Rating: NNNNN
Just when a whole generation was getting over that failed psycho killer Wiley Coyote, along comes Death To Smoochy. The Warner Bros. comedy starring Robin Williams – about attempts to kill a kids’ show character, Smoochy the Rhino, who is remarkably like the real-life PBS kids’ show character Ricky the Rhino – has caused the kind of storm not seen since Tinky Winky was outed by Jerry Falwell. Parents and Ricky’s creator have protested at the movie’s opening, threatened legal action and demanded an apology from the movie conglomerate. They feel kids will be traumatized by ads promoting cuddly-mammal murder. If there were only one nugget of wisdom we could impart to the filmmakers it would be this: slagging children’s television characters will only bring you pain.
Don’t get your thong in a knot
So let’s get this straight. Josey Vogels, a sex columnist, poses provocatively for men’s magazine UMM, along with a number of other local female television personalities. Then, when the chattering classes start flapping, she writes a piece in the Globe and Mail dissing the magazine and questioning why she went through with it. Oh, puh-leeze! Next time, just say no.
Cashing in on Israel’s tragedy?
Apparently, the timing of a government of Canada ad that appeared in an Israeli newspaper offering accelerated citizenship to people with $500,000 to invest here had nothing to do with the current wave of violence gripping the country. Still, hundreds of Israelis reportedly responded to the ad.
So happy together
Nobody was happier than us to learn that police chief Julian Fantino and union boss Craig Bromell had kissed and made up. With their internal squabble settled, they can get back to turning T.O. into the police state they’ve always wanted.
Duelling headlines of the week
So does smoking pot drain your brainpower or what? A Toronto Star headline over a story this week about a dope study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal said it does. But a headline over the Globe and Mail’s story the same day said it doesn’t. Did they read the same report? Yup. While the study found that IQ drops slightly if you’re a heavy user, it’s recoverable over time. The study didn’t conclude how reefer affects short-term memory, attention span or, we suspect, newspaper editors.
