Zoomer Magazine October/November 2021

“He is a nihilist,” says Zoomer cover star Brian Cox of the character he plays on the hit TV show Succession. Unlike the fictional (or is he?) Logan Roy, we do not believe life is meaningless, but I, for one, can identify with a creeping sense of hopelessness. The climate crisis burns on with increasing intensity, the pandemic continues to hold life hostage and a dispiriting federal election campaign has exposed how deeply polarized our society has become. It’s a difficult time to be optimistic, so this, our annual Body, Mind and Spirit issue, has never been timelier. It’s about pushing back on despair and elevating our collective mood. It’s about providing you with new tools and ideas that will help you stay the course in leading healthier, happier and…

I SHOULD have been ashamed that I didn’t know about Viola Desmond until 2016, when she made the shortlist to be the face on Canada’s new $10 bill. Despite paying attention in Grade 10 Canadian history class, being engaged in decades of Black History months and seeking accounts of trailblazing Black Canadians to highlight as a journalist, I was unaware of the woman who fought racial segregation in a country where many don’t know that Black Canadians were barred from some public spaces. In Desmond’s case, it was the main floor of a theatre in New Glasgow, N.S., where she took a seat in 1946 to watch a psychological thriller called The Dark Mirror, because she was nearsighted and couldn’t see the screen from the Blacks-only balcony. I was flabbergasted to learn,…

CANADIAN JOURNALIST and biographer Michael Posner is back, with the newest addition to his ongoing saga about a much-loved and missed Canadian superstar. Leonard Cohen, Untold Stories: From This Broken Hill, Volume 2, naturally picks up where the first volume, The Early Years, left off. After Cohen’s formative years in Montreal and literary education at McGill University culminated in his first world tour in 1970, readers will see what success does to the struggling artist. Expect details about his complicated personal life and romantic relationships with Suzanne Elrod, the mother of his two children, as well as ex-love Marianne Ihlen, French photographer Dominique Issermann and – in a brand-new revelation – a five-year, secret affair with a previously unknown lover. It would be a very good guess, but the secret liaison…

IN NEARLY A quarter-century since her death, Diana, Princess of Wales, has never faded from public consciousness. Constant media coverage of her sons, Princes William and Harry, their wives and her grandchildren keep her memory alive, and this fall the iconic People’s Princess will be viewed through several pop-culture lenses. First up is a lighter take on her life in Diana: A True Musical Story, starring Broadway veteran Jeanna de Waal (Kinky Boots, American Idiot, Wicked). It focuses on the private side of Diana’s life and loves, and her sexy, post-separation “revenge dress” even gets its own song! After a successful workshop run in La Jolla, Calif., in 2019, the show was set to open on Broadway as theatres shuttered for COVID-19. It will make its debut on the Great White…

(AND DOWN) James Bond, with an eye patch and killer voguing skills In her new Madame X concert tour documentary, Madonna, 63, is a one-eyed, freedom-fighting secret agent. World’s greatest rock and roll souvenir, or most expensive DIY toupée? A jar of Elvis Presley’s hair, collected by his barber, was sold at an auction for US$72,500. “Who’s that lady with the camera crouched behind the breakfast buffet?” Canadian photographer Naomi Harris, 48, embeds herself at a budget hotel for seniors in Miami for her new book, Haddon Hall. Fright Club Original ghostbusters Bill Murray, 70, Dan Aykroyd, 69, and Ernie Hudson, 75, reprise their roles in the new film Ghostbusters: Afterlife, while Jamie Lee Curtis, 62, returns to face Nick Castle, 73, as slasher Michael Myers, in Halloween Kills. It’s De-Lovely Tony Bennett, 95, who…

SOPRANOS FANS are in for a treat with The Many Saints of Newark: A Sopranos Story, which is something of a mind warp, because the HBO prequel movie stars the late James Gandolfini’s real-life son and doppelgänger, Michael Gandolfini. Co-writer David Chase foreshadows his iconic TV series with a look at how the loveable goon, Tony Soprano, went from gifted student to reluctant delinquent to Mafioso protégé to mob don. After some viewers were less than satisfied with the beloved show’s finale 14 years ago, James’s untimely death of a heart attack in 2013 dashed hopes for a sequel. But 22-year-old actor Michael (in his first starring role) made the prequel possible – and irresistible, surely – to HBO producers. “It’s a profound honour to continue my dad’s legacy,” Michael humbly…