'Brangelina' by Ian Halperin

Halperin has knocked his last two books out of the park – first with his fascinating look at the life of Cirque du Soleil creator Guy Laliberte and then with his book Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson right after that.

Brangelina is the same kind of explosive, incendiary book but as with those two previous books in particular there is a sense of balance as well. Halperin isn’t dismissive of either Brad or Angelina and acknowledges not only their accomplishments but their charitable contributions, both in terms of cash, time, and in using the power of their celebrity to help others.

But the focus of this book is on the carefully crafted and almost entirely false image the pair have created as the loving parents of a multinational brood of children who circle the globe doing the good work of the United Nations and every once in awhile step before the camera to make a film for eight figure fees.

What is very interesting in the book is how Halperin details the startling transformation in Jolie; from the troubled young woman living in the shadow of Oscar-nominated star/actor/father Jon Voight, who sought solace in wild S&M sex and self-injury, to a respected Golden Globe and Oscar-winning young actress, and on to United Nations appointed special ambassador. But what Halperin maintains is that the saintly appointed Jolie of today is just as dark, just as strange, as that young confused, rebellious woman, only now she is rich and powerful enough to create the kind of image she wishes people to see.

She has admitted many times that she pretty much always falls and love with and becomes involved with someone she works with in a film – her first marriage was to British actor Jonny Lee Miller whom she co-starred with in Hackers and her first admitted lesbian relationship was with actress Jenny Shimizu whom she co-starred in Foxfire with. However, when it came to the speculation that she and Brad Pitt have become involved during the shooting of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the spin machine took over and it was denied even though it was clearly true, which indicates that the outspoken Jolie of the past has been replaced with a new, image-conscious Jolie.

The thing that sets Ian Halperin apart in his work as a celebrity profiler is that he attacks his work with the zeal and the inquisitiveness of an investigative reporter. Halperin interviewed 900 people in research for this book and even went so far as go undercover and pose as a suicidal patient checking himself into the Stewart and Lynda Stewart Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Westwood, the same facility that Jolie was treated in, to seek some deeper inside information.

Brangelina is a real page turner, each new strange thing Halperin reveals makes you want to keep reading to find out how each of these strange facts or strange happenings connects with the Hollywood power couple as they are known today. But the book also suggests that the façade is beginning to fray around the edges and that the whole traveling circus is about to unravel – Halperin and other insiders interviewed for the book predict that the strange saga of Brangelina has about twelve to eighteen months left before it all collapses. Given Ian Halperin’s track record in predicting the outcomes in the lives of his subjects, I am sure a year from now you will be hearing about this book again.

The Fairmont Royal York - Exterior

The Fairmont Royal York played host to a number of junkets – which are studio-arranged orgies of interviews and press conferences celebrating one of their films over a three-day period. Hundreds of press people from all over the world file in to interview the stars and the directors. The big ones held here at the Royal York this year were The Informant, starring Matt Damon, the beautiful Jane Campion film Bright Star, and the riotously funny new film from British funnyman Ricky Gervais, The Invention of Lying.

So for several days as you walked through the lobby you would be apt to run into the likes of Matt Damon, director Steven Soderbergh, Jennifer Garner, Scott Bakula, Rob Lowe, and many others. In fact I rode the elevator with Rob Lowe one afternoon and as we chatted I mentioned that I was actually conceived in this hotel, he looked at me with a smile and said, “And you just never left, huh?” To which I responded, “Yeah, something like that.” During the press conference for his film The Invention of Lying, Lowe’s co-star, director and writer Ricky Gervais was the first person to arrive at the press conference for the film in the Imperial Room – Rob Lowe and Jennifer Garner were late. Gervais, as is his wont, said to the press gathering that perhaps they should all start without Lowe and Garner – then, when they do arrive everyone should look at them then point to their watches.

One evening during TIFF I ran into the fantastic Irish actor Brendan Gleeson in the lobby – he was heading out for dinner with fellow Irish lads Cillian Murphy and Colin Farrell. I mentioned that this hotel was a favorite of The Queen. Gleeson smiled and said, “Aye, you’ll have to let me know next time she is about, I’d love to meet here.”

Australian filmmaker Jane Campion (The Piano) brought here film Bright Star to the film festival and the Royal York. I spoke to her in the lobby as she waited for her star Ben Whishaw (who plays doomed poet John Keats in the film) to join her for a festival event. She mentioned that everyone in the hotel was so friendly and accommodating – I explained to her that the Royal York specializes in being good to filmmakers and mentioned some of the big films shot here – they her John Keats arrived and our conversations was cut short. That is the thing about TIFF – it is all action, all the time, if you are talking to someone, you better keep it short and talk fast because everyone is always on their way to dinner, a screening, a premiere or an interview.

And while the big stars were certainly easy to spot here there was also a lot more TIFFing going on. Any night during the festival if you were to stop by Epic for a late salad or a drink, you would see young filmmakers from all over the world huddled with distributors and press people trying to drum up interest in their films. You would see producers and actors talking about upcoming film projects both had in the works. And as the TIFF readies for its move south, when their giant new headquarters, the Lightbox on the corner of John St. and King St. opens, you can be sure that the Fairmont Royal York will be seeing more and more of the TIFF action in the coming years.

In closing, a non-TIFF bit of magic. The Saturday TIFF ended, my beautiful little daughter Isabelle was in town for a visit, she is three-years-old and loves the Royal York as well. She loves the spacious lobby and loves running wide hallways on the mezzanine floor just like Eloise does in The Plaza.

On this particular sunny Saturday Isabelle and I were playing in the lobby – she climbed the steps towards the Imperial Room and asked me what was on the other side of those ornate door. I told her we should take a look. The Imperial Room was empty and quiet, so we quietly went in for a look around. She was dazzled, as I have often been, with the chandeliers and the space and the high ceilings and the drapes. I told her that the Imperial Room was a grand hall where people come to sing and dance.

I lifted her onto the stage – that venerable stage that has graced the likes of Tony Bennett, Buddy Rich, even Marlene Dietrich. I told her she could dance if she wanted to. So my little daughter took centre stage at the Imperial Room and twirled and jumped and skipped. I took a seat at a front row table where so many dandies had sat with their dates over the last eight decades watching every major lounge act that lived during the last century. I sat there beaming with pride as beautiful little Isabelle made her stage debut on that very Imperial Room stage all alone. But was I alone in the audience? No, I think not, there were spirits presents, eighty years worth of smiles that beamed uncontrollably in that room, eighty years of applause and cheers. Was little Isabelle alone on that stage? Most certainly not, there was Peggy Lee urging her on, there was Marlene Dietrich telling her to sing out, and sing out she did – Isabelle began singing our favorite song from Cat In The Hat – “Cat, hat, in French chat chapeau, in Spanish you’re el gato in a sombrero…”

After Isabelle made her stage debut at the Fairmont Royal York’s Imperial Room we were strolling over to The Old Spaghetti Factory for spaghetti and meatballs. She looked back at the exterior of the Royal York and said, “It looks like a princess’s magical castle.” I could only respond to her by saying, “It is, Isabelle, it is.”

Royal York Hotel - The Honey Harvest

On a sunny Friday morning recently I found myself on the roof of the Royal York to join in the honey harvest. The honey from the many bee hives kept on the roof is extracted from the hives in a process I have no experience with, so had no idea what to expect.

What I witnessed was nothing short of magical. Professional beekeepers were there with a few dedicated experts volunteering in the effort, chefs from the kitchen were there, and Fairmont’s marketing genius, Melanie Coates (a serious beekeeper in her own right) was there. Everyone was decked out in white from head to toe, helmets and netting covering the head, face and neck, all sleeves and pant legs either tucked in or closed off with elastic bands, gloves covering the hands.

The process began with tin pots filled with combustibles that are set alight causing smoke to waft over the hives. This tricks the bees into thinking the hive might be on fire causing them to gorge themselves on honey and then get out of there. When this part of the process begins there is a cloud of buzzing bees flying around everywhere. When the bees all leave then the honeycombs are extracted from the hives and gathered up to be taken below to the kitchen where the next step in the process occurs.

I watched in utter fascination, not just the process but the respect that these beekeepers had for the little bees – respect that actually moved into a kind of well-justified reverence when you heard them speak of what was going on in the hives and how this all worked with a kind of natural purity that so few of us ever stop to notice anymore.

(Although I was stung by one of the bees on the neck, I did not take that personally. I knew he wasn’t after me – it was the Prada cologne I was stupidly wearing [not because it's Prada, I kind of like that stuff] that he was investigating.)

The next step in this honeybee odyssey took place in the Royal York’s kitchens on the convention floor of the hotel – endless rows of fryers and utensils and ovens and counters and activity everywhere. The honey extraction operation was set up in the back corner and what struck me as wonderful about all this was how wonderfully low tech it all was. This is a hands on activity, a loving hands on activity – wax is gently sliced from the honeycombs to allow the honey to ooze out – then the honeycombs are put in an hand cranked centrifuge where gravity pulls the honey out and allows it to drip down through the filter and into the waiting container.

Royal York Hotel - Honey Harvest moves to the Kitchen

Melanie Coates urged me to take some of the honey soaked wax from the pan and eat it in its most natural state (or with a piece of cheddar that was also on hand) – I did so and what I tasted was nothing short of divine. I was joking with Melanie that I wasn’t sure if I had the words to properly describe the taste and feel of the honey as it slide down my throat – the word “sweet” doesn’t even come close – this Royal York honey, well, this Royal York honey is what Mozart’s music tastes like.

Another thing I noticed was that while this was work and serious business for these professional beekeepers, it was also rich and rewarding fun. As the honey was being extracted everyone was smiling – the bees have magnificently done their jobs and now their human partners in the operation were doing theirs.

As I was leaving the kitchen, after grabbing one last chunk of honey-saturated wax to eat for the walk out, I noticed something that at first appeared surreal. Amidst the activity in the kitchen, the blur of organized commotion, the cooks and chefs going here and there with their sauce-spattered aprons, the room service carts being rolled around everywhere, sat a large round table that was as elegantly decked out as if it were sitting in the middle of Epic restaurant. There were people sitting around the table enjoying what looked like a very fine meal indeed. The finest in silverware and wine glasses were being raised and the talk was in hushed respectful tones even though a giant working Royal York hotel kitchen was in running on all cylinders all around them.

It turns out that this is where you come to sample various aspects of the menu if you are planning a large wedding or party or gathering here at the Royal York. You can try out the various dishes, ask as many questions as you wish and make your plans right there on the spot with the help of the Royal York event planning experts.

Later in the day I was walking back into the Royal York through the grand lobby and noticed all the people scurrying about with their tourist maps heading out to explore – or the conventioneers huddled together going over itineraries and agendas, and I smiled broadly to myself. I wish they all knew what had gone on up on the roof and in the kitchen today – it would make them all appreciate this place even more. What I remember most about the Royal York honey harvest were the smiles that everyone had while they worked. The Fairmont Royal York Hotel just seems to naturally be able to do that to people from the rooftop to the basement kitchens and all elegant spaces and areas in between – it puts a smile on your face.

Photos courtesy of the Royal York Hotel.

Author Ian Halperin

The sad fact about that otherwise stellar achievement is the fact that the Canadian press have not noticed it. The last time a Canadian book (Published by Transit Publishing in Montreal) by a Canadian author topped the New York Times Best-Seller list was 1944.

Ian Halperin is in Europe promoting the mega-successful book and he told me from Paris, “I feel like a Canadian athlete that has won a gold medal at the Olympics and no one in Canada was ever told about it in the press.”

Halperin’s book is a bestseller not just because of the convergence of events surrounding its publication (originally scheduled to be released five days after Michael Jackson’s sudden and untimely death) or because of the cryptic prediction that author Halperin made in an interview in US Magazine six months prior to his death (Halperin sadly predicted that if Jackson continued on the road he was traveling, the drugs, the sleeplessness, the tour schedule, that he would not last six months – Jackson died six months and one day after Halperin made that prediction) – it is a bestseller because it is an interesting, balanced work that people want to read.

Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson is a hit the world over, including here in Canada. Were it to have won an obscure Can-Lit prize backed by a wealthy benefactor that enjoys having prizes named after himself, Halperin’s book would be front page news of the Entertainment Sections at least – but because the book is a smash commercial success the world over, once again the Canadian press responds to that by not responding to it.

Here in Canada the word commercial seems to be treated as a dirty word – every Canadian writer or actor or musician yearns for commercial success, but when one of us earns it, the Canadian media seems almost ashamed to celebrate it.

Ian Halperin has done what every Canadian author in the country has dreamed of doing, but only he has done since 1944 – to see their name under the title of a book atop the New York Times Best-Seller list. Good for you Ian, keep up the good work – it is an inspiring achievement that we should all be proud of.

The Royal YorkHotel - Exterior

On Tuesday, August 4th the Toronto International Film Festival held the second of its annual summer press conferences in the venerable Imperial Room here at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. This particular press conference was to announce the Canadian line-up for the upcoming film festival. One of the main announcements focused on the film Chloe that will have its world premiere at this year’s TIFF. The film, an erotic thriller directed by Atom Egoyan and starring Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore was not just announced at the Royal York, it was actually partly shot here as well.

Another high profile entry at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival is the film biography of Amelia Earhardt called Amelia (starring Hilary Swank, Ewan McGregor and Richard Gere) was also shot partly here at the Royal York Hotel.

In fact a lot of films and television shows have used the Royal York Hotel as a shooting location or backdrop and there are a few clear reasons why this place is attractive to filmmakers. Ron Howard used this hotel, interior and exterior, when shooting his big budget boxing fable Cinderella Man with Russell Crowe. Howard told me on the set of the film one Sunday afternoon that he loved the hotel and was amazed that amidst all the bank towers and glass condos this hotel stood in all its authentic antique glory – which made it positively perfect for period piece recreations.

When the film Hollywoodland was being shot in the hotel (an underrated film about the mysterious death of the original TV Superman, George Reeves) I hung out with actor Ben Affleck for a while to interview him for a magazine. While we were just sitting around talking I mentioned to him that my grandparents worked here in the Royal York and I remembered my grandfather once telling me that he fell several stories and was injured while working as a window washer here.

Affleck then asked me what my grandmother did here – he asked me when the hotel was built, all the while looking around. He then said, “We have one of these great old places in Boston, on Boston Common.” Affleck is from Boston and the “one of these” he was referring to was a Fairmont hotel – I believe it is the Fairmont Copley Plaza he was referring to. The conversation then continued about the Royal York for awhile – then he was called away to be Superman again.

Besides the size, the unique configuration, the elegance and class of the place, besides the Royal York’s ability to co-star in a film set in the 1920s or the 2019s, there is one other distinct reason why filmmakers like to come here – and her name is Kolene Elliott.

Kolene Elliott’s job here at the Fairmont Royal York is to develop and cultivate relationships with film and television producers with the intention of having them bring their productions here. Kolene can often be found in Los Angeles or New York or London meeting with members of the international film community and her results speak volumes – the Fairmont Royal York Hotel has been used by everyone from Jackie Chan to Drew Barrymore to the Olsen Twins to Ben Affleck to Dustin Hoffman.

What got me thinking about this whole angle of life in this fantastic hotel was the recent DVD release of the season one of the TV series Hotel, which was based on the book by Canadian Arthur Hailey and written right here in the Royal York. Hailey, as I have detailed in a past entry, chose to fictionalize the hotel by calling it the St. Gregory Hotel and setting his 1965 novel in New Orleans instead of Toronto. Well, the series, which ran five full seasons from 1983 to 1988, switched locations again and placed their St. Gregory Hotel in San Francisco. My friend, Fairmont’s own Mike Taylor, then pointed out to me, to make the story even neater, the series Hotel was actually shot in the Fairmont San Francisco!

The series starred TV mainstays James Brolin (Josh Brolin’s father) and Connie Selleca and was a bit lighter hearted than Hailey’s book but still an interesting look at just how complex and crazy it can be running a hotel with the size and reputation of, based on Hailey’s original observations, The Royal York. The Fairmont San Francisco clearly had a lot of fun hosting the series – in 1983 when the show began shooting there they held a competition among their bartenders to come up with the perfect cocktail to celebrate the event. To this day the St. Gregory Cocktail can be ordered in the hotel’s Laurel Court Bar.

The Fairmont San Francisco is actually involved in an interesting promotion surrounding this DVD release. For the next year the hotel will show the two hour pilot series on their in room entertainment system for any guest that wishes to check it out and the DVD season one set will be available for sale at the hotel for guests that might wish a rather unique souvenir of their stay in a place that was immortalized on television.

Because of the many interviews and film and TV events I have personally conducted or been a part of here I have always associated this hotel with the magic of the movies. Now, upon reflection, it turns out that the movies find this place pretty magical as well.

Royal York Hotel - Lobby clock

As I have been looking into this over the last few months – reading about people who have done it historically speaking and speaking to those who have done it or are doing it more recently, there did seem to be a number of commonalities in both the psychology of it and the physicality of it.

One common thread seems to be the preference of living in older, more historically significant hotels as they seem to suit those that are looking to be warmly enveloped in the embrace of a hotel. Old hotels like The Royal York were designed around that feeling of warmth and comfort given to the weary traveler. The newer hotels, especially the high tech boutiquey hotels of late, are designed with something entirely different in mind – they want to be hip and cool.

I have mentioned my conversations with actors Johnny Depp and Keanu Reeves, about their decisions to live in the Château Marmont, an old, very well worn hotel (come to think of it I remember the singer Beck telling me that he lived in the Château Marmont as well). But the three people I wish to talk about here come from much different eras and traditions.

The Savoy in London, England is a venerable old hotel that was once the home of the impressionist painter Claude Monet (who died in December of 1926). Monet didn’t just live in The Savoy, he would also set up his easel by the window and paint pictures of the Thames River from the view from his suite. Not only did he prefer to live in the Savoy Hotel – his suite and the view from it actually inspired him in his artistic endeavours.

When I thought of Monet painting the view from his suite I remembered the first morning I woke up in my suite in the Royal York and saw the stone gryphon perched atop the city from the tenth floor of the hotel – that view as I laid in bed literally captivated me – I have had the view photographed (I would love the image to be the cover photo for the book) and that image actually went a long way to inspiring the tone of the book.

Royal York Hotel - The Gryphon

And take the case of the notoriously private movie goddess Greta Garbo. It might seem odd for someone so reclusive and so seemingly anti-social to pick a hotel to live in – a place that is teaming with people all the time going in and out, but she did choose it – she chose the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica. Garbo was soothed by the endless beach view from the seaside suites – so she had found a place where she could be comfortable and pampered but also be along and serene at the same time.

I have been to the Fairmont Miramar and I remember once looking out from one of the suites that faced the beach and the rolling sea – it was a sunny morning and fragrant with the rich combination of floral scents and that salty sea scent – I thought to myself ‘This is why people flock to California!’ Greta Garbo lived in the Fairmont Miramar for over four years.

Jump ahead to 2001 – in Beverly Hills. I am there to interview actor James Woods in a suite in the Raffles L’ermitage Hotel – a fantastic place that became instantly my favourite Los Angeles hotel the second I checked in. A small, non-descript hotel, the Raffles L’ermitage seems to be hiding in plain sight. Even though it is just a short walk from glam epicentre of Rodeo Drive, this hotel is quietly tucked away from traffic on Burton Way.

During my conversation with Woods, who is a remarkably intelligent, and a well-spoken man when not playing fast talking sleezeballs, our mutual love of hotels and hotel living came up and we enthusiastically talked about the Raffles L’ermitage where we were and of different hotels that we had visited and enjoyed. When I next spoke to Woods, again in the Raffles L’ermitage, in the late summer of 2003, we waxed enthusiastically about hotel living only this time Woods explained that he had actually moved into Raffles L’ermitage and was smiling broadly as he spoke of it.

“I just love it, there is something very relaxing about living in a hotel,” said Woods. “In fact you feel relaxed living in a hotel whether you consciously try to relax or not – the surroundings and knowing all that is available outside your door allows you to focus you attention on other things.” Which is essentially what attracts artists to hotel living – the removal of the minutiae of daily life, taking out the garbage, vacuuming, that sort of thing, translates into having more productive time to write or create and to focus more sharply on those endeavours.

James Woods later told me he loves hotel living so much, loves the staff and the people he sees every day, that he actually bought one of the doormen a set of golf clubs (“He’s a great guy, he walks my dog when I need him to, he is always there if I need help with something… so I bought him some golf clubs he was eyeing as a way of saying thanks and I wasn’t taking him for granted”).

The thing I too notice most about living in the Fairmont Royal York Hotel is the peace and quiet. That may sound an odd way to describe life amidst the hustle and bustle of a famous 1,000-plus room hotel, but once the suite door shuts there is a hush, a serenity that allows me to concentrate in a way that I have never known in all the years I have been writing professionally. And when I need to step away from the composition for a bit – I can always go to the window and wave and say hello to my buddy Gryphon who is always perched just outside my window.

Photos by W. Andrew Powell, 2009.

The Antarctica Challenge: A Global Warning

Filmmaker and adventure traveler Mark Terry takes us on a journey to one of the most desolate but hauntingly beautiful places on earth, Antarctica. He brings us face to face with what global warming actually looks like in one of the most delicate eco-systems on earth that virtually none of us really thinks about as being all that consequential – even though, as shown, the effects of global warming on Antarctica will have dire, if not downright cataclysmic effects on virtually every other continent on earth.

The film begins with a beautiful, but then frightening image of a rapidly melting iceberg against a deep blue sky and radiant sunshine and then goes on to explain, both with statistics and with visuals shot right there and then, how this rapid melting of ice in the region adds to the amount of fresh water in the world significantly – which can lead obviously to flooding. But there is also the weight of the additional water and the possible effects that would have on undersea faultlines which if breeched would leading to underwater earthquakes and tsunamis.

What filmmaker Terry does with this film (he wrote, directed and produced) is state facts. Yes, there are predictions on what will result from these changing conditions, but those predictions are based on what is happening there right now, before our very eyes.

Rather than go through the litany of what is stated in the film and what we can expect the results to be, I will take a look at The Antarctica Challenge as a film, and as such it is compelling and exceedingly entertaining. This is not a scientific film specifically, it is a film that engages on a number of levels. I was fascinated by the addition of the historical aspects of our relationship with Antartica right back to the explorer Shakelton who boldly ventured out to explore this unknown land by ship only to end up stranded there for over a year and a half. Not only did he survive, but every one of his crew survived as well, and having the story told by Shakelton’s grand daughter is especially compelling.

It is true of any good film or book or piece of music that if you revisit it, it shows you things you did not see upon the first viewing (bad art reveals everything all at once). With this film upon a second and a third viewing I found myself being struck by images that were both literal and telling and symbolic at the same time.

For instance one image you will not forget is of a lonely, single penguin waddling off inland to search for new shelter and food sources for his group. Some describe the act as a suicide march, while other observers take the high road and compare that little penguin to Shakelton’s trailblazing spirit saying the penguin is not trying to kill himself, but trying to save them all. And do stay with this film through the credits – after the credit roll there is an astounding additional scene that has filmmaker Mark Terry making a cameo in which he physically demonstrates the changes that have taken place in Antarctica – he removes his gear… and goes for a swim… in Antarctica!

When measured against the images from Shakelton’s voyage of discovery, the unforgiving harshness of the landscape the gradual but significant change in conditions there cannot be denied.

This film is not the wild speculation of Roland Emmerich’s Day After Tomorrow, it is not the self-absorbed political posturing of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth – The Antarctica Challenge: A Global Warning is a look at what is happening now, and tells us why we should care about this, and it does so in an accessible, watchable, sometimes beautiful way.

The Antarctica Challenge – A Global Warning screens on select dates, including August 22 at The Green Party Summer Summit in Beeton, Ontario, and between December 7 to 18 at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Visit www.polarcapproductions.com for more about the film.

Christopher Heard in the Fairmonth Royal York *

After all, I have been lucky enough to have spent time in some of the finest hotels in North America – from New York to Beverly Hills, from Miami to Maui, but still, when I am asked to name my favourite hotel, The Fairmont Royal York is always the answer I give without a breath of hesitation.

I knew my grandparents worked here and I know of the long history of interviews and events that have brought me here – but there was always more to it, something I could not readily indentify.

There had to be some other reason why, if I was heading somewhere by train and was early, I would spend the extra time reading or writing in the comfortable mezzanine lounge here in the Royal York. If I was walking somewhere close to the Royal York Hotel – I would detour so I could walk through the lobby.

So, where did that magnetic draw come from?

I pondered the question between of sips of cognac in the lounge of Epic restaurant while having a wonderful conversation with a couple of friends – one being Pete Miskimmin who works with actor Paul Gross at his production company called Whizzbang. Paul Gross and Pete Miskimmin are very familiar with the Royal York as well having shot scenes from various films and TV projects here.

I told Pete that I thought there had to be more than just the place itself – there had to be something that connected me to this place. He said that strolling through the lobby of the Royal York Hotel always reminded him of Christmas – that being here felt like a special day no matter what day you were here.

Well now, while living in the Fairmont Royal York it all became clear – in one casual remark made over breakfast the whole picture sharpened into a crystal clarity. My father Bill, my mother Marie, and my brother Sam all came to join me here in the hotel for breakfast in the York’s Kitchen restaurant (fantastic breakfast buffet – the made-to-order cheese, spinach and tomato omelette is a favourite of mine).

We were all together celebrating my birthday (July 22, for the curious among you). Over the eggs and the terrific sausages and potatoes my mother casually mentioned that I was actually conceived in this hotel, in the Royal York. I was a bit startled by the revelation, the talk and the laughter and the bustle of the buffet just vanished – the room, to me, went silent, and I turned to my father and asked him to confirm this fact – he thought for a moment and chuckled, then told me that it was a fact. My parents had spent their honeymoon in The Royal York – and the arithmetic confirms the rest of the story.

All of a sudden in that innocuous little moment over breakfast my magical connection to this hotel become clear, abundantly clear – I was made in this hotel – the Royal York is actually a part of the fabric of my being. I was overjoyed by what I had learned because that meant the book I am doing as part of this experience would be unique – uniquely unique in that the author of a book on living in the Royal York would be writing it from the place he was conceived!

One of the gifts I received over that delicious and now extraordinarily memorable York’s Kitchen breakfast was an old used bookstore copy of Arthur Hailey’s 1965 bestselling novel, Hotel. I had been searching for the book high and low ever since the Fairmont Royal York’s Melanie Coates told me about Hailey living in the hotel, like I am, when he was writing the book. I could not find a copy anywhere – I even contacted at friend at the original publisher to see if she could track down a copy without any luck.

I quickly began devouring the book – for some reason Hailey chose to fictionalize the Royal York – calling his hotel the St. George Hotel, and he changed the setting from Toronto to New Orleans for some strange reason – so Front Street became Corondelet Street in his novel.

His story is one of characters drifting in and out of the ever changing microcosm of a major old hotel – the drama and the intrigue that goes on in the suites, the halls, the offices on a daily basis.

Being a hotel lover I followed the story with great interest – and from the perspective of being an author myself and living in the hotel used as the physical reference – I found myself sitting in my comfortable suite with my feet up and smiling at the fact that I knew a thing or two about this novel that the average reader did not.

It is very cool reading a novel like Hotel, from a towering Canadian born novelist like Arthur Hailey, and reading his descriptions of the lobby ceiling I know so well, of the feel of walking the long halls, of the shape and configuration of the suites both average sized and large. And it is even cooler to think that forty four odd years after Hailey wrote his novel another Canadian author is living in the grand old Royal York Hotel to write a book on the experience – only this Canadian author has no intention of fictionalizing any part of the adventure. I don’t have to – the adventure I am living here is rich enough.

* Photo by W. Andrew Powell, July 2009.

The Royal York Hotel - Epic Restaurant

Such was confirmed for me recently on a wonderful evening that begin on the roof of the hotel and ended with a splendid dinner with the hours in between being filled with great company, great food, and lots of hotel talk.

I had been graciously invited to spend the evening and have dinner with eight visiting writers from Europe (including Spain, Belgium, and Sweden) that were here to experience the Royal York and report on the impressive dedication to green living that the hotel has committed to. The evening began on the roof of the hotel where we were greeted by Epic restaurant (the main restaurant in the Royal York) chef, Regina born Ryan Gustafson… in his herb garden.

Chef Gustafson explained to me, between sips of his fantastic white pear Bellinis, that he uses the herbs grown on the roof in his dishes (the European writers were earlier taken to the St. Lawrence Market to meet some of the local produce suppliers that The Royal York and Chef Gustafson use). From the herb garden we moved to another part of the roof where the thriving bee hives were located.

The hives were, for lack of a better word, buzzing with bee activity. These Royal York bees produce for Chef Gustafson’s dishes – to the tune of 350 pounds of honey from 2008 through now, and with the addition of three new hives that amount is likely to double through the harvest of 2009. And what wonderful honey it is – we all sampled it later at dinner – I had it straight and I had it in the wonderful home made honey ice cream. It is divine, sweet but not too sweet, and with that lovely hint of clover/lavender in the taste.

Standing at the edge of the roof with two of the writers, one from Belgium and one from Sweden, I was pointing out Toronto Island and Harbourfront from the wonderful perch we found ourselves viewing them from. Then we were distracted by the sight and sounds of two fighter jets screaming overhead (nothing serious – just a practice fly by for the opening ceremonies of the Honda Toronto Indy to be held a couple days later). The Belgian fellow never batted an eye at the jets – you see, he works just meters from NATO headquarters in Brussels so military vehicles are a common experience for him.

The Royal York Hotel - Epic Restaurant entrance

One of the interesting things about his menu is that everything from the appetizers to the main courses to the desserts focus on local cuisine and are in keeping with the committment to environmental awareness.

As we went into the private dining room that looks out on the lobby (we needed to be away from the other diners as writers tend to get rather loud and boisterous when collected together in numbers of three or more) I made sure to position myself at the table very carefully – sitting across from a writer from Madrid, Spain, a beautiful woman with the dark, dusky features of a flemenco dancer – but that was not specifically why I positioned myself thus – it was, of course so I could speak to her most enthusiatically about our shared passion… Real Madrid. And what a conversation it was! I was a fan, a supporter, but sitting across from me was the real thing – a Madrista!

As we ordered our dinners based on Chef Gustafson’s suggestions I made sure to tell the European gathering that while I have been in every hotel in town for the reason of writing or talking about them – they were all lucky enough to be in the best, the grandest hotel in the entire city – by far. Then we dug in. Personally, I had the prawns and asparagus for an appetizer then had the most delicous ribs and mashed potatoes as a main course – the meat was so well prepared that it literally just fell away from the bones upon the gentlest of urging from the fork.

The hours flew by as we enjoyed the food and the wine and the conversation – Melanie Coates, our host, was providing a running litany of facts and stories about the hotel and its rich and vivid (and still constantly unfolding) history. Including the fact that there was another Canadian writer that lived in the Royal York as a writer-in-Residence – the renowned novelist Arthur Hailey who used The Royal York as the physical reference for his hotel setting in his novel Hotel.

I chipped in with my personal stories of the people and times I have met and interviewed and experienced in this place and once again the magical quality of this hotel dawned on me – that here we were, a collection of diverse people from Canada and Europe and Scandanavia all in the Royal York – all sharing the splendor, all enjoying the comfort it provides as a common denominator. Even though dining pretty much ends at 10:00 PM at Epic – we were still sitting there enjoying the evening at 11:30. Then we parted company and headed to our respective suites.

Early the next morning as I stepped out for a coffee I ran into one of the European writers on the sidewalk outside the hotel. He asked me for some intructions on which subway line to take to the Royal Ontario Museum – then I motioned for him to look at the Royal York Hotel from our position across the street, in front of Union Station. I told the writer to look at the grandeur of the old structure as it is framed by the modern glass bank towers all around it – yes, the glass towers now dwarf the Royal York, but they in no way diminish it.

The writer from Brussels then said, “You speak of this hotel like it is your favourite place in the world.” It just might very well be, man, it just might very well be.

For more information on Epic, go to www.epicrestaurant.ca.

The Fairmont Royal York Hotel - Emblem

I have been noticing over these last few weeks that a lot of folks from Britain and Scotland like to come to the Fairmont Royal York when on vacation here. I guess there is something comforting for them here as this hotel has also been the frequent stomping grounds of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip as well (not to mention the term Royal in the name).

That is not the point I am making here, however. Yesterday in the lobby I spoke to a family from Manchester, England – mother, father, teenaged lad. We talked about the grandness of the lobby and I told them of my life-long love affair with the Royal York – but then the conversation turned to soccer – a passion I obviously shared with them. We talked animatedly about how my beloved Real Madrid has scooped their Portuguese star Christiano Ronaldo from Manchester United, not to mention both the Brazilian ace Kaka and the French sniper Karim Benzema. Our conversation was so animated that the family almost missed their tour bus!

Not three hours later, back in the lobby, I was speaking with another family staying at the Royal York for a first time visit to Canada. Again we spoke about the hotel itself and how warm and comfortable it felt to them. The father, with the colourful name Rodrigo, mentioned a phrase in Spanish that meant something like the hotel felt like returning to a comfortable nest. This family was here from Santiago, Chile. Our conversation also turned to soccer and also turned to the moves being made by Real Madrid – once again the conversation became very animated (I had an unfair advantage in that I had rehearsed this conversation earlier with the Manchester family).

The interesting thing about this is not my going on record with my love for the free-spending Spanish buccaneers Real Madrid – it is that in the course of a sunny summer afternoon in the lobby here I was able to speak to people from very diverse countries and cultures and discover we had a couple of common interests – this hotel and soccer. That is another fascinating element to hotel living – the world comes together here – literally.

Now to the memory lane story – this hotel, the Fairmont Royal York, also very literally, had a profound effect on my development as a movie critic and movie historian.

We had come here, my mother and brother and I, when I was fourteen years old for what is now called a “staycation”. We would enjoy this familiar old hotel, walk around town, go to book stores, that sort of thing. At the time the pay-per-view system of in suite movies was a bit different then – there was a menu on the television with a list of about eight different movies and the times they were playing. You used the remote to select a movie on the screen and pressed the order button – the movie would then come on – if you didn’t time it right it would come on half way through the movie – but you got to watch it over and over for the rest of the show times that day.

On this weekend I noticed that two movies I had been reading about (I already had a rather broad frame reference where movies were concerned, even at that young age) but could not see (at the time they were rated restricted, which meant if you were under 18 you were not admitted). One was Taxi Driver, the other was One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

On the Friday night I ordered up Cuckoo’s Nest and sat in rapt attention as this magnificent film unspooled – I watched it twice in a row and was effected by the power of the writing and the performances against the harshness and bleakness of the setting. The next night I watched Taxi Driver and it freaked me out. The desolation and lurking violence and dread impacted me greatly. When recently teaching a film history course in a film school it struck me that when I was telling the students about those two films, it was my initial impressions of the films from those viewings at the Royal York that were still the way I felt about them.

To conclude with a poignant incident, I had just had dinner in my suite and wanted to go for a bit of a stroll before doing some writing in the evening. I headed down to the lobby and was about to head outside when I was stopped by a young couple.

The woman asked me if I knew the way to Harbourfront – coincidentally I was heading down there for a walk myself so I told them I would walk them there the quick way. As we walked and talked it turned out that they were a young married couple from New Jersey here to relax over the July 4th weekend. She mentioned that they had not been able to share a vacation together in a long time because they had been ‘deployed’.

I asked what that meant, whether they were military or foreign service? It turned out they were both Iraq war veterans – he had been in Kirkuk for 29 months – she in Tikrit for 26 months. I was filled with questions for them on the experience, but could see they were here to get away from all that they had been through – so we walked and just talked about the city and about the Royal York… I thought it best that way.