HoundsTV was able to catch up to Clint Eastwood on his arrival into the city the day before. Leaving the private airfield, Mr Eastwood was very kind to stop and beautifully autograph this 26″ x 38″ movie poster of “Dirty Harry” [ $995.00 CAN ] – one of Clint’s most famous roles. This poster is an exact reprint of the official 1971 release poster and features the graphic artwork of legendary movie poster designer Bill Gold. This was the first in the series of iconic “Dirty” Harry Callahan movies.

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(HoundsTV – January 14, 2009) Hollywood icon Harrison Ford spent the day in Toronto doing press and for the red carpet premiere of Extraordinary Measures. Of course, this visit to the city by Indiana Jones did not go unnoticed by the autograph hounds. On arrival to the films Canadian premiere at Varsity Cinemas in Toronto, Ford exited the car to a throng of autograph hounds and memorabilia looking for signatures. Ford, known to be a very good signer, willing obliged the signature requests after a brief chat with security and explaining to the collectors how this signing will go down.

RELATED: SALE – Harrison Ford autographed Raiders of the Lost Ark album

When we first published our 2009 BEST & WORST celebrity autograph signers list and was talking about Mariah Carey with Planet Maurie on Virgin Radio 99.9 – we brought up Oprah and the Precious film cast that visited Toronto for the film festival.

We were asked a few times. What about Oprah? How does she feel about signing autographs?

It reminded us of a story from 2009 TIFF which brought Oprah and cast of Precious to Toronto for the films premiere.

Oprah’s stay in Toronto was very short lived. The mighty O arrived in Toronto late Saturday by private plane in advance of the Precious press conference and premiere on Sunday.

And yes, there were plenty of people chasing Oprah for her autograph. But the collectors chances would be few as Oprah’s press and media commitments were in the same hotel she stayed at – so except for her premiere and dinner on Saturday evening, she didn’t really go out anywhere. The few autograph collectors that fluked off running into Oprah on Saturday evening reported she was extremely nice and willingly obliged autograph requests.

But that still left a large group of collectors chasing on Sunday. After the Gala premiere of Precious, Oprah and her entourage headed straight back to her waiting private plane at the airport – with 4 cars of autograph hounds following.

Now, when cars of autograph seekers are following to the private airfields of Toronto – its no secret to the persons their following. But the seekers can only get so far. As Oprah’s car drove past the fence which is the farthest the other cars can go – a member of Oprah’s entourage got out and approached each car that followed them.

He collected the photos and various items from the collectors which they wanted Oprah to sign. He then got back into his car and drove to the plane. Ten minutes later he emerged from Oprah’s plane and brought back all the items.

Each now personally signed by Oprah.

Yes, Oprah does care about everyone – even the autograph hounds.

Bollywood star Akshay Kumar with the Olympic Torch on Yonge St. just north of Wellesley in downtown Toronto. Kumar’s Olympic torch run was delayed as protesters were blocking Yonge St.

The Bollywood star was personally invited to Canada to participate in the torch relay by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on his recent visit to India. Kumar is one of the most high-profile celebrities to carry the torch and is meant as a way to strengthen tourism ties between the two countries.

We hear the health of France’s biggest rock star is finally improving as doctors brought Johnny Hallyday out of a medically induced coma he had been in since last week.

The coma was necessary due to complications the 66 year-old Hallyday was having after a botched surgery on his back this year. Even Johnny’s good friend, French president Nicolas Sarkozy sent his well wishes.

And if your wondering if Hallyday has any fans that really care?

Seems the doctor who originally botched the surgery on Johnny was just attacked by two hooded men.

Reps for Hallyday insist they knew nothing of an attack on the doctor and blamed a “witch hunt” stirred up by French media where the status of the beloved icon has been front page news all week.

Looking for an authentic signed collectible from French icon Johnny Hallyday - click here to see a photo signed during Hallyday’s visit to this years Toronto Film Festival.

I was recently invited to an interesting DVD launch event. I was intrigued that Warner Brothers was doing this “live community screening featuring star Daniel Radcliffe” (their words) to promote the release of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on Blu-ray and DVD.

Now, the event was well put together and the couple hundred people in attendance at the Varsity cinemas seemed to enjoy the free popcorn, drinks, entertainment, and the chance to win some cool prizes.

But when it came time for the actual screening – I was very disappointed. Small text scrolling across the top screen? That’s what Warner Brothers means by “live virtual participation of star Daniel Radcliffe and Director David Yates” ?

I certainly wasn’t feeling it to be very participatory or entertaining for that matter. If you got the director and star Daniel live in London doing real-time commentary on your network – I say you got to pump some video threw those pipes!

If they are talking live in London – I want to see that on the big screen, together with the film. Since everybody at the theatre will end up buying the DVD and watching it twenty times anyway – we didn’t really need to see a full fledged theatrical presentation of the film yesterday.

Here’s a thought for Warner Brothers – find one of those DVD’s you’ve produced in the past – one that lists a “video commentary” by the cast and crew as a special feature.

Do that next time and you’ll have a cool community screening.

I can’t believe its a bandwidth thing. If YouTube can deliver a beautiful live U2 concert stream to 10 million peeps simultaneously – I think WB tech people can figure out a way to pump a video stream into the few theatres across the globe participating in the Potter event.

So after about 15 minutes of not being able to connect to the text commentary. I was out of there.

Turned out the best thing about the Potter event for me was it got me into Varsity cinemas where I noticed a screening of Up In The Air was just starting in the theatre next. Since I was waiting for my nephew who was enjoying the Potter Film (I did ask him later, he didn’t bother with a word of the text commentary either – he was just lovin’ the film.)

Me? I took a seat for the Clooney movie next door.

And what a beautiful film it was. Reitman and Co. should well be on their way to multiple Oscar nominations in the new year.

Peter Aykroyd and son Dan Aykroyd recently appeared at Indigo Books, Toronto to chat about and sign, A History of Ghosts. Dan would talk about his fathers writings on the supernatural would eventually become his inspiration for writing Ghostbusters.

HoundsTV managed to get a very few of these 1st edition hardcovers autographed by both Dan and Peter Aykroyd – they are sure to sell-out soon.

ITEM: A HISTORY OF GHOSTS First-edition hardcover BOOK signed by Dan and Peter Aykroyd (237 pages)
PRICE: $95.00 CAN + $10.00 (S&H in North America)
SIGNED: October, 2009 in Toronto

Contact us for any questions about this item and/or shipping charges outside North America. Includes Guarantee of Authenticity. Additional Terms & Policies. Satisfaction GUARANTEED. Perfect GIFT for Christmas!

An outpouring of emotion on Twitter has occurred since Torontoist first posted a story on how the iconic bar / live music venue Lee’s Palace has begun to replace it’s painted building facade which it grew famous for.

The news even reached across the pond to filmmaker Edgar Wright. Wright spent much of this year in Toronto filming the Michael Cera starring Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

Wright took to his Twitter stream today with his feelings about the loss of the Lee’s Palace building mural, but also, had news to share that it will still be seen again soon;

“Sad to hear Toronto landmark Lee’s Palace is being partly replaced by a burrito joint… For Torontonians, I can reveal that Scott Pilgrim the movie will feature the Lee’s Palace mural and a recreation of the original bar too.” – Edgar Wright, @edgarwright

We see and enjoy celebrity photography on countless news sites and magazines every day. Sometimes the behind-the-scenes stories of what goes into getting those photos can be equally as fascinating.

Here are a couple of links to a story and video of what celebrity photographers have to go through, and the lengths their celebrity subjects will go, to prevent that coveted photo.

“I would be the first one to admit there is a breed of celebrity photographers that do cross a line into invading an individuals right to privacy – and yes, I think even celebrities have privacy rights too. I personally cringe when I see shots of celebrity moms picking up their kids from school… But the filming of a period-piece movie with a Hollywood star in a public train station? Puh-lease… I’m blasting.” – Richard Budman, shot7.com