Risk of coronavirus low in B.C. as first case emerges in Toronto: officials

Actor-director Cooper takes new approach to familiar tale

TORONTO — In his self-directed version of A Star Is Born, Bradley Cooper plays a rock star named Jackson Maine.

Note the name: it marks the character as a member of a cinematic lineage that descends all the way to 1937.

That year, the first A Star Is Born was made, with Frederick March in the role of alcoholic actor Norman Maine. The name stayed in 1954, when James Mason took over the role of an actor who first nurtures the career of Judy Garland’s up-and-coming star Vicki Lester before his drunken shenanigans threaten to derail it. By 1976, Kris Kristofferson played the role of musician John Norman Howard, a rock singer with a musical stake in the ascent of Barbra Streisand’s Esther Hoffman.

Cooper, 43, remembered the Maine name, but also brought his own vision as a first-time feature filmmaker to the new version, which opens Thursday, Oct. 4, opposite Lady Gaga after the originally designated director, Clint Eastwood, dropped out. While actors might not want to see different interpretations of a role, Cooper embraced the opportunity to see all the past iterations.

Doctor’s departure stressful for teen

Morgan Walker is a typical teen — but only because a piece of his brain the size of a deck of cards was removed four years ago.

Walker, who had seizures multiple times a day before his surgery, fears other people might not be so lucky.

That’s because his surgeon, Dr. Demitre Serletis, is leaving the province and Health Sciences Centre. Serletis will start practising at the Cleveland Clinic in the new year.

“I was kind of shocked, but I understood why,” Walker said from his home in Brandon. “The government really hasn’t been respecting doctors.”

Rural hospital shutdowns continue into fall

Summer shutdowns at some rural Manitoba hospitals have quietly extended into fall, and the uncertainty about reopening is frustrating residents.

Behind the scenes at circus spectacle Odysseo, it's the horses who hold the reins

It’s almost 4 p.m. on a particularly steamy May afternoon and Cavalia Odysseo rider Chelsea Jordan is putting on her makeup in the back corner of the very humid artistic tent.

She’s already spent some time layering on foundation, and is now into the decorative portion of the 30-minute process, placing a pair of small gems on her forehead and enhancing her naturally sharp cheekbones with some extra contouring.

“This is the messy part of the business,” she jokes as she sticks on fake lashes over an eyelid covered in earth-toned shadow.

It’s odd that makeup is considered the messy part of the day when Jordan spends the majority of her time surrounded by horses, but as with most people involved in Odysseo, the glitzy and glamorous aspects of being a member of the largest touring production in the world aren’t nearly as fun as the time she gets to spend with her four-legged cast-mates.

Defunding police ‘illogical step’: Pallister

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister says he’s open to channelling justice funding to preventive programs, but questions whether defunding police is the best approach — warning there will always be criminals taking advantage of vulnerable people.

“I think the motivation that lies in frustrations of the actions of some police services — not necessarily here in Winnipeg exclusively, but elsewhere — is justifiable and understandable, and I get it,” Pallister said Tuesday, when asked to comment on the 30,000 signatures collected for a Justice 4 Black Lives Winnipeg petition calling for the abolition of the city police.

“But then moving to defunding police is, to me, an illogical step from that one. Don’t let your frustration lose your common sense... There’s a lot of people out there in vulnerable communities who depend on the police to protect them and make sure they’re safe from the action of criminals.”

There has been a widespread call to restructure police funding in the wake of George Floyd’s death May 25 in Minneapolis.