Martin honoured by Stratford festival
Andrea Martin has cemented a place in our memories with her TV and movie characters — think Edith Prickley or Perini Scleroso on SCTV, or Voula in My Big Fat Greek Wedding — but it’s her theatre work that will be highlighted when she receives the Stratford Festival’s Legacy Award.
The Canadian-American actor and comedian will receive the honour Sept. 23 at Toronto’s Four Seasons Hotel.
Martin, 72, who was born in Portland, Maine, and moved to Canada in 1970, spent a season at Stratford in 1978. She appeared as Sibyl in Noel Coward’s Private Lives and as the Old Lady in the musical Candide, a role she reprised on Broadway in 1997, earning a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
Martin has been nominated for Tony Awards six times and won two, for her Broadway debut My Favorite Year in 1993 and Pippin in 2013. She has also won two Emmy Awards, for writing on SCTV Network 90.
Her local theatre history goes back to a fabled 1972 Toronto production of Godspell, in which she was cast with other future TV stars, including Eugene Levy and Martin Short ( SCTV), Gilda Radner ( Saturday Night Live), Victor Garber ( Alias) and Paul Shaffer ( Late Show With David Letterman). The Legacy Award was launched in 2011 to honour important figures from the festival’s history. Past recipients include Christopher Plummer, Maggie Smith, William Shatne r, Martha Henry, Colm Feore, Eric McCormack, Gordon Pinsent and Megan Follows. Debra Yeo
Sainte-Marie joins Secret Path concert
A benefit concert started by the late Gord Downie is set to return this fall with the help of some big names in Canadian music, including Buffy SainteMarie. The organizers behind Secret Path Live say Sainte-Marie is among the artists slated to perform at the event, which brings to the stage the story of Chanie Wenjack, a12-year-old Ojibwe boy who died while trying to escape an Ontario residential school in 1966. Other artists in the lineup announced Wednesday include alt-rock outfit July Talk, singer/songwriter Sam Roberts, experimental vocalist and author Tanya Tagaq and the folk duo Whitehorse. The Secret Path Live show takes place Oct. 19 at Toronto’s Roy Thompson Hall, and will raise money to support programming at the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund. The Canadian Press
New Weinstein book to hit shelves
As a new book about the unraveling of Harvey Weinstein’s career prepares to hit the shelves, fresh revelations are unfolding, from Gwyneth Paltrow’s early involvement to a new accuser who has come forward. New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who initially broke the Weinstein story that would help end the movie mogul’s tight reign on Hollywood, opened up about their new book, She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement, on Monday. On the Today show, Twohey said Paltrow “was actually one of the first people to get on the phone and that she was determined to help this investigation, even when Harvey Weinstein showed up to a party at her house early and she was sort of forced to hide in the bathroom.” And She Said identifies a newly revealed accuser, who had remained anonymous when the Times exposé first published in fall of 2017. Rowena Chiu, a former Miramax employee in London, says Weinstein tried to rape her in a hotel room in Venice, Italy, in 1998. Weinstein is facing a criminal trial in January in New York on charges of sexual assault and rape, and has denied ever having had nonconsensual sex. He has pleaded not guilty to five sex crimes, including rape, involving two women. USA Today
Judge rejects suit against Osheaga
A judge has nixed a proposed class action lawsuit over rapper Travis Scott’s tardy appearance at the Osheaga festival in 2018. Quebec Court Justice André Prévost ruled on the matter last June, putting an end to the proposed civil suit. Lawyer Myria m Brix i, who represented concert promoter Evenko in the case, says the judgment is of interest to the entertainment industry as it was the first time someone had sought a class action for a show delay. College student Megan Le Stum, a fan of Scott, had bought a general weekend pass for $327, hoping to see him perform.
The popular U.S. rapper arrived nearly an hour after he was scheduled to start and spent just 40 minutes on stage in a truncated set. By the time he took the stage, Le Stum had left. But Prévost ruled the Osheaga experience couldn’t be reduced to a single performance, even a headline act, noting that weekend passes allowed concert-goers to see 132 artists at the Montreal event. The judge asked why, if Scott was the main consideration for the student, she bought a weekend pass instead of just a single day. Brixi says the case has not been appealed. The Canadian Press
Perry, BET to start streaming service
Tyler Perryand BET are creating a new streaming service called BET Plus that will charge $9.99 a month starting Sept. 19. It will feature exclusive new programming and existing movies, series and specials from the likes of Perry, Atlanta producer Will Packer, Girl’s Trip screenwriter Tracy Oliver and others. Perry’s past works will be available as well as his future projects under the Viacom deal he signed two years ago. The New York Times