Hot Canadians: Cassie Steele

Hooray! My first Degrassi cast member!!!


Cassie Steele, if any of you POSSIBLY don't know in which case you hate good television, is Manny on Degrassi. She fucking rocks. I will do my best to summarize her tv life for you, but it's from memory so don't hate if I leave something out. Also, I'm sorry if it gets a little long, if you don't want the background skip to the next paragraph.

Manny is best friend with Emma since forever, she used to be kind of nerdy because she was really little and, well, Emma was nerdy, and she hung out with JT and Toby and Liberty... this is the central underclass group of friends. She has very overbearing parents, or I guess just her dad but her mom never helps. She has been in love with Craig since he showed up in the early seasons as a transfer student with an abusive father (we'll get to that in Jake Epstein's eventual post... hot.). She decided to rebel in I believe 9th grade and started dressing super hot, because she is, culminating in the thong incident. Then everyone wanted her, she wanted Craig. She had a brief flirtation with Spinner, I believe before she started hooking up with Craig by seducing him once, and then again at a rave, and they started regularly cheating on his current GF, Ashley. Craig told Manny had broken up with Ashley after a while, even though he hadn't, abd then he was then when she found out he was lying, he told her the same thing again... and was lying again. Craig is sort of a douche. BUT THEN Manny was pregnant, and Craig got really excited because he's kind of nuts and desperate for affection because of the whole dad thing and him being bipolar, and so he wanted to keep it and like start a family, but she didn't and got an abortion because, well, they're 16.Then (I think) she had a brief flirtation with Spinner, causing a major rift with him and Paige. Those last 4 things may be all out of order, I've never watched it straight through. Oh, but after the Craig thing, everyone for NO GOOD REASON just started thinking Manny was a huge slut and being really mean to her... because as she says to JT when he wants to ask her to the dance but almost doesn't because Spinner says she's a slut, Craig was the one cheating on HIS girlfriend, but no one ever talks about that,do they? I'm pretty sure I just directly quoted Degrassi from memory. NICE. But she goes with JT and they kind of date for a second but then break up because he gets really insecure after she sees his penis in the hot tub (JT is not well endowed it's a running joke.) Then there's a little break in Manny drama, but the next season when she's gotten all hot and shit she starts seriously pursuing her dream of being an actress, but an agent calls her fat and the wrong body type (partially because entertainment is cruel, partially because of the HEINOUS outfit she wears, and partially because that agent is a moron), and so Manny gets upset and wants to get a boob job but her parents find out and kick her out of the house and she gets really drunk and shows peter (the new guy who Emma likes but who wants Manny, who Manny won't go out with because Emma likes him so now he's pissed and, as we find out he is a SLIME) her boobs at a party and he films it and sends it to the whole school. She moves in with Emma and lives there for a while. This chronology may be really screwed up. Anyways... later she is still with Craig and he is a musician and he comes back and is on coke and she tries it and is HILARIOUS but then realizes that he loves drugs more than her and she totally faces him and it's her most awesome episode ever. THEN after JT dies she starts trying to help mend the fences between Degrassi and Lakehurst and kind of dates Damien who is their student council president, but it doesn't go anywhere because of the whole school war and whatnot, plus this season him not wanting the schools to unify. Oh yeah and throughout the whole early part she's a cheerleader, the choreographer and obviously the best one, who has a huge like nemesis relationship with Paige, the head cheerleader, hence the hitting on Spinner and breaking her leg kind of intentionally when Kevin Smith was visiting. Oh and now she's super punk and cool and just turned 18 and brought Jay as her date and FINALLY convinced her dad to let her act. GOT ALL THAT? Jeez. I am going to have to do this for every character. I'm so pumped.

ANYWAYS so that's what I have for you about Manny right now, but we're here to talk about Cassie, who seems just really awesome. She's far more interesting and hardcore seeming than the show she's on would have you predict, she has a pierced nose and her hair is ever changing. Also, she's a singer, and I have to say pretty good. Here's a video of her doing one of her songs, look how cute she is!



I was facebook friends with her for like a month before the degrassi people all went private or deleted... I'm not sure they realize how much people love them... but anyways she had lots of picture she takes at her computer, which I think is endearing... here's one:
that's her room in the background... she is surprising. Her music career seems to be really going somewhere which is very cool... I always go on her myspace to request that she do a show in Los Angeles, but it seems like those kids rarely leave Toronto except for events in New York... but someday it'll happen.

So the vital stats: she was born in 1989 making her way too young to want to hang out with her this bad. She's been on Degrassi since it started. She's a regular guest star on The Best Years, and is great and completely different that Manny, and it's nice to see that range in her. She's obviously gorgeous. Pretty much she kicks the most ass on Degrassi (even though I am reluctant to declare her my favorite character, as I'm a little obsessed with some of the others as well.)

You should download her music, watch degrassi, and find out all "aboot" Cassie Steele. See what I did there.

Hot Canadians: Rachel McAdams

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Rachel McAdams is the next Canadian. I am pretty sure she is my favorite actress, even though I can never shake my devotion to Lindsay... but it's on a different level. She is completely gorgeous, obvs (see right). I mean... she's pretty perfect looking and I guess she seems charming and nice, and I like what she does with her hair usually, she likes to take risks... dark with bangs and then that caramel color and then the blonde with the pink in it... which I actually didn't love but she's still very pretty. But Also she seems reasonably normal and cool and fun or whatever, everyone seems to like working with her... of course. she's canadian. And until recently (like, within hours) she was dating Ryan Gosling, and they were adooooorable and they hung out in Toronto and in the snow and stuff and were cute and normal and just great and it's like you could hang out with them, and they'd be those friends that were just way too nice all the time, but not necessarily in an annoying way.

To place where they met, there's this:

I mean we all loved that. You couldn't not love it, heartbreaking.

And then. Of course.
There is Regina George, from Mean Girls. Mean Girls gets a bad rap because it's Lindsay and it's pink and bouncy and so it's targeted towards kids and so people think it won't be smart and funny, but it was written by Tina Fey and Lindsay is a great actress despite whatever and the guy who plays the guy is very attractive... and the message is hammered home pretty hard, but it's a good one so it's alright. And, Rachel McAdams is perfect as Regina, with that wig. Hmmm. I think it was hard for people to deal with her not having that hair in her next movie... I guess wedding crashers was next, and she had that dark hair and a bigger forehead... it was a tough transition. But in wedding crashers isn't she the cutest? Great.

So there you go.


Rachel McAdams. Canadian.

Hot Canadians: Tokyo Police Club

The next installation in our Hot Canadians series is Tokyo Police Club... They. Are. Awesome. I'm telling you... I've been obsessed with them since way before Coachella, where they completely rocked it. Granted, their first cd was 7 songs... all of which were awesome, but that's a pretty sparse playlist... but they're pretty amazing. I saw them at the El Rey about a week and a half ago and they killed it. This is them:

And, beyond being, musically, one of the best bands I've encountered in a long while, they're pretty hot also. So that helps. Anyways, they're from Ontario, they've only been a band since '05, which is CRAZY considering how successful they are... they have a couple new songs that aren't on their debut cd on their myspace... I'm pretty in love with them. You should be too. Check them out, do it, you'll be obsessed within moments. My fave: Be Good RAC Remix, which is on their Smiths CD that they were selling at their concert... their new single 'your english is good' is pretty amazing also.

Anyways, I obviously have less information about them than I did about the previous Hot Canadians... but they're awesome, and they're hot (to the point where, when they were at Cinespace, I got too freaked out to approach them, and I approach everyone), so you should love them. GO. LISTEN. LOVE.

Hot Canadians: Michael Cera

So here begins what I plan to make a regular series, Hot Canadians. The thing is, every time I find some band or some actor or actress that I just think seems really awesome, they end up being from Canada. Any country that can bring us Degrassi, Alanis Morisette and maple syrup is ok by me... plus, socialized health care! HOORAY!

So, I'll do a few to get started... and the clear choice to kick it off... Michael Cera!!



I mean look how cute he is. So awkward... it's such an endearing quality and I just think he's hilarious. So he was in Arrested Development as George Michael, and that show was the funniest thing on television, totally mis-cancelled, lame. Jason Bateman, too, you can't go wrong with that. Is he Canadian? I don't know. Anyways, George Michael is just... perfect. So terribly humiliating all the time, I can't believe. And then of course, the funniest movie... maybe ever, Superbad. I think we all saw it. So you know. "I know, samesies!" I kind of died.

And then I found this picture:

and I don't know if it's a poster for something or what, but that's pretty cool, it's like he's in a smoking room at a prep school or something... but in a good way. Like a Dead Poet's Society type of boarding school, but without the suicide and censorship.

And apparently he does all these web shows, which are hilarious. Here. this is him doing a fake interview, as himself. Watch it.

It's so ridiculous. Who writes this stuff??? "be yourself, as long as that means that you are a successful person."


Michael Cera. A Canadian to watch.