Confessions of a Porn Addict, starring Toronto TV star Spencer Rice, will open this Friday at the Bloor Cinema. Though the film is being pitched as "a hilarious mockumentary about voyeurism, obsession, and life in the San Fernando Valley," I might call it more of an extreme modern romance - and definitely one you don't want to miss.



Spencer 'Spenny' Rice plays Mark Tobias, a man who has lost everything due to his obsession with porn. In order to salvage his character and himself in court, he decides to document his addiction... and thus we enter the quasi-reality of Confessions of a Porn Addict.

I must admit, I wasn't sure what to expect when I sat down to talk with Spenny. His persona from Kenny vs. Spenny and that of Mark Tobias can be misleading, and difficult to sort from reality. However with the help of his co-star and Yuk Yuk's Canada owner, Mark Breslin, we got down to the business of sorting out the 'mock' from the 'documentary.'

I first discovered Lorette Luzajic while reading over a monthly newsletter from Gremolata, a local wine and food website. She had written an article on vegetarianism "I'm A Natural Born Killer" that caught my eye. Clicking through on her name revealed she's a self-proclaimed "resident spice girl" and pursues food writing in a refreshing way that challenges widely held dogmas.

Always seeking a fresh opinion on the Toronto food scene, I shot her a few questions to find out more of what she had to say. Our brief Q&A follows.

Photo: "Swimming with ColorCheckers" by Daifuku Sensei, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):

Toronto managed to evade a winter storm this weekend, but a few of our prominent local politicians have become embroiled in a storm of epic proportions. The Prime Minister's Office sent out a recording made by the Conservatives of an NDP caucus teleconference that reveals Jack Layton leading coalition-related discussions. I'm pretty sure I have an opinion on what's worse - that these discussions were held well before the insane economic plan was delivered by the Conservatives, or that the talks were infiltrated, taped, and shared by the Conservatives. It's believed that a deal to form a Liberal-NDP coalition, with support of the Bloq is in the works, and coalition action in the form of a stimulus package is being planned.

Total mayhem and horror erupted at a child's birthday party in Oshawa this weekend, leading to the stabbing death of a mother, injury to a few others (including two kids), and the assailant being shot dead by intervening police. What a horrific tragedy.

Something about this story just doesn't seem right. Five fires broke out in five different TTC subway stations within half an hour of each other - due to heaters used by the TTC to prevent switches from freezing? Ummmm. Does this happen often? Even Fire Marshall Bill wouldn't approve!

Many people might not realize that Toronto once had a monorail. It wasn't where you'd expect it - at the airport, on the islands or zipping around the Metro Convention Centre. Instead, it was east of the city and part of the Toronto Zoo. It was called the Canadian Domain Ride and opened in 1976 to shuttle visitors to remote areas of the zoo where they could see animals that weren't confined to the typical entrapments.

While some tickets are still left for next weekend's Bills-Dolphins game at the Rogers Centre, entrance to the tailgate party before hand is open to anyone regardless whether they're ponying up for seats or not. The biggest - and official - tailgate is being put on by Budweiser (Facebook event here) and features everything from the Syracuse University marching band (I guess UofT's wasn't available) to 24x24 foot barbecues grilling up bison ribs, burgers and pulled pork sandwiches. Prices for food and drinks will range from $2-$8 - or way cheaper than what it will cost for the crappy food inside the dome.

Things have been a bit slow and wonky around here the past week. Truth is, we're undergoing an upgrade and a modest redesign of the site. Watch out for the new look sometime tomorrow. But until then, please excuse the lower than average number of posts as well as some annoying glitches that are affecting the site's comment functionality.

We promise (or at least hope) it will be worth it though. Stay tuned for a new look and some fun new stuff coming to the site very soon.