Famous actors, writers and singers invariably let their guard down when Brian Brennan interviewed them for the Calgary Herald and Toronto Star because they didn't think a Canadian journalist would be out to "get" them like the tabloid reporters in Britain and the U.S.
As a result, Brennan learned little-known facts about their lives and careers that the stars had never revealed publicly before.
Country singer Tammy Wynette, then recently married for the fourth time, admitted the relationship was already on the rocks because she had to be constantly on the road playing concerts and nightclub gigs. She divorced soon after she left Canada, when she returned to her home in Nashville.
Pop crooner Al Martino disclosed that his singing career took a turn for the worse after he played the troubled wedding singer in the movie The Godfather. The character was loosely based on Frank Sinatra, who developed such a hatred for Martino after the movie was released that he refused to find casino gigs for him in Las Vegas.
There are many more revelations in this must-have compendium of 63 celebrity profiles derived from newspaper interviews Brennan conducted during his fifteen years as an arts and entertainment reporter.
Add this book to your library today and you'll be a hit at the dinner table when you dispense your tantalizing tidbits about such stars of stage and screen as Judy Collins, Chuck Berry, Sophia Loren and Tennessee Williams.
Show moreFamous actors, writers and singers invariably let their guard down when Brian Brennan interviewed them for the Calgary Herald and Toronto Star because they didn't think a Canadian journalist would be out to "get" them like the tabloid reporters in Britain and the U.S.
As a result, Brennan learned little-known facts about their lives and careers that the stars had never revealed publicly before.
Country singer Tammy Wynette, then recently married for the fourth time, admitted the relationship was already on the rocks because she had to be constantly on the road playing concerts and nightclub gigs. She divorced soon after she left Canada, when she returned to her home in Nashville.
Pop crooner Al Martino disclosed that his singing career took a turn for the worse after he played the troubled wedding singer in the movie The Godfather. The character was loosely based on Frank Sinatra, who developed such a hatred for Martino after the movie was released that he refused to find casino gigs for him in Las Vegas.
There are many more revelations in this must-have compendium of 63 celebrity profiles derived from newspaper interviews Brennan conducted during his fifteen years as an arts and entertainment reporter.
Add this book to your library today and you'll be a hit at the dinner table when you dispense your tantalizing tidbits about such stars of stage and screen as Judy Collins, Chuck Berry, Sophia Loren and Tennessee Williams.
Show moreBrian Brennan is an award-winning and best-selling author of 12 critically acclaimed narrative non-fiction books about the colourful personalities of Western Canada's past. One of his titles, Romancing the Rockies, won him the inaugural Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award and a nomination for the Canadian Rockies Award. Another title, Scoundrels and Scallywags, topped the Canadian best-seller charts for more than 18 months and was short-listed for the prestigious Grant MacEwan Author's Award. Brian's latest title, Brief Encounters: Conversations with Celebrities, is a collection of stories based on interviews he did during his 15 years as an arts and entertainment reporter. These stories have been updated and expanded to take into account events that have occurred since the original interviews were published. His other books include his memoirs, Leaving Dublin: Writing My Way from Ireland to Canada; the first biography of renowned Canadian historian James H. Gray; and the first biography of the celebrated 19th century Irish folk poet Mary O'Leary, which was nominated for the Irish Times Literary Prize. A former staff writer with the Calgary Herald, Brian has written freelance articles and columns for magazines and newspapers across the United States and Canada, including the New York Times, Globe and Mail and Toronto Star. Born and educated in Dublin, Ireland, Brian immigrated to Canada in 1966 and settled in Calgary in 1974. Over the course of his varied career he has worked as a golf caddy, lounge waiter, customs officer, nightclub pianist, church organist, radio news announcer, and a featured storyteller on CBC Radio's Daybreak Alberta - a popular program heard across the province. As a newspaper and magazine journalist, Brian has written on a variety of topics including politics, business, theatre, contemporary music, medicine, education, and travel. Brian has won national and regional awards in Canada for his journalism. They include two Western Magazine Awards (Gold Award Alberta, Science and Technology Award), for stories on regeneration of animal brain cells, and the national Hollobon Award for medical writing in Canada, which he won for a magazine feature story on open-heart surgery. His most recent awards include a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Petroleum HIstory Society of Canada and the Features Writing Award (runner-up) from the Professional Writers Association of Canada.
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