Polytechnique Wins Big at Genies 
The dramatic retelling of the shooting at L’École Polytechnique de Montréal was the big winner last night at the Genie Awards. The film, simply titled Polytechnique, won a total of nine awards including best picture, best director, best original screenplay, costume, editing and cinematography.
Karine Vanasse, who starred in the film as survivor Valérie, won best actress and in accepting talked about what making this film meant to her as a young woman. “I’m holding this and thinking of the 14 victims of the massacre and also those who were injured,” she said. “I know this event had a huge impact on the lives of these people.” Maxime Gaudette won the best supporting actor Genie playing ‘The Killer’ and said that he wanted go deeper with his character than simply portray him as a “monster.” “I wanted to play a human being first,” Gaudette said. “He had a deranged mind, but we had access to his pain and I wanted to show it.”
Rounding out the top prize winners was Joshua Jackson, who took home best actor for portraying a school teacher with terminal cancer in One Week. To get the full list of winners, head over to the Genies’ website.
Coco Lands on TBS
In a surprise move, Conan O’Brien has secured a deal with basic cable channel TBS to host a late night, weekday program on their airwaves starting this coming November. In a deal closed within 72 hours of the start of negotiations, O’Brien signed a five year deal with TBS. As part of the deal, the former Tonight Show host have a stake in ownership of his new show, which could mean more money for O’Brien in the back end even though he’s taking a smaller paycheque up front.
But wait, wasn’t O’Brien close to signing a deal with a major broadcast network? “We assumed he had a deal with Fox,” said Turner Entertainment chief Steve Koonin as to why his channel had not publicly shown interest in pursuing O’Brien. According to sources, talks between O’Brien’s reps and Fox stalled when local affiliates expressed dissent about taking on the proposed talk show at 11 pm, where they already have rerun deals with pricey syndicated shows like Seinfeld and Friends in place.
In an additional note of irony, O’Brien’s berth at 11 pm on TBS will bump George Lopez and his eponymous talk show back to midnight. Lopez, apparently, doesn’t mind though and has already jokingly called the new line-up “Lo-Co.”
Hannah Montana Hosting MMVAs
As further evidence that they’ve sold out what little remaining shed of street cred that made the MuchMusic Video Awards so unique in the first place, the producers of the MMVAs have hired Miley Cyrus, AKA: Hannah Montana, to co-host this year’s show. “I’m so excited to co-host the MuchMusic Video Awards,” said Cyrus in a press release. “I can’t wait to get back to Canada and perform for all of my fans. It’s going to be an awesome night!” Cyrus will follow in the footsteps of fellow Disney channel alum The Jonas Brothers, who hosted the show last year. Call me conspiratorial, but I think that whole place has gone to hell ever since Ben Mulroney moved into the building. Look for the MMVAs to spill out over Queen St West in Toronto on June 20th.
Vatican to Beatles: We’re Good 
Perhaps in the hopes of generating some positive news around themselves, the Vatican, through their newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, have praised the Beatles for their musical contributions to culture, while reserving the right to frown on their lifestyle choices. “It’s true, they took drugs; swept up by their success, they lived dissolute and uninhibited lives,” L’Osservatore Romano wrote in its weekend edition. “But,” the newspaper added, “listening to their songs, all of this seems distant and meaningless. Their beautiful melodies, which changed forever pop music and still give us emotions, live on like precious jewels.”
The response from the surviving Beatles? Meh. “Didn’t the Vatican say we were satanic or possibly satanic, and they’ve still forgiven us?” recalled Ringo Starr in an interview with CNN. “I think the Vatican, they’ve got more to talk about than the Beatles.”
But what about John Lennon’s 1966 crack that his band had become “bigger than Jesus”? Well, Giovanni Maria Vian, the editor in chief of L’Osservatore Romano, seemed to be in a forgiving 89ood and turned the other cheek. “In reality it wasn’t that scandalous,” Vian told the Associated Press, “because the fascination with Jesus was so great that it attracted these new heroes of the time.”
The article was marking the 40th anniversary of the band’s dissolution.
