NO PEOPLE LIKE SHOW PEOPLE: Man-about-media Jian Ghomeshi is set to host the 30th (!!!) anniversary of the Dora Mavor Moore Awards on Monday, June 29, 2009 at 8pm at the Winter Garden Theatre. Ghomeshi, as if you didn’t know, hosts CBC Radio’s flagship show, Q … and speaking of Q, Liz Smith profiles Joan Collins in the layest issue of Q (aka Quest magazine) and tells an interesting story on herself.
“In 2000,” she recalls, “Joan appeared in the TV movie These Old Broads with Debbie Reynolds, Shirley MacLaine and (in what was little more than a cameo) Elizabeth Taylor. I’d heard, from what I considered a good source, that Joan had made unkind remarks about Elizabeth, who was in declining health, and that Elizabeth had countered back with her own wisecracks. Imagine my surprise on the day the item appeared — Joan herself called my office, weeping, sobbing, ‘Liz, I would never say such things about Elizabeth! etc.” More stunning was a call from Elizabeth! She said, darkly, ‘Liz, Joan and I are old friends. I know she’d never say those things, and I know for sure I’d never respond, even if she did.’ Needless to say, I retracted. (This was a gentle chiding from La Liz, but still enough to freeze my blood!) ”
THEY COME TO PRAISE CAESAR, NOT TO BURY HIM: Tomorrow’s Stratford Shakespeare Festival Live webcast at 6:30 pm salutes the fest’s upcoming production of Julius Caesar – “the ultimate political thriller,” says Stratford chief Antoni Cimolino. On tomorow’s 6:30 pm webcast Director of Literary Services David Prosser interviews actors Ben Carlson (Brutus) and Jonathan Goad (Mark Antony). If you have questions you can ask them during the live webcast or send them in advance to askantoni@stratfordshakespearefestival.com.
HAIL TO THE QUIPSTERS: Ever since Ronald Reagan traded in his General Electric spokesman gig to run for president, movie stars are asked if they would consider running for president.
Well-heeled Republican stalwart Bob Hope admitted he’d given it some thought, but that his wife had nixed the idea.
“Dolores liked the idea of being First Lady,” he added, “but she doesn’t want to move to a smaller house.”
When Dolly Parton was asked if she would ever consider running for president, she just shook her head.
“Oh honey,” she said, “we’ve had already enough boobs in the White House!”
A COLONEL OF TRUTH: He’s made more than his share of unfortunate headlines over the last few years, so I was sorry to hear that Mel Gibson‘s marriage is on the rocks. I was even sorrier to hear of his remark that his long-suffering Anglican wife Robyn, the mother of his daughter and six, count ’em, six sons, won’t be able to join him in paradise because she’s not a Catholic, although he admits that she is “a much better person than I am.” Now BetOnline.com is posting odds, known as the “over/under,” on the amount of his divorce after 28 years of marriage, as Mel and Robyn divide their houses in Malibu, Fiji, Costa Rica and a South Pacific Island, plus his personal fortune, estimated at $350 million plus.
By George 