The show that Eugene Levy never gave
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The teaser for Dan Levy on Saturday Night Live involves a clip with his father and John Candy foreshadowing their intended March 9, 1985, co-hosting, which was abandoned due to a writers’ strike. As a result, Eugene Levy never got to go from lampooning an SNL host to doing it for real. But the stock of their family business has recently risen.
The byproducts of Vice Media
Shane Smith bought a Santa Monica compound for $23 million in 2015, as the company he headed was riding sky-high valuations, and the renovated mansion was recently listed at more than twice that price. At the same time, the Proud Boys group started by Smith’s estranged Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes was formally declared a terrorist group in Canada.
Bell Media cuts mean more centralized talk radio. While the layoff list swathed across the division, staff shrinkage is reflected in shows designed to air in multiple markets and increased AM transmission of CTV News. BCE is trying to offset the optics of it all on the heels of Let’s Talk Day. (John Tory believes Bell can bring people back.)
The daily print match game
Blank front pages are the norm today from News Media Canada members participating in a campaign of “Disappearing Headlines.” It may be their last window to convince Ottawa to pass legislation that leads to payments from Facebook and Google. But a similar proposal in Australia has led to a standoff. Plus, the logic remains wobbly:
”Inside Dave Grohl’s Surprising Connections to Canadian Indie Music.” Exclaim! enters its 30th year in print with increased signifiers of a mainstream entertainment newspaper, like a similar history of Canadian music links to Dawson’s Creek. It now has a national competitor in Next, a well-capitalized youth glossy launched in December by Michael Hollett.
Finally, the honesty’s too much
Dan Hill was 19 when he wrote “Sometimes When We Touch” to win back an object of his affection, who found the song too intense. So, he refined and recorded it at age 22 in 1977, with effects of its success felt ever since. But only now is Hill being inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, a decade after a remake with Manny Pacquiao: