Love, Gilda

Written by Sabine Demosthenes

MONTREAL – I was so young when I first saw Gilda Redner on the screen and it wasn’t as one of the comedians on Saturday Night Live (SNL). Nope. It was actually while I was watching the 1982 classic film Hanky Panky with Gene Wilder on tv. It was a winter day in December 1987, like the song California Dreaming from The Mammas and The Papas.

The first thing that hit me with Gilda was the fact that I could relate to her with her sense of humor I found her to have this mix of innocence and sarcasm. With her big and beautiful smile, she could get away with anything.

For me, at 4 years old, Gilda was my favorite actress because of the one movie I saw her. I didn’t know she was unfortunately sick. In my mind, she was eternal. Two years later, I was a little bit older and I religiously watched Mary Hart on Entertainment Tonight (ET) every day. This was when I learned that Gilda had cancer. During one of the nights I watched ET with Mary Hart and John Tash, I learned that my favorite actress had passed away. She would no longer make fun-loving movies.

As the years passed and I grew up, Gilda reserved a really nice surprise for me. I knew that she was one of the first comedians on SNL. YouTube hadn’t been created yet, but thank God, they had reruns of old SNL episodes on NBC sometimes.

During those specials episodes, I met Roseanne Roseannadanna and I started to make of parodies of Roseanne at school (ok, there was a student, who I won’t name, that threw a really painful snowball at me when I did my imitation of Roseanne).

My favorite character was Emily Litella. Since I first saw Emily Litella, I was enamored. I named my Barbie dolls after her. This character was based on her real-life nanny when she was a young girl, Elizabeth Clementine Gillies. Gilda made my pre-teenage years and my teenage years a lot less painful.

Why am I writing about Gilda today?

It’s because I saw a fabulous documentary on CNN, on January 5th called Love, Gilda. It was so touching, funny and inspiring! There were things I didn’t know Gilda was struggling with early on such as her eating disorder. In her autobiography, It’s Always Something, she spoke frankly about her eating disorder struggles, the loss of her father who she loved so dearly and her illness. The documentary was directed by the talented Lisa Dapolito (a quick shoutout). It’s a real treasure, this documentary.

My favorite part was when I saw Gilda and Gene’s dog coming to wake her upon her hospital bed. Gene was right next to her and you could feel the love they all had for one another (including their nice dog whose name I forgot).

She finally met her prince charming.

If you are searching for a bittersweet and well-done documentary, I strongly suggest grabbing a box of tissues and watching Love, Gilda.

I would like to end this post with what Lisa D’Apolito is hoping for us, the audience, to capture during this beautiful documentary:

The film is made up of Gilda’s voice narrating her story, her performances that give insight into her life, interviews with her friends, interviews with contemporary comedians about how she inspired them and her ‘inner’ voice as written her journals.

My hope with Love, Gilda is that the audience will go on their own journey with Gilda and that people who love her, discover more about her and people who have never heard of her, are inspired by her story and grow to love her too.

Lisa D’Apolito

We do love you Gilda.

https://www.lovegilda.com

It’s time to bring back George Magazine

Written by Sabine Demosthenes

MONTREAL – During the holidays, I was chilling with my furry son Bily and for the first time, I spent the majority of the holidays in front of the tv with my blanket watching a lot of CNN and I will admit I watch a lot of 90’s Days Fiancé on TLC but that’s another story for a different time.

Since maybe 2001, at the back of my mind, I was always it would so amazing to bring back George Magazine that was created by John Kennedy (Jr) and if I could find like a lot of millions and a publisher (I was 21 at the time and full of naivety and full of dreams), we could continue his legacy, especially in 2001 when, our world change forever.

That fateful Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, the world change once again, New York change. This city that John loved so much with all his heart and soul and the atrocities that happen in Washington, in Pennsylvania, in a way, I wished he was still around to see how resilient the New Yorkers were, just like him. I wished we could read his editorial about September 11th and the aftermath of this awful day like the Irak War. I wished we could witness an interview with Barack Obama talking about politics, music, basketball and his dream for the future. At the same time, it would have been cool to read an interview with John McCain and Joe Biden around a beer and a ping pong battle.

George Magazine was way ahead his time. We are always talking about John involvement but George was a clearly more than one man army. It’s was a team everyone at their headquarter had a big part in it. It was teamwork and John as the captain was the leader of this ‘‘avant-garde” boat. The dream team like the 92’s U.S Basketball Team at the Olympic. John, RoseMarie and Matt were different but so alike. With the help of all the collaborators and everyone at George, they manage to create something special that I don’t think the world at this time was ready.

I was 13 years old when George Magazine was released. I wasn’t a very political teenager but I always like History and I was pretty neutral with my thoughts about politics. But I was already in love with Pop Culture. I was eating Pop Culture like I was eating every morning by Cheerio’s cereal with a passion. When I saw the first cover of George Magazine with Cindy Crawford in it, I was like ok the person being this cover is a total genius. I asked my mom to go to the mall so I could see the magazine at a drugstore and read the magazine. I didn’t have enough money (I spend it on another Barbie’s doll at 13… Don’t judge) to buy it and my mom said to me she couldn’t buy the magazine for me since she needs to focus on the grocery and money was a little bit short during that period of time but she promise me, she will try her best to buy me another issue of George when things will be easier moneywise for us. I was disappointed but I understood. And then, I realize I do have a plan. I will go to the library (my favorite place on earth) and I will read George there for free. I told my plan to my mom and she smiles and told me she will still do her best to buy me at least one copy of George.

I was so hooked on George like it was sugar. I told myself when I will be older during school breaks (high schools, college, university), I could work at George by doing photocopies, bringing coffee to the whole team, sharpening their pencils and other kinds of stuff like it. I just didn’t realize I would have needed a working visa in the U.S since I’m from Canada. Oh well, it was my little fantasy when I was thirteen.

In 2017, a part of this fantasy was made possible when I created The Chronicle Blog. The main focus of The Chronicle Blog is to bring up in the same plateforme pop culture, music, sports, social causes and a little bit of politics in the most neutral way with a touch of humor. I told to myself everyone of us can keep the legacy of George Magazine alive in our way.

John had a dream called George Magazine. He made us seeing politics in a different lights. He had collaborators such as Ann Coulter that have a different views about Politics as John that brought something different. And the most important aspect is that we saw that it’s okay to have different opinions but let’s make it work in the most respectful ways, it could work it out. Something that is lacking right now in our society.

“People often tell me I could be a great man. I’d rather be a good man” – John Kennedy Jr

Let’s all be good people especially right now.

Let’s all in our own way continue the legacy of George Magazine.

I promise you I will keep doing it.

Just watch me.

You still got it Ray Rougeau

Dans la vie, on a parfois la chance de rencontrer un de nos héros d’enfance qui nous a fait croire que tout était possible. Souvent, cette rencontre se passe plus tard dans notre vie d’adulte et nous avons toujours cette crainte si cet héros serait aussi inspirant et gentil.

Lors de ma rencontre avec le légendaire Raymond Rougeau, je peux vous confirmer que le héros que je pensais qu’il était quand j’étais toute petite a une intégrité hors-pair, une générosité incroyable et il est un vrai de vrai ”gentleman”. Son authenticité est contagieuse et vous allez le ressentir lors de cette entrevue qui fut si magique.

Encore en 2018, Raymond Rougeau continue à nous éblouir.

Je vous laisse savourer ce beau moment:

Le Miracle du 16 décembre des Steelers de Pittsburgh

Votre duo préféré est encore au rendez-vous.

L’autre Donald se défoule encore une fois dans les Fous Éduqués.

Est-ce que vous êtes prêts?

The Myth of Being a Nice Girl with Fran Hauser

MONTREAL – Being a nice person is not a sign of weakness in the workplace. Not anymore.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to have a nice chat with one of the coolest woman in the world. No, I’m not exaggerating.

Fran Hauser is a long-time media executive (dream goal of mine), a startup investor and a best-selling author (second dream goal of mine haha) of my bible The Myth of The Nice Girl. Yep, she is preaching us that it is okay to be a nice and strong person at the same time.

During her career, she navigated in some of the biggest senior positions at some of the world’s largest digital media companies such as PEOPLE, In Style (omg), Entertainment Weekly and AOL.

Here’s my interview with the fabulous Fran Hauser coming at you:

Thank you for my Fairy Media Godmother for being an inspiration!

The Myth of a Nice Girl Book on Amazon – Fran Hauser

http://www.franhauser.com

A Big Moment for Nadia Murad

Written by Sabine Demosthenes

MONTREAL – ” Mother, mother… There’s too many of you crying. Father, father… there’s too many of you dying. We must find a way to bring some living here today.”

Those are the timeless lyrics from the song “What’s Going On” from one of the greatest artists of all time, The Great Marvin Gaye. These lyrics are sadly still, true in 2018.

When Nadia Murad received her Nobel Prize earlier this week and I saw her sweet, pensive face, this song came to mind. I felt so sad for her and all the Yazidis who were victims in this silent genocide. They lost their mothers, their fathers, their sisters, their brothers, and their world. I wish Nadia’s whole family could have been in Oslo, beaming with pride over their baby girl. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the case. However, one the most beautiful things in life, even when life throws you a curveball, friends can become your family. In the audience at the ceremony, Nadia’s friend and attorney, Amal Clooney and her fiancé were there.

Nadia is fighting pretty hard with the help of Amal and many more to bring ISIS to justice. In the meantime, victims all around the world are living in fear because of the acts of hate and violence against their families and friends who are no longer with us.

The fact that in 2018 we are still saying, even singing, “What’s Going On”, it’s pretty alarming.

When women are still sexually assaulted and beaten to death in 2018, What’s Going On?

When fathers, brothers, uncles, friends have been killed because they wanted to protect their family in a pacific way, What’s Going On?

When people of different faiths are being killed for pacifically preaching love, What’s Going On?

When journalists are being tortured, blackmailed and killed for writing about these atrocities, What’s Going On?

What’s Going On?

https://www.yazda.org

Les Fous Éduqués parlent du film Creed II

Nous avons attendu si longtemps pour voir ce film. Notre critique est digne de fan des films de Rocky. Bien entendu, votre duo préféré mettra leur touche d’humour et de leur chimie fraternelle.

Bonne écoute! Sortez votre popcorn.

P.S. J’ai pleuré à quelques reprises durant le film. Apollo!!!! Je veux dire Adonis! Enfin, same thing!