News

Together at last

Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, Molson-Coors and Labatt Blue, The NHL and Stan Lee

Together at last

Illustration by Adam Cholewa

Vince Vaughn and Kyla Weber
The 39-year-old Wedding Crashers star shed his Hollywood swinger reputation by marrying a 31-year-old former Calgary realtor in Chicago in January. The couple, now expecting their first child, met through mutual friends in 2008 and quickly became fixtures at Chicago Black Hawks games before Vaughn sealed the deal with a US$125,000-ring.

The NHL and Stan Lee
The legendary creator of Spider-Man, Iron Man and X-Men, joined forces with the National Hockey League in October to form Guardian Media Entertainment LLC,  a platform for 30 “Guardians,” one for each NHL team. The project, to be unveiled in January, isn’t set in the world of hockey but “organically and authentically incorporates various NHL elements.” Climb down Spider-Man, Slapshot-Man is coming.

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir and Jónína Leósdóttir
Iceland’s 68-year-old prime minister was one of the first beneficiaries after her government legalized gay marriage this year. The world’s first openly gay prime minister quickly applied to have her 2002 civil union with her partner, Leósdóttir, a novelist and playwright, converted to full marriage status.

Hilary Duff and Mike Comrie
American singers marrying Canadian hockey players was a trend this summer: first Carrie Underwood wed Ottawa Senator Mike Fisher in June, then Duff, the 22-year-old performer who came to fame in Lizzie McGuire, got hitched to the 30-year-old former Edmonton Oiler and current free agent Comrie in a California wedding last August.

Molson-Coors and Labatt Blue
Patriotic beer drinkers were not hoisting a mug to the August news that North American Breweries, which owns the rights to sell Labatt beer in the U.S., would contract the production of several brands, including beloved Blue, to archrival Molson-Coors. Labatt beer sold in Canada is still brewed by Labatt—at least for now.

Shoaib Malik and Sania Mirza and Ayesha Siddiqui
Malik, the 28-year-old former captain of Pakistan’s cricket team, and 24-year-old Indian tennis star Mirza promise to be a scandal factory if events leading to their April wedding in Hyderabad  are any indication: Mirza broke her engagement to a childhood friend; Malik was banned for one year from the sport for causing team infighting and was accused by Siddiqui of marrying her over the phone in 2002 (they were only engaged, he says).

Ticketmaster and Live Nation
A grand for a ticket to see AC/DC hobble across the stage in 2020? Such nutty pricing is the worry since Los Angeles-based Ticketmaster, the world’s largest ticket supplier, got the regulatory green light in January to merge with its primary competitor Live Nation, the world’s largest live-event promoter. The deal, which will create Live Nation Entertainment, has yet to be finalized.

Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem
Proving paparazzi can be eluded, the Spanish thespians married under the radar in the Bahamas this summer, and announced it to the world weeks later. The couple met filming Jamon, Jamon in 1992, and later ignited sparks in Woody Allen’s 2008 Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the film that netted the 36-year-old Cruz, now pregnant with the couple’s first child, her first Oscar.

Cirque du Soleil and Michael Jackson’s estate
For its next big spectacle, The Immortal, the celebrated Montreal-based acrobatic troupe will bring back the dead: based on the King of Pop’s music and choreography, the production, set to debut in Montreal next year, will explore Jackson’s “Inspirational Giving Tree” and promises to “unlock the secrets of his inner world.” All for a mere $57 mill.

‘Huddy’
Fans of TV’s House remain divided over “Huddy,” their nickname for the season-six romance  between Dr. Gregory House, the cantankerous medical anti-hero played by Hugh Laurie, and hospital administator Dr. Lisa Cuddy, played by Lisa Edelstein. Sexual tension has bristled between the two characters for years. But if TV history is any guide, once verbal sparring turns to googly eyes, ratings go down the tube.

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