Hollywood stars get lift to Geminis
TORONTO – A generous “dragon” from the CBC hit show “Dragons’ Den” is flying a jetload of stars from Hollywood to Regina for this weekend’s Gemini Awards.
Jim Treliving, one of four panel members on the popular reality show, has arranged for a private jet to fly a group of Los Angeles-based actors – some of them Gemini nominees and some of them presenters – to the Saskatchewan capital because there’s no direct flight between L.A. and Regina.
Howie Mandel, Sarah Chalke, Jason Priestley, Kathleen Robertson, Andrea Roth, Russell Peters, James Tupper and his girlfriend, Anne Heche, are confirmed to board the flight, said the producer of Sunday’s Gemini telecast on CBC-TV.
“He’s putting his big bucks to good use getting us some amazing stars up to Regina for the big broadcast,” Steve Sloan said from Regina on Wednesday.
“Because there’s no direct flight, we had to put our minds together to come up with a solution and so we tapped into one of the dragons who came to our rescue.”
Treliving, a former Mountie who owns Boston Pizza, was unsurprisingly humble considering he’s known as the kind-hearted “good cop” on the “Dragons’ Den” panel.
“The Gemini people just said can you help us out and I said sure,” Treliving said in an interview from Dallas, where he’s overseeing the company’s U.S. expansion.
“I use a jet company, where I can use different sizes of jets for my private use, so there was no problem setting it up.”
Treliving said he’s nervous, however, that the wildfires currently raging in Southern California could put a crimp in the “Gemini jet” plans. Some roads have been blocked to the Van Nuys Airport in the San Fernando Valley, where the jet is scheduled to depart for Saskatchewan on Sunday afternoon.
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed and hoping the situation begins to improve.”
Roth (“Rescue Me”), Chalke (“Scrubs”) and Mandel (“Deal or No Deal”) are all nominated for Geminis while Tupper, who stars in the show “Men in Trees” with Heche, is up for the viewer’s choice award for the favourite Canadian actor on television.
“The rest are presenters, happy to support the Canadian industry,” Sloan said.
The producer admitted he was nervous that few stars would be able to make it to Regina because there was no direct flight from Hollywood.
“We thought it would be a real stumbling block at the beginning. It was nothing against the city of Regina, but it was just the location in terms of attracting stars. But there’s been more stars attached to this show than any other Gemini broadcast I can remember, and I started on the seventh Geminis, and this is now the 22nd.”
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