Travolta met Preston when he was a Hollywood star on his way down and she was a young actress on the way up. Both were in relationships when they met and worked together for the first time on a film called The Experts in 1987. They had a lot in common – they were both Scientologists – but Preston was married to actor Kevin Gage at the time. After divorcing Gage in 1987, Preston began a relationship with actor Charlie Sheen. Sheen proposed to Preston in 1989 but a year later Preston ended the relationship after Sheen accidentally shot her in the arm after an argument. It was then that Travolta and Preston began seeing each other and just over a year later, on Sept. 5, 1991, they were married in Paris (although they would need to be married a second time a week later in Florida because the original marriage was a Scientology ceremony, which is not recognized as legal in the United States).

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The couple’s first child, Jett, was born a year later; their daughter, Ella Bleu, was born in 2000. While Travolta and Preston continued to work, Preston chose to scale back the volume of her acting roles so she could be a full-time mother to Jett and Ella Bleu. “Even during those early years of our marriage and family life, when my career was supposedly at a standstill, I was still working all the time; the movies I was making then just weren’t as high profile as the ones I was making 10 years earlier,” she said. But things would shortly take a huge leap forward for Travolta when he took the role of Vincent Vega in the movie that became a cultural phenomenon – Pulp Fiction. This was followed by Get Shorty and the Golden Globe win, and then an unabated series of starring roles in high-profile films that earned Travolta enormous wealth, which allowed him and his family to have homes in Florida, Los Angeles and an estate in the Bahamas. It also allowed him to fly the airplanes that this aviation nut (and commercially licensed pilot who has actually flown jets for Qantas) loves.

“The secret to a good and successful marriage is to not look for secret formulas” — John Travolta

The freedom that success brought them made Preston think of getting back to work but only in a way that would not affect her family life. “When I decided to get back into acting I was trying to get back in as ‘Mrs. John Travolta,’ which meant I had to start proving myself all over again,” she said. “One of the most wonderful things about Kelly is her commitment to being a mother. Even when she went back to work, she would work only when I was not doing a film – she didn’t want both of us working at the same time,” said Travolta.

On Jan. 2, 2009, a tragedy of unspeakable depth struck Travolta and Preston when their son, Jett, died while the family was on vacation at their estate in the Bahamas. Jett had a seizure (he suffered from Kawasaki disease and was afflicted by autism) and hit his head on the bathtub. Any parent will tell you that losing a child is an unthinkable horror. Because of the family’s celebrity, the public nature of their pain just added to the weight of it. Their sorrow was intensified tenfold when Travolta and Preston were the victims of an extortion plot involving three Bahamians (including a member of the Bahamian parliament, an emergency medical technician, and a former senator). These people tried to extort millions from Travolta in exchange for documents they claimed they had regarding Jett’s death that they would make public if they were not paid. All three were arrested and charged with abetment and conspiracy to extort. Even though Travolta was still deep in mourning, he testified at the trial.

In the year since, both Travolta and Preston have returned to work, as a kind of therapeutic way of trying to slowly reckon with the loss of their son. Preston has made films starring Kevin Spacey (Casino Jack) and with Miley Cyrus (The Last Song). Travolta has been less active professionally, having appeared only in From Paris With Love (in which Preston also appeared). He was in the news during the Haitian earthquake tragedy when he volunteered his own Boeing 707 jet to be used to fly supplies and personnel in and out of the disaster zone.

The 20-year marriage of  Travolta and Preston has been successful for another reason as well: marriage counselling. The couple have made a habit of seeing a marriage counsellor as a regular part of their lives, not just during a crisis or tension but as a way of continuing to focus on what is important in their marriage.

For Travolta and Preston, the last few years have been, to quote Charles Dickens, the best of times and the worst of times. But now, with the news that Travolta, 56, and Preston, 47, are getting ready to welcome the newest addition to their family, is definitely a positive indication that they are back to better times.

He is 4’11” tall, but he is a giant. He gives his name simply as Giovanni, but you may know him best as The Margarita King. And since the margarita is considered one of the most popular cocktails in the world, that is a rather lofty title to have. He won the title indirectly—it is not something he just bestowed upon himself.

Yes, won it he did! Giovanni’s The Margarita King is considered by many whose job it is to know such things as close to perfection as you can get in a pre-mixed cocktail in a bottle.

However, putting a pre-mixed tequila and lime concoction in a bottle certainly was not enough to earn Giovanni his reputation. People are drawn to his boundless energy and indefatigable nature. Do you remember when Jamie Foxx won his Oscar for Ray? When he ran offstage, the first person he caught sight of was none other than Giovanni. He rushed over to him to tell him how much he loved his margaritas. Of course, they had met several times before, as Giovanni was a mainstay of both the Oscars and the Golden Globes. (I wonder if there is a connection between the Foxx-Giovanni friendship and the award-winning Miami Vice cocktail recipe, which uses Giovanni’s The Margarita King.)

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When Eva Longoria was planning her wedding, who did she call to provide the refreshments? Yes, right again! The Margarita King. According to Longoria, “He was certainly one of the most popular guests, and he certainly did not disappoint.”

But what is it about Giovanni’s The Margarita King mixture that makes it so special? The answer is Giovanni’s hand in and attention to every detail in the recipe. He scoured Mexico in search of the perfect tequila for his mix – a double-distilled blue agave tequila. He also uses the perfect secondary ingredients; according to Giovanni, “If they are not just as perfect, the structure of the whole drink falls, and you are left with the ordinary. And ordinary is not nearly enough for me!” The orange liqueur in The Margarita King is specially double-distilled, and Giovanni uses only the best limes and lemons for their citrus tang and punch. He tops off his recipe with sugar from raw sugar cane that he selects himself. “I didn’t know what ingredients I was looking for specifically,” says Giovanni. “But I knew that I would know the perfect ingredients and the perfect combination when I encountered them.”

His product is called The Margarita King, and he is referred to as The Margarita King because of it. But his cocktail mixture is a multi-award winning product: it won Gold Medals in 2004, 2005 and 2006 from the Beverage Testing Institute of Chicago as the best ready-to-serve cocktail mix in the world. Is there another reason that people gravitate to Giovanni’s The Margarita King? The fact that it carries the highest alcohol content of any ready-mixed cocktail available – a full 17%, which is allowable because the mixture is stand-alone and needs no other beverage added.

If you like margaritas, just one taste of The Margarita King will make you love it. The energy and passion that Giovanni puts into his product is equal to the taste of pure perfection – and that is just how Giovanni wants it. “If it wasn’t perfection, I couldn’t very well call myself The Margarita King, now, could I?” Well, Giovanni, it is. And you can.

When she was just a child, Ellen Pompeo’s Italian grandfather nicknamed her “Straciatella,” which loosely translates to: “little rags,” or “strings.” He called her by this endearment because she was so thin as a child.

But now, as the title character Meredith Grey on the hit TV show Grey’s Anatomy, Pompeo is known as a beacon of style, health and beauty.

Pompeo wasn’t discovered as a teenager by an agent and directed into modelling, then into TV commercials before going to Hollywood to make films and TV shows. Pompeo was actually in her late 20s bartending at the Soho Bar and Grill in New York City when the agent that wanted to put her in commercials spotted her.

After a couple of commercials for Citibank and L’Oréal, and a couple of TV appearances on Law and Order, Pompeo decided to roll the dice and head for Los Angeles to try her luck there. Once there, she was quickly cast in the small film Moonlight Mile.

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That lead to meetings with bigger directors for roles in much bigger films. She was quickly cast as Ben Affleck’s secretary in the big-budget comic book adaptation Daredevil, but most of her scenes ended up on the cutting-room floor. She was also cast as Jim Carrey’s girlfriend in the remarkable film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, ­but once again, all her scenes ended up being edited out of the final film. “It was pretty depressing at the time,” says Ellen. “To be all excited about being in a big, high-profile film, only to have it come out and you are nowhere to be found. But the positive thing about that was that I ended up meeting lots of influential casting people that ended up casting me in things that did make it to the screen.”

Pompeo continued to work in television, appearing in episodes of Friends and a few more Law and Order episodes, while showing up in big-screen films like Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me if You Can, and the comedy hit Old School.

Then came that fateful day in 2005, when she auditioned for the lead role in Grey’s Anatomy. She won the role, and shot the pilot, then had to wait to see if the show would turn into a series. While waiting, she was offered a large role in Clerks II, but turned it down because she had a gut instinct that Grey’s Anatomy would be picked up. She was right.

The series has gone on to win numerous Golden Globe and Emmy awards, as well as being a rating champ almost since it debuted.

Pompeo has been rewarded with a seven-year contract on the show, and a salary that is estimated to be in the neighbourhood of $200,000 per episode.

Yet, the flip side of Hollywood stardom has been tough on Pompeo. Pompeo has always been very thin, and stands at 5’7 and weighs 100 lbs. “I am constantly being asked about my weight,” she says. She has one of those super-fast metabolisms that actually requires her to eat around 3,000 calories a day, just to stay the weight that she is. In an effort to keep her weight up and the rumours of her down, she has hired a trainer to help her put on some weight in the form of muscle. “It really makes me angry to see things written about me that suggest I have an eating disorder – it simply is not true,” she exclaims. “If anything, I was always paranoid that I would turn into an over-eater. I grew up in an Italian household, so the love of food and gathering for big dinners was instilled in me from early on,” she says.

In fact, Pompeo met her husband in a gourmet food market in New York City. Pompeo shared her love of good food with record producer Chris Ivery, and before long, they found themselves married. Ironically, Pompeo and her husband actually grew up less than 10 miles from each other just outside Boston!

With everything going well for Pompeo, she is thankful for all she has. “I know how lucky I am to be doing Grey’s Anatomy – I’ll stay with it as long as they want me!” Enjoying her marriage and working hard on the show, Pompeo has learned that balance is the key to staying focussed. “Being successful in this business involves some trade-offs,” says Pompeo. “It gives you lots of things, and it takes away a few things. But that is largely a matter of choice. If you choose to stay grounded, you will.”

Wilson has starred in the wacky comedy Blades of Glory, but has also starred in the edge-of-your-seat thriller Vacancy. But where he can usually be found when not working is at the nearest golf course. “Golf took me by surprise when I started playing it,” says Wilson. “I was surprised at how quickly it really became a passion of mine.”

The Swedish Edfors exudes Hollywood glam on the course. When he made his PGA tour debut, he did so by wearing gold shoes! He has also been known to play in top-level tournaments wearing camouflage-designed golf wear. “I have always felt that on-course style has been a big part of my game,” says Edfors.

With the new line of Puma golf wear, the pair collaborated on to reflect their sensibilities. The process of design was “a lot of fun,” says Wilson. He describes pieces of the collections as, “Everything from pork-pie hats to a C-hopper shoes that you can wear on and off the course because the spikes are removable.”

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Since Wilson and Edfors played a part in the designing process of this line, their personal styles made a tremendous impact on each piece.

Wilson’s designs reflected his casual attitude, and his colour scheme leaned towards the dark blues and blacks, while the “in-your-face colours” Edfors chose reveal his outgoing personality.

If you’re are a new golfer, a piece from The Special Editions from Wilson, Edfors and Puma will be exactly what you want to be seen in when hitting the course this season.

Before meeting Jenny McCarthy, I knew who she was as a celebrity, but I was also acquainted with her passion. Her book Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism, tells the harrowing story of her young son, Evan, and how he went from a seemingly normal infant, to tumbling down the dark and mysterious world of autism at 15 months-old – just after receiving inoculation shots for rubella, measles and mumps.

The increasing number of inoculations given to babies may be linked to rising incidents of autism and related syndromes such as Asperger’s Syndrome, growing evidence suggests. McCarthy’s book importantly illustrates how through a change in diet, play therapy and other naturopathic and holistic methods, she was able to pull little Evan back from the abyss that he had slipped into. The whole process and her first-hand knowledge and investigation on autism has made McCarthy upset. “One aspect of this that drives me absolutely crazy is the fact that many inoculations contain trace amounts of mercury – and no amount of mercury being injected into your system is good for you,” says McCarthy. “When you are pregnant, doctors tell you to stay away from fish, as there might be trace amounts of mercury in the meat! I mean, am I the only one that sees something crazy is going on here? From travelling around and talking to people, I have found that in fact, there are legions of mothers out there raising the same complaint,” she says.

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McCarthy discussed autism and her book at the Holistic World Expo in Toronto recently. McCarthy greeted fans and concerned parents alike, held a press conference, and engaged in a lengthy talk on the subject – all without taking a fee of any kind. She looked remarkably fresh and energetic, considering how she had just flown in from Los Angeles a couple of days earlier (having attended the star-studded premiere of Horton Hears a Who! with her star-partner Jim Carrey), and has been criss-crossing the U.S. for the last eight months, sounding the alarm about the rising rates of autism, and how all this suffering and trauma might not be necessary at all.

“The thing of it is, I am not telling anyone anything new here,” says the pretty and personable McCarthy. “What I am preaching is what outraged mothers like myself have been preaching for years. If I can use whatever celebrity I have gained to shine even more light on this stuff – then that is perfect!”

Her current book on her battle with her son’s autism is not her first. She has written three books previously – Belly Laughs, Life Laughs and Baby Laughs – all best-sellers that joyously detail her pregnancy, her baby’s first year, and on getting herself back in model-shape after giving birth. None of these books gave any indication of the trials and tribulations that awaited mom Jenny and son Evan.

“When Evan started changing, I felt so powerless. It was the most painful and anxiety-filled thing I have ever experienced,” says McCarthy. “And the response I got from the medical establishment just deepened my anxiety, frustrations and fears.”

McCarthy is quick to point out that she is not completely against doctors. She just has a problem with the way modern medicine chooses to treat people. “It seems that the medical system has fallen into this pattern of disease-pharmaceuticals … disease-pharmaceuticals … there is now weight or attention given to preventative medicine or alternative forms of treatment.” The flipside of that is that she also doesn’t believe that her method of treating her son is not what every parent with an autistic child should choose to do. “Just like chemotherapy will work for a lot of cancer patients, there are those cancer patients who will not respond to that kind of treatment at all,” she says.

When McCarthy put Evan on a gluten-and-additive-free diet, coupled with play therapy and a vitamin supplement regime, it showed remarkable results. “One of the manifestations of autism in Evan that was the most devastating to me was that he seemed to lose his personality, he stopped being affectionate, he stopped being engaging,” says McCarthy. “But once I started on the play therapy and the diet alteration, it was remarkable how quickly he responded.”

From Playboy centerfold to MTV babe, to actress and now activist, McCarthy has been on quite a journey. “I hope that because I would be the last person anyone would expect to be doing this kind of speaking and spreading this kind of message, that it will make people stop and take notice. We can change things through knowledge and awareness, and where the issue of autism is concerned – things out there need to be changed in terms of how it develops, why it develops, and what forms of treatment are the most effective.”

Let this not be the last eloquent work from someone determined to make a difference, from someone who is not some paid celebrity spokesperson, but a mother who went through the horrors, educated herself on the various issues, and then got angry and spoke out. Jenny McCarthy certainly deserves our respect and attention on this issue.

One of the better-known champions of supporting local farmers and organics is famous chef Jamie Kennedy (Jamie Kennedy Restaurant, Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar). Everyone knows that restaurants are notorious for going under in three to five years if they don’t give patrons a serious reason to keep coming back. Well, Kennedy put his reputation and his business where his mouth was. In 1989, Kennedy went organic and has not looked back since. In the same year, he formed an alliance of environmentally concerned chefs and local organic farmers called Knives and Forks. Part of this organization’s mandate was to spread the word on going organic, so there were organic markets set up at various locations once a week. Kennedy also helped organize the annual Feast of Fields, a kind of harvest celebration that was held in different rural locations to symbolize the relationship between chefs and farmers. “Chefs are positioned in our society in such a way that we can potentially influence people about the choices they make around food and about where food comes from,” says Kennedy.

Kennedy is not alone in his concern and activism towards organic foods and organic farming. In 2005, there were just over 500 certified organic farms in Ontario farming over 90,000 certified acres – that is double the amount from just 1996.

Lately, one of the criticisms surrounding organic food has been that you really don’t know what is organic and what isn’t, since there aren’t any specific laws or regulations in place to keep anyone from slapping an organic label on food. The Ontario government has recognized this as a problem, and has put in place some rules and regulations governing this. As of December 2008, all farms wishing to be registered as legitimately organic must be evaluated and certified by an accredited certification body.

Environmentally speaking, one of the benefits of going organic is that pesticides are not bombarding our bodies and our children’s bodies. No matter how thoroughly you wash your fruits and vegetables, pesticide residue has already penetrated the fruit or vegetable. Alarming studies on how dangerous pesticide residue can be are surfacing. Tests on children who have only been fed organic foods showed a marked reduction in traces of pesticides, antibiotics, fertilizers and other additives in their systems. Not only is organic food healthy for us, the organic farms that produce this pesticide-free fare are more energy-efficient than non
organic farms. Organic farming systems have shown to use 30 per cent less fossil fuels than other farms. Soil from organic farms also tends to hold more carbon, which reduces carbon dioxide emissions, a greenhouse gas that has been a factor in global warming.

According to Health Canada, it has been determined that 60 per cent of all herbicides (weed killers), 90 per cent of all fungicides (mould killers), and 30 per cent of all insecticides (insect killers) can be directly related to cancer in human beings. Also, a build-up of unnecessary antibiotics in our systems has been linked to the rise of antibiotic-resistant pathogens, and flu strains that flu shots are useless in combatting. Toronto-based naturopathic doctor and vocal organics advocate Penny Kendall-Reed takes this a step further by saying: “Cows on farms that are not run organically have between two to 10 times the amount of IGF-1 (Insulin Growth Factor –1) in their milk – this has been proven to accelerate the growth of lung cancer, breast cancer, melanoma, and childhood leukemia.” Organic farms do not use antibiotics in the feed given to its livestock.

Is it easy to be an organic farmer or convert to organic farming? Not entirely, but the movement towards organic farming has been growing. The soil is the basic foundation of the food chain and the main focus in organic farming. But since agricultural trends have resulted in topsoil erosion, organic farmers face the difficult challenge of reversing this.

A farm just outside of Galt, Ont., is trying to grow organic crops, but is facing natural and bureaucratic obstacles. Farmer Martha Gay explains: “By going completely pesticide-free, we are always battling the challenge of how to keep the deer and the rabbits and the pests from destroying the entire crop.” But the effort is worth it, believes naturopathic doctor Kendall-Reed. “Fruits and vegetables grown organically may not look as magazine-ad pleasing as non organic food, but this has to be weighted against the fact that organic fruits and vegetables have 35 per cent to 60 per cent higher vitamin and mineral content than non-organic produce.” And from the bureauacratic side, Gay says that: “It is taking about three to five years to gain certification as an organic farm that is allowed to market organic produce, and even after putting in those years, there is still no guarantee. It is a very tricky process right now.”

Organic foods are not just for health food store patrons, they are not just for the tree hugger types. Organic food is a logical choice for Ontarians because it might just come down to it being a matter of life or death, both personally in terms of our health, and symbolically in terms of the family farm in this abundantly blessed province. If you haven’t tried organic food yet, give it a try and you’ll be surprised that not only does the food taste better, it will make you feel better. And despite the misconception, it is not necessarily more costly. By going organic, rural communities and farms will be healthy and productive.

When it comes to Hollywood celebrities, it seems that each of them has a cause that they have lent their names to, but some may wonder if they have done so for nothing more than career advancement. But when it comes to eco living and going green, there are a crop of celebrities out there that are seriously committed to it and are putting their money, their faces, and their reputations where their mouths are.

The most passionate, eco-friendly celebrity out there has got to be Leonardo DiCaprio. When I sat down to interview him in Maui, he wasn’t so much interested in talking about the plot of his latest movie, but instead on how he made every effort to protect the natural environment of the locations where the movie was shot. He wanted to talk about his concerns about global warming and how if everyone decided to leave the car at home and walk or bike, just one or two days per week, it would have an enormous, almost immediate impact on the amount of pollution in our atmosphere. And DiCaprio is actually allowing his actions to speak as loud as his words. He drives a hybrid vehicle and prefers to ride a mountain bike or walk whenever possible. He also lives in what is called a Smart Home – a new trend in eco-friendly houses that was designed as a concept by a California company called Hybrid Technologies, but the homes are built by a Calgary based company called Enviro Custom Homes Inc. These high-tech Smart Homes are around 6,000 square feet, and come with a $2 million price tag (Cameron Diaz is also a customer).

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And speaking of eco-friendly homes, Brad Pitt not only lives in one, but is also a major force behind a project that is building them for the hurricane ravaged city of New Orleans. Pitt has always had a keen interest in and talent for building and architecture (He once told me that if he were ever granted an internship with a giant in the architectural field like Frank Gehry, he would drop his acting career in a second to pursue it), and together with an organization called Global Green USA, he has not only donated millions of his own money, but has helped design and build the homes and apartment complexes for families that lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina.

Many celebrities have switched their luxury cars in for the more energy efficient and eco-friendly hybrid cars such as the Prius. George Clooney took a step further by being the first person to accept delivery of the experimental all-electric vehicle the Tango T600. The Tango T600 is not cheap – over $85,000 – but it is fully electric with rechargeable motors, making it the most energy efficient vehicle on the road.

Houses and cars are one thing, but there are celebrities out there that are setting an example by doing the little things that if done collectively, would have a great impact on the world. Some celebrity moms are committed to starting their children off with green living from birth. Julia Roberts spoke out on her use of a brand of diapers for her children called Seventh Generation Diapers, which are chlorine-free, free of plastics, inks and dyes, and are flushable and biodegradable. Halle Berry and her partner, Montreal-born Calvin Klein model Gabriel Aubry, have designed a 100 per cent organic and eco friendly nursery for their baby.

Uma Thurman, Heidi Klum, and Gwyneth Paltrow have all said that they have switched to inexpensive eco friendly makeup. Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen has designed and marketed her own brand of eco-friendly sandals called Ipanema Sandals, with a portion of the sales going towards a cause that helps preserve the waters and foliage in the Amazon basin.

And let’s not forget one of the pioneers of eco-friendly living in Hollywood Woody Harrelson. Harrelson has been championing everything from solar power to products made from hemp, and hybrid vehicles long before it became the cause célèbre. When I last had the opportunity to speak to Harrelson in Toronto, he said, “We are at a critical juncture now I think, now living an environmentally attuned life is not just good, it is a responsibility we all have. And it is not so hard or bad, once you start doing it –  you get used to it, and then you find that you really enjoy the benefits of living healthy.”

And while some celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta are criticized for the anti-environmental lifestyles (both own a fleet of private jets), they lead, others such as DiCaprio, Pitt, Diaz and Clooney are leading by example. The list of celebrities that can be found zipping around L.A. in hybrid cars is growing by the week: Johnny Depp, Matt Damon, Reese Witherspoon, Alicia Silverstone, Tobey McGuire. Depp and Nicolas Cage both own small islands in the Bahamas that feature completely green housing.

For once, it seems that Hollywood has become a trend-setter in a way that is completely positive and beneficial to the planet – let’s just hope this is a trend that becomes a permanent way of living our daily lives.

Most celebrities have to work hard to keep fit, because their lifestyle and work schedules don’t allow them to regularly exercise and eat balanced meals. I have met and discussed this very question with many stars, and you will see that their take on fitness is both varied and interesting.

Because I make every effort to stay in shape myself (I have studied martial arts, run marathons, and I start every morning with an hour of laps in the swimming pool), the question of health and fitness is often a topic of conversation when I am interviewing stars. Their answers were often quite surprising. For instance, when I brought this subject up with Harrison Ford, he looked at me funny and said, “I don’t workout, I work.” He elaborated this by saying that while others jog, he chooses to hike in the mountains. While others workout on Nautilus machines, he goes into his workshop and builds something (he was a carpenter before he was an actor). In Ford’s case, it is hard to argue with the results – at age 65, he is starring as Indiana Jones for the fourth time in the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Above Image: Celebrity photos from left: Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Photo by David James; Madonna at the New York Special Screening of Revolver. Photo by John Spellman / Retna Ltd.; Jennifer Garner at the 2007 National Board of Review’s Annual Awards Gala. Photo by RETNA. Christian Bale at the 310 To Yuma Los Angeles Premiere. Photo by Paul Fenton. David Beckham during an L.A. Galaxy training session. Photo by Liu Xingzhe.

At the opposite end  is Madonna. I sat down briefly with Madonna a few years ago and we talked about the value of being in shape and keeping healthy. She takes it to a whole new level by practicing yoga like it’s a religion. She also runs and works out with a personal trainer on almost a daily basis. “I believe that good health and good positive energy are directly connected,” Madonna said. “The better shape I am in, the better I feel. Not just physically, but spiritually and mentally. That positive energy and vitality
I then pour into my work.”

“The better shape I am in, the better I feel. Not just physically, but spiritually and mentally. That positive energy and vitality I then pour into my work.” — Madonna

Just as ritualistic about her fitness level as Madonna is Jennifer Garner. Garner connects her fitness level to her ability to do the work that she does to the best of her abilities. “When I was doing Alias I would be up at 4:30 a.m. everyday to workout,” Garner told me. “I had stunts to do and a lot of scenes that involved running and jumping and climbing. There was no way in the world I could have done that if I were not in shape and didn’t have the energy and resilience that comes from being in shape and fit.” That was taken to an even higher level when she was signed to play the high-kicking Elektra in the film Daredevil, and the even more physically demanding spin-off film, Elektra. “That was when I knew that I had to be in the kind of shape that takes total commitment,” said Garner. “Because (Elektra) needed to know how to fight, I had to get into very intense martial arts training, and while that just about killed me for the first few months, it really paid off. Not just in terms of being in shape, but the discipline that that kind of training produces in you as well.”

It is not uncommon for actors and performers to use their work as the impetus for driving themselves to great lengths to maintain a superior fitness level. I spent some time on the set of the film American Psycho and spoke with British actor Christian Bale about the workout routine that got him ready for the film. He told me that it was actually quite a miserable experience, because he would work all day then workout in the gym of his hotel for a few hours at night. The next morning he would get up and do it all over again. He did this all while on a diet of fresh vegetables and boiled chicken. After several months of this, Bale told me, “I can’t wait to have a pizza!” Bale would next starve himself down to an emaciated 119 pounds for his role in the film The Machinist, only to bulk up to optimum strength and stamina to play Batman in Batman Begins. Prior to playing Batman, Bale once again trimmed down for a role in Rescue Dawn, and then repeated the bulk-up process for another role as Batman in The Dark Knight. “I do workout on the advice of a physical trainer, but more importantly, I always consult a doctor as well. That is wise, not just for extreme shifts like I put myself through, but it is wise for anyone because there are smart ways of working out,” said Bale.

Other celebrities, like professional athletes, have another set of challenges. Soccer players are known to be the healthiest athletes on earth in terms of pure cardiovascular fitness. Take soccer star David Beckham as an example – he’s in great shape.  But what about when he isn’t playing because of an injury? “That is when you have to be really smart about it,” said Beckham. “I tend to eat a lot during training and during the match season, a lot of carbs, a lot of pasta; because we burn it off so quickly. But when I am injured I have to adjust that right away. I also have to try to continue to workout, but in ways that allow the injury to heal while still allowing me to maintain a fitness level that keeps me at, or near to game shape.”

Some celebrities take being in shape and being fit to extreme levels. But, it has to be considered that their bodies and the images they project are very much a part of their careers. In terms of success or failure, that can be a powerful and motivating factor.

Paul Potts was born in Bristol, England on October 13, 1970. He had always liked opera and always had the desire to be an opera singer. A victim of bullying, he experienced a difficult time during school, causing him to grow up with little confidence. But his interest remained and he practiced his passion secretly – up until 1999, when he decided it was time to make his stand. Dressing up as Luciano Pavarotti, Paul actually got up on stage during a karaoke competition and sang opera. He was somewhat discovered that night and went on to sing opera, unpaid, for a few opera companies until his hopes were dashed yet again by a series of illnesses, followed by a serious injury sustained in a bicycle accident.

Potts then went to work for Bridgend Carphone Warehouse where he worked at a routine job as a mobile phone salesman. In 2003, he married a young woman that he had met in an Internet chat room. All the while, he kept his opera singing passion and desires secretly alive.

Then on June 7, 2007, it all changed once again for Potts. He decided to throw himself into the mix for a new Simon Cowell talent show called Britain’s Got Talent, and to the astonishment of everyone connected with the show,  he wowed the audience with a beautiful rendition of Nessun Dorma.

Potts continued to impress beyond all expectations and was declared the winner of the first-ever Britain’s Got Talent competition. Creator Simon Cowell instantly signed Potts to a recording contract. The resulting album – called One Chance, zoomed to the top of the classical/opera recording charts everywhere from Australia to Norway.

His stunning voice, his astounding vocal range (for someone untrained except for a few lessons he had in Italy that he paid for out of his own savings), matched with his very human story, has made Paul Potts the subject of interest in magazines to television shows the world over. But the question that is asked of all reality show winners – whether or not this is a manufactured, flash-in-the-pan bit of success or real, sustainable talent – is not being asked of Paul Potts. His voice and ability make that question completely unnecessary.

One of the first things that strikes you about Ricardo Larrivée is that he loves to talk, he loves to engage and converse in a robust and stimulating way. Ricardo is movie-star handsome. He is a friendly person who claims to have fallen into his current position as one of the hottest and talented cooking show hosts in the country by accident. He explains his success by saying that he has always had an innate knack and talent for cooking. This tells me that his current success is nothing near an accident, but rather a harmonic convergence of the right guy being in the right place when the right opportunity came around. And most importantly, making the absolute most of that opportunity.

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“Well, if you think about it like that, yes, that is quite true,” says Ricardo. “When I was just five-years-old, I would make cakes simply by watching my mother make them – I couldn’t read, so I was doing my cooking simply through observing and experimenting.”

Professionally, Ricardo had his sight set on working in the hotel business and even went to school to pursue that avenue. Later on he discovered that that wasn’t exactly what he was looking for. “I loved the social aspect of the hotel business,” says Ricardo. “But the day-to-day financial aspects of running a hotel was not something that interested me in the least. And because that is such a crucial aspect to the hotel business, it wasn’t really for me.”

Ricardo went back to school to study broadcasting and ended up at the CBC in Regina one summer. Because he didn’t know anyone there, he would just invite people from the office and studio to his house for dinner so he could meet people and make friends. Quickly, the word spread that Ricardo’s place was the place to get an invitation to, as the food was fantastic. Not long afterwards, Ricardo found himself being offered his own cooking show, something he was a bit nervous about but embraced wholeheartedly. “I was scared, of course, and there was this feeling that because I was French I would not get an audience,  but people seemed to like the show right from the start.”

Caught in a massive wave of CBC layoffs, Ricardo returned to Montreal to start over again – and it was in Montreal that Ricardo was approached again by a broadcaster who offered him his own cooking show that would celebrate, among other things, his French background. “I love Quebec and I remain based in and my show is shot in my town of Chambliss, but the more I have travelled around the country and the world, the more I see that despite our language differences and cultural differences, we are all a lot more similar than we are dissimilar,” says Ricardo. Ricardo practices what he preaches on this level by doing his show, Ricardo and Friends, in both French and English.

The element that makes Ricardo and Friends a unique show is that it focuses not only on recipes and cooking but on an examination of food, the manufacturing of food, the various local traditions and the stories behind the traditions – so each episode offers a one-of-a-kind culinary adventure. “I am interested in sharing my excitement for things,” says Ricardo. “I want people to be excited about food and cooking because food is the one thing in this world that unites us and brings us together. Food is an important part of how our culture and the cultures of other countries is defined.”

And when you get Ricardo talking about food and culture and national identity, you can practically see the passion cracking around him like an electrical charge. “On a visit I made to New Zealand, I was fascinated to see that the customs and foods of its Aboriginal population (the Maori), were proudly incorporated into the mainstream culture of New Zealand,” said Ricardo. “But here we need to do some work on that . . . many of the dishes that we call indigenous to Canada or Quebec specifically actually do have their roots in Native cultures. I want to talk about that and I want to show that so people can appreciate it.”

But Ricardo is trying to take it one step further – he is trying to spread the word to children in schools in the towns and regions he visits. “It is an indisputable fact that parents that make it a habit of sitting down to meals with their children encounter far fewer social and developmental problems with their children,” says Ricardo. “So I am trying to work in a love of food, a curiosity about food and where good food comes from in children from an early age so that my enthusiasm and curiosity then becomes theirs as well.”

Ricardo has a lot of practice when it comes to relating to children. He and his wife have three little girls,  aged four, seven and nine. “They are very much a part of everything that I do – since we shoot the show partly right here in my house – they are always around and can feel that they are directly a part of the celebration of food and culture that is going on around them,” says Ricardo.

What it all comes down to is having fun with food and with cooking. “Most definitely,” agrees Ricardo. “I want everything I do on the show with food and cooking to be wrapped in fun. You take more away from a fun experience you have had than from any other kind of experience.” And when asked if he feels himself to be something of an ambassador for Quebec and French culture, Ricardo laughs.

“I am not a political person, even though I understand the power of politics, but if you wish to call me an ambassador I think I would only be defined as such in that I take very seriously my role in bringing the positive aspects of French culture, of this beautiful province and all its unique little regions and cities and towns, to people that might not otherwise have thought that way about Quebec.”

And what about away from the show, how does Ricardo define relaxation? “Well, it is very interesting,” he says. “I don’t really see much difference between what I enjoy away from my work with what I do when I am working. I love what I do, I am constantly excited and enthusiastic about what I do and because I have my family and friends a part of it all, every day seems like I am on an exciting, adventurous vacation.”

When Oscar Wilde said: “Find a job that you love and you will never work a day in your life,” – Ricardo Larrivée was definately listening.