Monday 18 April 2016

Ricky Martin, livin’ la vida open: Singer says he would 'sleep with a woman'

OK, ladies, hold on to your panties, there’s still a chance.

Ricky Martin says he is “open to having sex with a woman.” Just don't call him bisexual.

The super sexy singer told the Mexican magazine Fama!, according to an English translation by the Latin Post, “I know that I like both men and women. I’m against sexual labels – we are simply human beings with emotional and sexual needs.”

Martin, who kicked off the Latin pop explosion in 1999 with the No. 1 hit, “Livin' la Vida Loca,” is the father of twin sons, Matteo and Valentino, born using a surrogate mother.

He was in an on-again-off-again relationship with Mexican TV host, Rebecca de Alba, for more than 14 years.

The Puerto Rican pop star, 44, broke the hearts of women around the world in 2010, when he announced publicly on his website, "I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am."

He went on to say, "These years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within, and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn't even know existed."

A year ago, Martin broke off a three-year relationship with stockbroker Carlos González Abella. He currently is rumored to be dating Spanish singer Pablo Alborán.

The Scoop on Vanessa Marcil's Return to General Hospital

Prepare for Brenda-Mania! In an unprecedented public relations blitz, ABC will bump its entire August 10 daytime suds lineup for a Vanessa Marcil (sorry, that's Vanessa Marcil Giovinazzo!) marathon featuring three of the soap superdiva's most classic General Hospital episodes. SOAPnet is already in the midst of a 25-day Brenda Barrett countdown (key Brenda moments, timelines, trivia quizzes) and will air a four-hour "Best of Brenda and Sonny" marathon August 15, including a long-unseen Ricky Martin episode. The gal herself hits GH on August 11 after a seven-year absence. What's in store for the most deliciously needy, high-maintenance crisis junkie in the history of daytime drama? GH head writer Bob Guza gave TV Guide Magazine some exclusive scoop!

Let's clarify. You were quoted at the Daytime Emmys saying you have Vanessa for two years, but since then there's been conflicting word on that. What's the deal?

Bob Guza: We have Vanessa for at least a year and she and I have talked about going longer. I don't want people to think this is some six week in-and-out. Brenda will be heavily involved with all the characters she had important relationships with, especially Sonny [Maurice Benard], Jax [Ingo Rademacher], Jason [Steve Burton] and Robin [Kimberly McCullough]. I don't want people to think this is just a Brenda-Sonny story. If there was ever a time when Sonny really needs Brenda, this would be it, but all three of her romances will be revisited.

You've told us we'll first see Brenda in Rome working with a children's charity headed by Adrienne Barbeau's character. What brings them to Port Charles?

Guza: We are going to come upon Brenda mid-crisis and, true to form, that crisis is going to disseminate across the canvas and ultimately involve everybody. Since last we saw her, Brenda has become a kind of international supermodel and she is now the celebrity face and goodwill ambassador of the ASEC Foundation, which is the Alliance to Save Exploited Children. Adrienne's character, Suzanne, is the director of the organization, and she and Brenda have become close friends. ASEC is based in Rome but they do work all over the place, including Africa, and we'll be playing off that.

Didn't Brenda hate modeling back in the day? It pushed all her emotional buttons. What's changed? 

Guza: She's sucking it up and doing it for a very good cause, but here's the real downside to this new career: Her work has given her a public face and that'll put her in severe jeopardy that will ultimately involve all our heroes in Port Charles. No surprise — Brenda will come fleeing back to town and bring her troubles with her.

What makes Suzanne tag along? 

Guza: She needs Brenda's involvement and participation and comes to Port Charles to protect her investment, but also to protect her friend. Only Suzanne understands the danger Brenda is in and the severity of the situation.

You've already revealed that crackpot Franco [James Franco] has a connection to Brenda. Is he behind this crisis?

Guza: [Long pause] Well, not exactly. There is a connection to Franco that'll affect future story, but he is not the source of her problem. But I will say this: The source of Brenda's problem is already on the canvas in a story we are currently telling.

Have the folks in Port Chuck kept up on Brenda's rise to fame?

Guza: Yes, they all know about it and we'll find out some have been keeping secret tabs on her. She's somebody who would be in People magazine — it's that level of celebrity. Working with James Franco has me very interested in dissolving the boundaries between reality and illusion and I love the idea that Vanessa is quite the celebrity in the real world and will now be playing a celebrity on our show. It's kinda neat.

Is Brenda's crisis romance related? Is she involved with someone or is she coming back to town a free agent? 

Guza: She is not romantically entangled. It's a bigger crisis than that.

There's been buzz that she somehow secretly gave birth to Sonny's child. Anything to that?

Guza: I'm not going to discount any story but, let me put it this way, Brenda is not coming on canvas with that particular baggage, okay? I'm not saying she won't leave the show with that particular baggage. She's coming with something way more explosive than that.

Okay, Mr. Cryptic, so you're saying she did not have Sonny's child yet?

Guza: I'm saying she is not coming to town with that particular baggage, got it? [Laughs] This is fun. I wish I could conduct my real life like this but my wife would probably kill me.

Yeah, something tells me Ms. Meg Bennett wouldn't put up with this crap! Guza: I'd be sleeping out in the back yard with the coyotes.
Let's get back to Brenda's many men. Sonny is certainly available right now. Jax is looking that way, too.

Guza: The timing is perfect. Even though there is an attraction that's going to build as Sonny tries to manipulate Claire [Dahlia Salem], he is not in a really strong romance right now. He's in a vulnerable and emotional place where he's caused horrible damage to those he loves and he could very much use someone who will remind him of his glory days, someone who can bring him comfort — and that's Brenda. Jax is also in an interesting place. His romance with Carly [Laura Wright] is on again, off again. But unlike Carly, who is famous for having her rebound relationships, Jax has never rebounded from a romance with anyone — so this may be a first for him. He loves Carly dearly but Brenda needs him. I'm salivating at the prospect of putting Vanessa and Laura together. I'd do a month with just the two of them, but we'd have to rebuild all the sets because there'd be nothing left standing!

The situation with Jason is more complicated. He's got a great thing going with Sam [Kelly Monaco]. Will Brenda bust that up?

Guza: Brenda and Jason were married in one of the funniest, least romantic weddings ever. They do not love each other. They do not much like each other. But he is a protector and he'll respond when she's in danger. It's a very codependent relationship. The difference now is that Jason is in a very committed, very loving relationship with Sam, so what's going to happen when Brenda is in dire straits yet again and Jason has to go run and help her? How confident is Sam of her love affair with Jason, knowing Brenda has this extraordinary allure? I love the way this whole thing is setting up. Also, don't forget that Brenda has never met some of the newer men in Port Charles, like Dante [Dominic Zamprogna] and Patrick [Jason Thompson]. Robin will be in a place with Patrick where she can really use a shoulder to cry. She will need her old pal Brenda There's great stuff to be played with all these characters. Actually, there's too much great stuff. I'm going to work Vanessa as hard as she will let me!

Seven Days, Seven Nights: Ricky Martin, Deepak Chopra and Aïda among best bets for Oct. 12 – 18

This is your last week to check out the must-see Metamorphoses: In Rodin’s Studio exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The blockbuster exhibition features almost 300 works, including original studio plasters of the masterpieces The Thinker and The Walking Man. Most fascinating and educational are the insights into life in his studio, where Rodin employed dozens of artisans. Normally closed on Mondays, the MMFA has extended its hours this week: Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. except Wednesday and Thursday when the MMFA will open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The exhibition runs to Oct. 18. Admission: $10 to $20, free for kids 12 and under. Advance tickets highly recommended. Call 514-285-2000 or visit mbam.

Tuesday, Oct. 13

The 44th annual Festival du nouveau cinéma continues this week with daily screenings of filmmaker and multimedia artist Richard Kerr’s Demi Monde, a “fresco” of images from Hollywood films headed for the dump that Kerr digitized into a series of long-dissolving sequences that celebrate film, cinema and life. Screenings of the 300-minute film begin at 6 p.m. in the Agora du Coeur des Sciences at UQAM (175 President-Kennedy Ave.). Free admission. Meanwhile, Rolling Stones fans should not miss the rarely-screened documentary Cocksucker Blues directed by Robert Frank, chronicling the Stones’s 1972 American tour (Oct. 16 at 9 p.m.); the band kept the doc out of circulation for decades, reportedly because of the film’s orgy scenes (including one on a plane) and depiction of backstage drug use. The FNC runs to Oct. 18 at various venues. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 1-866-908-9090 or visit nouveaucinema.


Must-see concert of the week: Red-hot American soul, R&B, jazz and blues singer Andra Day headlines her first-ever Montreal show at Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent Blvd.) at 8:30 p.m. Admission: $15 advance, $17 day of. Tickets via evenko.

Wednesday, Oct. 14

Puerto Rican pop superstar Ricky Martin always put on a dynamic live show and headlines the Bell Centre at 8 p.m. Opening act: Wisin. Tickets: $79 to $117; call 514-790-2525 or visit evenko.

Thursday, Oct. 15

The play State of Denial, written by Rahul Varma and directed by Liz Valdez, continues at the Segal Centre Studio (5170 Côte-Ste-Catherine Rd.): Set in contemporary Canada and Turkey in 1915, State of Denial links the Armenian genocide of 1915 with the 1994-95 genocide in Rwanda when a Rwandan-born Canadian filmmaker travels to Turkey to investigate stories of genocide and hidden identity. State of Denial runs to Oct. 25. Admission: $18 to $26. For tickets, call 514-739-7944 or visit segalcentre.

Another play of note opens tonight: Persephone Productions remounts playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s acclaimed play Compleat Female Stage Beauty, set in 1661 when the most famous portrayer of female roles on the London stage was a male performer named “Kynaston.” The play chronicles Kynaston’s personal and professional life after King Charles II changes the law so that only women can play women’s roles. This production boasts a large cast featuring graduates from several theatre programs in Montreal, notably Thomas Wilkinson Fullerton as Ned Kynaston, and runs at Centre Culturel Calixa-Lavallée (3819 Calixa-Lavallée St.) from Oct. 15-17 and Oct. 21-24 at 8 nightly, plus 2 p.m. matinees on Oct. 18 and 25. Tickets: $20 to $25.; call 1-866-967-8167 or via persephoneproductions.

There is a different show nightly at the 7th annual Montreal Burlesque Festival which runs Oct. 15 – 17 at Club Soda (1225 St-Laurent Blvd.). Prices for general, premium and VIP admission range from $30 to $129. The festival’s official closing show, Gentlemen Prefer Billy, starring Montreal’s “drag burlesque stripper” Billy L’Amour fronting a jazz band, with a special performance by festival founder and Montreal’s Queen of Burlesque Scarlett James, will be held at The Wiggle Room (3874 St-Laurent Blvd.), Oct. 18 at 9 p.m. Admission: $20 advance, $25 at the door. For more information, visit montrealburlesquefestival.

Friday, Oct. 16

Two events of note at the 2015 Canadian International Organ Competition Festival: their gala concert at Notre-Dame Basilica will feature CIOC laureates David Baskeyfield (U.K., 2014), Christian Lane (U.S.A., 2011) and Frédéric Champion (France, 2008) on Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. (admission: $20 to $150); and legendary French organist Jean Guillou headlines the Maison symphonique de Montréal on Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. (admission: $35 to $65). The CIOC runs to Oct. 25. For more information and to purchase tickets, call 514-790-1111 or visit ciocm.


Discovered while playing in the Paris métro as a penniless busker, British-French singer-poet, pianist and international sensation Benjamin Clementine headlines L’Astral (305 Ste-Catherine St. W.) tonight at 8. Admission: $30 to $34.55. Tickets: 514-871-1881 or visit montrealjazzfest.
Bestselling author and influential thinker Deepak Chopra presents his lecture The Future of Wellbeing at Théâtre Maisonneuve at 7:30 p.m. Admission: $54.75 to $206.25. For tickets, call 514-842-2112 or go to placedesarts.

Saturday, Oct. 17

The Lyric Theatre, one of Montreal’s longest-standing community-theatre companies, celebrates its 50th anniversary with a one-night-only concert at Oscar Peterson Concert Hall (7141 Sherbrooke St. W.). They will be joined by about 80 performers from the Lyric Theatre Alumni Chorus to create a 120-member ensemble to perform smash hits from such musicals as Hairspray and Beauty and the Beast. Showtime: 8 p.m. Tickets: $17 to $30; call 514-743-3382 or via lyrictheatrecompany.
Montreal soprano Marie-Josée Lord performs a concert version of Verdi’s classic opera Aïda, accompanied by the Orchestre philharmonique des musiciens de Montréal and the Choeur d’Opéra Immédiat, at the Église St-Pierre Claver (2000 St-Joseph Blvd. E.) at 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $15 to $50, via opera-immediat.

Sunday, Oct. 18

American heavy-metal band Danzig headlines Metropolis (59 Ste-Catherine St. E.) with opening acts Superjoint Ritual, Veil of Maya, Prong and Witch Mountain. Showtime: 7:15 p.m. Tickets: $42 in advance, $47 day of show. Call 514-844-3500 or via evenko.

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