Gander happy with musical’s single Tony
The people with the most invested in Canadian musical Come From Away aren’t mourning the show’s loss of the Best Musical Tony Award.
Co-creators David Hein and Irene Sankoff were celebrating Monday, despite the show taking home only one of the seven Tonys it was nominated for: Best Director of a Musical for Christopher Ashley.
The prestigious Best Musical prize went to Dear Evan Hansen.
However, Hein and Sankoff said they were thrilled that people watching the Tonys in Gander, N.L., were honoured on TV. Come From Away is set in the small town, which sheltered thousands of people after 38 planes were diverted there on Sept. 11, 2001.
Ashley paid tribute to the Newfoundlanders in his acceptance speech, saying, “The people who extended their hearts and their homes and were generous and kind at the very worst moments, to all of you, thank you.”
In Gander, 185 people at a sold-out viewing Tony Awards party at the local Legion hall burst into applause when Ashley won his award.
“We were happy just to be nominated,” said Beulah Cooper, a Gander resident and volunteer who was portrayed in the play.
“We got one winner and that’s wonderful.”
“The entire night last night we were thinking about the parties that they were having out in Gander and we knew Chris was thinking exactly the same thing,” Hein said in a phone interview Monday. Star staff, wire services
Bachelor in Paradise filming suspended
The future of the reality TV series Bachelor in Paradise is up in the air after an allegation that a contestant may have been sexually assaulted during filming.
Production of the Bachelor/Bachelorette spinoff has been suspended and all cast members sent home.
The fourth season was scheduled to start Aug. 8 on ABC while City TV listed a debut date of Aug. 14.
The allegations involve Corinne Olympios and DeMario Jackson, both designated villains on their respective seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.
Various websites, including People and TMZ, say Olympios and Jackson had a sexual encounter in a pool during which Olympios was too drunk to consent.
TMZ says a producer filed a complaint about the incident and that Olympios has said she was “blacked out” and had no knowledge of what happened with Jackson until other cast members told her.
“We have suspended production and we are conducting a thorough investigation of these allegations,” Warner Bros. said. Debra Yeo
Paul Newman gets voice role in Cars 3
Paul Newman fans are in for a treat: his beloved character Doc Hudson plays an integral role in the new chapter of Pixar’s animated Cars franchise.
The late Oscar-winning icon and longtime auto-racing enthusiast played the wise, gravelly voiced mentor to hotshot rookie racer Lightning McQueen ( Owen Wilson) in 2006’s original Cars. And thanks to unused lines from Newman’s old recording sessions, flashbacks featuring Doc’s sage advice bring an extra sense of gravitas to Cars 3 (in theatres Friday).
Newman died from lung cancer in 2008 at age 83. When directing Newman in the recording studio for the first Cars, Disney/Pixar animation chief John Lasseter kept recording during various line readings and also captured their conversations about racing, yielding 28 hours of archival recordings from those original sessions. So when filmmakers decided to make Doc a part of Cars 3and were loath to use a sound-alike, they had plenty of material.
Cars 3 incorporates an unused monologue from the first film, where Doc describes racing as “one lap after another, inches apart, never touching.”
“I grew to really love Paul and we had such great times,” Lasseter said. “Listening to us converse, it was very nostalgic and very emotional for me.”
Added director Brian Fee: “Anyone who’s a Paul Newman fan finds it haunting to hear his voice again, in a good way.” USA Today