Joshua Jackson and Jamie Foxx in Vancouver

Those strolling Granville Street this past Monday evening were treated to a good old-fashioned red carpet event, to coincide with the First Season DVD release of the hit Warner Brothers Sci-Fi series, ‘Fringe’, which stars Vancouver’s Joshua Jackson.

While the local actor has appeared in over 32 films and made numerous television appearances during his career, he says that unlike many of his acting colleagues, little of that work has actually taken place at home here in Hollywood North.

“It’s weird,” Jackson tells me, “I am the last Screen Actors Guild member to work in Vancouver. I haven’t worked at home since 1997, which is so unusual because everybody has been up here. I’ve worked in Toronto maybe ten times, but this is my first time to come home.”

Described as a hybrid of ‘The X-Files’ and ‘The Twilight Zone’, ‘Fringe’ follows a Boston-based Division of the FBI that utilizes unorthodox “fringe” science and investigative methods and techniques to uncover “the pattern”; a series of unexplained occurrences around the world. Relocating to Vancouver for this, its second season, Jackson regards himself fortunate to work alongside executive producer JJ Abrams, one of Hollywood’s heaviest hitters, with a resume’ that includes ‘Lost’ and this year’s box office blockbuster, ‘Star Trek’.

“The difficulty in television is that you don’t just write the first episode,” says Jackson. “The first episode sets the stage but you have to consistently crank out good stories for who knows how many episodes. What’s good about JJ Abram, is that he works with the same group of writers and they basically have this idea factory where they just sort of pool together all their resources and come out with the new ‘Star Trek’, or with ‘Alias’, or come out with ‘Fringe’.
That gives me the confidence then to go, “OK, well I know he can do it, so do I think I’m ready to come back and take on what is a hell of a lot of work?” The script was so good and the gang was so good, the answer was “Yes” ultimately.”

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If you like stories of performers getting their big break when they least expect it, you’ll love the tale of Hannah Georgas.

The Vancouver-based indie artist was recently playing at a bar in New York City and while the venue may have been near empty, there was one particular person in attendance that liked what he had heard.

“I had somebody watching that came up to me afterwards and asked me to write a song for a Wal-Mart commercial,” says Georgas.

That song now adorns two different ads for the discount department store chain, and while some performers might reel in horror at the thought of lending their creative talents for commercial ventures, in the case of an emerging artist, there can be no better platform to be heard.

“I feel that there’s got be some way for an artist to get their music out there and why not be able to do that,” she tells me. “It’s a great way of getting exposure.”

It appears to have done its job as her fan base is quickly escalating. “The feedback has been pretty amazing. The commercial has been posted on You Tube and there have been a lot of people responding and asking who the artist is and trying to find me and people asking where they can find the song.”

With only a few lines and music required for the TV ad, Georgas is now back in the studio trying to flesh it out into a full song which will be incorporated into her first full-length album due out later this year.

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Jamie Foxx has certainly come a long way from his days as an ensemble cast member of the sketch comedy series, ‘In Living Color’.

Becoming an Academy Award-winning actor in 2005 for his performance in ‘Ray’, Foxx has since branched out as an accomplished recording artist, releasing his chart-topping CD, ‘Intuition’, that spawned the hit singles, ‘She Got Her Own’ and ‘Blame It’.

Now, the acclaimed artist takes to the stage of The River Rock Show Theatre on October 7 as part of a 50 date North American tour which began earlier this summer in Las Vegas.

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Congratulations to Christina Limmer and Anne Banks. Both were winners of the 40th Anniversary DVD ‘Woodstock: Ultimate Collector’s Edition’.

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