We were sad to hear of the death of Leslie Nielsen. There's a great photo of him here with Paul, who said in a statement:
"Leslie's huge heart and fierce intelligence defined goofball comedy and he was its undisputed master. His loss will be felt by all. More personally he was a mentor and a friend. I will miss him terribly."
Here's a photo of Paul at the "hockey" game in Kandahar; apparently, the celebrity visitors lost by "a lot to two". His trip to Afghanistan is also briefly mentioned at the 4' 53" point of this video. Thanks, Dee!
Paul provides the voiceover for this 11 for 11 Campaign video, part of the Canadian Hero Fund's November
Remembrance and Canadian Forces Support. Thanks, Felicity!
Operation R.O.C.K. Rolls into Afganistan! - Paul Gross has been in Afghanistan as part of the Team Canada Thanksgiving Tour in support of Canadian Forces. Pictures here and here. Thanks, Felicity and Dee!
Eastwick is now showing on Dutch television every Tuesday at 9.25 pm. Thanks, Marina!
13th October
CBC have launched a Men With Brooms website for the new TV series that picks up where the movie left off. Thanks, Dee!
A return to open arms - The Beacon Herald. Paul reveals that he was "floored" by the Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation. Thanks, Felicity!
BBC2 in UK are showing Due South from the beginning, starting with
the first half of the pilot at 1.00pm next Monday 18th October, then Tuesday
and Thursday. Thanks, Margot!
3rd October
Paul Gross to receive Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation. The Honourable Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Minister of State (Agriculture), will decorate fifteen citizens of Ontario with the Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation during a ceremony that will be held today in Stratford, Ontario. Thanks, Felicity!
Calgary photo exhibition: photos of Paul Gross and Martha Burns are featured as part of the Hauser Exhibition (one photo is on the website), running until 7th November. Thanks, Diane!
12th July
"Gunless" will be released on DVD on 17th August; there will also be a double pack available of "Gunless" and "Passchendaele". See our Amazon.ca store for details on how to pre-order. Thanks, Dee and Tony!
7th July
Sad to say, ABC have decided NOT to air the final two episodes of Eastwick after all on 10th July. Frustrating! However, there are signs that it will soon be available on DVD - check our Amazon UK store for details. Thanks, Dee, Mary Ann and Diane!
26th June
Paul will be doing his best to attend this year's due South convention, RCW 139: Duesers' Day Off, and is arranging personal donations to the charity auction. If you are quick enough to register to attend or buy a supporting goodie pack, you may find that you have an extra surprise included, courtesy of Paul Gross himself. So hurry along to www.rcw139.org!
23rd June
Jane Tattersall has directed a short film, Hot Water, starring Paul Gross and Martha Burns.
It is part of this year's TIFF and you can watch (and vote for it) online here.
20th June
ABC is finally airing the final two episodes of "Eastwick" on Saturday 10 July. More on the ABC Eastwick web page. Thanks Dee, Lisa and Maggie!
Good news for German speakers! "Passchendaele" will be
released as "Das Feld der Ehre" on 24th June in both regular and Blu-ray
format. Details here.
"Mars Is Heaven" (1990) is on YouTube - if
you've never watched it, it's worth it to see a young Paul Gross in
action. And to whet your appetite there's a great review by Nicole Blizzard here.
Here's another "Gunless" interview on a show called "AMorning". Thanks, Robin!
For iTunes users, Paul Gross's most recent appearance on "The Hour" is now
available as a free video podcast download. You can find it here. Thanks, Dee!
17th May
Preparations are well under way for this year's Due South convention "RCW139: Duesers' Day Off" from 13th-15th August at the Toronto Mariott Bloor Yorkville hotel. Cast and crew scheduled to appear (subject to work commitments) include: David Marciano, Catherine Bruhier, Tom Melissis, Tony Craig, Camilla Scott, Ramona Milano, Jim Bracchitta (Frankie Zuko), Jay Semko (Music), Steve DiMarco (Director), Ken Quinn and Kevin Rushton (stunts). Go to rcw139.org for more details and to find out how to register.
7th May
In response to the many enquiries we have received, there's still no firm news on whether Gunless will be released in the US. As soon as we hear anything you will be able to read about it here!
1st May
All five parts of "The Making of Gunless" are now available on YouTube.
Gross takes aim in Gunless - Ottawa Sun. If you click on the 'Photos' tab you'll
find eleven photos from the evening too. Thanks, Felicity!
Paul was interviewed on "All In A Day" on CBC Radio Ottawa yesterday, but that part of the show doesn't appear to have been archived on the show's website. If you missed it, you can listen again here. [8.72 MB, 9' 31"] Thanks, Dee!
The Christy Clark show from Vancouver - Paul Gross talking about Gunless, Passchendaele and the Canadian broadcast industry. Select 2 pm on Monday 19th April. Paul comes on at 32 minutes. Thanks, Karen!
"Hollywood isn’t done with Paul Gross yet, despite the quick demise of his TV series Eastwick. Gross, who'll be onscreen this week in the dryly funny Canadian-made Western Gunless, renewed acquaintances with an old friend, actor-turned-director
Peter Berg,who hired Gross as a writer on his next project — a
$220-million action film based on the game Battleship." [Read more] Thanks, Felicity!
It's Men With Brooms - quirky TV interview on 22nd April with weather presenter Michelle. Thanks, Felicity!
Richard Crouse interviews "Gunless" star Paul Gross for radio: Part One | Part Two | Part Three. Thanks, Angela!
Jian Ghomeshi tweeted that Paul Gross will be one of the guests for a
live-audience taping of "Q" on Thursday 29th April at the Glenn Gould
Studio at the CBC Toronto Broadcasting Centre. Advance tickets are sold
out, but rush tickets will be available at the door. Keep an eye on the "Q" website for
more info. Thanks, Dee! The broadcast will be on
Friday 30th at 10am on CBC Radio One. They also usually post the
podcast of the day's entire show by that night. Thanks Fiona!
A great radio interview from am770chqr. Choose April 21st and 10pm. Paul's spot starts at roughly 35 minutes, which you can reach quickly by moving the time bar at the bottom. The archive is only available for 30 days. Thanks, Felicity!
To win a movie pass to one of the "Gunless" premieres on 28th and 29th April, visit http://www.bluerodeo.com. Thanks, Diane!
A soundtrack CD for "Gunless" will be
released on 27th April and is available in Canada, the US and the UK from our Amazon store. Thanks, Dee! (Items ordered via our store earn a small commission that helps fund PaulGross.org and the PG-L mailing list.)
Video: The Making of Gunless - Part 1 and Part 2 on YouTube, with the prospect of more to come. To see the entire half hour
programme, "Shooting Gunless", watch ET Canada on Global TV at 7.30 pm on 24th April. Thanks, Felicity!
btcalgary.ca has an interview with Paul in which he talks about the "Gunless" premiere and a new project that he's writing, producing and starring in, a TV series based in Jerusalem! Thanks, Dee!
Susan Gittins' pictures from the Vancouver premiere of "Gunless" on 19th April. Thanks, Diane - and Susan, of course!
Gunless interview from movieset.com: excerpts in which Paul talks about his character the Montana Kid, working with the cast and what he took away from the shoot. Thanks, Felicity!
Talking Cabbagetown, croissants and coffee: an interview with Martha Burns (Paul's wife) - www.nationalpost.com. Thanks, Diane!
Let's make one last effort to save Eastwick! Dee writes:
The final letter of our campaign to blitz ABC executives with our support of Eastwick will go to Anne Sweeney, Co-Chair, Disney Media Networks and
President, Disney/ABC Television Group. The Hollywood Reporter has named
her "The Most Powerful Woman in Entertainment" and Fortune magazine has
listed her as one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in Business". Even better,
she's the dreaded Stephen McPherson's boss! (He's the President of ABC and
he's been very rudely ignoring all of my letters!) So here's one last
opportunity to tell ABC to give "Eastwick" another chance and to offer
suggestions to Stephen McPherson's boss about how he might do a better job
with programming and viewer relations (here's an idea...don't skip
episodes!)
Send your comments to:
Anne Sweeney
Co-Chair, Disney Media Networks &
President, Disney/ABC Television Group
ABC, Inc
500 S. Buena Vista St.
Burbank, CA 91521-4551
4th March
An Interview with Paul Gross + Dustin Milligan - enroute.aircanada.com Thanks, Felicity!
Dee writes:
ABC has one more marketing executive that we can bombard with requests to save Eastwick. Here's the name and address:
Re: SAVE EASTWICK
Mike Shaw
President, Sales & Marketing
ABC, Inc.
500 S. Buena Vista St.
Burbank, CA 91521-4551
USA
Isn't it interesting how ABC has one executive in charge of drama and three in charge of marketing?
Have fun and thanks everybody!
18th February
More from Dee about her letter writing campaign to save Eastwick.
This is week four of "The Great Yukon Double Douglas Fir Telescoping Bank
Shot Save Eastwick Letter Writing Blitz" (with a wink and a nod to Due
South - All the Queen's Horses). Last week we wrote to Michael Benson,
Executive Vice President for Marketing at ABC. Well, it turns out ABC has
two Executive Vice Presidents for Marketing - the other being Marla
Provencio. So Marla is next on the list. I plan to recycle much of the
letter that I sent to Michael Benson, but since Marla is a woman - and
therefore bound to be moved by Paul Gross's charms - I may include a bit
more about Paul's particular appeal in my letter to Marla. All of these ABC
executives are at the same address in Burbank, but I'll post it again here
to make life a little easier for everyone. Thanks everybody!
Re: SAVE EASTWICK
Marla Provencio
Executive Vice President for Marketing
ABC, Inc
500 S. Buena Vista St.
Burbank, CA 91521-4551
USA
12th February
This is week three of Dee's letter writing campaign to ABC
executives in support of Eastwick.
This week, let's start writing to all those executives at ABC who are
responsible for marketing – there are several of them. And boy do they have
a lot to answer for! Exactly what kind of marketing did they do for Eastwick, anyway? I saw very few commercials. I am aware of Rebecca Romijn
(and only Rebecca Romijn) appearing on exactly two talk shows to promote
the show – Ellen and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. She wasn't even
scheduled as a guest on ABC's own Jimmy Kimmel Live! ABC did a disgraceful
job of letting people know that Paul Gross was in the show. He was
interviewed by an online newspaper from Alabama called Our Prattville. No
offense to Our Prattville, but only diehard Paul Gross fans (who already
knew about Eastwick) were going to stumble on to that one. And what about
those cute ABC House commercials? Wouldn't it have been fun to see Darryl,
Roxie, Kat and Joanna knocking on the door to introduce themselves as the
new neighbors? So why didn't ABC try that? ABC couldn't even be bothered to
send out Twitter updates about upcoming episodes of Eastwick … that's free
advertising … and they just ignored it! I think lack of advertising is a
major reason for the failure of Eastwick to attract a large audience in the
States. Why, right up until the day that ABC took the Eastwick pages off
the message boards at ABC.com, people were logging in to say, “Gee, I only
just found out about this show - and now it's canceled!”
So send all your Eastwick support and marketing questions to:
Re: Save Eastwick!
Michael Benson
Executive Vice President for Marketing
ABC, Inc.
500 S. Buena Vista St.
Burbank, CA 91521-4551
USA
"The popular 2002 Men With Brooms movie is coming to the CBC as a sitcom pilot. The pubcaster has given the production order to E1 Television and Serendipity Point Films for a pilot episode to loosely follow Paul Gross' curling comedy and directorial debut." Thanks, Dee!
4th February
This is week two of Dee's plan to flood
individual ABC executives with requests to save "Eastwick".She writes:
It's not too
late to write to last week's recipient Jeffrey Bader (Executive Vice
President for Planning, Scheduling & Distribution) if you haven't done so
yet.
This week's lucky letter recipient will be Channing Dungey. She is the
Senior Vice President for Drama at ABC. So it's her job to decide which
dramatic programs get developed at ABC and how. In my letter, I asked her
to please re-run "Eastwick" over the summer. I told her that the general
consensus on the internet is that the show was canceled just as it was
getting good! When "Eastwick" first aired, they were too slow to get to all
the devilry and witchcraft and I suggested they create a 'catch-up' episode
and then dive right in to the good stuff (and also show us the final two
episodes).
I'm still convinced that with an appropriate time slot and some marketing, "Eastwick" could be a huge moneymaker for ABC - and I tell them that at
every opportunity. I encourage those who want to participate to do the
same, or send whatever comments you feel are appropriate. The important
thing is that each of these ABC executives get a lot of letters and
postcards. Here's Channing Dungey's address (it's the same address as for
Jeff Bader and Steve McPherson):
Re: SAVE EASTWICK
Channing Dungey
Senior Vice President for Drama
ABC, Inc.
500 S. Buena Vista St.
Burbank, CA 91521-4551
USA
3rd February
Here is a message from the commitee organising the 2010 due South convention, RCW 139: Duesers' Day Off.
"As I'm sure you can imagine, organizing a convention is by no means a simple matter. Ultimately we're just fans like everybody else and we have nothing to gain from organizing it, other than a nice time and the opportunity to meet great friends, old and new. This was certainly the case in 2008 and I have no doubt it will be the case again this August, and we don't ask for anything more. There is no profit to be gained from the event - in fact, quite the opposite. As organizers, our money is on the line if things don't work out. We are willing to take the risk, but only if it can be minimized.
"When we asked nearly 6 months ago if people would be interested in attending another convention, the response was very enthusiastic and over 130 people told us that they would be there. And [the RCW 139] mailing list itself has over 130 members! Unfortunately, less than a third have registered so far, even though we've made registration easier than ever by using a deposit system. We just don't want to cancel this event, as we know it's going to be great. So far we've got an amazing guest line up, including a confirmation from David Marciano and interest from a number of other Due South cast and crew. And we're just starting out! But unless we get more registrations in the next few days, the risk is just too great for the organizing committee. So, all that [is] to say that we're looking for 16 more registrations in the next three days. And if this year's event doesn't work out, it's doubtful that we'll try again. Therefore if you haven't registered yet and plan on attending, or if you know anyone who would be interested in attending, please get the word out and your registration in. And if you know you can't attend, please consider a supporting membership."
2nd February
Passchendaele - the entire movie - is legally available to view on the National Film Board of Canada website. No, we can't quite believe it either. Thanks, Su! (Update: the movie has now been taken down.)
1st February
Dee writes:
I'm starting a new letter writing campaign to try to save "Eastwick". I
want to target a different ABC executive each week and flood him or her
with letters or postcards. Many of us have probably already written to
ABC President Stephen McPherson, so this week's lucky recipient will be:
Jeffrey D. Bader
Executive Vice President for Planning, Scheduling &
Distribution
ABC, Inc.
500 S. Buena Vista St.
Burbank, CA 91521-4551
USA
Since Jeffrey Bader is in charge of scheduling, I told him in my postcard
that I want to see "Eastwick" back on the air and suggested ABC pair it
with "Desperate Housewives" on Sunday nights. Please drop him a line with
your own comments!
So who is the real Paul Gross? A Mountie? A devil? Sandie Rinaldo finds
out this Saturday on W5 (7 pm local time on CTV) http://twitter.com/ctvw5 Thanks, Lourdes!
16th January
Coming up on 22nd January on HBO Canada: acclaimed Canadian filmmakers including Paul Gross, Sturla Gunnarsson, Guy
Maddin and Sarah Polley serve as mentors in the documentary Big Moments in
Little Films. The directors help out emerging filmmakers who create 10 short
pieces on life-changing epiphanies. The short films air before the
documentary in the one-hour anthology, Little Films About Big Moments. Full article here. Thanks Felicity!
14th January
Here's a reminder that Paul Gross will be performing (as an actor, not a musician!) with the Toronto
Symphony Orchestra on 23rd and 24th January in Mozart: Beyond the Score featuring a
performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No 27. Read more here. Thanks, Dee!
11th January
Thanks to Lisa for the following clarification about the Slings & Arrows schedule on Ovation TV:
RE: Ovation TV's Slings and Arrows - the first episode ran last night at 8 PM EST and was rerun at midnight. Next week (the 15th) will be the 2nd episode.
9th January
Ovation TV has begun showing Slings & Arrows in the States. The first
episode is airing tonight at midnight EST and it's repeatedEpisode 2 will air at 8 pm and midnight on Friday 22nd January. Thanks, Nicky Anne!
25th April