Outtakes

Peter Sellers Comes to Life

The long-awaited biopic on late British comic actor Peter Sellers is finally here. On December 5, The Movie Network airs Stephen Hopkins' made-for-television movie The Life and Death of Peter Sellers starring an incredible Geoffrey Rush in the titular role.
That Sellers was a comic genius, is no secret. That he was a horrible human being that abused those around him, is little known. The film details intimately Sellers' dependent relationship with his domineering mother (Miriam Margoyles); his pathological selfishness in terms of personal relationships with his wives (Emily Watson, Charlize Theron); and his volatile spats with directors Blake Edwards (John Lithgow) and Stanley Kubrick (Stanley Tucci).
Sellers was a complicated person who adopted his film characters as his own; and when left to his own internal discoveries, found himself despotic and self-destructive.
Revealing, informative and absolutely terrific, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers is a must-see viewing. 8 p.m.

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On December 13, it's the 19th annual Gemini Awards, that celebrates outstanding achievement in Canadian English language television. This year's nominations reveal that Human Cargo takes the lead with 17 nominations and dramatic series‚ This Is Wonderland with 15 nods, The Eleventh Hour with 12 nominations and Da Vinci's Inquest with 10 nominations round out the top four. Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion, Slings & Arrows and This Hour Has 22 Minutes all tied for fifth place with nine nominations each.
Performances nominees include Bayo Akinfemi in Human Cargo, Nicholas Lea in The Investigation, Vincent Walsh in Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion, Diane D'Aquila in Elizabeth Rex, Martha Burns in Slings & Arrows, Cara Pifko for This Is Wonderland, Tracy Waterhouse for Blue Murder, Roman Danylo in Comedy Inc. and the ensemble casts from Corner Gas and The Joe Blow Show. They'll be up against veterans such as Paul Gross who snags his 14th nomination for Slings & Arrows, the This Hour Has 22 Minutes ensemble is up for their eleventh performance nod and Made In Canada's ensemble is up for number eight. Nicholas Campbell received two nods this year for Human Cargo and Da Vinci's Inquest, making this his eighth and ninth nominations, Michael Riley gets his ninth for This Is Wonderland and Brent Carver sees his seventh for Elizabeth Rex as does Kate Nelligan for Human Cargo. The cast from the Trailer Park Boys, Catherine Disher in Snakes & Ladders and Megan Follows for Open Heart all receive their fourth Gemini nomination.

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It's time to gobble up those stocking-stuffers, and what's better for the kids than some classic DVDs? One that my daughter just loves is Disney's A Wrinkle in Time, based on Madeleine L'Engle's 1963 book about three children who embark upon interplanetary travel. Meg (Katie Stuart) and Charles Murry (David Dorfman) search for their missing father, an astrophysicist who mysteriously disappeared while doing highly confidential research for the government. Calvin O'Keefe (Gregory Smith), their popular neighbour, accompanies them on this adventure. Guided by three female celestial beings (Alfre Woodard, Kate Nelligan, and Alison Eliot), the children travel to the planet of Camazotz where they encounter an evil man with red eyes, known as The Prime Coordinator. Special features include an interview with L'Engle and deleted scenes.

Publication Date: 2004-12-05
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=4690