London outfit will represent all factual entertainment formats from the network, starting with The Next Great Leader

Theater impresario Garth Drabinsky is aiming to add a little sophistication to reality TV. Triple Sensation, a series he’s producing and appearing in, is aimed at finding Canadians who are talented in three areas: singing, dancing and acting.

With a pair of well-received films at TIFF this year and a number of announcements out of his new releasing shingle, Robert Lantos has re-established himself as the top buzz-maker on the Canadian film scene.

Like a phoenix arisen from the ashes, Alliance is back, and Victor is at the helm.

Bolstered by May tentpole releases including Spider-Man 3 and Shrek the Third, and a strong late-summer showing from The Simpsons Movie and The Bourne Ultimatum, the summer of 2007 was the biggest in history on both sides of the border.

NFB Cross Media Challenge

• CTV and TSN have signed former NFL quarterback and star of The Bachelor Jesse Palmer to double duty as an entertainment correspondent for CTV’s eTalk Daily and an NFL analyst for TSN.

• TSN has signed an eight-year extension for regional broadcasts of the Toronto Maple Leafs, to be seen in all but the easternmost corner of Ontario.

Private Practice or The Tudors? Back to You or Blood Ties? With the fall season underway, the networks are again pushing the latest shows from the U.S. and, sometimes, Canada. Many will fail and join the likes of Joey and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip on the ash heap of television. One or two will be a hit, delighting viewers, advertisers and accounting departments in equal measure. But which ones? And so we ask:

The concept behind short-film channel Movieola was not about the multi-platform power of the short. Au contraire. Its launch in the 2002 broadcast season actually predated the ability to deliver film over the Internet in any meaningful way. At the time, motion picture on the web was slow and clunky, and the resolution grainy.

Teens today are the first generation to watch less television and attend fewer movies than their predecessors, as they turn increasingly to their computers and handheld devices, noted participants at a New Online Portal panel, which kicked off the Toronto International Film Festival’s first day on Sept. 6.

Have you tried to make a wife happy? How about four wives? Paul Kilback, producer and director of the upcoming 4 x 60 doc Shaye, has. Kinda.