Aug. 15 show

Well, I'm back from my summer break and anxious to peruse Canada's #1 source for everything entertainment (God help Canada!), eTalk Daily. On this show, Tanya Kim was hosting on location in Calgary -- but instead of being somewhere interesting among the people of Calgary, she was perched on some rooftop patio looking down on the common people. Perhaps the producers were afraid of hecklers disrupting the taping. I digress. The top story, inexplicably, was a junket interview clip with Mark Wahlberg, in which freaky Zain Meghji actually managed to work in a plug for his lusty female producer. Next, Elaine "Lainey" Lui weighed in with her usual crap gossip culled from Web sites. The idiot also called Kurt Russell one of Kate Hudson's "parents" and referred to him as a "loving father." Er, Russell's her stepfather. Back to Kim, who introduced a segment on a Diesel fashion show in Calgary that, yes, she hosted. "Only our cameras can take you inside this hot show," she boasted, as if anyone cares. The segment showed Kim at the podium struggling to read a simple introduction from a script. For Christ's sake, couldn't she have said something off the top of her head? Next, a shot of someone taking a picture of Kim...okay, when will this start being about the event? Oh, there it is... we got to hear various unknown people answering questions we never got to hear. This was followed by a segment on the launch party for a song recorded in support of the fight against AIDS in Africa that was actually pretty interesting and didn't feature any eTalk egos...although we could have done without the transition sound effects. Next, a fake "throw" to Ben Mulroney in Toronto giving us an "exclusive" look inside Canadian Idol that went on way too long but probably made the 12-year-old girls who watch eTalk moist. Then we were subjected to creepy David Giammarco's junket interview with Samuel L. Jackson for Snakes on a Plane, in which he asked if it was true that the name was changed to "something else" and then switched back -- something that has been so widely reported and that any moron with Google could have told him. I'd rather fly with snakes on a plane than end up on the same flight as Giammarco. After the break, Meghji was in the eTalk studio with news about Canadian Business magazine's list of the most powerful Canadians in Hollywood. oddly, he pointed out that missing from the list were Shania Twain and Celine Dion -- neither of whom work in Hollywood. Then the clueless Meghji showed a clip of Richard Gere answering a question at a press conference and said: "He told eTalk." Gere might have answered a question from someone who works for eTalk but for goodness sake we can see he's at a bloody press conference so he actually told everyone. After earlier promising to show us the trailer for the new Trailer Park Boys movie, we got only a "preview" and a promise that we'll see the "world premiere" of the entire trailer tomorrow. Geez, can't wait. Next up was more Meghji, this time on a junket with the cast of Trust The Man. Thankfully, it was uncharacteristically light on the Meghji. After another break, we got a decent piece on a dude in Calgary who has taught celebrities how to ride horses for movies and a profile of up-and-coming singer Tomi Swick. A little substance to end the show.