The U.S. cable network that popularized "where are they now?
" celebrity exposés and red carpet reporting by Joan Rivers is heading north of the border.
CanWest will bring E! Networks to Canada by rebranding its CH network E!
as of Sept. 1, CanWest MediaWorks announced Tuesday.
In an agreement with the U.
S. network, the upcoming Canadian version of the celebrity and entertainment-focused channel will feature a mix of E! programming as well as Canadian-produced content, CanWest said.
Current E! offerings include the popular celebrity documentary series E! True Hollywood Stories, the Playboy mansion-set reality show The Girls Next Door and a news show hosted by American Idol's Ryan Seacrest.
CH stations will continue to have relaunched local news and information programming, CanWest said.
"We are very confident that the powerful combination of the E! brand and content, alongside our Canadian and local programming, will resonate strongly with Canadian audiences," said Kathleen Dore, CanWest's president of Canadian television.
Sarah Polly has won a Canadian Screenwriting Award for best feature film for her script for Away from Her, the movie she wrote and directed based on a short story by Alice Munro. The beautiful people of Falcon Beach won't be returning to the air after the season ends. Director Oliver Stone, who won Oscars for Born on the Fourth of July and Platoon, is producing a 30-second TV spot urging the U.S. government to bring its troops back from Iraq.
Sanjaya Malakar, the under-talented but unflappable singer who horrified and captivated millions in his improbable American Idol run, was finally voted off the show Wednesday night. The U.S. government deliberately misrepresented Pat Tillman's death as a heroic battle with the enemy instead of a friendly fire incident, his brother charges. Russians began paying their respects Tuesday to former president Boris Yeltsin, who led their country out of the collapse of the Soviet Union into a turbulent post-Communist era. U.S. President George W. Bush said Tuesday he is prepared to veto a war spending bill proposed by Congress because it includes a timetable to pull American troops out of Iraq.
A Liberal motion that would ensure Canada ends its combat operations in southern Afghanistan by February 2009 will be voted upon on Tuesday. Armed with extra resources and a better forecast, the Canadian Coast Guard has been able to remove a couple of longliners off its lengthy list of vessels stuck in heavy ice off Newfoundland's northeast coast. Ongoing research into the effects of climate change off Nova Scotia could be in trouble because of uncertainty over federal funding. Eating a single high-fat meal can cause a spike in blood pressure, researchers in Calgary say, a finding that suggests another way fat consumption may lead to heart damage. The Ontario government is spending more than $103 million to help researchers gain the tools they need, such as laboratory space, equipment and software, Deputy Premier George Smitherman said Tuesday. A restaurant worker in the northern B.C. community of Vanderhoof has been diagnosed with tuberculosis, prompting the testing of dozens of other people.
The U.S. cable network that popularized "where are they now?" celebrity exposés and red carpet reporting by Joan Rivers is heading north of the border.
For the second consecutive year, The Walrus has dominated the nominee list for the upcoming National Magazine Awards, which celebrate their 30th anniversary this year. CBS Radio has suspended two New York City shock jocks after they broadcast a racially charged prank call to a Chinese restaurant. NASA released the first three-dimensional images of the sun Monday, saying the photos taken from twin spacecraft may lead to better predictions of solar eruptions that can affect communications and power lines on Earth. Yahoo plans to offer a free service providing lyrics to hundreds of thousands of popular songs, by artists ranging from the Beatles and Bob Dylan to the Arctic Monkeys. A dispute between social networking website MySpace and photo and video-sharing website Photobucket has apparently ended, allowing users of both services to once again display content on their MySpace pages. A 60-year-old Vancouver woman who suffered harassment by a collection agency has been awarded $2,000 by the B.C. Supreme Court.
Six years after Parliament passed a motion requiring labels on alcohol warning of the dangers of drinking while pregnant, former NDP health critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis says she is frustrated by government inaction. Vancouver's mayor has floated the idea of having free admission to public galleries and museums during the Christmas holidays. Sam Mitchell of the Toronto Raptors was named the NBA's coach of the year on Tuesday. The Toronto Raptors look to even their Eastern Conference quarter-final series when they host the New Jersey Nets Tuesday night. A series sweep against Boston on Tuesday could be in the cards if the Jays' bats can keep producing and Roy Halladay is his usual solid self on the mound.