• Actor Luke Kirby has been paired with Lindsay Lohan, and will start work next month as the love interest in her new comedy Labor Pains. The Canuck star, seen recently on the HBO series Tell Me You Love Me and in last year’s TIFF selection All Hat, starts shooting next month in L.A. The picture will be directed by Lara Shapiro, working under producers Rick Schwartz (The Departed) and Celine Rattray (The Bell Jar, Blue State). Kirby is represented by Kishwar Iqbal of the Gary Goddard Agency in Toronto and by The Gersh Agency in the U.S.

• Jennifer Picherack is now VP of distribution/sales operations for Canada at Cookie Jar Entertainment, responsible for presales, development and library sales, as well as home video and VOD deals. She will work out of the company’s Toronto offices.

• General Purpose Pictures has appointed Tiina Soomet as VP of operations, and has promoted Josie Crimi to head of production.

• Women in Film and Television-Toronto has shuffled its board of directors. Incoming are Canwest exec Gaye McDonald, Hall Webber LLP associate Kara Russell, Nordicity Group consultant Akhaji Zakiya and Madeline Ziniak of Rogers OMNI Television. They replace CBC’s Kirstine Layfield, Canwest’s Karen King and former Alliance SVP Sara Moore.

• John Hutton has been named a member of the National Film Board. Hutton has been involved in cultural industries for 35 years as an entertainer, manager, spokesperson, agent and entrepreneur, and currently works as a realtor with Reardon Construction and Development and Prudential Reardon Realty.