Disney slates Fox films, ‘Avatar’ pushed another year

Bombers, Stamps rumble a can’t-miss must-win

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Calgary Stampeders and Saskatchewan Roughriders are playing musical chairs and pretty soon the music is going to stop.

One of them will be left without a seat at the post-season table, and Saturday’s clash between the Bombers (7-8) and Stampeders (8-8) at Princess Auto Stadium (6 p.m.) will go a long way toward determining who that will be.

You’re not going to want to miss this one.

“We’ve shown we can play great, we’ve shown we can play terrible. So, let’s try to play on the great side and really lock in,” said Bombers halfback Evan Holm on the team’s mindset this week.

Powerful allegory, magic wonder as ballet takes on Stravinsky

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet opened its mainstage season with fire and ice Thursday, as it paid homage to Russian composer Igor Stravinsky with Stravinsky Stories.

Local balletomanes may remember Alexei Ratmansky as a principal dancer during the early 1990s. The internationally renowned dance artist returns in a full-circle moment to stage The Fairy’s Kiss, the 50-minute work his first collaboration with the RWB in more than 30 years. He began flexing his choreographic muscles in its downtown studios with an earlier, reimagined incarnation in 1994, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Ice Maiden, in turn set to Stravinsky’s own tribute to Tchaikovsky’s lushly romantic ballet scores.

Its narrative follows the journey of a Young Man (newly minted principal dancer Skylar Campbell, with all leads alternating) saved — and kissed — by a Fairy (principal dancer Elizabeth Lamont, who rips off a dizzying set of “fouettes”) after his Mother (former principal dancer Vanessa Léonard adding her own gravitas) perishes in a blizzard.

After falling in love with his fiancée (principal dancer Alanna McAdie, infusing her character with innocent youthfulness grounded by intricate footwork), he is tricked on his wedding day by the now disguised Fairy who reveals her true identity — and his ultimate destiny.

Stuart-Stevenson tandem gives Jets time for best Hellebuyck trade deal

A weekly lap around the NHL by Free Press hockey writers Ken Wiebe and Mike McIntyre

The New York Islanders are first-overall. The Calgary Flames are in the league basement.

We’re talking about goaltending, specifically the metric of “goals against above expected” as tracked by the Money Puck website which factors in shot quality and location and is a much better measure than traditional numbers such as goals-against-average and even save percentage, which can be heavily influenced by team factors.

In a nutshell, you want to be as high as possible on this list, suggesting your masked men are doing their job by stopping everything they should — and hopefully a few more. The lower you are in the 32-team league, the more likely you have a leaky crease.

Get to know your Jet: Mario Ferraro

A one-on-one conversation with a Winnipeg Jet about the stuff you don't always hear in the media scrum

Person killed in workplace accident at Fairmont construction site

Emergency responders were on scene and Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health is investigating after a worker died following an incident at a Winnipeg construction site Thursday.

Little information about the worker killed was provided, but the fatal incident happened at the Fairmont Winnipeg, located at 2 Lombard Place, with police responding around 5 p.m.

The hotel is currently closed and is an active construction site. The person killed has not been identified by name.

Information from a provincial spokesperson said the deceased was working for Kepsco Construction when they were fatally injured after a “portion of an overhead canopy collapsed during asbestos abatement work.”

Late philanthropist, family fill Harvest’s Empty Bowls with record-setting $5-M donation

It was a record-breaking night for Harvest Manitoba made possible by a genuine Winnipeg hero and his family.

The organization’s annual Empty Bowls Celebrity Auction Dinner on Thursday raised $6.5 million to support Manitobans facing hunger and food insecurity.

And it was a $5-million legacy donation from late city philanthropist Doug Harvey and his family that will see the event go down in the history books as the largest gala fundraising total ever recorded in Manitoba.

“There was literally nothing that lit my dad up more than contributing himself, but even more so, inspiring others to give,” his daughter Lauren Harvey said Friday.