Good News!

 

Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians! 

This month, I am launching my newest column, WISDOM OF THE AGES for GOOD NEWS TORONTO, an inspirational online magazine. I am grateful to be celebrating almost 35 years as an Entertainment and Lifestyles Journalist. So what better venue to participate in than a website that is all about positivity, kindness, and chock full of Good News? Wisdom of the Ages will feature Celebrity Roundups with Notables and Quotables aged 50+. The Celebs in this month's Roundup are renowned Science Fiction Author Robert J. Sawyer, Radio Personality Ziggy Lorenc, and Gary Holiff, Star of the film My Father and the Man in Black.



 
They say write what you know and love, and I do! As a teenager, I read my first Celebrity Roundup in Cosmopolitan magazine and I was hooked. A few short years later, I managed to create a niche for myself professionally in this regard. I've been honoured to interview everyone from Astronauts to Oprah. I enjoy coming up with special survey topics for them, ultimately to enlighten and entertain you, the reader.

Of course since then, my byline has also appeared in a myriad of Cover Stories and Features, Entertaiment and Lifestyle columns for newspapers and magazines. Plus I've co-written questions for a board game, as well as dipped my toes into radio.  Believe me, it's ALL rather exciting. But it's the most fun to chat up the Stars in the wonderful world of Celebrity Roundups. I've dug through my archives to show you some of my favourite ones: 

My Toronto Sun Newspaper Column. This one featured Oprah, who was hilarious. We were both screeching with laughter in hysterics. Actually, I laughed so hard, I had tears streaming down my face, grateful the interview was on the telephone. And thankfully this was well before Skype! It was a real, memorable, 'gurrrllfriend' moment. Among other things, we traded war-stories about boyfriends and breakups, which was the more serious part of our chat, no levity there. It took forever to score that interview, but it was well worth it.

Here's another favourite Celebrity Roundup of mine, from the Toronto Sun. It features all three heart-throbs from the film Three Men and a Baby: Steve Guttenberg, Ted Danson, and Tom Selleck.

This was for YOU Magazine. I remember sitting down with singer Judy Collins and being mezmerized by her striking blue eyes and her distinctive accent. I was also thrilled to interview Kim Campbell, our first female Prime Minister.  I met both of these distinguished women at the CBA - Canadian Booksellers Association Trade Show.

Here's another one from YOU Magazine. Over the years I've had the pleasure of interviewing the late, great Al Waxman (King of Kensington, Cagney and Lacey) quite a few times. But the very first time was quite memorable as he had his little dog with him, and it was time to go 'walkies'. So here was this man of great stature, his cute, tiny pooch, and me, strolling down the street chatting.

It was a major highlight in my career to be on retainer, as a stringer, to the editor of the People Page at Maclean's Magazine. But I was over the moon with this Celebrity Roundup because it was my own article, with my byline, AND it was featured in a banner on the cover. FYI: Maclean's Magazine is the prestigious Canadian equivalent of Time or Newsweek in the USA.

 
With the American magazine Soap Opera Weekly, I enjoyed the delicious opportunity to indulge my passion for Daytime Dramas, especially The Young and the Restless, Days of our Lives, and (the now defunct) Another World.

Most of the Celebrities in this Roundup for Toronto Computes were nabbed for interviews by me at the Toronto Trek Science Fiction convention in Toronto. To my surprise, elderly Kim Chan, of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues was funny and flirtatious.

One my many mini Holiday Roundups for the CJN Newspaper. Hobnobbing with the best in the business, showbusiness or not, is always a thrill.

HAPPY CANADA DAY!