When you first picked up the latest issue of Playback, no doubt you noticed something new.

In a year that finds no less than three veterans vying for the best actress Oscar – Streep, Mirren and Dench – it’s only fitting that after nearly 100 television and film credits, as well as four Gemini Awards, our very own grand dame Wendy Crewson will be honored with the ACTRA Toronto award of excellence at an industry fete two nights earlier on Feb. 23.

The 27th Annual Genie Awards was a night of celebration for Charles Binamé, but he couldn’t help fretting over the state of the production industry.

It’s been nearly six years since Canucks were first exposed to the foul-mouthed, pot-smoking trio from Nova Scotia on their upstart hit TV series on Showcase, and since then, Ricky, Bubbles and Julian have successfully conquered not only the tube, but now the big screen as well.

As of Playback press time, producers and actors had not yet reached an agreement on a new Independent Production Agreement – compensation for work distributed via new media being the sticking point. With the ACTRA strike into its second month even after court-ordered arbitration, we asked various industry members, ‘How would you resolve the ACTRA/producers dispute?’

If Barbara Williams is a great mentor, she says it’s because she had some incredible teachers herself.

They are successful business executives and leaders in their field. Now they can add Canadian Women in Communications awards to their CVs.

The eighth annual KidScreen Summit was ablaze with activity, literally, as 1,367 executives from the children’s entertainment world converged in New York last week to analyze the future of the industry and, on day one, to flee an electrical fire and flood in the Sheraton Hotel & Towers.

It was no shocker that when more than 1,100 nonfiction professionals congregated at the recent Realscreen Summit that they had varying visions about their business.

* CBC has tapped Michael Claydon as commissioning editor for all docs and doc series, moving the Life and Times veteran into the job recently vacated by Jerry McIntosh.

* Magnolia Pictures (Jesus Camp) has bought the U.S. rights to Weirdsville, closing the deal with Darius Films and sales agent Shoreline Entertainment shortly after the black comedy’s turn at Slamdance. The picture remains in limbo in Canada, having been dropped by ThinkFilm.

* Denny Alexander is the new media and communications manager at Teletoon, not Telefilm Canada as stated in the Feb. 5 issue.