National Post - Arts

Taylor Swift up for entertainer of the year at CMAAs

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 16:22:58 Z

The two-time winner is nominated in the category with previous winners Kenny Chesney and Brad Paisley and also Jason Aldean and Blake Shelton

George Michael will perform for Austrian hospital staff

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 20:46:50 Z

George Michael is playing tribute to the Austrian doctors and nurses who helped him fight life-threatening pneumonia as he prepares to resume a concert tour cut short by his illness last year

Shinan: Jake Gyllenhaal cops to it

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 20:20:04 Z

Coming soon to a festival near you — a movie that Jake Gyllenhaal ran into a fire for

Divine Fits helps Dan Boeckner deal with the breakup of two bands and a marriage

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 19:20:23 Z

Every day for one week in October of last year, Dan Boeckner would get up, dust the sleep from his eyes, get into his car and drive across Los Angeles with his pal Britt Daniel

Over the Rainbow will determine who goes off to see the Wizard

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 17:18:51 Z

On Dorothy Farm, a three-day retreat in the wilds of Ontario cottage country, 20 finalists compete for the starring role in a Toronto production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Wizard of Oz

Vanity Fair article claims Church of Scientology ‘auditioned’ wives for Tom Cruise

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 18:25:43 Z

"Actresses who were already Scientology members were told they were auditioning for a new training film, and then asked a series of curious questions including: ‘What do you think of Tom Cruise?’”

Experimentation rules at Quebec’s Festival de Musique Émergente

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 16:50:46 Z

As artists from other provinces and abroad — both francophones and anglophones — have begun attending, so have bookers from festivals in Europe, managers and label reps intent on scouting out bands

The Sheepdogs are keeping it as real as they can

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 15:24:51 Z

“It’s not like we’re Drake traipsing around with all these bottles of Dom. We haven’t been diluted by luxury hotel suites and fat stacks of cash”

Michael Strahan joins Kelly Ripa on Live! With Kelly as new co-host

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 16:13:34 Z

Former football star Michael Strahan joined Live! With Kelly as permanent co-host on Monday, fulfilling a joking prophecy he made to Regis Philbin more than four years ago

Stars go deep into the psychic hinterland on The North

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 14:13:13 Z

The North will undoubtedly mean different things to different Stars’ fans of different generations, just as shifting ideas of Canada’s north mean different things to many across the country

How TIFF lets us invent our own little filmfests

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 13:39:44 Z

Robert Fulford: Like certain love affairs, movies at the Toronto International Film Festival can be more exciting to contemplate in advance than actually experience

Scotiabank Giller Prize reveals longlist

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 13:20:16 Z

The 13 nominated books feature an abandoned baby, an illiterate baker, and, oddly, a whole bunch of con artists

Michael Clarke Duncan, star of the Green Mile, dead at 54

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 21:58:07 Z

Green Mile star Michael Clarke Duncan passed away at age 54, his fiancée said late on Monday afternoon, according to reports from The Associated Press

Actress Elisha Cuthbert and Toronto Maple Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf engaged: reports

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 00:49:54 Z

Canadian actress — and hockey fanatic — Elisha Cuthbert and Toronto Maple Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf are now engaged

It’s hard out here for a Klimt

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 18:50:18 Z

A Vienna museum’s search for the worst, kitschiest piece of merchandise inspired by late Art Nouveau painter Gustav Klimt laid quite the egg

Cameron Bailey and his team recount the journey from empty slate to official schedule for TIFF 2012

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 18:41:06 Z

On May 7, 2012, Cameron Bailey sat outside a production studio on the Los Angeles lot of Sony Pictures and was told, in so many words, to get lost

From Breaking Bad to Total Recall, this is Bryan Cranston’s moment

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 22:00:26 Z

Bryan Cranston is hardly a one-trick pony. The Breaking Bad star has proven he can act, but he’s easing his way into the directing side of things, too

Wheels come off the bus with Second City’s latest revue

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 22:03:23 Z

Robert Cushman: You win some, you lose some. Second City won handsomely with their last show, which was the best in recent memory

How to meet a celebrity during TIFF

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 18:29:03 Z

It won’t be easy, but with this very special edition of Extremely Bad Advice, anything is possible during the film festival!

Fall Culture Preview: Television

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 21:08:20 Z

Your favourite series may be returning this fall, but why not check out something new while you’re on the couch?

Fall Culture Preview: Books

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 19:32:49 Z

Don’t be sad that it’s getting too cool to stay outside — be glad you get to stay in with these great upcoming tomes

Fall Culture Preview: Music

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 18:46:56 Z

What we’ll be listening to as the leaves change and the chill sets in.

Fall Culture Preview: Movies

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 18:49:41 Z

It’s the best time of year to sink your teeth into some meaty new releases

Keeping up with the boldfaces: a TIFF celebrity primer

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 22:05:48 Z

Shinan Govani: A lot of people, I guess, are wondering what the establishment of our own Soho House in Toronto means for the party geometry of the fest

The Penis Project: Erecting a different kind of monologue

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 19:30:59 Z

Whether you call it a phallus, a weiner, Mr. Johnson, The Dark Knight, or just Lefty, it will be up for discussion and dissection at Buddies in Bad Times’ The Penis Project

The Quantifed Month: August

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 18:19:21 Z

From Pussy Riot to Chavril, Sarah Lazarovic has a look at the month’s highs and lows in handy chart form

Making friends over phone sex in For a Good Time, Call…

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 19:22:03 Z

You don’t see this story every day, and you don’t see these characters every day,” Graynor says. “The phone sex piece is such a great hook, you think, ‘How can this movie not already exist?’

Randy Jackson kicked off American Idol judging panel

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:36:12 Z

Jackson, who has been on the Idol judging panel since the show’s 2002 inception, will remain on the Fox series as a “mentor,” according to reports

Trailer Tracker: Stolen and Taken 2

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 14:09:09 Z

Liam Neeson is back in Taken 2. (Come on, something wrong with the title Takener?), while Nicolas Cage hits screens in Stolen — and there are more similarities between the two films than their titles

The return of Doctor Who: A panel discussion

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 20:23:36 Z

Depending on how you count it, this is either the premiere of the third season of Doctor Who, or the seventh or the 33rd. So it isn’t exactly the greatest jumping on point for new viewers

Popcorn Panel: Premium Rush

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 20:03:40 Z

“Bike courier thriller” is a sadly underrepresented genre, especially considering how COMPLETELY EFFING RAD the chase scenes are

Telluride filmfest scoops TIFF with world premieres from Deepa Mehta, Sarah Polley

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 21:34:08 Z

Telluride cutting in front of line is hardly unexpected, and in years past it has screened high profile films such as The Descendants, Shame and Albert Nobbs before their scheduled Toronto premieres

Byron Rempel: Undead and loving it

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 19:46:30 Z

From his home in the town of Morden, Man., located roughly a half-hour drive from the U.S.-Canada border, Byron Rempel is slowly amassing an army of the undead

Jersey Shore will end after upcoming season

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:58:52 Z

MTV gave the last call for Jersey Shore on Thursday, saying the raucous reality show will conclude after its upcoming sixth season, which begins Oct. 4

The Month Ahead: September

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 18:21:27 Z

The leaves may be turning and the kids may be heading back to school, but the arts scene really kicks into high gear in September (case in point: TIFF, coming soon to a Toronto near you)

Ryan Gosling to direct Christina Hendricks in How to Catch a Monster

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:33:21 Z

The Oscar nominee wrote the film, which centres on a single mother of two, who is swept into a dark underworld while her teenage son discovers a secret road leading to an underwater town

Pippa Middleton to write a book on home entertaining

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 16:14:31 Z

The 28-year-old younger sister to the Duchess of Cambridge, formerly known as Kate Middleton, says that the book is based on her experience in her family’s party business and work in an events company

Michael Jackson’s birthday celebrated by family, fans at childhood home

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 15:15:42 Z

Fans danced to Jackson’s music prior to the arrival of his children and mother at the house at 2300 Jackson St., where the King of Pop, his siblings and their parents lived until 1969

Ralph Macchio waxes on about American Gypsies

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 14:11:49 Z

Macchio, a producer on the series, says he “found it a fascinating subculture and relatable in a family sense”

Shinan: Ken Montague’s Dwell being

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 20:06:44 Z

‘I knew about the feature, but didn’t expect to see my face.” That was what Toronto aesthete Ken Montague said about the September issue of Dwell magazine, on whose cover he appears