Blog Archives

Goodbye To All That: Reflections On An Ending Summer and Chicken Pot Pie

Posted on September 12, 2013 by ronbase — 2 Comments

There will be no more chicken pot pie.The summer of things ending–has ended. I know it’s over because the Toronto Film Festival concludes this weekend. From here on in it’s downhill to bleak winter. So as the weekend approaches, I’m…

Tagged with: Canadian Film Centre, CBC, Chaz Ebert, David Gilmour, Dennis Hopper, Dusty Cohl, Extraordinary, Garth Drabinsky, George Christy, Gina Mallet, Greg Quill, Helena Bonham Carter, Hume Cronyn, Jodie Foster, Norman Jewison, Peter Worthington, Richard Jordan, Roger Ebert, Swoosie Kurtz, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Toronto Star, TIFF, Toronto Film Festival, Toronto Sun
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I Should Have Known Better: The Wildly Improbable Story of Heavenly Bodies

Posted on September 12, 2012 by ronbase — 13 Comments

Last weekend, at the Canadian Film Centre’s annual barbecue in Toronto, I ran into a couple of old friends who, although they didn’t realize it, were unique among the more than two thousand industry types flowing through the old E.P.…

Tagged with: Broadway, Clark Gable, Cynthia Dale, Don Simpson, Doug Taylor, Entertainment Tonight, Flashdance, Giorgio Moroder, Heavenly Bodies, Jerry Bruckheimer, Judy Garland, Lawrence Dane, Leonard Maltin, MGM, musical, Playboy, Robert Lantos, Species, Stephen Roth, The Canadian Film Centre, TIFF, Tom Hedley, Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto Star
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El Sid, The Cannes Cannes, and Six Green Beans

Posted on May 16, 2012 by ronbase — Leave a comment

Every year about this time I think of El Sid and six green beans. El Sid was my nick-name for Sid Adilman, the legendary Toronto Star entertainment reporter. For years in May, El Sid and I would head for the Cannes…

Tagged with: Antibes, Cairo, Cannes, Cannes International Film Festival, Cary Grant, Chet Baker, Cote d'Azur, Croisette, Dusty Cohl, Eden Roc, Egypt, France, French Riviera, Gore Vidal, Grace Kelly, Hotel Carlton, Hotel du Cap, Hotel Majestic, James Mason, Jerry Lewis, Joanne Woodward, Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen, McKenzie Porter, Mena House, Moulin des Mougins, Nice, Norman Mailer, Paul Newman, rue D'Antibes, Sid Adilman, The Toronto Star, The Toronto Telegram, TIFF, To Catch A Thief, Toronto International Film Festival
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“What The Hell Are You Doing Here?”

Posted on September 7, 2011 by ronbase — Leave a comment

Every year as the Toronto International Film Festival gets under way, I think of Loving Couples. That’s Loving Couples, the romantic comedy starring Shirley MacLaine, Susan Sarandon, and James Coburn. You may be forgiven if you don’t readily recall it.…

Tagged with: Bono, Brian Linehan, David Susskind, James Coburn, Joyce Davidson, Loving Couples, movie critic, Shirley MacLaine, TIFF, Toronto Star, U2
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Norman

Posted on August 11, 2011 by ronbase — 4 Comments

My favorite Norman Jewison movie is Gaily, Gaily. I was only twenty and just starting out in the newspaper business when I saw it in 1969. I, of course, identified with the movie’s innocent reporter-protagonist, played by a very young…

Tagged with: Bell Lightbox, Doris Day, Hollywood, In The Heat of the Night, Moonstruck, Norman Jewison, Steve McQueen, The Cincinnati Kid, TIFF
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