Famous Cosmos Diner back in the news with Man of Grease premiere

I must confess that when the original version of Man of Grease came out in 2000, chronicling the story of Tony Koulakis and his greasy-spoon  Cosmos diner in NDG, I never saw it. Last week Ezra Soiferman, the man behind the documentary, contacted me with news that a remastered version  will premiere next Monday, December 5 (7 p.m) at CinemaSpace at the Segal Centre on Cote St. Catherine Road. Tickets are $8 (general) and $6 (seniors). With a score by Socalled (Josh Dolgin),  this is the first time the movie is being released on DVD. It contains two hours of bonus features compiled by the film's editor and DVD  designer, Mika Goodfriend. 

Tony at the grill.

Filmmaker Soiferman takes a loving look at Tony’s one-of-a-kind eatery and its loyal patrons. I just finished watching the DVD and I must say I feel like I know Tony and his family personally. For one thing, it gave me a certain appetite for his mish mash and other amazing concoctions. Soiferman touches all of the bases in this film, showing Tony at work, home and during the return to his  his birthplace, the mythical sun–drenched Greek island of Crete, for his first vacation in 32 years.  The DVD extras include a great showing of the actual premiere of the film.

I laughed as one patron shared the news how Tony warned him that it was not healthy to eat at Cosmos three days a week. “So now I come once a week,” he said.

Even noted morning show host Terry DiMonte, who will actually be returning to Montreal from Calgary soon to reclaim his CHOM FM wakup show, makes a cameo appearance.

This piece of work has been to eight  film festivals, part of  46 TV broadcasts and was nominated for a 2001 Quebec Jutra Award for Best Documentary.  Produced by Perpetuum Productions and SODEC: Programme d’aides aux jeunes créateurs, the 50 minute piece of work was a labour of love for Soiferman who provided me with these Cosmos-related facts:

• The diner opened in 1967.
• The film covers Tony's first trip back home to Greece in 1999. He returned with his wife Erene (sadly now deceased). It was his first vacation in 32 years. 
• Tony is now retired and spends most days at home resting.
• Niki and Nikos (Tony's two eldest kids) are running the diner and cooking. They alternate days running the place and each have a different (non-family) colleague serving the food while they cook at their dad's famous grill.
• Tony's youngest son Johnny no longer works at the diner. 

As for Soiferman, he is currently directing a documentary about the history of the Herzl Family Practice Centre of the Jewish General Hospital, which will turn 100 in 2012. The film, to be narrated by former CBC anchor Dennis Trudeau, will screen in the  fall of 2012 as part of the Herzl's Centennial celebrations. The film's producers are Soiferman’s wife, Alexandra Yanofsky (formerly of NFB and CTV) and his old friend, filmmaker Christos Sourligas. Soiferman is also working with his wife on the film adaptation of a successful Concordia drama therapy play called  You Arrive  by psychoanalyst and Concordia professor Bonnie Harnden. “My wife is producing it and I'm doing cinematography,” he says. “Bonnie Harnden will direct the film. The emotionally-charged play has toured to many cities across North America and they just got a grant to turn it into a film.”

The Soifermans had a baby in 2009 and they have spent a lot of time with Lulu, now two  years and two months old, doing family things. Previously Ezra had been at the Segal Centre for three years (2007-2010), where he created and ran CinemaSpace, the boutique screening room that thrives to this day.

“I’m proud to have the Man of Grease DVD launch there,” he says. “This is the first time the film is  on DVD.  Mika and I are both really proud of it. The demand for a DVD of the film to this day was very high since Cosmos has so many devoted fans so we decided to go for it. We think Cosmos fans and fans of the film will love seeing the film again, or for the first time,and watching the over two hours of bonus features - especially the new short film on there called  Premiere Night,  which follows Tony and his late wife Erene going to the film's sold out 2000 Montreal World Film Festival premiere in a stretch limo. It's a pretty special little time capsule of the couple in their hey day.”

The only question I have is why wasn't this turned into a reality television show 11 years ago?
 

The heartwarming and offbeat film will be shown in its entirety (50 mins.) along with a preview of select bonus features. For tickets to the screening click here. DVDs will be on sale after the screening for $19.99 each including taxes, cash only. There will be a holiday–gift–friendly buy–three–get–one– free promotion.  You can buy the DVDs online starting  Saturday, December 3 at www.manofgrease.com

Watch the film's trailer here.

 

Dr. Sass and the cookie diet

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a public relations firm in New York City, asking if I would like to interview the creator of the world renowned Smart for Life Cookie Diet. My first reaction was the probable lack of a local angle, until I read the note further to discover not only did the man in question – Dr. Sasson (Sass) E. Moulavi -  grow up here, but he actually graduated with me from Wagar  High School in 1980.

Sass was indeed one of those individuals whom I completely lost contact with.  Born in Iran, his family moved to Israel when he was two and came to Montreal 11 years later. The Smart for Life Cookie Diet provides a safe and efficient way to lose weight by eating all-natural, appetite suppressing meal replacement diet cookies made without toxins and preservatives.  I reached Sass last week in Boca Raton, where he now resides.  He obtained his medical degree from the University of Toronto, holds Board Certification in Bariatric Medicine (the branch of medicine which is concerned with the treatment of obesity, as well as its causes and preventive technique) and completed the Annual Practical Approaches to the Treatment of Obesity at Harvard University. He has directed the operation of multiple Weight Loss Centers in both the United States and Canada and says his passion is “to protect our planet by keeping our food supply clean of toxins and providing healthy choices for generations.”

How did he get into the cookie diet business? “The concept was developed while I worked as an emergency room doctor in Montreal and saw the rise in heart attacks in 30 and 40 year old patients,” he explained. “I was about 30 pounds overweight.  I knew what had to be done, established Smart for Life, lost the weight and began to really grow the company while pushing for the product to contain healthy ingredients.”

Montreal presently has one Smart for Life location on Decarie Boulevard. Moulavi says new locales are  set to open in Laval and Pierrefonds next summer. He also has a book all about the cookie diet which will be published in the next few weeks. Not bad for a guy whose high school prelude book lists his ambition as  joining the Golani in the Israeli army and a  probable destination of  mission accomplished.

According to Dr Sass, what makes Smart for Life unique is that it uses mostly organic ingredients that are free of preservatives, pesticides and toxins. “Smart for Life is also a lifestyle change,” he says. “ The unique meals train you to eat multiple, small meals throughout the day. Many clients use our products as a form of maintenance, a convenient replacement for fast food, and a helpful tool for keeping weight off.

The Smart Foods (cookies, shakes, muffins and more) are designed to suppress your appetite with a unique blend of amino acids, complex carbohydrates, fiber and natural sugars.

“If you were to eat a typical lunch of a burger and soft drink, your caloric intake would equal about 800 – way too much and mostly from fat,” Dr. Sass explains. “But if you eat a Smart Cookie for lunch, not only will you eat about 100 calories, but you will also receive all of the nutrients and nowhere near the amount of fat. You will feel full longer – as if you ate more food to satisfy you. Your body will then become ‘Smart’ by releasing 200 or so calories from your fat stores. Now that is how you lose weight.

Comic Paul Morrissey is coming to town

Comedian Paul Morrissey will be in Montreal next weekend, appearing at Ernie Butler's Comedy Nest at the AMC Pepsi Forum. Here is a clip from one of his appearances on the  Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS:

Official trailer out of Julie Roberts shot Montreal movie

The official trailer for the Julia  Roberts movie Mirror, Mirror, filmed in Montreal last summer, has been released.

Have a look:

New reality show Oh My God! features Jewish atheist trying to reconnect

When Hampstead-born actor/comedian/producer TevyaHeller talks about being an atheist, he sounds almost apologetic. However, with his new reality television called Oh My  God! about to premiere on ichannel Mondays, beginning December 5 (8:30 p.m.) and more than 10 markets around the world set to air the show within six months, he won’t be able to keep this a secret.

Raised in a devout Jewish household, Heller says he lost his religious faith as a teenager.

Produced for ichannel by Toronto-based Stornoway Productions  Oh My God! follows Heller on a quest to reconnect with his own vanished faith by learning to see the world through the eyes of believers by embedding himself in the lives of young people from different Canadian faith communities – from Hindus to Muslims, Christians to Wiccans – and discovering firsthand how they experience God.

Asked why he chose ichannel, Canada’s political and social issues network, to air the show Heller told me that he had significant interest from much larger networks “but ichannel was the one which allowed me to proceed with the series exactly the way I want. In any case I believe this show is going to explode internationally.”

Here is a preview: 

Heller grew up in  Hampstead. “All of my family is Jewish,” he said, “and so were all of my friends growing up. I went to Jewish summer camp, had a year a half of bar mitzvah lessons and went to Hebrew School. I was raised in a very traditional home. Not only did my family believe in god, but they believed god was Jewish. I simply did not have exposure to any other view. The closest I got to Jewish was the caretaker at my high school.”

During his teen years Heller kept hearing his family’s wishes that he become a lawyer, doctor “or if I really wanted to push it, an engineer with an MBA. But I wanted to be a producer on the Jerry Springer Show. Needless to say, my parents were mortified that I wanted a career in show business. Well I followed a different path.”

Heller’s road to atheism was paved when he moved away from home. “I became exposed to a million different points of view,” he says. “It really kind of blew my mind and I then realized that I did not believe in any Jewish teachings.  That being said, I mean no disrespect to the religion. I remain proud of my Jewish heritage. I am a proud Jewish atheist.”

In 2007, Heller established his production company called Go to Heller TV, creating and producing a number of TV and film projects. This included the Los Angeles real estate series Real Estate Stalker, where he snooped through the homes of super rich celebrities currently on the market for sale. In 2009, he developed Famewhore: The Tevya Heller Project , which chased him around the world causing havoc.

Heller  has high hopes for Oh My God!  While this is an atheist’s eye-view of faith, he takes pains to distance himself from the militant, religion-bashing school of atheism championed by the likes of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins.

“I’m an atheist who wants God to exist,” says Heller.  “I think belief is a gift, and that people of faith are lucky. There’s such loneliness in being an atheist, because you’re not part of a community. So this show is really about an atheist’s search for a God he can believe in. It takes us deep inside communities that most of us wouldn’t otherwise have access to, and offers a pretty cool glimpse into worlds that viewers don’t often get to see.”

One of the episodes of Oh My God! has Heller embedded with an orthodox Jewish family. “They even made a bar mitzvah for me,” he says. “When I finally told the rabbi that I was an atheist, his heart was broken. This particular episode was taped eight months ago and I still get an email from him every day with an invitation to  dinner. He has not given up.”

Heller describes the show as The Simple Life meets Touched by An Angel.

For more information log on to www. ichannel .ca.

Sneak Peek of the upcoming Jerusalem IMAX movie

In this week's Suburban Newspaper I wrote a feature story on filmmaker Jake Eberts. You can access it here and by going to page 9.

Below is a sneak peek of his upcoming IMAX movie Jerusalem, which won't hit screens until 2013.

Why would Irwin Cotler step down now?

Over the years I have often shared rumours in my Suburban Newspaper column that Mount Royal Liberal Member of Parliament Irwin Cotler might step down. He has been in office for 12 years, having taken a sabbatical from the McGill Faculty of Law to run in a by-election to replace Sheila Finestone. At the start many people figured he’d be a one or two term MP. In fact,  I remember very clearly meeting him at the Cavendish Mall very early in his mandate, at which time he seemed unhappy with the constant back and forth to Ottawa.

Nonetheless, something happened to Cotler as the years went by. He really liked being an MP. A world renowned human rights activist, he saw that with a calling card as a representative from the Canadian government, even more doors opened for him. Of course his proudest moment came in 2003 when then Prime Minister Paul Martin named him Minister of Justice and Attorney General.

When  Stephen Harper and  the  Tories came to power in 2006, the rumours that Cotler would retire intensified again. He had fulfilled a dream of being in the federal cabinet. Why would he stay on as an opposition backbencher? Well, Cotler did not go anywhere. He continued to do his work and enjoyed very friendly relations with the governing Tories. In 2008 and 2011 he was back as a candidate. Even though the Liberals were reduced  to third party status last June, Cotler continues to enjoy a high profile. This past week, though, media coverage focused yet again on his future.

 On Friday  I attended a news conference at Cotler’s riding office in Côte des Neiges at which time he called into question the polling being conducted in Mount Royal by a firm tied to the ruling Conservative Party all the more confusing.

Cotler addresses riding news conference.

This firm, Campaign Research, has been identified as having representatives call constituents of Cotler to see whether they would  support the Tories in  a “pending by-election.” 

Cotler declared that he has no intention of stepping down while confirming  with me that this will be his last term in office.  That being said, the next election is not for another four years. He called the polling a potential breach of his parliamentary privilege  which “inhibits and impedes the exercise of my parliamentary functions, or indeed of any member of Parliament so targeted. For example, beyond the phone calls, emails and requests for meetings as a result of these calls, which themselves are an encumbrance, it causes confusion among the electorate. It impedes me in the discharge of my functions.”  

Cotler says he is most bothered  by the calls coming into his office from constituents asking when  a   by-election will occur. “Such questions cause damage to my reputation and credibility and would do so to any member of the House,” he said. “The insinuation, therefore, that I am abandoning my MP role here is at variance with the truth. I am saying this at the risk of sounding self-serving just to put the facts on the record, but I may have more motions on the order paper than any other member of this place. I seek to take my responsibilities as a parliamentarian very seriously, be it in committee, where now before the justice and legal affairs committee I have some 50 amendments with respect to the proposed omnibus crime bill, or in parliamentary debate, where like many other members in the House I remain an active member in take note debates, or just to use today as a case study, like other members in the House, I posed a question in question period and earlier made a statement.

“How can one correct the confusion and prejudicial damage that has been done in the minds of those who may think I am no longer their representative in Parliament or no longer discharging my duties? In short, telling my constituents that I am resigning and that there is a by-election imminently occurring is not only patently false but the clear and important point here is that it violates my privileges as a member and should be regarded by all members in this House as an unacceptable practice for this institution and its members. The particularly relevant part is that while this occurred in my riding of Mount Royal, nothing is to stop this from occurring in another riding and this practice ends up being an affront to all who serve in this place.

Cotler has asked the Speaker of the House of Commons to rule that this is a prima facie breach of privilege. He would like to see an investigation done to get to the bottom of this matter and recommend appropriate sanctions in the circumstances where appropriate.

Cotler confers with chief of staff Howard Liebman.

The by-election rumours were not, in fact, the intended focus of the news conference. Cotler regularly meets with the local community media to update them on his agenda. In this case he knocked the  Conservative government for shutting down Justice Committee work on omnibus crime bill (C-10).  He has moved 50 amendments , including those of the Quebec government. Meanwhile, he has been  retained as international legal counsel to detained and convicted Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil,  88 days into a hunger strike at the time of the news conference. A day earlier he spearheaded an all-party MP press conference in Ottawa   for Nabil and introduced a unanimously adopted resolution at the Subcommittee for International human rights.  He also pressed the government to act urgently on Iran in the wake of the UN’s IAEA report: listing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity; sanctioning the Iranian Central bank and regime officials.

Mount Royal has been a Liberal stronghold for decades and last May the Tories, with former Montreal city councillor Saulie Zajdel as their candidate, came close to an upset. Cotler earned 41.4 percent of the vote, with Zajdel grabbing 35.6 percent. Most observers agreed that if not for Cotler’s personal star power, the Grits would have lost. Zajdel recently landed a job with the federal government reporting on regional concerns for Heritage Minister James Moore. It is widely considered that in the event Cotler does step down before his term ends in four years, Zajdel would be a favourite to take the riding.

 The media turnout for the news conference extended beyond the usual community press, as local radio and television reporters came. Some of them even apologetically asked more questions about the rumours than any of the human rights matters.

If the Tories were behind this in any way, it was very poor strategy. Why do so a mere six months into the new mandate. Even if Cotler were contemplating retirement – and it was abundantly clear from our talk today he is not –at least wait a full year!  The end result of this entire exercise just makes him dig his heals in more.

With chief  of staff Howard Liebman running the show, Cotler’s office in Ottawa and here in Montreal have never been  busier. Hardly the sign of someone looking to walk off into the sunset.

Here is Cotler at his last campaign launch: