The 2012 Leo Awards took place Friday & Saturday May 25th & 26th at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.
This was the 2nd consecutive year the historic Hotel Van housed the awards. Last year, they had the red carpet out on the very busy Georgia Street. While this was great for publicity for the awards, it was a major safety concern as traffic tends to zip by on there & there was several (including myself) instances last year of people needing to step out onto the street to walk by, thus risking their lives somewhat. The red carpet dominated about 4/5 of the sidewalk. This year, they went with a safer approach, which was too far in the other direction. They had the red carpet upstairs in a ballroom, 2 floors up... and while the public was allowed to wait around the check in counter outside the red carpet area, they were not allowed in this time to wait on the red carpet.....meaning, the ONLY red carpet pics this year, will be the very limited number that the very few reporters & bloggers who were accredited opt to put out there. This is IMHO a disservice to the nominees who often would appreciate any free press they can get, and the awards themselves. For an event that has always been a very fan friendly event (even when those fans were protesting a show being cancelled, as was the case in 2007 with CBC series jPod), this was a small smudge on their image. Next year, I suspect they will need to work on a new design for how to have things. Even several of the nominees & presenters we chatted with seemed VERY dismayed and shocked at this turn of events. The limited access this year however didnt stop the "in the know" people of the city, who figured out where we could go & made good of what we were given. When I got to the hotel, my friends from www.outlaw-hobbies.com told me the bad news & worse, 1 of my top 10 names that I wanted to get, was already in, Ben Cotton. I became a huge fan of the adult themed puppet mockumentary "Sunflower Hour" this past year when I saw it at the Vancouver International Film Festival. So I made a couple cast images to get signed, since most of them were expected to be there. But I had already missed Ben. I was then given the news "you can go upstairs, you just cant go inside... maybe he's hanging around up there" so I went up, didnt see him though. I returned to the lobby, JUST IN TIME to see the next celeb roll in. "Sanctuary" star (Winner - Best Lead Male in a Feature Length Film) Ryan Robbins was coming in. We got Ryans attention & he proceeded to sign for us, and enthusiastically talk about his other project "Falling Skies" & he was asked about if he was going to be on AMC's "Hell On Wheels" & he wasnt sure if he could talk about it much but said yes. He was terrific as always, and quite candid & open as he told us about a pretty serious accident he had on the set of Sanctuary this past year that left him not doing well for a couple weeks. After that we went back upstairs to see who we missed as several people seemed to come in. I 1st managed to get another "Sunflower Hour" star (winner - Best Supporting Actress in a Feature Length Film) Johannah Newmarch. Upon seeing my cast item I was working on, she went inside & found Ben Cotton for me. Ben signed and chatted about the movie & how much fun it was to do. I asked him if he had any other projects on the go, and he told me not currently... so dear god, SOMEONE, give this brilliant acting specimen a regular gig. He was 1 of the few shining lights from Hellcats. It didnt take long before things started rolling along at a pretty frequent pace. Next up was "Vampire Diaries" star (nominee - Best Lead Actress in a Feature Length Film - Hannah's Law) Sara Canning, now a member of Vancouver shot series "Primeval New World". She signed for me & the others there, and stopped to chat a bit with a couple people. She was 1 of the bigger people I was hoping for, so it was exciting to get her out of the way early on. Then things became a scramble. I might have (some/much) of this out of order. At some point, I got "The Killing" star (nominee - Best Lead Actress in a Feature Length Film - Sisters & Brothers) Kacey Rohl. Like Johannah & Ben prior, she had just great things to say about doing the film Sunflower Hour and loved the pics I had. Around that same time, another "The Killing" & "SGU" star (nominee - Best Lead Actor in a Feature Length Film - Sunflower Hour ) came by, Patrick Gilmore. Mr. Gilmore was his usual jovial self. He willingly signed what we had and chatted with us for a bit. Sometime a little later a bunch of the cast of "Sunflower Hour" came back out & right towards where I was... seemed they were trying to help me get Ben Cotton's autograph, but I already had him. They then stopped and by this point a few other autograph collectors had made their way upstairs, and there was new people looking for autographs from the likes of Patrick Gilmore. While that was going on, I was introduced to Aaron Houston (nominee - Best Screenwriting in a Feature Length Film - Sunflower Hour) and had him also sign my cast poster photo. I then asked him when it might get a DVD release, he said "soon" and I told him I have been impatiently waiting for it, as I have wanted to see it again. He promised it should be "in the next couple of months in the States, then up here" for a DVD release, which I was a tad disappointed to hear, but long as its out SOMEWHERE, I wouldnt groan too much where I got it from at this point. One of the last people I would get was Peter New (nominee Best Supporting Actor in a feature length film) to sign my Sunflower Hour item, leaving it completed by the main cast, minus Amitai Marmorstein (who was not there). The most bizaare event of the evening, and if it were not for Robin Dunne dropping his pants on Georgia Street last year, I would suggest strangest moment in my history at the Leo Awards, Patrick Gilmore signed the stomach of 1 of the local autograph hounds after they chatted about his tattoos, which included 1 from a Harlem Globetrotter who had signed his arm & he had it tattooed over. Patrick even had Ben Cotton photograph the event while his guest/date this evening, the often entertaining in her own right, @KeepinltLeal (1/3 of the entertainingly odd "music" group "Coupla Hot Chicks...Maybe 3") stood by probably regretting getting dressed up for such an affair as she witnessed Patrick sipping champagne while signing a guys body. In typical Gilmore fashion, it became of course, a tweet of his https://twitter.com/PatrickGilmore/status/206546263917862912 in the documentation of his evening that he tweeted that evening (Seriously, if you dont follow him on twitter.... do it, more often than not, entertaining tweets) as he showed the world the adventures he was having (really, Patrick is 1 of twitters best celebrity tweeters 93.5% of the time). Only at the Leo Awards would you see a nominee for Best actor in a feature movie sign the chest of a male fan while drinking champagne & then have that said actor boast about it on twitter... this is why the Leos are 1 of my favorite events annually. As the evening went on, eventually we would nab several of the "Sanctuary" cast as they showed up for the shows big last hurrah at the awards. Outside of Ryan Robbins, we also got Christopher Heyerdahl (Winner - Best Performance in a Youths or Childrens Program - The Haunting Hour) to sign, and he said he's really enjoying working on the AMC series "Hell On Wheels". Robin Dunne (nominee - Best Actor in a Drama Series) would come by a bit later, and although he seemed rushed (he was 1 of the awards hosts as well as nominee) stopped to sign for those there. Emilie Ullerup (nominee - Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series - Arctic Air) also took the time to stop and sign (finally) which was a big relief for me, after I tried to get her at a fan expo not that long ago but was told from her she cant sign there for free, and I suggested how about the Leo Awards & she said sure if she is nominated. So in the end, it all worked out. One of the last people to show up was Amanda Tapping (nominee - Best Actress in a Drama Series) and she still had the time to stop & sign for everyone. Agam Darshi was also there, but I had nothing for her and watched as she signed for a couple other people who did have things for her. With "Hiccups" being nominated for a few awards, former "Corner Gas" stars Brent Butt & Nancy Robertson were there of course. Butt seemed a bit hesitant to sign at first, but eventually stopped and did so, while Nancy stood there for the mostpart watching her husband sign for everyone till 1 of the other hounds came up with a Hiccups photo. Shortly after, I got wedged my way by Brent (we were standing in a very crowded confined space near a wall) to go get Nancy as well. She was so amazed by my "Dead Like Me" photo I had she almost forgot to sign it. Everytime I have pulled a DLM photo on someone, they have been amazed by them. "Arctic Air" had several reps there, besides Ullerup, Carmen Moore (nominee - Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series) was asked by a few fans to sign & she did so happily, while I tracked down Stephen Lobo (nominee - Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series & Best Supporting Actor in a Feature Length Film). Sadly, Kevin McNulty, the only cast member I actually needed (on my Robson Arms cast items) wasnt there. Somehow, we never saw Pascale Hutton, even though she was apparently there. I saw "Once Upon A Time" cast members "Blue Fairy" Keegan Connor Tracy (nominee - Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series) & "Hansel" Quinn Lord (nominee - Best Actor in Short Drama Film - Last Christmas) there as well, but I had nothing for Keegan, and didnt see Quinn till it was too late. I saw "Robson Arms" & "Once Upon A Tiime" star Gabrielle Rose. I asked her for an autograph & she was willing to sign, but it was going to take me a few moments to figure out where the item was (by this point, things had been pulled out of my binder, moved, misplaced etc) and said I would get her after she checked in. UNFORTUNATELY, they sent her along the table till she was right at the door, and once out of sight, I was also out of mind, and missed my chance. I saw "The Killing" star Tyler Johnston as he was heading in & didnt have time to get him to sign the item I got for him. I saw another "The Killing" star Brandon Jay McLaren show up, but had nothing for him sadly, although I wish I had the "Tucker & Dale VS Evil" photo 1 of the others had. All in all, almost 40 autographs at this years Leo Awards made it a venture worth my time. my nearly complete Sunflower Hour poster photo (gonna have to track down Amitai Marmorstein now) being my favorite item of the evening. I will do a report on the actual winners (actors and films/shows... and maybe a couple others) soon. Here is some of the pics of the evenings successes and adventures.
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The Best "Supporting" Actor of 2011 as voted by you the fans was.. Mark Sheppard -Supernatural.
Our supporting actress & actor awards had a little different style to it than the mainstream supporting acting awards. Ours was based on appearances, not screen-time. This gave several characters who otherwise might get ignored for their roles, a chance to win for their work. The "King Of Hell" Crowley was around striking deals in 2011 & the actor portraying the sharp tongued demon, Mark Sheppard won this poll. It really is a credit to Mr. Sheppard's acting skills that he was up for 2 different acting awards, from 2 different shows. Mark dominated the voting by the time it closed with over a 100 vote lead over another Supernatural troublemaker Sebastian Roche. Michael J. Fox from "The Good Wife" rounds out the top 3. Michael Cerveris "Fringe" finished 4th ahead of castmate Kevin Corrigan in 5th. Just 1 vote behind in 6th was "Once Upon A Time" star Lee Arenberg, Will Wheaton of "Eureka" was 7th, "Best guest star" winner Michael Rosenbaum was 8th for his work in "Breaking In", Ben Cotton "Hellcats" 9th narrowly ahead of Patrick Gilmore "The Killing" rounding out the finalists in 10th This category might have had the most different finalists who had at 1 point had the lead. Besides the eventual winner, Michael J. Fox, Lee Arenberg, Michael Cerveris & Wil Wheaton all had temporary leads in this category early on. Final vote results Mark Sheppard "Supernatural" 715 Sebastian Roche "Supernatural" 576 Michael J. Fox "The Good Wife" 346 Michael Cerveris "Fringe" 275 Kevin Corrigan "Fringe" 239 Lee Arenberg "Once Upon A Time" 238 Wil Wheaton "Eureka" 214 Michael Rosenbaum "Breaking In" 157 Ben Cotton "Hellcats" 114 Patrick Gilmore "The Killing" 111 Last night was the Gala event for the 13th annual Leo Awards. The best of British Columbia's TV & movie industry gathered to hand out their top awards. This years event was held at the Hotel Vancouver, after a scheduling change prevented them from holding it at their usual place, the Westing Bayshore. With the change in venue came a few challenges.
The most notable challenge was the red carpet set up on Georgia street. In the past, at the Bayshore, the carpet was set up along a very quiet and spacious sidewalk along side the hotels convention centre. This set up was great for everyone involved, as it was spacious & well lit with natural light when it is sunny. This year however, the red carpet was set up on the sidewalk of a mains treet that dozens of people use every minute. The carpet itself took up about 2/3 of the sidewalk, leaving a slim 3-5 ft ledge for fans & onlookers, uncredited media, autograph hounds & passer bys to navigate, with a lane of a busy thoroughfare just behind them. Thankfully for the awards there was no incidents with traffic hitting any people, despite many people, myself included, occasionally using the 1st lave of the street to walk in. The cast of "Sanctuary" was the front & centre draw of the television side of the awards for the mostpart. With the loss of "Stargate Universe" this year, the gang from Sanctuary made up a lot larger portion of this years TV representation. SGU did have 1 representitive there, Jennifer Spence, a nominee for Best supporting actress in a drama, but failed to win, losing out to Lucia Walters from "Life Unexpected" in their 1 & only nomination as well. Ryan Robbins did bring home a solo award for the Sanctuary cast in the Best Supporting male category. Many of the more notable Vancouver based shows won some awards as well. Fox sci-fi hit "Fringe" lead all TV shows in wins with 3 (tied with Sanctuary) for Cinematogray, Production design & best guest actor for Michael Eklund. "Supernatural" won for best visual effect. "Smallville" won for best program in its final season. "Human Target" won for best stunt co-ordinator. Smaller shows like "Blackstone", wich won 2 awards walked away with the more notable awards for TV acting. Carmen Moore won the best actress award. The best actor went to Callum Keith Rennie from "Shattered" In the movie side of the awards, "Gunless" walked away with 4 awards including best prgraom, cinematography, production design & stunt co-ordinator. "Altitude", "Transparency" & "Fathers & Sons" won 2 awards each, the latter taking home best supporting actor Jay Brazeau. Several movies snagged 1 award each, including "Life, Above All", "Amazon Falls" which April Telek took best lead actress, "Tucker And Dale VS Evil" which Tyler Labine took best lead actor & "Repeaters" which Alexia Fast took best supporting actress for. Other notable winners were Paul McGillion for best lead actor in a short drama movie "A Fine Young Man" (which lead the way with 4 wins in that section..including best program), Shirley Broderikc for best actress in a short drama "The Closer You Get To Canada". "Mighty Jerome" won 4 awards, including best documentary program. "The Haunting Hour" won 4 awards as well in best youth or childrens program, including best show & best performance for Richard Harmon. "Hiccups" had 5 wins, including best comedy program & best performance for Nancy Robertson, that was the most of anyone at the awards. Below are some pics of the presenters, nominees & winners as they arrived for the awards. Pictured "Blood & Chrome" & "Hellcats" star Ben Cotton. "The Listener" star Lauren Lee Smith, "Robson Arms" star Gabrielle Rose, "Intelligence", "Smallville" & "Alice I Think" star Michael Eklund, "Tucker & Dale VS Evil" & "Reaper" star Tyler Labine, "The Killing" & "Tucker & Dale VS Evil" star Brandon Jay McLaren with "Whistler" & "Tucker & Dale VS Evil" star Jesse Moss, "Wolf Canyon", "Harpers Island" & "Health Nutz" star Ali Liebert, "90210" star Dustin Milligan, "Smallville" star MacKenzie Gray, "Robson Arms", "Supernatural" & "Amazon Falls" star April Telek, "Stargate Universe" & "The 4400" star Jennifer Spence with "Kingdom Hospital" star Ben Ratner, "Twilight Saga Eclipse" "Kingdom Hospital" & "Dead Like Me" star Jodelle Ferland, "Charlie St Cloud" & "Whistler" star Amanda Crew, "Sanctuary" "Stargate SGI & Atlantis" star Amanda Tapping, "Sanctuary" "Dawsons Creek" & "Dead Like Me" star Robin Dunne, "Sanctuary" & "Dan For Mayor" star Agam Darshi. So last weekend there was a wrap party for season 1 of the new CW cheerleader drama Hellcats at V Restaraunt in Yaletown. With only a few days left in their shooting schedule, this was the weekend they chose to have it on, as surely next weekend some or all of the cast may have dispersed.
Usually wrap parties see a handful of cast show up, but theres always some missing. The Hellcats cast was surprisingly full, with really only 2 notable secondary cast, Gail O'Grady (Wanda Perkins) & Gale Harold (Prof. Julian Parish). Everyone else I could think of made it. The first cast members I saw show up were Sharon Leal (Vanessa) & Craig Anderson (Morgan Pepper). Shortly after Ben Cotton (Travis Guthrie) arrived & was willing to chat for a few minutes about the show, his character & his new pilot "Battlestar Galactica Blood & Chrome". Then came the primary cast. First up was Aly Michalka (Marty Perkins) followed shortly after by Ashley Tisdale (Savannah Monroe), Robbie Jones (Lewis Flynn), as well as Heather Hemmens & Matt Barr (Alice Verdura & Dan Patch) who came together. They all showed up within a couple minutes of each other, so there wasnt a lot of chance to interact with all of them. Jeremy Wong (Dawrin) & Alana Randall (Frankie) apparently arrived at some point as well, but I didnt notice them going in. A couple hours would pass before anything would else would happen. It wasnt till a random Bronson Pelletier (Twilight Saga films) sighting walking by the restaraunt that things seemed to pick up a little. Shortly after seeing him out & about, Hellcats producer, and star of Smallville Tom Welling arrived with an entourage of 3 or 4 people which included co-star Justin Hartley. Some time would go by again before we saw another random sighting. Nickelback lead singer Chad Kroeger came to hang out with a few friends at the restaraunt downstairs from the party, Earls Restaraunt, which added to a very random night. First to leave was Ashley Tisdale, who was in a little more happy state coming out than she was going in. She signed for me, but refused to sign for my friend claiming her feet were hurting because of her shoes. I guess they didnt hurt 3 seconds before that??? More cast would slowly make their way out. Ben Cotton & Sharon Leal were next to depart (I cant remember in which order now). Then came the majority of the cast a little later, including Matt Barr & Heather Hemmens coming out together as they went in together. In between that group and the final group, Chad Kroeger came back out & joked with us as 2 of us were taking his photo asking how thats possible when theres only 1 magazine in town & then saying he hasnt seen so many cameras here since his court case for DUI a few years ago. Then, him & his friends got into a limo (wise choice for a man with a DUI on his record, good to see him planning ahead) and rode off home. It would be another 45 mins or so before the final batch would come down. Aly Michalka came out with her sister who we never saw arrive, her mom, Tom Welling, Justin Hartley & another female friend. Justin came out first to secure a taxi, and the cab driver was giving him attitude telling him he would only wait "a couple minutes to get out there". Justin went back & told the rest there was a cab there (called the cab driver a "dick" to his group..and rightfully so) only to have it taken from them after the girls insisted the taxi driver take a man who was bleeding profusely from the head to the hospital, after what can only be assumed was from some type of altercation just up the street. The cab driver was refusing to take the man, but the girls quite insisted & with 8-10 people telling him to, he begrudgingly took the man in more serious need of a ride than the rich celebs who then opted to walk home. Up the street they passed a couple men who had clearly had more than too much to drink who were threatening to throw down right in the middle of the fairly abandoned street. Tom seemed unfased by it & more fascinated to see if they were going to infact fight or not. Justin seemed to be encouraging the girls to just keep moving, as was I. Aly looked quite upset to be seeing it. At that point, I let them go on their way...or so I thought. Little did I know they would get to the next block & stop there for a few minutes, and I would again cross paths with them 1 more time before our nights finally quit crossing paths. Unfortunately, my cameras batteries were on deaths door, so I was being extra picky about taking shots & was really only shooting when I was sure I had a chance for a shot...to top it off, the flash refused to work 3 or 4 times, thus why I have no good Ashley pics, and the Tom pics are quite fuzzy & blurry.. since I had to resort to shooting him without my flash. Pics below of Ben Cotton, Matt Barr, ly Michalka, Heather Hemmens and the Loch Ness Monster, or is it Tom Welling? |
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