Canadian of the Week wishes Ontarians Lorne Michaels, Rachel McAdams and Gordon Lightfoot a happy birthday!

Michaels, a Toronto native, nearly 35 years ago kicked off “Saturday Night Live,” which continues to provide the satirical tone for America, keenly reflecting the absurdity of pop culture and politics. Michaels turns 65 today.

McAdams is finding her place in Hollywood as a leading lady, with notable performances in “The Notebook” and “Wedding Crashers” in recent years. She’ll also be sharing the screen in the epic “Sherlock Holmes” movie with Robert Downey Jr., which is slated for a Christmas release. McAdams turns 31.

Lightfoot is 71 years old today. The Orillia, Ontario, native had hits with tunes such as “If You Could Read My Mind” and “Carefree Highway.”

As is customary here at COTW, here are some fun facts about the birthday bunch:

• Lorne Michaels has been married three times — first to Rosie Shuster, who served as a writer on “SNL.” (See that, Letterman?)
• McAdams made a splash in “Mean Girls,” alongside Lindsay Lohan in 2004. Talk about different paths.
• Gordon Lightfoot filed a lawsuit in 1987 against composer Michael Masser, who wrote “The Greatest Love of All,” which was made famous by Whitney Houston. Lightfoot claimed the song stole 24 bars of melody from his 1971 hit, “If You Could Read My Mind.” Lightfoot later said he really just wanted it to be clear that he hadn’t stolen the melody from Masser, who wrote “The Greatest Love of All” in 1977.
• Michaels became a U.S. citizen in 1987.
• McAdams auditioned for and narrowly lost the role of Sue Storm to Jessica Alba in “The Fantastic Four.”
• Bob Dylan calls Lightfoot one of his favorite songwriters and once said that when he heard a Lightfoot song he wished “it would last forever.”
• Michaels is rumored to have been the inspiration for two iconic characters in pop culture: Dr. Evil of the “Austin Powers” movies and Jack Donaghy of “30 Rock.” Mike Myers has denied   the Dr. Evil link, but Tina Fey admitted in 2008 that Alec Baldwin’s Donaghy is inspired by her former “SNL” boss.
• McAdams turned down the role as Bond girl Vesper Lynd in “Casino Royale.”
• Lightfoot was the celebrity captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs during the NHL’s 75th Anniversary season in 1991-92.

We mentioned “Sarah’s” appearance on “Saturday Night Live” earlier this week — and she’s such a good sport she Tweeted a link to the video that pokes some fun at Sarah’s ASPCA commercials — but she earns slightly belated Canadian of the Week honors from bringing back girl power with Lilith Fair 2010, and for kicking off a contest for local female singers across the United States to get a chance to perform on the tour.

The announcement of Lilith Fair 2010 was made on Oct. 27, but none of the acts were announced at the time, and we’re still waiting for word on who will join Sarah on stage this time around. The tour, which, the story goes, McLachlan started after being frustrated by concert promoters and radio stations that were unwilling to play two female acts back to back. She took that motivation and booked a tour with Paula Cole. The next year, Lilith Fair was born and in its three years it drew more than 1.5 million fans and raised more than $10 million for women’s charities.

The tour’s three years included artists such as Sheryl Crow, Erykah Bady, The Dixie Chicks, Missy Elliot, The Pretenders, Nelly Furtado, Jewel, Queen Latifah, Indigo Girls and McLachlan, the only artist to play every date of every year.

What do you think about Lilith Fair’s return? Which new female acts would you like to see included? Comment below!

]]> http://canadianoftheweek.com/2009/11/14/canadian-of-the-week-sarah-mac-lilith-fair-are-back/feed/ 0 http://canadianoftheweek.com/2009/11/10/did-you-see-this-eh-snl-mocks-sarah/ http://canadianoftheweek.com/2009/11/10/did-you-see-this-eh-snl-mocks-sarah/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:45:48 +0000 Victor http://canadianoftheweek.com/?p=293 With all the fanfare about Taylor Swift, Kanye West and “Twilight,” it was easy to miss a bit of Canadian representation during the recent episode of “Saturday Night Live.” But “SNL” had a bit of fun with Halifax, Nova Scotia’s own Sarah McLachlan, who “visited” the Weekend Update news segment to talk about the return of Lilith Fair but her agenda quickly turned into a chance to make a little light of her famously heart-wrenching ASPCA ads.

Check it out here…