Rainbow Stage’s Legally Blonde a lovely legal musical

Omigod, you guys! Rainbow Stage kicked off its penultimate summer production Thursday with a high-octane joy machine bathed in a sea of pink.

Inspired by the 2001 Hollywood film starring Reese Witherspoon, and Amanda Brown’s same-titled novel, the award-winning Legally Blonde: The Musical — featuring a book by Heather Hach, with music/lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin — opened on Broadway in April 2007, followed by a subsequent West End run.

The tale — equal parts cheesy rom-com and potent siren call for female autonomy and empowerment — focuses on quintessential Cali-girl Elle Woods (a pitch-perfect Claire Mac Master). A proud daughter and president of Delta Nu sorority house, she enrols at Harvard Law School to win back her upwardly mobile ex-boyfriend, Warner Huntington III (Duncan Cox).

Laser-focused on marrying a “Jackie, not a Marilyn,” Warner dreams of becoming an American senator, latching onto uber-preppy fellow pupil Vivienne Kensington (Julie Davis), who becomes Elle’s arch nemesis.

Man seriously injured in stranger attack after AC/DC concert in Vancouver

VANCOUVER - A man has been seriously injured in what police call a stranger attack after the AC/DC rock concert in Vancouver.

It happened just before midnight on Thursday, when a couple was walking back to their hotel near Nelson and Richards streets from the concert at BC Place Stadium.

Police say someone approached the couple from behind and punched one of them in the face, causing him to fall.

The victim struck his head on the pavement and has been hospitalized with serious injuries.

Picasso etching stolen from Milwaukee art gallery in 2018 found by landlord in vacant apartment

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Bill DeLind thought the Picasso print that was stolen from his Milwaukee gallery in 2018 was gone forever. But then police called last week and asked him to look an artwork that a local landlord found while cleaning out a vacant apartment.

DeLind immediately recognized the stolen “Torero” print, one of 30 known to exist signed by Picasso.

“I was overwhelmed,” DeLind said Friday. “I was at a loss for words. It was an overwhelming moment for me.”

The sticker from his DeLind Fine Art Appraisals was still on the back of the framed print, just as it had been placed there in 2018.

Sportsnet ends ‘Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi’ broadcasts after 18 years on air

"Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi" won't be back on the air when the NHL resumes this fall. 

The OMNI TV production posted on social media Friday, saying "a decision has been made" that the show will not return.

"For 18 years, this show brought our community closer to the game we love," the post said. 

"It shared the stories of South Asian players and families and created a space that was truly unique in Canadian sports. We are incredibly proud of what we built together." 

Federal government still missing 111 Indigenous artworks from its collection

OTTAWA - The federal government still can't locate 111 Indigenous artworks missing from its collection — nearly two years after an internal audit found it couldn't account for 132.

The Indigenous Art Centre's collection — established by the federal government in 1965 to protect, preserve and promote Indigenous art — consists of more than 5,000 works from First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists.

The collection, which is valued at roughly $14.4 million, includes works by such renowned artists as Christi Belcourt, Elisapee Ishulutaq, Kent Monkman and Norval Morrisseau.

An internal audit of the collection, dated November 2024, was posted last October on the Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada website. It tracked the operations of the department’s Indigenous Art Centre from April 2019 to August 2024 and said the centre could not account for 132 items in the collection.

Live animals and baking bread feature in Messiaen’s `Saint François d’Assise’ at Salzburg Festival

SALZBURG, Austria (AP) — Philippe Sly worked up a sweat to prepare for the daunting title role in “Saint François d’Assise,” composer Olivier Messiaen’s crowning achievement.

Sly moved into the Kapuzinerkloster, a Capuchin monastery about 1,550 feet (470 meters) above sea level, 7 1/2 weeks ahead of the Aug. 4 opening of Romeo Castellucci’s new Salzburg Festival production timed for the 800th anniversary year of St. Francis’ death.

Sly climbs the steps from the city center or walks up a road several times daily and sleeps without air conditioning in a summer of record European heat waves.

“Just being here has been extremely important because I’m going to Lauds every morning,” the 37-year-old Canadian bass-baritone said in a reference to Franciscan morning prayers.

Laufey created a ‘third space’ with her annual fan event, ‘A Very Laufey Day.’ Then it exploded

NEW YORK (AP) — It was 2023 when Laufey, the Icelandic singer-songwriter known for her neoclassical jazz-pop, decided to create a global fan event. Her second album, “Bewitched,” was soon to be released and she wanted to do something big to celebrate it. But more than that, she says, she “wanted to find a way to get my fans out of their homes, and to really follow an itinerary of my perfect idea of a day and have the music from ‘Bewitched’ follow it.”

And thus, “A Very Laufey Day” was born. Each year, the Grammy-winning singer curates itineraries for different locations across the globe for her listeners to follow. It's “anywhere I have been and loved,” she says. It allows them to live what she refers to as “a perfect day,” but also to connect with their community offline and in person. And as she approaches its fourth edition, it has only grown larger.

“It became much bigger than I anticipated, really,” she says. She sought to inspire her audience to find “third spaces,” and explore some of her favorite locales: museums, bookstores, cafes, concerts and the like, and foster community in the process. And each year, it has only grown bigger, with fans dressing up in their favorite Laufey-themed vintage fashions to celebrate the unofficial holiday.

And Aug. 23 will mark the fourth annual “A Very Laufey Day.”

What’s canon in ‘Paw Patrol’? Canadian mega-franchise tackles creative questions as its world expands

TORONTO - Loyal "Paw Patrol" viewers learned years ago that dinosaurs didn't go extinct on whatever version of Earth is home to Adventure Bay.

A contingent of the reptiles survived for millions of years, unbeknownst to the general public, and are currently under the care of a wheelchair-using Bernese mountain pup named Rex and two scientists — at least in the universe of the TV series.

But the creative minds at Spin Master, the Toronto-based toy behemoth that's made a fortune on the backs of the search-and-rescue dogs, aren't afraid of tweaking an origin story as they adapt the franchise for the big screen.

Enter "Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie," the third Hollywood outing for the pups, in which they learn — once again — that a scientific miracle allowed a small subset of dinosaurs to survive an eons-ago asteroid impact.

The Wrong Girls is sweet and shaggy, but dazed and confused stoner comedy is hard to get right

Stoner comedy has always been kind of a dude thing. Think of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Cheech & Chong, Ice Cube’s Friday franchise, Harold & Kumar, basically any movie with the young Seth Rogen.

Inman launching new album at WECC

Give Richard Inman a moment and a surface, and he’ll cover it with a story.

“I’ve scribbled down lyrics on paper plates, McDonald’s bags — whatever you got,” says Inman, who grew up in southern Manitoba but now lives in a three-bedroom ranch house near Twin Butte, Alta., so close to the American border that he says he can spit into Montana from his backyard.

“The other day I had a line in my head for seven hours before I wrote it down,” says the songwriter, who managed to remember the phrasing after driving home from a music festival in Idaho. “That certainly was lucky.”

Though Inman, 35, first starting sharing his Americana concoctions with crowds at Winnipeg’s Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club in the late 2000s, learning how to play his compositions with his band, the Mad Trappers, he has spent the bulk of the past decade out west, splitting time between the stage and the sale barn.

Ravi Jain won Canada’s top theatre prize worth $100K. Now he’s giving the money away

TORONTO - When Ravi Jain learned he had won the 2025 Siminovitch Prize, he already knew what he wanted to do with the $100,000 award.

He wanted to give it away.

The co-artistic director of Why Not Theatre had been shortlisted for the prestigious Canadian theatre prize four times over a decade before winning last December. Rather than put the money toward his own work or the Toronto company he founded, Jain wanted to support other artists.

That idea became the Why Not International Travel Award, a one-time initiative distributing $250,000 to 30 independent theatre artists across Canada.

Ellen Greene revisits Audrey from ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ for the film’s 40th anniversary

Ellen Greene can still do a killer Audrey.

In conversation, she seamlessly slips in and out of that singular voice — a little breathy, a little squeaky, a little lispy, a little New York — that made her “Little Shop of Horrors” heroine an instant icon. It wasn’t a register she’d planned on hitting at the audition. It just came out of her in the moment, and it stuck.

“I didn’t think about it,” Greene, 75, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “It was weird, I mean, I don’t know where half of this stuff came from.”

Back on tour with ‘Little Shop’

Fact File: Claims Liberal MP voted in House of Commons while in China are false

OTTAWA - After Liberal MP Shaun Chen announced Monday his plans to resign his seat in the House of Commons in September, he was accused online of breaking House rules by voting on legislation while he was in China earlier this year.

The claims, which were amplified by right-wing influencers and a handful of current and former Conservative MPs, are based on the date stamps on videos shared to the popular Chinese social media platform WeChat showing Chen visiting China.

THE CLAIM

"Shaun Chen enjoys some ice cream in a video posted on March 25th in China. Voting records show Shaun Chen voted electronically six times in the House of Commons on March 25th," reads one of a series of posts from independent journalist Andy Lee this week.

The art of snow and script

Between the Two, Hamideh Behgar’s current solo show at Aceartinc., is a bridging of worlds.

Iran, her homeland, and Canada, her current home. Persian architecture and Prairie landscape. Past and present. Here, there and in between.

Behgar, 38, came to Winnipeg from Iran in 2021 to earn her MFA at the School of Art at the University of Manitoba, which she completed in 2023.

As she was trying to get a handle on what she might do for her thesis — fine art was a newer practice for her; she has a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from the University of Applied Science & Technology in Kish, Iran — she spent a lot of time walking in King’s Park.

Jury selected for trial of former gang leader accused of ordering Tupac Shakur’s killing

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A jury of 6 men and 10 women was selected Thursday to hear the case against an ex-gang leader accused of orchestrating Tupac Shakur’s killing nearly 30 years ago in one of hip-hop’s most pivotal moments.

Opening statements at the murder trial in Las Vegas are expected to begin Monday.

Family members and fans of the legendary rapper have been waiting for decades to learn the truth behind the 1996 drive-by shooting that left Shakur dead at the height of his career.

Shakur was just 25 when he was shot near the Las Vegas Strip at a time when he was in the middle of a fierce battle for dominance in a music scene shaped by rival gangs.