad
• Actress, drama: Claire Danes, Homeland
• Actor, drama: Jeff Daniels, The Newsroom
• Supporting actress, drama: Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad
• Supporting actor, drama: Bobby Cannavale, Boardwalk Empire
• Writing, drama series: Henry Bromell, Homeland
• Direction, drama: David Fincher, House of Cards
• Miniseries or movie: Behind the Candelabra
• Actress, miniseries or movie: Laura Linney, The Big C: Hereafter
• Supporting actor, miniseries or movie: James Cromwell, American Horror Story: Asylum
• Supporting actress, miniseries or movie: Ellen Burstyn, Political Animals
• Writing, miniseries, movie or special: Abi Morgan, The Hour
• Direction, miniseries, movie or special:Steven Soderbergh, Behind the Candalabra
• Reality competition: The Voice
• Variety series: The Colbert Report
• Writing, variety series: The Colbert Report
• Direction, variety series: Don Roy King, Saturday Night Live
• Choreography: Derek Hough, Dancing with the Stars

"I cannot begin to express how surreal this ride has been because none of us grew up feeling like winners," show creator Steven Levitan said as his large cast and creative crew filed onstage behind him.

"Thank you to the bullies, to the popular kids, to the gym teachers who taunted us, who rejected us and who made fun of the way we ran. Without you, we never would have gotten into comedy. Thank you."

The much touted drug drama Breaking Bad, which ends its acclaimed five-season run next week, captured the title of best drama. Sunday night's awards vied for viewers of the penultimate episode of the series, which followed the transformation of a terminally ill school teacher into a drug kingpin.

"I did not see this coming," said Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, as he proceeded to acknowledge his fellow dramatic nominees, which included Mad Men, Homeland, Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones and House of Cards, the first online series to be a top contender for the Emmys.

"It could have been any of them and even some others that were not nominated in this golden age of television we feel so proud to be a part of," Gilligan noted.

Awards spread out

The strength of television's current offerings could be one reason for the night's widespread distribution of awards. There were no real landslide victories and quite a few surprises.

"This just in. Nobody in America is winning their Emmy office pool," host Neil Patrick Harris quipped as the televised gala approached its finale.

Jeff Daniels nabbed one of the evening's top acting honours, triumphing in the dramatic actor category for his turn as an outspoken TV anchor in The Newsroom. His win came over stiff competition, including Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston and Mad Men's Jon Hamm.

"I usually don't win anything," Daniels quipped as he accepted his trophy, joking that his last honour came from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) for "best actor over the age of 50" for The Squid and The Whale.

Actress Claire Danes picked up her third Emmy for her lead turn in the terrorism drama Homeland and devoted half of her speech to the late Henry Bromell, a writer on the series who died in March. Bromell posthumously won a Emmy earlier in the evening, with his wife accepting his trophy.

Dramatic supporting actor and actress winners were Bobby Cannavale (for Boardwalk Empire) and Anna Gunn (for Breaking Bad), respectively.

Comedy up front

Comedy was the focus in the early portion of the broadcast, with Veep and 30 Rock among the many shows that took awards.

Tina Fey and 30 Rock co-writer Tracey Wigfield picked up one of the night's first honours: outstanding writing for a comedy series. Early trophies also went to several first-timers: Nurse Jackie's Merritt Weaver (supporting actress in a comedy series) and Veep's Tony Hale (supporting actor in a comedy series).

Though demonstrably stunned by his own win, Hale got into character quickly afterwards as he leaped up to follow Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfus onstage after she was named winner for best actress in a comedy series. The veteran sitcom star, who previously nabbed Emmys for Seinfeld, The New Adventures of Old Christine and an earlier win for Veep, feigned forgetfulness as Hale, who plays her personal aide in the vice-presidential comedy, prompted her.

Meanwhile, the corresponding best lead actor in a comedy trophy also went to a previous winner: Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory, scoring his third Emmy for his turn as oddball physicist Sheldon Cooper.

"I'm very aware of how exceedingly fortunate I am. First, to have a chance to do this role in this show… but secondly to be here to be a part of such a phenomenal group of people," an emotional Parsons said onstage.

"It's so silly to be emotional, isn't it?"

In addition to winning for its writing, The Colbert Report also saw its first ever win as best variety series — besting the show that spawned it, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

"As I said before, it's just an honour to be nominated. And that's a lie. This is way better," host and writer Stephen Colbert noted.

"I personally have to thank my friend and my brother Jon Stewart, who is the one who said 'We should do a show together where you're a professional idiot.' And Jon never told me how good this feels."

Controversial memorial

Extended homages to TV personalities who passed away in the past year were interspersed throughout the proceedings.

Actor Robin Williams offering a tribute to his mentor, comic actor Jonathan Winters, while actor-director Rob Reiner shared a heartfelt remembrance of his "TV mother-in-law," All in the Family's Jean Stapleton. Michael J. Fox's spoke about Family Ties and Spin City creator and his "second father and beloved friend" Gary David Goldberg, while Edie Falco became emotional as she recalled her Sopranos counterpart, actor James Gandolfini. Glee cast member Jane Lynch remembered her late Canadian co-star Cory Monteith.

Before Sunday night's ceremony, TV critics, fans and family members had questioned the segment, which was in addition to the traditional "in memoriam" montage. Some blasted producers for the inclusion of Monteith — who was not a past Emmy nominee and whose role on Glee was the most prominent work of his short career — over more established individuals.

Sunday night's ceremony included musical performances by Elton John, who spoke about the influence of Behind the Candelabra subject Liberace, and Carrie Underwood, who offered a rendition of the Beatles classic Yesterday following a segment highlighting TV's impact on culture after two major events: the assassination of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and the American debut of the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show a half-century ago.

Performances also came courtesy of host Harris, who surprisingly eschewed a song-and-dance number in his opening. Instead, following a montage of clips from the past year in television, he cracked a few jokes before being heckled and subsequently joined onstage by a number of former Emmy emcees, including Jimmy Kimmel, Jane Lynch, Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.

Nevertheless, the famed song-and-dance man delivered at the half-way point by performing a tune he dubbed The Number in the Middle of the Show, which featured cameo appearances by Nathan Fillion and Sarah Silverman. He also performed as part of a subsequent dance number that revealed the choreography nominees.

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Glee's Cory Monteith recalled in Emmy tribute

Five emotional tributes to deceased TV personalities punctuated Sunday night's Primetime Emmy Awards, including a salute to the late Glee actor Cory Monteith.

The B.C.-born performer's co-star Jane Lynch spoke about the young actor, who died in July at the age of 31 from an overdose of heroin and alcohol.

"From the first time you saw Cory, he had a star quality and a genuine sweetness that made it impossible not to fall in love with him. And millions did fall in love with Cory," Lynch said during the ceremony.

"I'm here to say that all that warmth and that charm, that open-hearted quality that we loved in Cory was no act," she continued.

"Cory was a beautiful soul. He was not perfect, which many of us here tonight can relate to. His death is a tragic reminder of the rapacious, senseless destruction that is brought on by addiction. Tonight, we remember Cory for all he was, and mourn the loss for all he could have been. To a generation that loved Cory so, please know that this gifted and wonderful young man was worthy of your love. And if you were lucky enough to know Cory as we did and witnessed first-hand Cory's goofy, breezy sense of humour, his natural instinct for inclusiveness and his unbridled sense of generosity, day in and day out, I promise, you would have loved him even more." 

The tributes also included Robin Williams speaking about his mentor, comic actor Jonathan Winters; actor-director Rob Reiner's heartfelt remembrance of his "TV mother-in-law," All in the Family's Jean Stapleton; Michael J. Fox's memories of Family Ties and Spin City creator and his "second father and beloved friend" Gary David Goldberg; and Edie Falco's teary recollections of her Sopranos spouse, actor James Gandolfini.

The extended individual salutes, which came in addition to the traditional "in memoriam" montage, sparked controversy last week when producers first announced them.

TV critics, fans and family members were among those who blasted the idea, with many questioning the inclusion of Monteith, who was not a past Emmy nominee and whose high-profile role on teen-centred musical series Glee had been the most prominent work of his short career.

Many noted that tributes to Dallas and I Dream of Jeannie star Larry Hagman, Evening Shade's Charles Durning or Jack Klugman of The Odd Couple and Quincy M.E. would have been more appropriate.

"It's an insult and it really seems typical of this youth-centric culture that has an extremely short attention span and panders to only a very narrow demographic" of young adults, Klugman's son Adam declared on the weekend.

However, Emmy executive producer Ken Ehrlich defended the decision.

"To a younger generation, Cory Monteith's portrayal of Finn Hudson (on Glee) was highly admired, and the producers felt that he should be included along with the four other individuals we have singled out," he said in a statement.

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Music PEI aims to get Islanders on soundtracks

Music PEI is adding movie and television music supervisors to a showcase this week to increase the chances for musicians to get played on television and film.

'It's a pretty small investment considering the work that's created.'- Rob Oakie, Music PEI

Five music supervisors are at this year's showcase. Three supervisors were invited to Music Week in January as panelists sharing their expertise with artists. One of those panelists went on to get music from four Island artists on the popular Canadian TV shows Rookie Blue and Saving Hope.

Music PEI executive director Rob Oakie said that success prompted his group to pay the airfare for five music supervisors to be delegates at this week's Showcase events.

"We had so much success the first time around. We saw some fantastic placements, so it just made sense to increase the number," said Oakie.

"It's a pretty small investment considering the work that's created as a result of it."

Three of the music supervisors are from Los Angeles. Oakie said it is more expensive to bring in music experts from that far away, but Hollywood is the centre of the movie business so he thinks it's a good investment.

Oakie would not break down the cost of bringing in the supervisors. The entire cost of the three-day Showcase is $60,000, covered by a mix of private and public money.

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Britain stops Kelly Clarkson's export of Jane Austen ring

A campaign to prevent U.S. pop singer Kelly Clarkson from taking a ring owned by 19th century novelist Jane Austen out of Britain has raised enough money to save it, a museum said on Monday.

The singer, who became the first contestant to win the TV singing contest American Idol more than a decade ago, bought the turquoise and gold antique ring at an auction last year £152,450 ($238,096).

But the U.K.'s Culture Minister Ed Vaizey placed a temporary export bar on the ring, which stops it leaving the country, and appealed for a British buyer to come forward and save it for the nation.

Jane Austen's House Museum said a fundraising campaign had been successful and it could now afford to buy the ring that had been owned by the Austen family for more than 200 years until its sale at auction last year.

Curator Mary Guyatt said the campaign received a £100,000 donation from an anonymous donor and contributions from Austen fans from all over the world.

U.S. singer Kelly Clarkson bought the ring at an auction last year, but British Culture Minister Ed Vaizey put a temporary hold on the item, preventing it from leaving the U.K. (John Shearer/Invision/Associated Press)

"The museum is now able to reveal that their offer to purchase the ring has been accepted," she said in a statement.

The ring is one of only three surviving pieces of jewellery known to have belonged to the author of such classics as Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma. It comes with papers documenting its history within her family.

Clarkson congratulated the museum on raising the funds to purchase the ring owned by the writer who died in 1817.

"The ring is a beautiful national treasure and I am happy to know that so many Jane Austen fans will get to see it at Jane Austen's House Museum," she said in the statement.

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Emmy Awards to toast TV's best

Web-streamed shows House of Cards and Arrested Development, drug drama Breaking Bad and genre hits American Horror Story and Game of Thrones are among the high-profile contenders at tonight's 65th Emmy Awards gala.

American Horror Story: Asylum, the sophomore season of the creepy series, earned a leading 17 nominations, closely followed by the bloody fantasy epic Game of Thrones with 16 nods. Sketch comedy stalwart Saturday Night Live and Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra were next with 15 nominations each.

Actor Neil Patrick Harris, seen at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Sept. 15, returns for his second stint as host on Sunday night. (Richard Shotwell/Invision/Associated Press)

The breakout Netflix hit House of Cards is the first internet series to compete for the top Emmy categories. The show is vying for multiple wins, including for best drama, best dramatic actor (series lead Kevin Spacey is nominated) and best dramatic actress (for Robin Wright).

But the online newcomer faces a tough batch of rivals for the TV drama trophy: soon-to-end cable series Breaking Bad; British favourite Downton Abbey; the aforementioned Game of Thrones; political suspense thriller Homeland; and style-soaked 1960s advertising drama Mad Men.

On-demand film and TV streaming service Netflix also scored another high-profile nod with its revived series Arrested Development, which earned a best comedic actor nomination for Jason Bateman. In recent years, the U.S Academy of Television Arts and Sciences changed its rules to allow online entries to compete with cable and network programming, but this year's edition was the first to see web shows recognized in major categories.

Other series nominees include:

• Comedy: 30 Rock; Girls; Louie; Modern Family; The Big Bang Theory; Veep.
• Reality competition: Dancing with the Stars; Project Runway; So You Think You Can Dance; The Amazing Race; The Voice; Top Chef.
• Miniseries or movie: American Horror Story: Asylum; Behind the Candelabra; Phil Spector; Political Animals; The Bible; Top of the Lake.
• Variety: Jimmy Kimmel Live!; Late Night with Jimmy Fallon; Real Time with Bill Maher; Saturday Night Live; The Colbert Report; The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Several Canadians were among this year's Emmy nominees, with Toronto's Mychael Danna already a winner. He earned the trophy for outstanding music composition for a miniseries, movie or special for his score to the miniseries World Without End, a followup to The Pillars of the Earth) at last week's Creative Arts Emmys ceremony.

The evening ceremony will also include a number of extended "in memoriam" tributes to television figures who have died in the past year, including actors James Gandolfini, Jean Stapleton, Jonathan Winters, Cory Monteith and writer-producer Gary David Goldberg.

The annual celebration of American prime-time television is being broadcast live from Los Angeles beginning at 8 p.m. ET, with popular actor and three-time Emmy-winner Neil Patrick Harris returning for his second stint as host.

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Jay Baruchel wants U.S. films shot in Canada to be set in Canada

TIFF: The Art of the Steal 8:17

TIFF: The Art of the Steal 8:17

Jay Baruchel has a Canadian flag tattooed on his heart — but sometimes it seems the Maple Leaf might as well be etched across the actor's lips.

His new hybrid heist flick The Art of the Steal is a cross-border caper set against the inimitable backdrop of Niagara Falls, Ont. And really, it's set there — not Niagara Falls dressed to look like some generically tourist-friendly town someplace vaguely in the U.S. — and on the Canadian side, no less.

It's an important point to the 31-year-old Montreal native.

"I'm just sick of watching Canadian movies with Canadian actors and Canadian backdrops and then they exchange money and it's American cash," said the excitable star during a promotional whisk through the Toronto International Film Festival, where the film premiered ahead of its cross-Canada opening on Friday.

This comment raises the attention of writer-director Jonathan Sobol, seated next to him.

'You're in Canada, you use Canadian money,' director says

Given that the film — which casts Kurt Russell as a reformed criminal-turned-motorcycle daredevil who's pried from that depressing gig by the promise of one more big score — explicitly needs to take place on both sides of the border, it makes sense that characters' wallets would be packed with more than just American greenbacks.

Still, it was apparently an issue.

"I didn't tell you this, but when we were onset one day and Kurt (in character) had to give his lady money —" Sobol begins.

"I bet there was a convo," Baruchel interjects.

"Well, I got pulled aside," replies Sobol, nodding. "I mean, like, of course, you're in Canada, you use Canadian money."

"Why the (hell) wouldn't you?" says Baruchel, in fact using a harsher profanity.

Sobel responds: "But then there was a little huddle. They're pulling me over. I'm like, no, what?"

Asked to explain the anxiety over Canadian currency appearing onscreen, an exasperated Baruchel takes over.

"They seem to think that the moment Americans see Canadian cash on the screen, no matter how long they've watched the movie already, they'll say: 'Aw, (screw) this then!"'

In this case, Baruchel and Sobol stuck to their guns — or, to use a more appropriate cliche, put their money where their mouths were.

The Art of the Steal stars Baruchel, Kurt Russell and Terrence Stamp

The film, which features a sparkling international cast including British Oscar nominee Terence Stamp, Americans Matt Dillon and Russell and Canadian supporting players including Katheryn Winnick, Chris Diamantopoulos and arch "Daily Show" vet Jason Jones, doesn't try to hide its setting, in fact basking in Niagara Falls' kaleidoscopic carnival. (They also shot in Hamilton).

At least one of those Americans in the cast was mystified by any anxiety over The Art of the Steal looking too Canadian.

"I don't think it has anything to do with anything," Russell bristled. "Movies, where they're shot, makes zero difference to the audience. What the audience is looking for is a show-me experience. Show me that this is entertaining."

Increasingly, it seems as though filmmakers are banking on exactly that.

At the recently completed Toronto film festival, several buzzed-about films anchored by major international stars were both shot and set in Canada, including Denis Villeneuve's Toronto-set, Jake Gyllenhaal-starring psychodrama Enemy, Don McKellar's uproarious The Grand Seduction, which cast Friday Night Lights heartthrob Taylor Kitsch as a doctor docked in a Newfoundland fishing village, and Michael Dowse's Daniel Radcliffe-headlined romantic comedy The F Word, which so lovingly filmed Toronto-specific idiosyncrasies, it couldn't have been mistaken for another city.

Still, Baruchel argues that rooting Canadian films in Canada is still a problem for some — including Canadians.

"I remember when The Trotsky came out," he says, referring to his 2009, Montreal-set comedy about an eccentric high-schooler leading a student rebellion.

"All the reviews were like: 'Ohh, some of the Montreal inside jokes will take some getting used to.' I was just like, what inside jokes? We reference the town we were shooting in.... We got a lot of flack. More in Canada than the States. Americans just watched it."

When Sobol says he optimistically hopes the tide is turning, Baruchel responds: "If you leave it alone and don't make it too much of an issue — if you don't oversell the Canadian-ness — you're OK, usually."

Baruchel plans sequel to Goon

In fact, Baruchel has long been critical of homegrown stars who turn their backs on homegrown fare.

It's a position that seems to mean more as the Goon star sees his profile — and opportunities — grow in Hollywood. Earlier this summer, he was among a twinkling cast heading up the raunchy Armageddon smash This is the End, and he has upcoming roles in other hotly anticipated properties including the 2014 Robocop reboot and two or more sequels in the animated How to Train Your Dragon series.

Still, he says he's determined to continue working on Canadian films, including his own sequel to Goon.

"I was in a movie that connected a lot with the Americans this summer, and that means that I can use that and make more (stuff) happen up here maybe," said Baruchel, who's still based in Montreal.

"I'm not chasing a brass ring anymore. I'm not trying to be a movie star. I'm so happy with the life that I have right now, and part of that is being up here. And I love movies. So it just comes down to I want to make movies at home. I prefer spending time here than any other country in the world, simple as that."

He continues: "David Cronenberg's my idol for a reason. He made the world come to Toronto. He became the Fellini of Toronto. The best talents in the world will come to you if you're doing stuff that's good."

And his advice to Canadian filmmakers fretting about setting films here?

"Turn the camera on, walk down the street," he said. "Where you're shooting, that's where it takes place. Simple as that."

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