O Canada, we stand on guard for thee – except in the entertainment industry.
On Wednesday, Andrea Martin abandoned her co-hosting gig of tonight’s Genie Awards to tape an American TV sitcom pilot.
Thankfully she left her co-host, CBC’s George Stroumboulopoulos, and the writers, lots of time to rework the show – about 24 hours, to be exact. Apparently the My Big Fat Greek Wedding star will be making “special appearances” in several pre-taped segments.
Isn’t it ironic? The big celebratory night of Canadian movies loses one of its bona fide Canadian celebs… to the U.S. I can picture those phony Hollywood types from Martin’s SCTV days – Sammy Maudlin, Bobby Bittman and Johnny LaRue – having a good laugh about that.
Sure, many familiar faces – Gordon Pinsent, Jason Priestley and nominees David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen – will be walking the red carpet tonight.
But the Genies are so celebrity-starved that it’s hired musicians like K’Naan and the Sheepdogs – neither of whom have much to do with the movie industry – to provide entertainment.
I guess that’s no surprise when most Canadians won’t have seen many of the nominated movies. Pre-Oscars, everyone was speculating about The Artist vs. The Descendants. Are they doing the same with Genie-nominated Café De Flore vs. Monsieur Lazhar? Don’t think so.
Anyhow, the fine Monsieur Lazhar will likely take the big prize. Like last year’s big Genie winner Incendies, it was nominated for a best foreign-language Oscar. Proving once again that what happens south of the border is more important than what happens north of it.
Something Martin knows only too well.
