AmBushed in Chicago

Dubya back in the limelight

I had an extremely weird experience, or perhaps opportunity,  the other day: I sat within spitting distance  of a guy I have been furious with for years.  

Yes, none other than George W. Bush, the former president of the United States, who took a perfectly good world and left it smashed in political, economic and spiritual disarray a mere 8 years later, (and was so universally reviled when he left office  that at Obama’s inauguration, the crowd gathered outside on the Mall loudly booed his departing helicopter overhead as he and Laura flew back home to Texas), is daring to showing his face in public again–this time to promote his memoirs. Continue reading…

Festival friends

my new BFFs, Nina and and Rocco

One of the treats of attending the odd super glam  TIFF party, as I did over the weekend  for L’Amour Fou, the new YSL biopic by the late designer’s life and business partner Pierre Berge (more on that this week in the Star ‘s Living section),  are some of the fab people you get to meet.

I have long been a fan of David Rocco and his wonderful Food network show David Rocco’s La Dolce Vita. He’s such a relaxed and engaging host and of course, there he is in Italy, just enjoying himself being Italian, and eating wonderful Italian food, so I am totally with him. And so I was completely delighted to find myself chatting with the Roccos at the YSL party about everything from how men should dress to where one should eat cacio e pepe in Toronto (David’s answer: at his house). And of course in person, he is just as completely adorable and– along with his similarly fantastic, funny wife Nina, his co-producer–as welcoming and totally real as he is on his show.

As it happens, I am not alone in loving the Roccos. As of this summer, David Rocco’s La Dolce Vita,which currently watched in 150 countries around the world,  is also on the air in the US on the Cooking Network.  And according to David, “doing very well”. So well that he has just been signed by William Morris agency.

My guess is that the charming Rocco is soon going to be the next Rachel Ray–that is, if Rachel Ray was a really cute smart Italian guy from Toronto with a really cute smart wife who does not look in any way like the mother of two year old twins.

Happy 25th, bye-bye Ciara!

What an incredibly fun night last night!  The film festival hasn’t even started yet and I woke up this morning with a sore throat  and burning feet from dancing till 2 in eight inch platforms.    

The night began with champagne cocktails to commemorate 25 years of Fashion television at the old City building on Queen St W.  It turned out to be a giant reunion of everybody who has worked in fashion and fashion media here in town for the last quarter century, which was not only a lot of fun but also somehow heartening–a reminder that we have all, in our own fashion, come a long way.    

 Jeanne Beker, the woman of the hour, looked just amazing. 

What a month she’s had, launching her own fashion line, Edit, at the Bay, and marking 25 years at the top of the fashion heap. According to the gals I was chatting with, part of the reason Jeanne looks so damn good is that she has just lost 30 pounds on the Herbal Magic diet (UPDATE: Jeanne tells me it was only 18 lbs., “thirty would have been a bit much”). Regardless, she certainly looks a lot better than poor Elizabeth Manley, whose weight-loss before and afters are  plastered outside every Herbal Magic store in town.  Continue reading…

The Bliss of Liss

Well written and well read

I know it’s the end of summer and back-to-the-grindstone time–time to get to it once again, with more vim and vigour, be a better you and all that, but I can’t resist recommending a wonderful little literary escape  from all that  a series of books written by historian David Liss that was one of the greatest hits of our summer. The first one, A Conspiracy of Paper, hooks you in and you can’t stop reading until you’ve devoured all three like they were really good dark chocolate (with fleur de sel). Continue reading…

Summer style moment

Nice doggie, sweet whip

Isn’t this a pretty picture for the end of summer?

I caught this very blonde lab posing in the back of a Ford Model A pickup, circa 1930, on the main drag of Squamish, BC. The owner was a hippie enjoying a fair trade coffee and a health muffin outside in the rare sunshine.

I like his style.