• Paul Gross and Gunless will get the red carpet treatment in Ottawa next week, where MPs will sneak preview the new comedy from Brightlight and Rhombus. The picture arrives in the capital on Tuesday, ahead of its release through Alliance, at the behest of Heritage Minister James Moore who had a hand in similar screenings for One Week and De père en flic. Gross, who plays an American outlaw faced with living in the peaceful north, is slated to attend.

• Denied! The CRTC has turned down a bid by Glassbox Television to launch a French version of its AUX TV, arguing that the would-be music channel stood to compete with the genre-protected MusiquePlus. In a dissenting report commissioner Michel Morin called the decision ‘surprising and deeply disappointing.’ An English version of AUX was okayed last year.

• An extra dollar made little difference at Lionsgate this week, as the company urged stockholders to reject the US$7-per-share offer by Carl Icahn, which followed his recent and rejected US$6. The Vancouver-based studio is rallying support for a stockholders rights plan, to be voted on May 4.

• Lisa Hemeon is now an executive producer at Alter Ego, joining the Toronto post house after stints at Magnetic North and Command Post.

• Longtime Summerhill Entertainment exec Lee Herberman is now president of Henry Less Productions (Three Chords from the Truth).

• The NFB will hand out a $15,000 development deal at Hot Docs next month, part of a new award for cross-media pitches heard at the festival’s Toronto Documentary Forum and Rendezvous activities.