Evans Above

Special thanks to the folks at Yahoo! Movies for featuring us in their 76th Academy Awards coverage.

It appears the CBS web folks have fixed the Leno issue by replacing him with a photo of Dave.

On Sunday night, we covered the 30th Annual People’s Choice Awards, a yearly kudofest that is completely lacking in surprise. The winners are notified beforehand and therefore if you take a look at the opening credits or audience you know who the winners are.

Monday night, PCA nominee David Letterman explained the process further. He described how the People’s Choice Awards contact the nominees and let them know that if they don’t hear from them in a week they haven’t won.

He then pointed out that the People’s Choice Awards aired on CBS. He showed a screenshot of CBS’ People’s Choice Awards web page. It featured photos of the Everybody Loves Raymond cast, Bill Cosby and NBC’s Tonight Show host, Jay Leno. Though he was having some fun with it, Letterman was obviously ticked that they would put up a photo of his late night rival. “They could have used Oprah,” he complained.

Obviously CBS could use a lesson in cross-promotion.

Clear Channel has a huge electronic billboard at Toronto’s Yonge and Dundas corner. As thousands of pedestrians and cars went by on Sunday night, the sign sat there display a huge alert window for an Internet Explorer scripting error.

Not exactly the best advertising for Microsoft.

I’m off to spend a few days with family. I hope you get to do the same. Have a safe and happy holiday!

I was attending a 10 a.m. screening of Fox’s Stuck on You, when the assembled reporters felt a large rumble and shake in the cinema. We looked around for a second, but as the comedy continued to unspool, I’m sure we chalked it up to one of the small earth tremors that hits the Toronto area every few years. It wasn’t until after the film that I learned that the Uptown Theatre across the street had collapsed, killing one and injuring seventeen.

The streets were filled with a variety of emergency vehicles: air trucks, HazMat crews, Forensic Identification vehicles.

The Uptown, which was undergoing demolition, had collapsed on the building next to it, which housed, among other things, an ESL school for children and adults.

The Uptown had been built in the 1920s as a vaudeville house. Years later it was converted into a three screen cinema and operated by Viacom-owned Famous Players. Much like the Canon (formerly the Pantages) and the Elgin, it was an entertainment venue from a past era. Famous had been ordered to make the site accessible and decided to close it and sell it to a condo developer. Our company actually ran the cinema for the last three days of the Toronto International Film Festival after Famous pulled out.

The demolition of this beautiful theatre was already considered a tragedy by many in the city. The deadly aftermath of its demolition only makes it more so.

According to Televison Week, the producers of The Bachelor are considering offering Bob Guiney a daytime talker.

Um…why?

Just because the liplock addict gave them high ratings for their primetime pimpfest doesn’t mean he’ll bring anything new to the talk circuit. Please Bob, your clock is at 14:59.

Seeing the arrest video of Glen Campbell reminded me of the comedy song “Winestoned Plowboy” by Nestor Pistor. My favorite verse in the heavily-accented song:

I went to a massage parlour
To send a massage to my brother
And boy was I surprised when she said, “Get up on the table”

Jessica Lynch may not have fired a round in Iraq, but she’s taking a few shots at the Pentagon PR machine.

Ming the Mechanic had (or should I say has]) a customer service nightmare with Budget Rent-A-Car when he rented from them in Europe. A must-read for anyone heading over there.