Oil juniors face a nasty culling
By Nicholas Köhler - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 - 0 Comments
Some say that as many as 200 junior oil and gas shops will fold
Alberta’s oil and gas juniors are hurting. The recession, low commodity prices, scarce credit and higher royalties have combined to push drilling activity lower than it has been in 16 years. Calgary’s TSX Venture Exchange, which lists many juniors, posted a massive market capitalization loss of $41 billion for 2008, losing almost 75 per cent of its value.
Greg Kuipers, president and CEO of junior Black Sea Oil and Gas, predicts that as many as 200 shops like his will soon go bust or be cannibalized by larger outfits. “When the oil prices come back,” he says, “the companies will be a lot more careful—and there will be fewer of them.”
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Prime-ministerial master class
By John Geddes - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 11:09 AM - 0 Comments
What prime minister wouldn’t take advice from such a roster of past masters?
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About that traitorous, illegitimate, antidemocratic Ekos poll …
By kadyomalley - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 11:08 AM - 48 Comments
… you know, the one we’ve all been yammering on about over at Colleague Wherry’s place? Anyway, the background data is now available, including full regional and party support breakdowns. Enjoy!
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Dissecting Obama's speech
By Cathy Gulli - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 11:02 AM - 6 Comments
‘We’ is the best way for a president to evoke a sense of unity. Obama said it 60 times.
In 1977, Michael S. Oberman penned “My Fellow Citizens….”, a fascinating analysis of inaugural addresses, in Harvard Magazine. The best speeches, he found, were delivered by the men who went on to become the most admired presidents (think Kennedy, Roosevelt, Lincoln, the spirits of whom Barack Obama channelled in his address). It’s somewhat predictable, wrote Oberman, a New York City attorney, since the “ability to communicate effectively is an important trait of any great leader.”
The first key element of a great inaugural address, Oberman posits, is that a president acknowledge the challenges facing the nation. Less than 150 words into his address yesterday, Barack Obama rattled off a laundry list: war, a weak economy, lost homes, jobs and businesses, expensive health care, ineffective schools, and an over-dependence on foreign oil. “It was surprising in its frankness,” says Oberman, “given how many people were on the other side of the aisle from the previous administration.”
After identifying the many troubles, Obama proceeded with a call for unity, which experts say is another staple of great presidential speeches. “He saw the potential of a new, new ideal being laid out where there’s shared struggle, shared service and shared sacrifice,” says Peniel Joseph, a professor of African-American studies at Brandeis University in Waltham, M.A. “He’s trying to knit together all different parts of the country.” This is especially important in the aftermath of what was, at times, a highly partisan election, adds Buddy Howell, a professor specializing in political rhetoric at Denison University in Granville, O.H. Obama was moving “from political division to political reconciliation,” he says.
The most powerful way to evoke a sense of unity in a presidential address, says Oberman, is through the use of “we” rather than “I.” Except for a few first-person references early on, Obama used the collective term 60 times. “Obama made it plain the direction he wants to take the country,” says Oberman. “But he made it equally plain it won’t happen unless the country joins with him.”
In recognizing the current obstacles Americans must overcome, the new President cited historical crises that ordinary citizens have suffered and conquered: those who “toiled in sweatshops” and “endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth” and those who fought and died in wars. “The fact that he could talk about some of the flaws of the democracy and the evolution of the country is very important,” says Joseph. “It’s a much more intelligent inaugural address [than] the rah-rah speech we usually get.”
Obama ended his speech by reciting the words of George Washington, though he didn’t mention him by name: “Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it.” Oberman calls it “presidential plagiarism”—when an inaugural address includes an unsourced quotation from a previous leader—a device used by the speaker to demonstrate a timeless approach to governing.
Among the most moving parts of Obama’s address, say experts, was when he spoke about a return to traditional values: “hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism—these things are old. These things are true.” In a speech meant to address the future of a nation facing unparalleled trials, this plea for a return to service and kindness is telling of Obama’s own value system.
In his essay, Oberman wrote that a great inaugural speech helps citizens understand the president’s intentions. “At once, the inaugural address is a challenge and a test: to master this speech is to be closer to mastering the problems of the Presidency.” Obama did well, say experts, in laying out his vision, even if this address wasn’t the best of his career—observers point to his speeches at the 2004 Democratic convention and on election night as his most electrifying. “It was very eloquent,” says Howell, of yesterday’s address. “When you’re the first black president, you’re sworn in the day after the Martin Luther King holiday, and you’ve intentionally cast yourself in comparison to Lincoln and Kennedy, that’s the danger—expectations may come too high.”
Still, Howell says that Obama’s speech fulfilled its mandate, “which is to show that we can move forward together. Him just being there is the embodiment of that message.”
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Get in the game
By Steve Maich - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 10:50 AM - 0 Comments
TV sports in 3-D is awesome, but don’t load up on nachos
The future of televised sports will quicken your pulse. It’ll give you shivers. It’ll also, occasionally, make you want to throw up. But they’re working on that part.
Last week, amid little fanfare and only modest advance billing, Sony, Fox and a California company called 3ality Digital publicly demonstrated their live, 3-D broadcasting technology, beaming the national championship of U.S. college football to select movie theatres across the United States. And while the matchup between the Oklahoma Sooners and Florida Gators won’t be remembered as a classic, it will still go down in history.
Broadcasters like to promise coverage that is “better than being there,” but now they have a tool that puts that claim within reach. In 3-D, viewers get the sensation of standing in a huddle on the sidelines at Dolphin Stadium; hitting a gap at full speed in front of 80,000 screaming fans; or hauling in a 50-yard bomb in the end zone. Let us state categorically that watching elite football in rich high-definition and three dimensions is, for the most part, totally awesome. Those tight shots of players and coaches huddled on the sidelines? It’s like you’re standing five feet away, doling out Gatorade. Bone-crushing hits and diving catches? You might as well be standing out there in pads, watching the play unfold around you.
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The credit crisis and Japan’s mob
By Kate Lunau - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 10:40 AM - 0 Comments
Japan’s police fear the economic crisis will spawn yakuza turf wars
No industry, it seems, is safe from the global economic crisis. It has devastated automaking, investment banking, and now, organized crime. Observers are predicting bloodshed in the streets of Tokyo as rival factions of the yakuza mob retreat from the once-lucrative financial world back to street-level crime.
Last summer, Japan’s National Police Agency warned against the yakuza’s growing involvement in the country’s financial markets, calling it “a disease that will shake the foundations of the economy.” As of August, more than 200 publicly traded companies were on a watch list for suspected ties to organized crime, London’s Times reported. But now the Japanese market has been hit by its worst year on record, and mobsters are returning to drugs and prostitution.
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Sid Ryan’s foreign policy includes only Israel
By Andrew Potter - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 10:10 AM - 3 Comments
He’s never demanded American or Russian scholars denounce Bush or Putin
At an anti-Israel rally in New York last week, a young, Middle Eastern-looking fellow in a dark beard and camouflage toque leaned against a police barricade and held up a large hand-lettered sign. “Death to All Juice,” it read. A picture of the sign was widely circulated on the Internet, sparking an intense debate over whether the man was an illiterate anti-Semite, or a pro-Israel plant trying to make the protesters look like illiterate anti-Semites.
The episode underscores one of the curious things about idiocy, which is that you often can’t tell the real idiots from the people only pretending to be idiots in order to make other people look idiotic.
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Help! My office is ring tone hell.
By Cathy Gulli - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 10:00 AM - 1 Comment
The familiar ‘rrring!’ is history, which may explain those chainsaw sounds across the hall
Not long ago in an office building in Toronto, every desk was outfitted with a new telephone. But what should have been a welcome upgrade fast turned into a source of frustration. The high-tech phones, employees found out, didn’t have a regular ringer. The default ring tone was an eerie sound like you’d hear on The X-Files, “Wahh, wahh, wahhh.” The other options were worse: a detached woman’s voice asking repeatedly, “Are you there? Are you there?”; a Jamaican steel drum ditty; saxophone scales; chirping birds and crickets; and pinball machine noises. One employee, so distracted by the cacophony of ringers going off around her, exclaimed from within her cubicle, “I can’t take it! I feel like I’m working at an arcade.”
A ring tone Armageddon has been fought; the familiar “rrrring!” has just about gone extinct, supplanted by polyphonic renditions of our favourite songs, movie quotes, and quotidian sound effects. Over the last decade, as the assortment of ringers has broadened, so has their penetration, from cellphones to BlackBerrys to land lines at home and work. “Call it throwing on a party dress,” announced AT&T in 2006 when it tried out a plethora of ring tones on its mainline phones—“the trusty old land line has plenty of youthful moves of its own.” Just like that, the dowdy old gal was stuffed into a pair of liquid leggings and told to shake it.
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How to order in an Asian restaurant
By Julia McKinnell - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 9:45 AM - 3 Comments
Buy the sushi chef a beer and never ever pester the waiter with menu questions
In a book crammed with information on how to get the tastiest, best meals at Asian restaurants, New York City lawyer-turned-food-critic Steven Shaw tells the what-not-to-do story of dining with a group of Canadians at one of his favourite Chinese places. “This bunch was driving the staff crazy with hesitation and questions,” writes Shaw, who’d taken the group to New Green Bo, where the servers are notoriously impatient and expect guests to decide quickly and order everything at once. “Finally, the manager met my eyes and gave me a look of desperation . . . I took charge, placed the order and averted disaster,” he writes in Asian Dining Rules: Essential Strategies for Eating Out at Japanese, Chinese, Southeast Asian, Korean and Indian restaurants. “The last thing [staff at a Chinese restaurant] want is to engage in a lot of customer service. It’s not about that,” Shaw elaborated in a phone call.
First tip, if you’re eating Chinese, aim to go with about 12 people. “The fewer people you go with, the worse your meal is going to be. You can’t get things like Peking duck or a whole steamed fish for less than a certain number of people.” Appoint a spokesperson to order for the table and don’t dither. “However you’ve been brought up to behave in a mainstream Western restaurant, it’s the exact opposite in an Asian restaurant.” If you want recommendations or need assistance, identify the top-ranking person in the room. “Usually, it’s the guy in the nicest suit,” says Shaw. “If there are lists of specials on the wall written only in Chinese, ask for a translation.”
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Postponing Khadr’s trial was the easy part
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 9:40 AM - 0 Comments
A former Bush official explains the the Guantanamo quagmire
That didn’t take very long: While the Obamas were waltzing at their inauguration balls, the president’s staff forwarded an executive order to Guantanamo Bay, directing that all terrorist tribunals, including Omar Khadr’s, be postponed for 120 days. It is widely believed that Obama will sign a second executive order that will close the infamous prison camp—and a dark chapter in U.S. foreign policy—for good. But in the words of one senior Bush Administration official, the new commander-in-chief will have “a devil of a time” trying to make that happen. John Bellinger–a day removed from his job as legal advisor to Condoleezza Rice—says he lobbied hard to close what he describes as “a huge blackeye for the United States,” but his efforts were constantly undermined by former vice-president Dick Cheney and other hawks within the department of justice and the U.S. intelligence agencies. “The real sadness,” he says, “[was that] despite the endless debate about what to do, and a recognition by many that it was causing us real damage, we could simply not evolve into a position to close it down.” Bellinger also says that despite the vocal opposition of many western allies, “not one” offered a workable solution. And he warns that the most reasonable plan—moving the worst of the worst to military prisons on U.S. soil—will trigger “a political battle royal” because many politicians and members of the public will say “not in my backyard.” Welcome to the Oval Office, Mr. President.
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Fighting back with music
By Ken MacQueen - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 9:40 AM - 0 Comments
What do you do when your life’s been a train wreck? Sing about it.
“I was dreadfully wealthy for a while,” confides John Lefebvre, almost apologetically, from his home. One of his homes. Not the one in Malibu, Calif., which has a whole different vibe. This one is on Saltspring Island, the Gulf island with B.C.’s greatest per-capita population of organic environmentalists, hippies, artists of every sort, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, eccentrics, dreamers and social critics. Perfect, in other words, for the Calgary-born Lefebvre, 57, who is all those things and more.
Lefebvre’s curriculum vitae reads like a train wreck of enthusiasms, except, somehow, he’s kept it on the rails. Where to begin? One could start in 1969 when, as a 17-year-old, he had the misfortune to sell acid to an undercover cop, netting eight months in Bowden Institution, north of Calgary. Or with his role in founding Neteller, a multi-billion-dollar online payment and cash transfer company that ran him afoul of the U.S. Justice Department last year. Or with his latest passion: Psalngs, (pron. songs) his self-financed, 29-song CD—a country-tinged, rock ’n’ roll summation of his life’s experiences. Psalngs is yours for a free download at www.psalngs.com, because, sounding like an unreconstructed hippie, he likes the idea of his music floating free out there. He hopes, he says, to build an audience for a tour later this year. “If you want to make money, go play the music,” he says. “Let the music fill the seats. That’s the business model.”
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Cindy Kampmeinert 1967-2008
By Michael Friscolanti - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 9:30 AM - 10 Comments
When she wasn’t fighting fires, “Cins” marched in the Honour Guard—and to the beat of her own drum
Cindy Kampmeinert was born on Nov. 14, 1967, in Hellevoetsluis, an island town in the Netherlands. A mix of Dutch and Indonesian, she was an adorable child, with olive skin, deep brown eyes and a matching head of hair. Everyone called her “Cins” for short.
“Baby Cins” (and later, “Big Cins”) was only five when her parents, Ralph and Emelie (née Van der Star), immigrated to Canada and settled in White Rock, B.C., where “Papa” found work as a land surveyor in the nearby city of Richmond. The new kid in the neighbourhood had no trouble making friends. Forever smiling, she was confident and athletic—and far more comfortable playing sports with the boys than playing house with Monique, her older sister. “They were complete opposites,” says Cindy’s brother-in-law, David Williams. “Literally, Monique was the girl and Cindy was the boy.”
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Who wants to lead the ADQ? No one.
By Philippe Gohier - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 9:20 AM - 1 Comment
Will the ADQ survive to fight again without Mario Dumont?
In 2007 the ADQ had a spectacular breakthrough, capturing 41 seats and becoming the official opposition party in Quebec. But now it seems that success provided the party with little more than a higher pedestal from which to fall. After collecting a meagre seven seats in December’s election, the ADQ has now been stripped of official party status and has seen its charismatic founder and leader walk away from politics. A compelling leadership race could have been just the thing to get the party back on its feet. The only problem is that no one seems to want Mario Dumont’s job.
To date, none of the rumoured candidates have stepped forward to confirm they will seek the party leadership. In fact, the only leadership-related news from the ADQ has come from those announcing they won’t be running. Coupled with the party’s marginal role in Quebec’s National Assembly, the dearth of quality leadership candidates doesn’t bode well for the ADQ’s future. “It’s the first hint that it’s not going to be easy to keep this ship afloat,” says Pierre Martin, a political science professor at the Université de Montreal. “Normally, in a party that has even the slimmest chance to play an important role, if not eventually take power, there should be at least minimal interest.”
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Will Serena have to buy her own tennis shoes?
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 8:55 AM - 0 Comments
Some big name pros are losing their endorsement deals
As tennis declines in popularity in the U.S. and the recession sets in, some big-name pro players are losing their shoes…Or, at least, their shoe endorsement deals. The top ranked women’s player, Jelena Jankovic, wasn’t resigned by Reebok (which just layed off 310 workers). Instead, she struck a deal with a Chinese shoe company, Anta. James Blake left Nike last week (where he’s been since 1998), and signed on with Fila, which doesn’t have a history of supporting top tennis players. Meanwhile, Serena Williams’s is still in talks with Nike, after her contract expired last month. At this rate, tennis pros might actually end up buying their own shoes.
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Michelle Obama's hairstylist gets TV deal
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 8:50 AM - 0 Comments
Former Chicagoan will star in reality show
Miss O’s stylist – Johnny Wright – has just signed a development deal to star in a reality beauty show. He’ll work for the TV production company 44 Blue, which produces Style Network’s “Split Ends” and A&E’s “L.A. Gang Unit.” Wright styled Michelle Obama’s hair for the Vogue magazine shoot and the Democratic National Convention, and has also worked with Vivica A. Fox, Rebecca Gayheart, Lauren London, Candace Bushnell.
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Accounting can be a dirty business
By Steve Maich - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 8:50 AM - 0 Comments
What is an Internet porn address really worth?
Accountants and pornographers are seldom associated in the public’s mind. One group is generally considered the epitome of dull conservatism and the other the embodiment of titillating debauchery. One group does everything in well-deserved obscurity. The other does everything in public view. But in the last issue of The Atlantic, a rare but important connection between the two industries was made explicit.
Francis Koenig is just 33 years of age but he’s already a well-regarded veteran of the hedge fund business, and last year he launched a new fund focused on the world of . . . ahem . . . adult entertainment. AdultVest’s assets are said to include equity stakes in everything from movie studios and websites to strip clubs and legal brothels. According to Koenig, the fund is up 50 per cent in the past year. That would be a stellar return any time, but against the backdrop of the global economic crisis and plunging stock markets worldwide, it is nothing less than mind-boggling.
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Who knew there was so much money in collection plates?
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 8:40 AM - 0 Comments
Two priests charged with stealing more than $8 million from church over 20 years. One pleads guilty.
One of two Roman Catholic priests charged with theft from a Florida parish’s Sunday collections pleaded guilty, delaying the trial for the second pastor. Prosecutors charge the two men stole more than $8 million over 20 years, first hiding it in the ceiling of St. Vincent Ferrer church, and then spending it on everything from upscale homes to gambling trips to Las Vegas (one priest with his mistress) to a $275,000 rare coin collection.
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Indomitable showman
By John Geddes - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 8:40 AM - 3 Comments
Can Rocco Rossi’s unabashed style help fill Liberal coffers?
Rocco Rossi, the man Michael Ignatieff has chosen to restore the Liberal party’s financial health, might just be the reason Ignatieff is the party’s leader. The link goes back to 1998, when Ignatieff, then a globe-trotting author and broadcaster, gave a talk at the University of Toronto on the future of liberalism. Attending together were Keith Davey, the Liberal backroom icon, and Rossi, a young businessman and party stalwart. Davey was so impressed he told Rossi afterwards that Ignatieff might make a future Liberal leader.
Six years later Rossi was lunching with Davey’s son Ian. They were bemoaning the state of the party, which was then being battered by the sponsorship scandal. Who, they wondered, could revive its fortunes? Rossi recalled the elder Davey’s instinct on Ignatieff. Ian Davey soon led a small delegation to visit Ignatieff, who was by then teaching at Harvard, to try to coax him home. The rest is recent history.
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Sundance is abuzz about the boy from Brampton
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 8:35 AM - 0 Comments
Michael Cera keeps everyone guessing in a mockumentary about his love life
Michael Cera, who made puppy love cool in comedies like Juno and Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, has charmed the Sundance Film Festival with Paper Hearts, a mock documentary that’s has audience wondering what’s true and what’s not. Cera co-stars with comedian Charlyne Yi, his real-life girlfriend, in the film, which was partly shot in his hometown of Brampton, Ont. Like Cera, Yi is a Judd Apatow protégé, best known for playing one of Seth Rogen’s stoner pals in Knocked Up. Adding to the art/life confusion, the characters in Paper Hearts include the film’s director, Nicholas Jasenovec, although he’s played by actor Jake M. Johnson.
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Lawyer sues the consulate next door
By Martin Patriquin - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 8:30 AM - 1 Comment
Teitelbaum says he’s now the consulate’s ‘human shield’
It’s not that Robert Teitelbaum doesn’t like his new neighbours. He’s just worried that they’ll cause his untimely death.
For nearly three years Teitelbaum, a divorce lawyer, has leased office space in Westmount Square, a posh residential, shopping and office development in the Montreal neighbourhood of the same name. Then, in 2006, the Israeli consulate moved in across the hall and, to hear Teitelbaum say it, all hell broke loose. According to his motion, the consulate brought in “35 tons of metal sheeting” and “30 tons of cement and bomb proof glass” to fortify itself. Teitelbaum says he has become a “human shield” destined to become collateral damage if someone attacks the consulate. “All it would take is for some nut who wants to see 72 virgins to set off something,” Teitelbaum says, referring to a potential suicide attack.
A staunch defender of Israel, Teitelbaum takes pains to make it clear he has nothing against the consulate itself. He just wants to feel safe in his own office. But the property managers, he says, have done nothing to increase security outside the consulate. The bathrooms are always unlocked, for one. And last week, several dozen pro-Palestinian protesters entered the building and held a noisy demonstration nine metres away from Teitelbaum’s door. “It proves my point,” he says. “Nothing stopped them from getting up here.”
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Quebec woman is suing her billionaire ex for $50 million
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 8:20 AM - 0 Comments
Case could affect more than a million common-law couples in Quebec
She’s hardly the archetype of destitute single moms. But a once-pampered girlfriend who thought nothing of jetting to Paris to grab a $10,000 dress may be about to do poor women in Quebec a huge favour. The 34-year-old is suing her billionaire ex for $50 million—plus $56,000 in monthly payments—on grounds that she and her three children got used to a lifestyle during the former couple’s 10-year relationship that her current support payments of $35,000 just can’t maintain. The two were never married, and in Quebec common-law partners don’t enjoy the sort of legal protections in place in other provinces. The case could affect more than a million common-law couples in Quebec.
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Bountiful charges pit neighbour against neighbour
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 8:10 AM - 0 Comments
For years, nearby Creston adopted a live-and-let-live approach to the polygamists; that’s changing
Winston Blackmore and James Oler, the two leaders of the fundamentalist Mormon community of Bountiful, B.C. charged with taking multiple wives, are slated to appear in court for the first time today. As the Vancouver Sun’s Daphne Bramham writes, the charges throw into relief some of the tensions around Bountiful’s polygamist practices in nearby Creston, B.C. “Nothing more starkly illustrates the town’s and maybe even the country’s split over polygamy than Blackmore’s defence team,” writes Bramham. “It includes Blair Suffredine, the former Liberal MLA for Nelson-Creston, who during his single term had several meetings with local activists who urged him to do something about Bountiful.” Suffredine never did act upon those agitating for change. Now his involvement in the case has prompted concern over conflict of interest. Others are increasingly angry over the treatment of women in Bountiful.
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Acupuncture just as effective when the needles are put in the wrong places
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments
Study finds that relief could be the result of the placebo effect
Acupuncture can prevent headaches and migraines but it’s just as effective when the needles are put in the wrong places, according to a German study. Any relief could be the result of the placebo effect, or an unspecific needling effect, according to scientists working with the Cochrane Collaboration, who reviewed more than 30 trials.
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Hamid Karzai scolds his Western allies
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments
Afghan President urges American and NATO troops to change the way they fight
Afghan President Hamid Karzai opened parliament yesterday by urging American and NATO troops to change the way they fight: “We don’t accept civilian casualties in our land in the war on terrorism. We have never complained about our police being martyred. Thousands of our police have been martyred. We have never complained about the deaths of our soldiers. Hundreds have died. If thousands are killed in the war on terrorism… we will accept that. But we don’t and will never accept civilian casualties in our land.”
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The real shame about Jerry Lewis
By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments
The humanitarian award isn’t the problem. It’s that he’s never got an Oscar for his films.
“Protests are coming into the Academy,” wrote Nikki Finke at deadlinehollywooddaily.com, and she wasn’t talking about the selection of Hugh Jackman to host the Oscars; the protests are over the selection of Jerry Lewis, comedian, octogenarian and French cult figure, to receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Lewis has recently been in the news for calling someone “an illiterate fag” in the middle of his annual telethon for muscular dystrophy, and a number of people in Hollywood are wondering what kind of message it sends to give him a prize for people “whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.” But the thing that should be really controversial is that Lewis still hasn’t gotten a special Oscar for his film work. Film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, author of such books as Placing Movies and Essential Cinema, says that “American denial of the American love of Jerry Lewis is pathological,” and he might be right. Never mind the telethons or the tasteless jokes: the important thing about Jerry Lewis is that he’s one of America’s biggest movie stars.
The standard joke about Lewis is that he’s mostly popular in France (based on the fact that French film critics love him). But Rosenbaum notes that Lewis’s popularity in America was “far greater than any French love of Lewis then or later”; in his partnership with Dean Martin and then alone, he was one of America’s top box-office stars for two decades, with two hit movies almost every year. He directed or produced many of his own films, becoming a one-man comedy factory that Judd Apatow would envy, while creating gags that, as Pauline Kael wrote in a review of The Nutty Professor, could “hold their own with the silent classics.” In the near-silent The Bellboy or the lavishly designed farce The Ladies Man, he was as beloved for his facial expressions and pratfalls as his idol, Stan Laurel. His best physical routines, like the scene in Frank Tashlin’s Who’s Minding the Store? where he types on an invisible typewriter, are still popular attractions on YouTube.
