ollywood's golden couple, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, are spreading their respective talents around the province. Lopez is flying back and forth from Vancouver to Jennifer Lopezthe small ranching community of Ashcroft where she's filming An Unfinished Life with Robert Redford, Josh Lucas and director Lasse Hallstrom (Chocolat). Meanwhile, hubby-to-be Affleck is in Vancouver making the sci-fi film Paycheck with master action director John Woo. Lopez plays a struggling single mom in An Unfinished Life who moves in with her estranged father-in-law (Redford) to give her daughter a better life. So far, Lopez and Affleck have kept a low profile, with only a helicopter ride keeping the diva and her sweetie apart as they toil on their respective B.C. movie sets.

David Duchovny  Winnipeg-native Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) joins Toni Collette (About a Boy, Muriel's Wedding) and David Duchovny in Connie and Carla, a musical comedy about drag queens, shooting in Vancouver. Duchovny's return to our rainforest by the sea could be contentious - he spent six years in Vancouver playing Agent Mulder on The X-Files before leaving town under a cloud of controversy. Duchovny complained loudly about the rain to
producer Chris Carter and on Late Night with David Letterman. The show was eventually moved to sunny Los Angeles in 1998 to keep him happy.

  Duchovny probably won't win any popularity contests with Vancouverites should he encounter any on the street, but the movie about traveling female dinner theater singers forced to go undercover in L.A. as drag queens with the former X-Files hunk as Vardalos' love interest, sounds entertaining.

  Vancouver's trendy shopping and eatery mecca Robson Street continues to draw the stars. Cin-Cin on Robson serves up Tuscan food appreciated by Chow Yun-Fat and Martin Short who's in town making LalaWood starring Martin's alter ego Jiminy Glick and Janeane Garofalo. Eriq La Salle, pop stars Jessica Simpson, Michael Stipe, Chris Isaak and Gillian Anderson, who just likes to hang out in Vancouver, have also been spotted at the popular restaurant. Unlike her co-star Duchovny, the former X-Files actress actually likes the rain. The snazzy Blue Water Café in Yaletown is a favorite of Liv Tyler who can't get enough of its sushi and warm chocolate cake. James Caan favors the calamari and sashimi. For meat eaters, the ritzy Gotham Steakhouse and Cocktail Bar represents nirvana. Lea Thompson, Elizabeth Perkins, Tony Danza and Luke Perry are all regulars.
- Val Gregory


ook out for the NYPD! Motorists did double takes while stuck in traffic on King Street East at Jarvis Street in downtown Toronto recently. New York City police cars lined the street for the making of the Warner Bros. Television pilot 111 Gramercy Street. Toronto is playing the Big Apple again in this drama about wealthy New Yorkers and their servants. The show stars Tippi Hedren, Frank Langella, Jaleel White and Brittany Daniel.

  Legendary Sophia Loren is still a head-turner at 68. She's starring in CTV's original mini-series Lives of the Saints. The two-part, four-hour program is based on the best-selling book by Nino Ricci. Loren co-stars with Kris Kristofferson and Nick Mancuso.

  Ray Romano is spending part of his hiatus from Everybody Loves Raymond in town. He's starring in his first major motion picture, Welcome to Mooseport with veteran actor Gene Hackman. The Fox feature is directed by Donald Petrie (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days). Hackman plays a former president of the United States who decides to run for Mayor of a small town against the local hardware storeowner (Romano).

Colin Farrell  Bad boy Colin Farrell has been causing hearts to flutter while here shooting the indie pic A Home at the End of the World. He is known to frequent a Yorkville pub that women have been flocking to in hopes of catching a glimpse of the Phone Booth star. His new film is based on Michael Cunningham's first novel. Robin Wright Penn plays Farrell's love interest. Sissy Spacek also stars and producer is Tom Hulce (Amadeus).
- Elaine Loring


eature film production in Nova Scotia has been slow in recent months. However, on the television side, production has swung into high gear with several high-profile projects on the schedule.

  Earlier this spring, the television movie Martha Inc. about the life of decorating maven Martha Stewart was filmed in Halifax. Starring Cybill Shepherd, the movie aired on NBC earlier this month.

  Another television legend, Candice Bergen, was also in Nova Scotia this spring to film a television movie. She plays terrorized author Daisy Lowendahl in the CBS project, Footsteps.

  "It was such a departure from anything else I had done in the past," Bergen said in an interview on the set early in April. The actress said she enjoyed her experience in Nova Scotia. "I've loved working in Nova Scotia. I'm frustrated that it's not July or August. I have so many things that I wanted to do, like hiking, kayaking and sailing. It's a breathtaking place. I didn't really have a reference for Halifax before I came here, but I was really pleasantly surprised." Also appearing in Footsteps are Australian actor Bryan Brown (The Thornbirds, Cocktail), Bug Hall (Little Rascals) and Michael Murphy (Magnolia, Batman Returns).

  Another major television project currently filming in Nova Scotia is the CBC mini series Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion. Starring a list of Canadian actors, the project features British actor Pete Postlethwaite (The Shipping News, The Lost World: Jurassic Park) and acclaimed Canadian actor Graham Greene. The four-hour movie will air sometime later this year.
- Vernon Oickle