OMG it’s Fabian!! … plus Katie & the Kennedys, Hoffert’s next gig, Spielberg’s next flick and Harrington’s nuptials

SHARPS ‘N’ FLATS: Veteran crowd-pleasers Fabian and Bobby Vee headline the Original Stars From American Bandstand show at Fallsview Casino July 1&2 … Irish

FABIAN: taking the Falls

sensations Celtic Women are set to make their only area appearance July 16 at Casino Rama. Apparenty they couldn’t find a big enough venue in T.O. …  gardenia-voiced thrush Judy Marshak is set to headline the Friday night Jazz Vocalist Series at The Old Mill this week with Bruce Harvey on piano and George Kozub on bass. M’lady’s repertoire will include some favourite standards by Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael, Dave Frishberg, Blossom Dearie and Cole Porter. For more info, just click here … and magical media music man Paul Hoffert was in Singapore last month, teaching a course on how to compose music for videogames, websites, iPads, & such, using his own textbook, Music For New Media. When he’s not on stage celebrating the current revival of his superBand Lighthouse

HARRINGTON: engagement(s)

he’s on stage playing jazz, either as part of the Paul Hoffert Trio or the Jim Gelcer Trio, and admits he’s already having far too much fun. Next gig for Hoffert and his trio is a stint this weekend, also at the Old Mill. Hmmmm ….

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS DEPT. I: What do Girl Guides Of Canada and the Art Gallery Of Ontario have in common?  Next week’s official launch of Canadian Girls Say, the photography exhibition opening Wednesday in Walker Court.

BALLET HIGH: National Ballet of Canada stars Guillaume Côté and Zdenek Konvalina will dance their new creative collaboration Impermanence when it premieres later this month at the 73rd annual Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence … ballet icon Rex Harrington and fiancé Robert Hope, who have been together for six years, got officially engaged in March – in France, no less — and will wed next summer. Meanwhile, much to the delight of his fans, Harrington will return to the stage in the

KINNEAR: JFK?

role of Prince Gremin in the newly designed Onegin, June 19 – 25 at the Four Seasons Centre … and speaking of Onegin, the National Ballet website currently features two dazzling behind-the-scenes videos of the remaking, restoring and refurbishing of Santo Loquasto’s spectacular designs for this extravagant Russian melodrama. To see them, just click here.

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS DEPT. II: What do Greg Kinnear and Katie Holmes have in common? The Kennedy dynasty, apparently. Kinnear will play the USA’s most admired commander in chief, with Holmes as the future Jackie O., in a big-budget mini-series shooting here in June. Barry Pepper is set to play Robert Kennedy, Kenneth Welsh will play J. Edgar Hoover and Tom Wilkinson will play poppa Joe Kennedy Sr.  Who will play Marilyn? Not Lindsay Lohan — she’s already committed to bringing Linda Lovelace‘s sad story to the screen. But wouldn’t she be terrific in the role? (I’m just sayin’ … )

FLICKERS: Director David Frankel, now shooting the screen version of The Big Year, is juggling a wonderfully eclectic cast including Anthony Anderson, Jack Black, Brian Dennehy, Anjelica Huston, Steve Martin, Dianne Wiest, Owen Wilson and JoBeth Williams … this year’s Toronto Jewish Film Festival was the most successful TJFF ever. Which is why they’ve already set the dates for next year’s movie marathon: May 7-15, 2011. Now that’s planning ahead  … and Steven Spielberg will direct the film version of Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse, the saga of a friendship between a boy and a horse whose fates continue to intertwine over the course of World War I. The stage version is currently a major crowd-pleaser at the National Theatre in London.

TOMORROW:

Peter Appleyard, Natalie Cole, Sean Cullen,

Hugh Hefner & Doris Day (yes, Doris Day!)

Do I hear a Valse for dance dazzler Chan Hon Goh?

 

HON GOH: Dancing the title role tonight

BALLET HIGH: Retiring principal dancer Chan Hon Goh dances Giselle tonight as the National Ballet opens at the Four Seasons Centre for the Arts. You  still have a chance to see the prima ballerina’s farewell fling, however, as she’ll dance the company premiere of Valse Triste by Peter Martins at the NBOC White Hot gala on June 18.  The gala promises an incredible performance of short works specially selected by Karen Kain executed by the National Ballet’s spectacular dancers.  Some orchestra and Ring 3 tickets ($100 each ) and Ring 4 tickets ($75) are still available, as are Ring 5.2 tickets ($20.) Ring 5.1. tickets ($50) are already sold out.

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OUR TOWN: Somebody’s doing something right. For the last three years in a row, average attendance for Canadian Opera Company shows 99.7%. Almost  

PITT: in the Moneyball

95,000 tickets were sold for 2008/09 season subscriptions with gross revenue of almost $10 million. More than 130,000 patrons attended 64 COC performances, and yes, those great seats are expensive. But did you know (I didn’t!) that 150 $20 tickets are available for every COC performance?  Almost 10,000 $20 tickets were sold this season alone … Jersey Boys, the major crowd-pleaser still wowing ‘em at the Toronto Centre For The Arts, will now play to the end of September… and Melanie Doane and the classy Art of Time Ensemble, (Andrew Burashko on piano, Phil Dwyer on reeds, Rob Pilch on guitar, George Koller on bass and Amy Laing on cello) join forces for their final Songbook III concert tonight at Harbourfront Centre’s Enwave Theatre.

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TRIPPLEHORN: Morning

NO PEOPLE LIKE SHOW PEOPLE: New audience favourite Jeanne Tripplehorn (Big Love,) so good as Jackie Kennedy in Grey Gardens, will next tackle the dark screen drama Morning, directed by her husband, Leland Orser, with Laura Linney, Kyle Chandler and Jason Ritter … Aussie ex-pat Josh Lawson has been cast as a lead in the CBS comedy pilot Waiting to Die … Demetri Martin will star opposite Brad Pitt in the big screen adaptation of Moneyball  … and Marlon Wayans has signed on to star in the film adaptation of the book The Year of Living Biblically.  Wayans will also serve as a producer on the project

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HOW SWEET IT IS: I liked the old math. I was willing to learn with the New Math. But my favourite Internet math has gotta be YOUR-AGE-BY-CHOCOLATE math. 

Some of you already know it. But for those of you who don’t.

1. Pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate (more than once but less than 10)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3. Add 5

4. Multiply it by 50 (we’ll wait while you get the calculator)

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1759…   If you haven’t, add 1758.

 6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number

a) The first digit of this was your original number (I.e.., how many times you want to have chocolate each week).

b) The next two numbers are

YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!)

Now, how silly is that?

-/-