'Prairie Giant' stirs memories in Saskatchewan
Residents of Regina and the town of Gravelbourg, Sask., got a sneak preview Monday evening of the CBC miniseries Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story.
For some people, it brought back memories of the fiery former Saskatchewan premier and his legendary fight with the doctors.
For the residents of Gravelbourg, it was a chance to see themselves and their town on the big screen.
"It doesn't often happen that a little town like this can get this kind of recognition," said Cyriel Poirier, who saw the film at Gravelbourg's Gaiety theatre.
About 500 residents of the town participated in the filming of the two-part miniseries, to air Sunday, March 12 and Monday, March 13 at 8 p.m. on CBC-TV.
The town was a stand-in for Depression-era Saskatchewan, reflecting the poverty and hardship, but also the sense of community that shaped Douglas's ideas.
The movie spans nearly 50 years of Douglas's life, from his arrival in Weyburn, Sask., as a young Baptist preacher in 1931, to his reign as premier, his pioneering role in universal health care, and his time as the first federal New Democrat leader.
Producer Kevin DeWalt says the movie is really more about the man than his politics.
"He was very tough when he had a vision and he wanted it to be rammed through. He didn't put up with any incompetence around him, and if you were incompetent you didn't last very long, and I don't think that's something the public knew very much of," DeWalt said in an interview with CBC News.
The aim was to depict Douglas, chosen as the Greatest Canadian in 2004, with his failures as well as his victories, he said.
"Certainly during the federal election, after he lost the premiership, when he lost in Regina ... that was a very big turning point for him, and we have a scene in the movie where Irma basically says, 'After all he's done for Saskatchewan and they couldn't elect him one more time.' ... They put the house up for sale the next day and never came back," DeWalt said.
Dr. Moulds (R.H. Thomson) leads the doctors strike in Saskatchewan in 1962. (Photo credit: Allan Feildel)
Actor Michael Therriault plays Douglas, Kristin Booth is his wife, Irma, and R.H. Thomson is his nemesis, Dr. Moulds, leader of the doctors' struggle against medicare.
Written by Bruce Smith and directed by John N. Smith, Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story is produced by Minds Eye Entertainment in association with the CBC.
"I hope that this project about Tommy Douglas will help make known a person who is, in my view, exceptional ... when you think about universal health care, the first Charter of Rights and Freedoms, all of his contributions," says Pierre Letarte, director of photography.
The miniseries was originally scheduled to air in January, but was postponed because of the federal election.
More about Douglas's life can also be heard Tuesday, March 7 and Tuesday, March 14, on Ideas on CBC Radio One. A two-part series titled Dream No Little Dreams will air both nights at 9.05 p.m.
Filmmaker Gordon Parks Dies at 93
NEW YORK - Gordon Parks, who captured the struggles and triumphs of black America as a photographer for Life magazine and then became Hollywood's first major black director with "The Learning Tree" and the hit "Shaft," died Tuesday, a family member said. He was 93.
Parks, who also wrote fiction and was an accomplished composer, died in New York, his nephew, Charles Parks, said in a telephone interview from Lawrence, Kan.
"Nothing came easy," Parks wrote in his autobiography. "I was just born with a need to explore every tool shop of my mind, and with long searching and hard work. I became devoted to my restlessness."
He covered everything from fashion to politics to sports during his 20 years at Life, from 1948 to 1968.
But as a photographer, he was perhaps best known for his gritty photo essays on the grinding effects of poverty in the United States and abroad and on the spirit of the civil rights movement.
"Those special problems spawned by poverty and crime touched me more, and I dug into them with more enthusiasm," he said. "Working at them again revealed the superiority of the camera to explore the dilemmas they posed."
In 1961, his photographs in Life of a poor, ailing Brazilian boy named Flavio da Silva brought donations that saved the boy and purchased a new home for him and his family.
"The Learning Tree" was Parks' first film, in 1969. It was based on his 1963 autobiographical novel of the same name, in which the young hero grapples with fear and racism as well as first love and schoolboy triumphs. Parks wrote the score as well as directed.
In 1989, "The Learning Tree" was among the first 25 American movies to be placed on the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. The registry is intended to highlight films of particular cultural, historical or aesthetic importance.
The detective drama "Shaft," which came out in 1971 and starred Richard Roundtree, was a major hit and spawned a series of black-oriented films. Parks himself directed a sequel, "Shaft's Big Score," in 1972, and that same year his son Gordon Jr. directed "Superfly." The younger Parks was killed in a plane crash in 1979.
Parks also published books of poetry and wrote musical compositions including "Martin," a ballet about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Parks was born Nov. 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, Kan., the youngest of 15 children. In his 1990 autobiography, "Voices in the Mirror," he remembered it as a world of racism and poverty, but also a world where his parents gave their children love, discipline and religious faith.
He went through a series of jobs as a teen and young man, including piano player and railroad dining car waiter. The breakthrough came when he was about 25, when he bought a used camera in a pawn shop for $7.50. He became a freelance fashion photographer, went on to Vogue magazine and then to Life in 1948.
"Reflecting now, I realize that, even within the limits of my childhood vision, I was on a search for pride, meanwhile taking measurable glimpses of how certain blacks, who were fed up with racism, rebelled against it," he wrote.
When he accepted an award from Wichita State University in May 1991, he said it was "another step forward in my making peace with Kansas and Kansas making peace with me."
"I dream terrible dreams, terribly violent dreams," he said. "The doctors say it's because I suppressed so much anger and hatred from my youth. I bottled it up and used it constructively."
In his autobiography, he recalled that being Life's only black photographer put him in a peculiar position when he set out to cover the civil rights movement.
"Life magazine was eager to penetrate their ranks for stories, but the black movement thought of Life as just another white establishment out of tune with their cause," he wrote. He said his aim was to become "an objective reporter, but one with a subjective heart."
The story of young Flavio prompted Life readers to send in $30,000, enabling his family to build a home, and Flavio received treatment for his asthma in an American clinic. By the 1970s, he had a family and a job as a security guard, but more recently the home built in 1961 has become overcrowded and run-down.
Still, Flavio stayed in touch with Parks off and on, and in 1997 Parks said, "If I saw him tomorrow in the same conditions, I would do the whole thing over again."
In addition to novels, poetry and his autobiographical writings, Parks' writing credits included nonfiction such as "Camera Portraits: Techniques and Principles of Documentary Portraiture," 1948, and a 1971 book of essays called "Born Black."
His other film credits included "The Super Cops," 1974; "Leadbelly," 1976; and "Solomon Northup's Odyssey," a TV film from 1984.
Recalling the making of "The Learning Tree," he wrote: "A lot of people of all colors were anxious about the breakthrough, and I was anxious to make the most of it. The wait had been far too long. Just remembering that no black had been given a chance to direct a motion picture in Hollywood since it was established kept me going."
Last month, health concerns had kept Parks from accepting the William Allen White Foundation National Citation in Kansas, but he said in a taped presentation that he still considered the state his home and wanted to be buried in Fort Scott.
Two years ago, Fort Scott Community College established the Gordon Parks Center for Culture and Diversity.
Jill Warford, its executive director, said Tuesday that Parks "had a very rough start in life and he overcame so much, but was such a good person and kind person that he never let the bad things that happened to him make him bitter."
AIR AMERICA TUNED OUT?
Air America is close to losing its New York flagship station - knocking Al Franken and his liberal colleagues off the air on their second anniversary.
The network has a two-year lease with WLIB (AM 1190) that is reportedly set to expire April 1 - and at least one reliable report says it is "extremely likely" the deal will not be renewed.
Losing its New York outlet would be a serious blow to the fledgling liberal radio network. "Radio Equalizer" blogger Brian Maloney - who blew the whistle on questionable loans to the lefty network last year - published the first report that WLIB was on the verge of evicting Air America some time soon.
Air America's options for a new home are not promising. All of the city's other strong-signal stations are spoken for, leaving only weak-signal "fringe" stations that do not cover the entire city and suburbs.
Air America parent Piquant LLC has reportedly been paying Inner City Broadcasting - controlled by former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton and his son, Pierre - $2.5 million a year to air Franken and others.
An Air America spokeswoman told The Post, "It's business as usual," and declined further comment.
Air America got unwanted headlines last year when it was learned that previous management had received what investigators called an "inappropriate" $875,000 loan - since repaid - from a Bronx charity.
Calls to Inner City execs were not returned.
The leading contenders to take over the WLIB lease are former Clear Channel exec Randy Michaels, who syndicates competing lefty talker Ed Schultz, and the new Radio One black-focused talk network that includes Rev. Al Sharpton.
BOW, NO!
The biggest upset of Oscar night wasn't "Crash." It was Charlize Theron's gown.
The South African actress shocked viewers and fashion insiders on the red carpet with her haute couture "scissor" gown selection by John Galliano. "Two years ago, she won the Oscar for 'Monster,'" says stand-up comedian Liam McEneaney. "This year, she came as 'The Creature From the Black Lagoon.' "
Looking like an origami project gone awry, the garbage-bag-green-colored silk satin gown that Theron wore was wrong in every way - from the puffy bow on her left shoulder to the "X marks the spot" folds in the center.
"It looks like she has two heads," says celebrity stylist Robert Verdi. "She clearly didn't want to talk to the person on her left."
Theron, who is the face of Christian Dior's perfume J'adore, rarely misses a fashion beat on the red carpet, but this might join the ranks of historical fashion faux pas like Demi Moore's bicycle shorts and Bjork's swan dress.
So, what happened? How did one of Hollywood's favorite A-list dressers choose such a dud?
"It's one of those sad things where couture doesn't translate to the red carpet," says celebrity stylist Philip Bloch.
"There's been many other cases, like when Celine Dion wore a tuxedo jacket. Or when Jennifer Garner wore that white lace Oscar de la Renta with the bow at the waist, but people said it looked like a tablecloth."
Possibly, Theron tried too hard.
Hal Rubenstein, fashion editor of In Style magazine, says Theron is "very particular" about her fashion selections, and instead of choosing from 27 dresses on a rack, she comes up with a concept and then sends the dress back and forth to the designer, in this case John Galliano.
"She knows just what she is doing," Rubenstein says. "She has a firm grasp on how she looks. Once, she sent back a dress because it was the color of a rose. But what she wanted was the color of the edges of the rose when the rose started to fade."
Theron's stylist Lisa Michelle Boyd also goofed by not snapping a polaroid picture of the actress beforehand.
"Now that I see the photos, I pick her as worst dressed," says Joan Rivers, who initially named Theron best dressed on the red carpet.
"Truly, I'm telling you when she walked on the carpet in real life, she blew everybody out of the box. I wanted to rip it off her and wear it to Buckingham palace."
"Then, I saw her on camera, and it looked like she was hiding a hickey."
Still, celebrity stylist Robert Verdi applauds Theron for pushing the envelope, saying that the dress will be remembered for years to come, ending up on postcards and collector's items.
"It was dramatic and iconic," he says. "People judge it because everyone likes a Miss America pageant.
"Still, she pushed it and she did it and it's going to live on. But nobody will remember the negative things. They'll only remembered she took the risk."
Christopher Reeve's Widow Dies at Age 44
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - Dana Reeve, who won worldwide admiration for her devotion to her "Superman" husband, Christopher Reeve, through his decade of near-total paralysis, has died of lung cancer at the age of 44.
Reeve, a singer-actress who gave up some of her own career to be one of the nation's best-known caregivers, died late Monday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Medical Center, said Kathy Lewis, president of the Christopher Reeve Foundation.
Reeve had succeeded her husband as chair of the foundation, which funded research into spinal-cord paralysis cures. She announced in August that, while she wasn't a smoker, she had been diagnosed with lung cancer.
Lewis visited Reeve in the hospital Friday and said Reeve was "tired but with her typical sense of humor and smile, always trying to make other people feel good, her characteristic personality."
"She was a woman with an incredible heart who really put herself out there to help people with disabilities and especially those who are caregivers — something she knew a lot about," Lewis said.
Comedian Robin Williams, a longtime friend, said of Reeve's death: "The brightest light has gone out. We will forever celebrate her loving spirit."
Four months ago, at a fundraising gala for the foundation, Reeve looked healthy in a long, formal gown and said she was responding well to treatment and her tumor was shrinking.
"I'm beating the odds and defying every statistic the doctors can throw at me," Reeve said then. "My prognosis looks better all the time."
Asked how she kept her spirits up, Reeve said she "had a great model."
"I was married to a man who never gave up," she said.
She was still looking well on Jan. 13, when she sang Carole King's "Now and Forever" at Madison Square Garden during the retirement ceremony for Mark Messier's New York Rangers jersey.
"Despite the adversity that she faced, Dana bravely met these challenges and was always an extremely devoted wife, mother and advocate," former President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement Tuesday.
They described Reeve as "a model of tenacity and grace" and an "inspiration to us."
Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., said of Reeve: "I thought that after everything that she had gone through with Chris that she would have time to smell the flowers and be in the sun. But apparently that was not meant to be."
Christopher Reeve, star of Hollywood's "Superman" movies, died Oct. 10, 2004. After a horse-riding accident paralyzed him in 1995, he became an activist for spinal cord research.
Dana Reeve was a constant companion and supporter of her husband during his long ordeal and his work for a cure for spinal cord injuries. The couple had a 13-year-old son, Will, and Dana Reeve had two grown stepchildren, Matthew and Alexandra.
Reeve, who lived in Pound Ridge, had appeared on Broadway, off-Broadway and regional stages and on the TV shows "Law & Order," "Oz," and "All My Children."
She was performing in the Broadway-bound play "Brooklyn Boy" in California when she had to rush home to reach her husband's bedside before he died. She gave up the role for the New York run.
A month after she was widowed, before her own diagnosis, she told The Associated Press, "I definitely will be getting back to acting. ... I am an actress and I do have to make a living."
Reeve also was on the board of the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts, where she met Christopher Reeve doing summer theater, and the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.
A year ago, she won a Mother of the Year award from the American Cancer Society. A society vice president, Dr. Michael Thun, said Reeve "has shown strength and courage in the face of tremendous adversity." Doctors say 1 in 5 women diagnosed with the disease never lit a cigarette.
In addition to her son and step-children, she is survived by her father, Dr. Charles Morosini, and sisters Deborah Morosini and Adrienne Morosini Heilman.
No funeral plans were announced. The family said donations could be made in Dana Reeve's memory to the Christopher Reeve Foundation in Short Hills, N.J.