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Newsstand: February 11, 2010
Illustration by Roxanne Ignatius/Torontoist.
Adam Giambrone’s (Ward 18, Davenport) collapsing mayoral campaign ended with one last, painful screw-up. Capping off an absolutely horrible week for Giambrone and his supporters, his bowing-out speech went off the rails when, after reading just over half the statement, Giambrone abruptly turned from the podium without saying whether or not he would stay in the race, and strode briskly from the room as annoyed reporters shouted questions at his back. NOW‘s cameraphone-y footage shows the confusion as media personnel dashed around trying to figure out what had happened and what to say about it. They were rescued by Giambrone’s executive assistant, Kevin Beaulieu, who returned to finish reading the prepared statement, clarifying that Giambrone was out of the race. The reason for the botched exit was, apparently, that Giambrone inadvertently went into the room holding only the first page of his two-page statement.
Many reacted to the collapse of Giambrone’s campaign by expressing their support, or at least sympathy, for the councillor. Others, though, are calling his personal troubles the signs of a man unfit for office. Some of these critics, including current mayoral front-runner George Smitherman, want Giambrone to quit his job at the TTC, too.
NOW‘s Love and Sex issue is up today, complete with think pieces on one-night stands and group sex, musings on the ethics of porn use, vibrator reviews, and the other usual suspects. As always, the most interesting content by far is what was reported by Torontonians in the magazine’s annual sex survey. Judging by those, Toronto is a great place for hipstery types to hook up at artsy locales, but is overall a pretty lousy place to be single. Asked whether Toronto was a good place to meet someone, six people came up with six different reasons why it’s not, ranging from an atmosphere of cliqueish self-consciousness to an urban and social organization that keeps people too “spread out” to meet up.
A man shot dead near Yonge and Bloor was an innocent bystander hit by a bullet fired at a bouncer outside the Brass Rail, a jury heard yesterday. John O’Keefe, 42, was killed walking home from a pub on January 12, 2008. Awet Zekarias and Edward Paredes are accused of second-degree murder; Paredes tried to plead guilty to manslaughter, but was turned down by the Crown.
A bunch of high school kids in Leaside were held up by a man and a youth carrying fake guns. Daniel Roofe, 22, and his 16-year-old accomplice, who cannot be named, face twenty-four robbery charges after their victims called the police. The best part is that the pair didn’t actually manage to steal anything.
And, finally, none were injured in the filming of a Bruce Willis movie near Keele and Sheppard, though police were called to the “scene” (oh!) by residents who mistook a staged gun battle for the real thing. In fact, it was part of a movie adaptation of the comic Red, which will star Willis, Morgan Freeman, and Helen Mirren. Pleease let Mirren have been the shooter everyone called the cops on. Now that’s news.