Hollywood rules the Tonys, Piper sums up Zero, Bono & Bob play newsmen, and Liona goes back to highschool

OUR TOWN:  Mother’s Day never looked so funny. First Robin Duke, Jayne Eastwood, Kathryn Greenwood and Teresa Pavlinek return to T.O. tonight as out very favourite Women Fully Clothed, Older and Hotter, kicking off a three-night stand  at Massey

MARSHAK: playwrights' delight

Hall. Then Betty White hosts SNL tomorrow night … also tomorrow night: Funnyman Mike Wilmot wraps his current four-night stint at Yuk Yuks, and George Olliver & Gangbuster rock The Edge in Ajax … what do Bono and Bob Geldof have in common?  Everything, apparently. Which is why the two celebrity activists will edit the Globe & Mail’s special May 10 section devoted to the future of Africa — their way of drawing attention to the issue of extreme poverty in Africa ahead of the G8 and G20 meetings scheduled to be held here next month. Kenyan activist and blogger Ory Okolloh will also be part of Monday’s editorial team … and Linda Kash, Theresa Tova and Judy Marshak are among the featured artists set to interpret new works by playwrights Michael Ross Albert, Ron Fromstein, Bekky O’Neil and Darrah Teitel at In The Beginning on Monday night  at the Miles Nadal JCC. For tickets, click here.

FOOTLIGHTS: Yes, it’s official — Broadway has finally gone Hollywood. Tony nominees this year include Jude Law, Hamlet; Alfred Molina, Red; Liev Schreiber, A View from the

LAW: Tony nominee

Bridge; Christopher Walken, A Behanding in Spokane; Denzel Washington, Fences; Valerie Harper, Looped; Linda Lavin, Collected Stories; Laura Linney, Time Stands Still; Catherine Zeta-Jones, A Little Night Music; Kelsey Grammer, La Cage aux Folles; Sean Hayes, Promises, Promises; Scarlett Johansson, A View from the Bridge; and Angela Lansbury, A Little Night Music. And Broadway regular David Hyde Pierce, who shot to fame with Tony nominee Kelsey Grammer in Frasier, will receive the Isabelle Stevenson humanitarian honour. Should be interesting to see if the mix of big and small screen names will kickstart higher Nielsen ratings when the awards show is telecast from Radio City Music Hall on Sunday June 13.

NEWTON-JOHN: mind & body

HEAD OF THE CLASS: Hippocrates Health Institute in West Palm Beach, Florida is one of the favourite new showbiz hideaways, attracting marquee names from all over the globe. Sparklies who have already stopped by for a tune-up this season include Anthony Hopkins, Tommy Tune, Glee guest star Olivia Newton-John and Liona Boyd, who confirms she is moving back to L.A. this summer. After six years of trying the East Coast on for size, she says she found Miami too hot, “mosquitoey” and “hurricaney”, New York “too tough and unromantic,” and Connecticut winters “too damn cold!” She’s also returning to the concert stage – Toronto fans can see her May 25 at the March of Dimes fundraising Gala at the Royal York – and In the meantime, don’t be surprised if you see her in T.O. this weekend. She’s planning to be here tomorrow for her high school reunion!

FOOTLIGHTS: Ageless legit theatre legend Viola Léger returns as Antonine Maillet’s irresistible Acadian cleaning lady in a revival of La Sagouine. Directed by John Van

LINNEY: Tony contender

Burek, Léger performs her legendary one-woman show in English May 14-29, followed by a run en français May 31-June 5, at the Berkeley St. Theatre Downstairs … Perry Perlmutar promises to “try to be extra funny for you” when he opens at Absolute Comedy next week … and among the major entries set for the Harold Green Theatre next  season: Zero Hour, with Jim Brochu as comedy icon Zero Mostel, directed by indomitable screen siren Piper Laurie. Meanwhile, the amusing and engagingly tuneful Soul Of Gershwin, a lightherarted exploration of George & Ira’s roots in klezmer music, closes tomorrow night at the Winter Garden. To snag last-minute tickets, just click here. And have a happy weekend!

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… now, where was I?

Oh, right, I was telling you that By George was about to take a two-week hiatus.

That was in November 2009, as I recall.

CRYSTAL: sorely missed

And as I recall, I was planning on getting right back to you. Until I dropped my calendar. And by the time I picked it up again I was already … well … distracted, you might say. First by the holiday season, and then by those golden winter games  now known as the Canadian Olympics, and then by the 82nd annual Academy Awards, which was almost as much fun as a meat-packing convention. Have the Oscar ever been such a predictable mirror of the previously-distributed Golden Globe and SAG Awards? Were you as surprised as Sandra Bullock was when she won?  And should we start a petition right now to draft Billy Crystal back to host the frequently less-than-enchanting evening? Let’s face it, we’re finally at the point where the show doesn’t work without him.

BURNS: Eligible for cloning?

Meanwhile, in yet another 40th season triumph for Ken Gass‘ Factory Theatre, frankly fabulous playwright George F. Walker has written, directed and opened another hit play, And So It Goes, with riotously riveting performances by Martha Burns and Peter Donaldson, both of whom should be immediately cloned so we can feast on their work until we start taking them for granted, which God willing will be Never. Burns and Donaldson are so consistently brilliant that merely attenpting to describe them makes me run out of adjectives. And yes, I own a Thesaurus.

You’d think all that might make their respective mates insecure, except their respective mates are kinda busy. Ms. Burns’ hubby Paul Gross, about to be seen on the big screen in the new western spoof Gunless, is hard at work prepping

McCARTHY: Back in the Mosque

the first season of the TV spin-off of his hit movie Men With Brooms for CBC Television. Donaldson’s mater, award-laden gamin Sheila McCarthy, who co-starred with him as one of the dynamic romantic duos on the three-hanky Love Letters special, is busy shooting a new season of Little Mosque On The Prairie for CBC and a whole mess of other channels all over the world.

P.S.: And So It Goes closed its premiere run on March 6. Will it be back? Count on it. And count the days ’til you can see it again — or better still, for the very first time.

And while we’re on the subject of footlights, that new buzz on Broadway is the sound of box office cash registers ringing. And not without reason. TV lions Anthony LaPaglia (Without A Trace) and Tony Shaloub (Monk) are

HARPER: as Bankhead on B'way

sharing the stage with Justin Bartha (The Hangover) for the Broadway revival of Lend Me A Tenor, directed by veteran stage and screen-stealer Stanley Tucci … four-time Emmy winner Valerie Harper is tearing up the Great Light Way as legendary drug-addled actress Tallulah Bankhead in Matthew Lombardo‘s new comedy, Looped, based on historic incident and gossip surrounding La Bankhead’s final film … good news for Christopher Walken fans. He’s back on Broadway, starring with Sam Rockwell in the world premiere of Martin McDonagh‘s new play, A Behanding In Spokane. And no, I don’t know what that means either …Alfred Molina, so good as Carey Mulligan’s dad in An Education, is back on Broadway, reprising his role in the hit London thriller Red. Luminato-bound John Malkovich is already set for the screen

EDNA: nothing like a Dame

version … and talk about yer dynamic duos! Dame Edna [a.k.a. Barry Humphries] and cabaret prince Michael Feinstein are rocking Broadway with a new two-hander cunningly called All About Me. “One megastar, one gigastar, a 12 piece orchestra, more than 40 songs, and 22 ladies lavatories!” And yes, Edna and Michael also persuaded Christopher Durang to help them shampoo their libretto … also wooing New York visitors: Come Fly Away, a new dance musical by Twyla Tharp showcasing the music and the voice of Frank Sinatra in what its fans proclaim as “the most romantic evening on Broadway!” … and one of the most intriguing new entries, Million Dollar Quartet, is a new musical based on a 1956 meeting of Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley. “They came together to make music. They ended up making history.” Sounds like a lot of fun to me.

TOMORROW:

Wassup with film folk George Clooney, Taylor Lautner & Matt Damon.

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Nothing but stars in our eyes, in N.Y., L.A. & T.O.

NO PEOPLE LIKE SHOW PEOPLE: Talk about yer star-studded evenings. Ann Blyth, Connie Stevens, Shirley Jones, Debbie Reynolds, Ruta Lee and Nancy Sinatra are among the sparklies set to honour indefatigable

REDGRAVE: Tennessee tribute

entertainer Mickey Rooney at the Thalians Gala this Sunday in Hollywood. (Did you know that Mickey, who married eight times, has been wed to his current missus Jan Chamberlin for more than 30 years? That’s gotta be a Tinsel Town record in itself!) … the late Patrick Swayze will be among the honorees at America Dances, the 24th Anniversary Jubilee of Career Transition for Dancers. Headliners for Monday night’s event at New York’s City Center include four-time Emmy Award winner Valerie Harper and Tony Award winner Ann Reinking. For all the details, including who’s hoofing, click here … and Eli Wallach & Anne Jackson, Vanessa Redgrave, Marian Seldes, John Guare, Olympia Dukakis and John Patrick Shanley are among the marquee names set to participate in an

KASH: Harvest time

evening of poetry, theater, and reminiscences in honor of the induction of Tennessee Williams into The Cathedral of St. John the Divine Poets’ Corner next Thursday in Manhattan.

TRICK OR TREAT: Only three more chances to see dynamic duo Linda Kash and Paul O’Sullivan play multiple roles in Harvest. The Ken Cameron comedy is set to close Saturday night at Showplace Peterborough … the two-day Zoomer Show is set for this weekend at the Direct Energy Centre at the CNE … and the Royal Cinema on College Street celebrates the scary season tonight with a 7 pm Halloween Double

STROMBO: with Anne tonight

Bill: Zombies: When the Dead Walk, and The Houdini Code, two intriguing documentaries produced by Donna Zuckerbrot.

TOGETHER AGAIN: Your boyfriend George Stoumboulopoulos welcomes Anne Murray back to his red chairs tonight on The Hour to talk about her new autobiography All Of Me …  and speaking of autobiographies, recently I mentioned that I thought comedian Kathy Griffin‘s new autobiography has the catchiest title of the fall literary season (yes, she  really did call her book Official Book Club Selection.)

MANDEL: Touche-pas!

But some close runners-up are now looming. Obsessively compulsive Howie Mandel calls his book Here’s the Deal: Don’t Touch Me. Paul Shaffer’s Letterman years memoir is called We’ll Be Here For The Rest Of Our Lives. Inside its pages, current headline-earner Andre Agassi is reportedly living up to the title of his tome, Open. And Don Cherry wants to make it as simple for us as possible, so he’s called his new collection of on-and-off-the-ice fables Don Cherry’s Hockey Stories And Stuff.

OUR TOWN: The 2009 International Diaspora Film Festival opens here Sunday with a wide range of unusual events. Highlights include David Amram’s

MURRAY: on The Hour tonight

evening of music and dance from the Middle East, At Home Around the World, on Tuesday 3 at Revival, and the Toronto premiere of filmmaker Teri McCluhan’s 2008 documentary on Badshah Khan, The Frontier Gandhi, on Wednesday at Innis Hall. For more info on Diaspora events, click here … dazzling dance demon Noam Gagnon returns to Toronto Nov. 6-7 in The Vision Impure, an evening of solos presented by DanceWorks as part of Harbourfront Centre’s NextSteps series at the Enwave Theatre … and the seventh annual Weekend To End Breast Cancer saw 4,615 participants raise a staggering $11.6 million for Princess Margaret Hospital’s ongoing mission to conquer cancer in our lifetime. Organizers will broaden the base next year with The Weekend To End Women’s Cancers, giving walkers an option to designate whether the money they raise goes to breast cancer or gynecologic cancers research, treatment and care. Expect a HUGE turnout.

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