| Smash Hit
But for one of the worst disasters of modern times, Maria Sharapova�s life might have been so very different. Meet the new poster girl of a brave new age who was in Dubai last week. ONCE UPON A time, a pretty blonde little girl left her home and journeyed to a country far away. At an institution that had produced talent like Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and Monica Seles, she dedicated all her time and energy to the pursuit of tennis perfection. Within a few years, by the time she was in her mid-teens, the leggy blonde was the face of a dozen advertising campaigns and commercials, a new poster girl for a brave new age. Maria Sharapova was in Dubai recently, to launch the Dubai Lifestyle City and inaugurate its Wall of Fame. There was a personal angle to it as well, as the Lifestyle City had teamed up with IMG Academies to set up the first branch of the Nick Bolletieri Academy outside the United States.
Rangers must seize chance to exceed Smith's goals
RANGERS could be guaranteed European football beyond the turn of the year no matter the outcome of their own Champions League tie at the Nou Camp tonight but Walter Smith is demanding his players do not simply settle for achieving the target he set them at the start of the campaign. If Lyon defeat the currently pointless German champions VfB Stuttgart in Group E's other fixture in France tonight, the worse case scenario for Rangers will be a third-place finish in the section to parachute them into the UEFA Cup next February. .
Bobbie-Directed White Christmas Makes Toronto Debut Nov. 20
The Toronto premiere of Irving Berlin's White Christmas begins Nov. 20 at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts. A cast of Canadian and American performers will sing classic Berlin show tunes through Jan. 5, 2008. Already produced in the U.S. as a Broadway-style entertainment in major markets including Detroit, Boston, St. Paul, Los Angeles and San Francisco, the production in Toronto will boast 13 Canadians in a cast of 33. At the Sony Centre, the troupe features Canadian-born actor Graham Rowat (Broadway's LoveMusik, Dracula, Beauty and the Beast) as Bob, Kate Baldwin (Broadway's Wonderful Town) as Betty, Shannon O'Bryan (the recent New York Musical Theatre Festival run of Such Good Friends) as Judy, Tony Yazbeck (Broadway's 2006 A Chorus Line) as Phil, Canadian Nora McLellan (a Shaw and Stratford Festival veteran) as Martha and Canadian TV and film actor Barry Flatman as Gen.
ON THE RECORD: Solo Albums from Victoria Clark, Lauren Kennedy and Andréa Burns
This week, we give a listen to solo albums from three contemporary musical theatre actresses: Victoria Clark's "Fifteen Seconds of Grace," Lauren Kennedy's "Here and Now" and Andr�a Burns' "A Deeper Shade of Red." * PS Classics was established in 2000, specializing in theatre-style singers and songwriters. Through a combination of quality, dedication and luck � the latter having to do with the drastically reduced output of the corporate bigboys � the small independent label has found its way to several major cast albums in its rapidly growing catalogue, notably including Grey Gardens and recent revivals of Nine, 110 in the Shade, Assassins, Frogs and Company. Fifty-seven CDs, of many different stripes, in eight years. Now, as something of a holiday present to listeners, they have simultaneously released solo albums by not one nor two but three top-notch singing actresses.
Let the holiday movie season begin!
With the start of the holiday season, Hollywood stops holding back. Between now and year's end, studios will be unwrapping their biggest and weightiest Academy Award contenders — the movies that they hope will not only lure you away from the mall and into a theater, but that will also bring in a few Oscar statuettes to add to their cachet and prestige. Here is a list of some of the movies due for release between now and December. All dates are subject to change. WEDNESDAY "August Rush": With the aid of a mysterious stranger (Robin Williams), a musical prodigy (Freddie Highmore) seeks out the parents (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Keri Russell) who abandoned him at birth. "Enchanted": This family-friendly fantasy answers the long-burning question: What would happen if one of Walt Disney's animated sing-song princess-heroines (think Sleeping Beauty or Snow White) was suddenly plopped into modern-day, flesh-and-blood, steel-and-concrete New York City? "Hitman": Timothy Olyphant is a hired killer who goes by the name 47 — and has it tattooed on his neck, apparently so he won't forget it.
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