Blake McGrath at Heart & Music fundraiser

The evening was as promised, with heart and lots of music, with Blake McGrath and Theo Tams on a long list of performers raising money for ovarian cancer research and Ovarian Cancer Canada. 

Blake, who as you probably know is a singer, dancer, choreographer and So You Think You Can Dance Canada judge, did three songs: "Relax," "The Night" and his newest single, "Stage Fright" and had the audience on their feet.

I got a chance to chat with him after the show; the video's at the end of this post.

Alas, I didn't get to pin down Canadian Idol Theo Tams for a few words, but he was excellent onstage. He did "Broken" and a cover of Jann Arden's "Good Mother."

Also impressive: Alana Bridgewater; Ma-Anne Dionisio and Jesse Labelle. The night was hosted by John Moore of Newstalk 1010, Christine Cushing of Fearless in the Kitchen and Jane Lockhart of Colour Confidential. 

Here's Blake:

 

Blake McGrath and Theo Tams at Heart & Music

Blake and Theo are lending their talents to a fundraiser for ovarian cancer research tonight at the Winter Garden Theatre.

Blake, of course, is the dancer, choreographer, So You Think You Can Dance Canada judge and singer whose debut album, Time to Move, is now available on iTunes.

Theo is the last of the Canadian Idols, having won the TV contest when it last aired in 2008. Theo has an album out, Give It All Away, and there's a book about Theo and his Idol experiences, Theo Tams: Inside the Music.

The list of performers also includes talent from the musicals We Will Rock You, Jersey Boys and Miss Saigon, the TV show Hellcats, recording artists Amanda Morra and Jesse LaBelle, dance from Cadence Progressive Contemporary Ballet and more.

There are still some tickets available, at $41 plus service charge and up, at www.ticketmaster.ca. The event starts at 8 p.m. and the Winter Garden box office opens at 5 p.m.

I hope to catch up with Blake and Theo at the event and will share what they have to say here.

Sebastian Pigott on Being Erica

(Erin Karpluk and Sebastian Pigott on Season 2 of Being Erica in a CBC photo.)

I have written here before about actor and musician Sebastian Pigott, and what he's been up to since he was a Canadian Idol finalist in 2008.

One of those things has been appearing on the CBC show Being Erica. I have to confess I am way behind on Season 3 of Erica, so much so that I have not yet seen the episode I'm referencing in this post, Episode 8.

But other people have and they have started a petition to bring Sebastian's character, Kai, back in Season 4 of the show (I should add that there has been no confirmation yet that the show is getting a fourth season). 

SPOILER ALERT

According to the petition, Episode 8 saw the end of Kai's character. The petitioners say that the character "has been a great asset to the show and has added a new depth and dimension that would be a shame to lose." 

I"ve been a fan of Kai and how he relates to Erica (played by Erin Karpluk) since he was introduced last season, so I signed the petition. I thought I'd let other Erica and Sebastian fans know about it.

Battle of the Blades: The champs on video (again)

I am reposting this video of Battle of the Blades champions Val Bure and Katia Gordeeva being interviewed by the media after their victory because it appears the link wasn't working properly for some people. So if you were unable to see it the first time, here it is again. You can also go to my YouTube page, www.youtube.com/realyeo and find it there.

 

So You Think You Can Dance Canada: Montreal auditions

I couldn't resist posting this photo, cribbed from the SYTYCDCanada Twitter page, taken outside the Theatre St-Denis in Montreal. You can barely make out Season 1 alumnus Vincent Noiseux, Season 2's Kim Gingras and Season 3 top four finalist Janick Arseneau for all the snow:

 

It just goes to show you Montreal dancers are a hardy lot. Auditions continue next Saturday in Edmonton and the Saturday after that in Vancouver. Go to www.dance.ctv.ca if you want more information.

And please note, if you were following me on Twitter, I am no longer @realyeo. You have to go to www.Twitter.com/realityeo to find me.

Skating With the Stars: And I use the term loosely

The online consensus on Skating With the Stars is that it's no Dancing With the Stars, although we pretty much all knew that as soon as the cast list was revealed. 

I didn't get around to watching it till Wednesday night, although it debuted Monday right after the last DWTS performance show, and I guess it says something about how enthralling I found it that I'm just posting about it on Friday afternoon.

To be fair, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. A couple of the celebrities, soap actress Rebecca Budig and Olympic skier Jonny Moseley, seem to actually be able to skate (although is it really that big a surprise that an Olympic athlete would be able to adapt to a different sport?).

Disney star Brandon Mychal Smith also skated better than he had any right to, considering he had never done it before (though he does describe himself as "an avid roller skater"), but his constant mugging for the camera was a turn-off.

And speaking of egos, could Sean Young be a little more full of herself? In her pre-skate video intro, she boasted that, "My edge over the other people is looks, talent, nervous system, toughness ... the better question is what edge don't I have?"

How about the fact you're best known for two movies that came out in 1982 and 1987, and the last time you were in the news in a big way before this was for heckling Julian Schnabel at the Directors Guild of America awards in 2008? Just sayin'.

Sean at least spared us over-the-top facial expressions; in fact, she looked almost dead-eyed whenever the cameras caught her live. 

Despite having to use a chair during training, she did better than I expected during the show (although the sleeve on her lavender dress kept flopping into her face).

Motley Crue singer Vince Neil was definitely the worst of the bunch, looking downright uncomfortable on the blades, while "real housewife" Bethenny Frankel didn't so much skate as segue with her partner from one trick to the next. 

As for the professional skaters themselves, I've never heard of any of them, which doesn't mean much since I don't follow figure skating. 

Host Vernon Kay seems like a nice enough fellow but doesn't have the easy joviality of Tom Bergeron. And colour commentator Tanith Belbin is only slightly less annoying than Brooke Burke.

I like to give props to fellow Canadians, but judge Laurie Ann Gibson lost me after she blathered, "It's such an honour that I'm even in your presence. You are such an incredible actress and an amazing woman" to Sean and told Vince his "musicality" was amazing. 

Dick Button at least had useful comments to make about how to improve the skating, although calling Bethenny "one skinny babe" wasn't one of them. And yes, he really did tell Brandon that he had a "spiffy" personality.

The best thing about the show, I think, is Johnny Weir, who's adorable. True, some of his remarks were weird, like telling Sean, "I totally got you channelling bunnies frolicking across a beautiful meadow," but others were fun: "You just terrorized the ice like a bull in a china shop and I loved it," to Jonny, and "Rebecca, that was so hot I almost sweated out my weave."

Each week, the skaters have to tackle a different element (Monday it was an assisted glide and a pair spin) and they are marked for technical and artistic merit by the judges with total scores out of 60.

At the end of Monday's show, Rebecca and partner Fred Palascak were in the lead with 45; next were Jonny and Brooke Castile with 40; Brandon and Keauna McLaughlin, 36; Sean and Denis Petukhov, 34; Bethenny and Ethan Burgess, 29; Vince and Jennifer Wester, 28. 

How will the show do? According to the U.S. ratings, viewership on Monday fell steadily from the opening, when Vernon started his intro in the Dancing With the Stars studio with 19.4 million watching, to about 6 million in Skating's last half hour.

The problem for me is that I don't find any of the celebs very compelling and don't care all that much how they do. Granted, I'm sure that casting a skating show, with its potential for danger, can't be anywhere near as easy as recruting stars to ballroom dance on one of the most popular shows in North America.

And speaking of danger, I couldn't help but note that SWTS did exactly what Battle of the Blades tries to avoid: played up the idea of the competitors falling and putting themselves in harm's way.

In fact, none of the celebrities did fall during their on-air routines. In the end, the show itself might be the thing in the most danger.

The next episode airs Monday at 8 p.m. on ABC. (It was my understanding it was also airing on CTV, but that network's schedule shows a rerun of Flashpoint at 8 p.m.)

And one more note to readers, I had major technical difficulties with my BlackBerry that affected my Twitter account. If you were following me at Twitter.com/realyeo, you now have to switch to Twitter.com/realityeo. Sorry for the inconvenience.

(The photo of Sean and Denis is by Adam Taylor for ABC.)

Survivor: Nicaragua - The recap episode

Sigh. I knew we weren't going to get through the season without a recap episode. I'm not crazy about them because I'd rather see the game move ahead than revisit what's gone before, but I guess you take what you can get. 

Some of the new scenes weren't all that enlightening. We already knew, for instance, that Jimmy T was a complainer who felt threatened by the other men on his tribe, so seeing all that chest-thumping and nattering over how to build Espada's shelter wasn't terribly enlightening. 

Rather than recap the whole recap, I'm just going to list the parts I found interesting or amusing. 

YYou Idiots: So NaOnka wasn't all down from Day 1 with the young folks. Who knew? As the members of La Flor frolicked in the ocean, Na (right) complained, "I'm with a bunch of idiots. I wish that I had been on the other tribe because they're a lot smarter ... I believe they have a shelter. I believe they have a door, probably a few windows, a basement and an attic ... I'm with young idiots, it's ridiculous, it's ridiculous." (Of course, she didn't see Espada's shelter collapse the first night.)

YFabio Abides: Apparently we hadn't seen even a fraction of the ways that Fabio found to injure himself at camp: rubbing chili pepper juice into his eye; pissing off a bunch of bees while trying to pick mangos; walking into a shelter pole; stepping on thorns. "I think Fabio needs a bubble wrapped all around his body," sneered NaOnka. "He's an idiot." The idiot may be smarter than people think, though. "I don't think people are going to see me as a threat, they'll be he's young, he's goofy, we're not too worried about him." If you think about it, nobody does seem too worried about him so far, though I would be if I were them. He's likeable, he's never done anything to anybody and he has contributed at challenges, just the type you don't want to take to final tribal council.

YThe City-Country Conspiracy: I'm not sure what was in the water during those early days at Espada, but Holly seemed to have overindulged. We saw her on Day 9, looking a little wild-eyed while telling Jimmy T how, at the next challenge, "a lot of the city kids are going to merge over to this tribe or they're gonna put us with the city kids and the country kids are going to come over here." What city kids? What country kids? If I were Jimmy T, I would have backed away slowly. "She's off the deep end," he commented.

YRain, Rain Go Away: We had already seen the frequent rain nearly do in NaOnka. I didn't realize Kelly Purple wanted to quit, too. But since she doesn't seem to say much, or at least much that makes sense, how could we? "If I wanted to go home, if I just want it to be over they're going to think of me as super weak. It's killing me out here. I just want to quit," Kelly said. Benry later complained that Kelly was "a huge waste of space. She bitches and moans about anything and everything."

YJane's In It to Win It: If the other castaways knew that the nice older lady from North Carolina had started restricting her food intake a couple of months before learning if she'd made it on to Survivor and bought a sauna so she could learn to withstand temperatures up to 170 F, you think they'd still want her around? It was something to watch how Jane (left) convinced the youngsters to go help Brenda wrangle crabs on the beach so she could steal an ember from the fire before skulking off to cook herself a fish. Jill nicknamed Jane "Survivor MacGyver" with good reason. Anybody who wants to win would probably do well to get rid of Jane, but given her propensity for winning challenges it may already be too late.

YPut a Lid on It: I hope to never again see Holly playing with Dan's long, greasy hair. Just ewww.

YLet's Make an Alliance: Brenda told me Tuesday that she suspected Sash had made other alliances and that's why he was willing to vote her out, so it was interesting on Wednesday to see that he'd been chatting up everybody and anybody about how he'd like to go to the end with them, even Marty. "I want to make a safe pact with every single member of La Flor to guarantee me a final spot at the end," said Sash. "Saying that you want someone to be next to you at final tribal council and promising it are two different things. Come final tribal council, they'll be in for a rude awakening." Maybe so, but if he does make final tribal (a possibility given that he's still got a hidden immunity idol to use as leverage) will all the people he bamboozled think that the distinction matters?

YNasty Na Has a Heart? Of course, we had to revisit the case of the stolen flour, but we got to see a vulnerable side of NaOnka when she confessed her theft to Holly and asked for advice. Holly put on her mommy mask and advised a crying NaOnka to confess to the rest of the tribe what she'd done (but she only partly confessed since she lied about her reason for taking the flour, which was revenge and not about saving food). "Why'd you tell me?" Holly asked. "Because I love you," Na responded. But love only goes so far in this game. "There's something about Holly, she kind of reminds me of my mom and I respect her," said NaOnka. "I would like to have Holly here for as long as we can have her here, until she's not valuable anymore." 

YIt's a Man's World: So besides being almost completely useless physically, Dan also has charming old-world beliefs. Commenting on Na's flour confession, he said, "I don't think it's strange to see a young woman go nutso, but if it happens to a woman you expect it. I am somewhat of a chauvinist, you know? That's that Brooklyn attitude. If one of the guys had done that I would have told them just get the f--k out of here and don't come back." Yeah, Dan? Don't let the torch hit your ass on the way out.

Next week, we're back to a regular episode. It looks like heavy rains and a surging river wash more of the beach away, and Na and Kelly start to break down again in the punishing weather.

You can tune in next Wednesday at 8 p.m. on Global TV and look for the recap here.

(The photos of NaOnka and Jane are by Monty Brinton for CBS.)

Bachelor Pad: Tenley and Kiptyn are still an item

I was cleaning out my inbox when I came across an email from one of my PR contacts from L.A.

It was full of photos of celebs, mostly of the reality TV variety, stopping by radio station KIIS-FM's gifting suite in honour of the American Music Awards (yes, a gifting suite is where famous people, some of whom make way more money than you and I, get free things for no particular reason).

And there were Tenley Molzahn and Kiptyn Locke looking shiny and happy and making away with some "Pastry Sprinkle Booties."

The news release described Kiptyn as Tenley's new beau and said they were heading to Hawaii, but I think we can all agree this romance has been a while in the making, getting a kick-start on Bachelor Pad in the summer.

So congratulations Tenley and Kiptyn. We just knew you'd outlast Elizabeth and Kovacs.

Survivor: Nicaragua - Brenda's exit interview

Brenda Lowe had at least one shocking thing to say about her experience on Survivor: Nicaragua ... NaOnka is nice.

No, she says she means it.

I asked the 27-year-old paddleboard company owner whether she felt genuinely close to NaOnka or hanging out with her was just part of Brenda's strategy.

"No, I genuiniely did. What people don’t see is that, believe it or not, this is a shocker, she is actually a nice girl. She’s sweet and she’s kind and she’s funny, and I know all about her life and her past, and I felt like we were girlfriends, the way I was girlfriends with Kelly Purple. I thought that that’s the way that it was out there.

"I really did trust her, I really did, really really did trust her to the point where I was like, there’s no way this girl would vote for me."

But, of course, we all know that NaOnka did vote to have her friend's torch snuffed. And that Brenda voted for Na, calling her "my real true enemy."

But on Tuesday, she said there were no hard feelings. Really.

She thinks the turning point for Na came in an exchange we didn't see on TV, when their mutual ally Sash was off ziplining and eating with the other guys for winning a reward challenge.

"I did sort of talk to NaOnka ... and I was like, 'Look we might not be able to trust Sash depending on what he says after he comes back from this challenge.' She looks at me and she’s like 'Really?' And I’m like 'Yeah, really, we gotta be prepared to take him out if we have to' and she’s like 'Wow.'

"Luckily Sash came back very trustworthy and I said, 'Listen Na, forget about what I said, we can trust him.' And she’s like, it was already too late, she went and told Sash, and she was already starting to get paranoid about me thinking too much and thinking about even taking out Sash, our friend."

Nor does she blame NaOnka, she says, even though in the end Na and Sash took our their friend Brenda.

"I mean she’s playing a tough game. Everyone is playing a game whether we see it or not. And they must be playing a better game, because they’re there and I’m not, so I think that says something about them. I just underestimated most everybody out there, I think."

When it comes to her other formerly staunch ally, Sash, Brenda believes he must have been in another alliance unseen by her and the TV audience. Otherwise, why would he have put himself at risk by allowing her to be voted off?

"These people are trying to target you by targeting me," she says she told Sash.

"I was like why? Why? Sash is smart, why would he allow this to happen? But it has to be that he has other alliances, it just has to be like that."

We also talked about the whole issue of scrambling, a word Brenda said she hates. She was ribbed by Jeff Probst at tribal council for not "scrambling" to save herself.

"There was a reason why I didn’t scramble and this is why. It was frustrating to watch the whole episode. It’s like, there’s a reason why, Jeff. You can’t expain it right then and there, but my strategy for staying in the game was going to the people who had incentive to save me, which was Chase and Sash.

"And Sash more than anybody because he had the idol and I could have used it for him to save me really. And I was trying to show them, 'Look, I’m loyal to you. I’m not talking to Benry, I’m not talking to Fabio, I'm not talking to Holly and Jane, I’m talking to you and you only.' ...

"So if I was go scrambling it would have killed it, they would have seen can’t trust Brenda, what is she telling these people, and not having a big enough incentive to save me."

There's one other thing Brenda would like to set the record straight on: the impression that she's arrogant.

"I definitely see it when they only show certain soundbites and if you see a guy who’s as sweet as Chase and me saying not the nicest things about him, um, yeah you definitely see it and a lot of people might not understand my personality or the way that I looked at it.

"This is a game, if I feel confident I’m gonna feel confident, that’s just the way I am. Some people like it and some people don’t like it. I really hate arrogance and it’s a little upsetting that I came across that way to anybody."

Playing Survivor was a dream come true, said the former Miami Dolphins cheerleader and beauty pageant winner, who counts paddleboarding, mountain biking and swimming among her hobbies.

"I'm a competitor. I love physical things. I love playing games. I make competitions out of who can run fastest to that mailbox ... So for the ultimate game like Survivor and having to do the challenges and plus having to do alliances and all that, plus c’mon the prize is a million dollars.

"It was a no-brainer and, like I tell people, I would have done Survivor for free."

The bad part, as other castmates have complained, was the lack of sleep.

"The sleeping, it just drives you nuts. You're exhausted and then to have rain that doesn’t stop and you're freezing cold and everyone around you is miserable. The energy in the air is depressing. And that is the worst."

Still, if she got the chance she'd do it again in a heartbeat.

I learned, I saw and felt and lived the mistakes, and know what I would do a lot differently, so yeah, I would love that second chance."

Whose chances run out next? We'll have to wait another week to find out. This Wednesday's show is a recap episode with new scenes of the castaways. You can watch on Global TV at 8 p.m. I will attempt to pull some manner of blog post out of it. And don't forget you can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/realyeo

(The photo of Brenda is by Monty Brinton for CBS.) 

Dancing With the Stars: The winner is ... (spoiler alert)

If you believe in an afterlife, then maybe somewhere Patrick Swayze is smiling.

His old Dirty Dancing partner, Jennifer Grey, won Season 11 of Dancing With the Stars on Tuesday night. 

And she did it in part by harkening back to her iconic 1987 movie role, when she played "Baby" to the late Swayze's Johnny Castle. 

It was an interesting DWTS finale in more ways than one.

As the show began, we heard that Jennifer had ruptured a disc in her spine after Monday night's performances, which included an energetic, dirty dance-type freestyle routine to "Do You Love Me," one of the numbers on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.

With two more routines to do on Tuesday, there was some question whether Jennifer could go on.

"Put it this way, this might be my last two chances to ever dance on the show with Derek Hough. I think it is, so I think I better do it," Jennifer told co-host Tom Bergeron, after explaining she'd been to hospital for some magic (I'm guessing really good painkillers).

"Good for you, my dear," said Tom approvingly.

The other tension came from the polarizing presence of Bristol Palin in the top three.

Was it possible? Could she knock off Jennifer despite the latter's perfect scores on Monday?

It seemed unlikely, but so did Bristol beating Brandy for a spot in the finals.

It was a relief when Tom and Brooke Burke announced that Bristol and partner Mark Ballas were the third-place couple.

I'm not one of the haters that Bristol referenced (she said rather gracelessly on Tuesday that winning would be "like a big middle finger to all the people that hate my mom and hate me"). In fact, I was really impressed with Bristol's performance in the instant cha cha cha that was the final dance for all three couples. It was, as judge Bruno Tonioli said, her best dance of the season. But I still think Jennifer is a better dancer and deserved to win.

As an aside, did anybody else find it funny that Bristol, in describing her experience on the show, said, "I've had the time of my life," which of course is also the title of the most iconic of songs from Dirty Dancing and the one Jennifer said she couldn't dance to with anyone but Swayze.

Swayze was mentioned in the final show just as he had been in the first. For their favourite routine of the season, to be reprised on Tuesday, Jennifer and Derek chose the Viennese waltz that started it off, performed to "These Arms of Mine," another song from Dirty Dancing.

When Jennifer tackled it the first time she was in tears thinking about Swayze, who died in 2009 of pancreatic cancer, aged 57.

This time, she said, "I'm very connected to Derek and what we've gone through together, which has been a lot."

(Besides the slipped disc, there was a knee injury and the general aches and pains that come with a 50-year-old body being pushed to its limit.)

The waltz seemed even lovelier the second time around.

"There was a new wisdom in your body," judge Carrie Ann Inaba told Jennifer. "I love the way you allowed the dance to happen."

Head judge Len Goodman spoke of the "ease and elegance. It's an irresistible force. You are the complete package."

"Quality of movement, artistry, musicality, all combined to make a blissfully beautiful waltz," said Bruno.

It was three more 10's for Jennifer and Derek, to add to the matched sets they earned Monday and the week before.

Kyle Massey and Lacey Schwimmer, and Bristol and Mark chose the Argentine tango for their favourite dances.

In a by now familiar scenario, Kyle was praised for his energy and connection to the audience and got the second best scores (two 9's plus an 8 from Len). 

Bristol was praised for clean, precise dancing as usual, but Len also noted her lack of attack. "He's got the wow and you've got the how. The choice is what do you prefer."

Bruno and Carrie Ann preferred Kyle, giving Bristol 8's while Len bestowed a 9, so she was still in third place score-wise at the end of the first round.

Then there was the instant cha cha challenge where the couples had less than an hour to match cha cha choreography to a just-revealed song; all the competitors shared the same song, Pink's "Raise Your Glass."

This is where Bristol really shone, although she still didn't get the 10's she'd been chasing, just three 9's from Len, Bruno and Carrie Ann.

"Bristol, I've never seen you that good. You came out on fire," said Len.

As for Kyle, Bruno called him a powerhouse and Jennifer was "perfection."

But a final perfect score was not to be; she and Kyle, along with their partners, earned identical numbers from the judges: two 9's plus a 10 from Bruno.

Before too long, the scores became a moot point as Jennifer and Derek were handed the mirror-ball trophy, a series triple play for Derek.

Of course, this being the finale, all this season's competitors were back to dance, all except Michael Bolton, in London, England, doing a concert (which he was probably glad of) and Audrina Patridge, who was said to be ailing.

Aside from the rather classy opening number for the alumni, choreographed by Jason Gilkison of Burn the Floor fame, the performances of the returning stars were heavy on the cheesy humour that makes Dancing With the Stars simultaneously so much fun and so cringe-worthy.

David Hasselhoff, the first celeb kicked off this season, was seen reclaiming his mojo by stealing a surfboard off a young buck then running along a beach a la Baywatch before bursting onto the DWTS stage to sing the Baywatch theme, "I'm Always Here," and dance with three babes in red bathing suits.

Kurt Warner and Rick Fox played out a pretend athletic rivalry, taking to the floor to do the paso doble with partners Anna Trebunskaya and Cheryl Burke, going mano a mano at one point and bumping chests.

Colourfully costumed "funny ladies" Margaret Cho and Florence Henderson performed with partners Louis Van Amstel and Corky Ballas, with help from Dmitry and Damian, to "Copacabana."

And Jersey Shore's The Situation made fun of his image, sending up his time machine dance as a future governor of New Jersey. He finally got to show off the famous abs to proper effect, with a trio of lovelies, including partner Karina Smirnoff, tearing off his shirt to the song "I'm Too Sexy."

"He finally took his shirt off," said Brooke.

"Was it worth waiting for?" asked Tom.

"I have to see the playback," she responded.

Finally Brandy, just a week off her shocking elimination, did her "Friends" quickstep with Maks Chmerkovskiy and both looked pleased as punch about it.

And then, after what Tom said had been a record number of votes, it was all over for another season. See you next spring.

(The photo of Jennifer and Derek claiming the trophy from Tom is by Adam Larkey for ABC.)