Sheen charms Winnipeg youth

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This article was published 01/11/2013 (4351 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LOOK NORTH, MR. SHEEN! Winnipeg’s film commissioner, Kenny Boyce, “had a bite and some coffee” with Hollywood star Martin Sheen at the downtown Radisson hotel the night before he spoke to 16,000 youth at WE Day. “He was charming, engaging and generous with his time,” said Boyce of the actor famous for Badlands, Apocalypse Now, Wall Street, Gettysburg, The Departed and The Amazing Spider-Man. The sophisticated-looking actor — born Ramon Estevez to working-class parents in Dayton, Ohio — said he felt very fortunate to have played so many elected officials, among them U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in TV productions, White House Chief of Staff A.J. McInnerney in The American President; and fictional Democratic president Josiah “Jed” Bartlet in The West Wing.

Sheen has worked with many famous film directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. Because he’s deeply involved with the film and TV industry as a producer and director himself and has future products on the go, Sheen had serious questions. “He was fascinated with the Manitoba film industry and was asking about the depth of the crews we have to offer, and film locations,” says Boyce. Sheen left with a guide book detailing everything Manitoba has to offer people who want to film here.

Did Boyce ask about Sheen’s wild son Charlie of Two and Half Men fame? “No, and I didn’t ask his age either!”

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YOU CAN LEAVE YOUR HAT ON: Ladies always take tea in their hats, any etiquette expert will tell you. And the high tea for the 22nd annual Guardian Angel Benefit for Women’s Cancer at the RBC Convention Centre Winnipeg on Sunday was no exception. Hats, fascinators and several Nellie McClung-era costumes dotted the room as nearly 1,400 people partook of the afternoon tea and listened to the guest speaker, television star Fran Drescher (TV series The Nanny, and the recent Happily Divorced). She’s a uterine cancer survivor, activist and author of Cancer Schmancer. Yes, the nasal New York voice is exactly the same — not an act. But at this gig, Drescher was more cancer activist than actress/ comedian. She did say a studio exec told her once she was what he called “A Russell — the curves of Jane Russell, comic timing of Rosalind Russell and the tenacity of a Jack Russell.”

Tea and the speech were followed by a fashion show, complete with models who are cancer survivors. Winnipeg Free Press columnist Gordon Sinclair Jr. was one of the models, along with sisters-in-law Nancy Hendry and Tara Kroeker (who were diagnosed with breast cancer six months apart) and 78-year-old Ethel Gordon. Winnipeg Free Press columnist Lindor Reynolds, in a rare sighting, carried a smashing vintage Gucci bag. She’s undergoing treatment for brain cancer. Also at the Free Press table were editorial assistant Linda Mertin and her friend, marketing specialist Candice Ball; plus assistant to the editor Margaret McMillan, associate editor Julie Carl, director of national sales Kim Warburton and her friend Cathy Bowman, a marketing specialist who is recovering from breast cancer treatment and looking fabulous.

Spotted in the crowd: Gail Asper, MLA Myrna Driedger, Coun. Gord Steeves, CancerCare Manitoba Foundation chair Janice Filmon and her husband, former premier Gary Filmon; Annitta Stenning, the foundation’s executive director, and Ida Albo, chair of the Guardian Angel benefit committee. Albo told the massive crowd the event will allow the foundation to make its largest-ever donation to CancerCare Manitoba.

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THE GREAT CATSBY: Celebrating the Roaring 20th Anniversary of the Bow Wow Ball, a dozen of the Winnipeg Humane Society gang decorated the packed Fairmont hotel ballroom Saturday with black, white and silver glitz and prize balloons sailing above. “I was surprised at how many people actually dressed up in the theme — lots of flapper dresses,” said CEO Bill McDonald, who greeted everyone coming up the escalator, along with Christine Boult, director of development at his side.

“I think we made about $184,000 and as the smoke clears, this is probably the best ever.”

 

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