Drive-in TIFF part of Ontario Place plan
Adrive-in version of the Toronto International Film Festival is part of the provincial government’s plan for Ontario Place.
Culture Minister Lisa MacLeod announced Monday that the province is investing $2 million for socially distanced summer activities at the waterfront park, including concerts, comedy shows and drive-in movie screenings.
The events will start in late July with a foreign film festival and end in mid-September with nine days for TIFF. Star staff, wire services
Telefilm pledges more diversity
Telefilm Canada has unveiled a new Equity and Representation Action Plan it calls “a first step” toward creating a more inclusive industry.
It vows to expand financing programs to support creators from under-represented identities and to create four new positions for Black, Indigenous and employees of colour: two on the project financing team, one in business affairs and one in a senior management role.
Telefilm also pledges that by 2023, a minimum of 50 per cent of its new hires and 30 per cent of new management hires will be from under-represented identities, including LGBTQ people and those with disabilities. The Canadian Press
Plays by phone to cater to kids
“Mundane Mysteries” aren’t just for grown-ups anymore.
Outside the March has partnered with Theatre Direct and
TO Live to offer a weeklong edition of its popular series of phone plays, just for kids.
“Mundane Mysteries: Playdate” will let children five to 13, and their families, spend a week solving their own personal mysteries over the phone, from Aug. 10 to Sept. 4.
Go to mundanemysteries.com to buy tickets: $50 for a single family, $70 for two households, which includes “enrichment materials.” Debra Yeo
Release of ‘Tenet’ delayed again
Warner Bros. has again delayed the release of Christopher No
lan’s film “Tenet.” The big-budget science fiction film was previously intended for release on Aug. 12, which would have made it the first major studio film to hit theatres since they shuttered in midMarch.
Warner Bros. did not immediately disclose a new opening date, but said it would announce one soon, once cinemas can safely reopen.
Analysts expected the change in plans, given the rise in coronavirus cases in multiple parts of the U.S., including California and Florida. Los Angeles Times
Heard testifies Depp abused her
Amber Heard has begun giving testimony at Britain’s High Court against ex-husband
Johnny Depp, and has accused him of abusing her both physically and verbally during their tempestuous relationship.
The 57-year-old Depp is suing News Group Newspapers, publisher of the Sun, and the paper’s executive editor, Dan
Wootton, over an April 2018 article that called him a “wifebeater.”
In her first testimony, Heard denied accusations that she was a heavy drug-taker and drinker, as well as being controlling and abusive herself.
She said Depp knelt on her back and hit her on the back of the head in a hotel room in Tokyo in 2015 during an argument and said in written testimony she worried Depp would kill her at various times. The Associated Press
West criticizes Tubman at rally
Rapper Kanye West, in his first event since declaring himself a U.S. presidential candidate, ranted against historical figure
Harriet Tubman on Sunday, saying the Underground Railroad conductor “never actually freed the slaves, she just had them work for other white people,” comments that drew shouts of opposition from some in the crowd.
West delivered a lengthy monologue, touching on topics from abortion and religion to international trade and licensing deals, before a crowd in North Charleston, S.C.
Tubman is one of the most respected figures of 19th-century America. An escaped slave, she helped other Black men and women travel north to freedom and fought for the Union during the Civil War. The Associated Press
Minaj pregnant with first child
Nicki Minaj has a new release coming soon: her first child. The rapper took to Instagram on Monday to announce she is pregnant. Minaj married Kenneth Petty last year. They first dated as teenagers and reunited in 2018.