Calgary Herald from Calgary, Alberta, Canada • 2

A2 CALGARY HERALD Sunday, May 30, 1999 FromAI --'mm $120,000 FEDERAL GRANT Porn star bubbling over with laughs amid funding feud Jumping: Olympics provided fclosure Kb 1 i 1 Dave Kettering, Associated Press R.J. Simon, 12, of Farley, Iowa takes care of his family's cow Mickey who was born with markings in the shape of Mickey Mouse on his head. Family has a cow over Mickey mark GLEN MCGREGOR For The Calgary Herald OTTAWA Bubbles has spoken. And she is amused. Adult film star Nina Hartley, who plays the title role in the 1996 film Bubbles Galore, says controversy over government funding for the project "cracks me up." But despite the uproar over the $120,000 the Canada Council and four other arts agencies paid to back the film, she still thinks Canadians are more progressive in their attitudes towards sex than Americans.

"Bubbles would never have gotten funding from the United States government," says Hartley, the star of more than 300 adult films. "That fact that it did (in Canada), I find exciting and different." Earlier this month, Heritage Minister Sheila Copps endured a barrage of criticism in the House of Commons over government funding for Bubbles, which tells the story of a bisexual porn star who falls in love with her leading lady. In response, Copps blamed appointments to the Canada Council made by Brian Mulroney's Conservative government. She also suggested it's time to re-examine the arm's-length relationship the government maintains with arts funding agencies. In an interview from the set of an adult film she's currently shooting in California, Hartley said that Bubbles is loosely based on her own experiences as an advocate for the porn industry.

"Some of it was fictionalized, of course, but my character is positive about sex," Hartley said, adding that the film's director, Cynthia Roberts, "certainly took a lot of me as a person and an actress and put that in the film." Hartley spent about two weeks shooting Bubbles in Toronto in 1996. She says she took a large pay cut from her usual $700 US daily rate and received about $2,000 to appear in the film. She considers Bubbles an art film and points out that it shows no real sex or explicit nudity. "It's all tasteful, shadowy, can't-see-anything-really-happening nudity, and there's certainly no sex," she recalled. The exact contents of the film remain something of a mystery as it has not been publicly screened since the Reform party began asking about it in the House.

Bubbles will play on the Showcase television network on June 18 at 11 p.m. Hartley found making the film to be The Associated Press FARLEY, IOWA Mickey the cow has more of a trademark than a birthmark. Above her eyes, the eight-month-old, brown-and-white heifer carries a symbol known the world over: the two ears and face of Mickey Mouse. "What are the odds?" said Darlene Simon, whose family owns the calf. "Astronomical." At first, the Simons, an eastern Iowa farm family, didn't fuss over the calf when she was born in September, afraid the unusual brown marking on her face would change.

"We got more excited this winter," said Roger Simon, Darlene's husband. "It got bigger as her face got bigger." The Simons, who run several businesses and a farm near this eastern Iowa town, first allowed Mickey to run with other calves. if But with the Mickey mark apparently here to stay, she's been moved to a separate pen and is being trained to be led on a halter. Mickey is also being corn-fed, washed and groomed. As word has spread, people have come to see Mickey for themselves.

The calf is friendly and allows visitors to pet her, the family said. It has the Simons thinking: Maybe Mickey has a future in show business. They say they have contacted talk-show host, Jay Leno, and Disneyland in California and hope they will be interested in the cow. "We plan to take her places," Roger Simon said. "The sky's the limit.

It's how big a dream you have." But it's hard not to think big when the family tunes into the Disney Channel, Darlene Simon said. "There's that little emblem in the corner of the screen," she said. "That's Mickey." The market has been boosted by interest from black celebrities such as actress Whoopi Goldberg and TV talk-show host Oprah Winfrey. Slavery memorabilia auctions have sprung up in which some pieces fetch thousands of dollars. One web site recently advertised a "very rare set of slave chains" for $1,837 Cdn and another trumpeted an "extremely rare female slave collar" for $13,083.

Other items included branding irons and posters offering rewards for runaway slaves. The more recent interest in slavery artifacts is attributable partly to a spate of books and films including Steven Spielberg's Amistad and Beloved, starring Winfrey. The confirmation by DNA tests that Thomas Jefferson, one of the U.S. founding fathers or perhaps his brother had an illegitimate child with a slave girl, has helped to increase demand. Barber sells replica shackles inscribed with the slogan: "Never forget," Some customer wear them as jewellery, leading to a bitter debate about slavery becoming chic.

REPLICA SHACKLES Antique collectors snap up slavery items As executive vice-president of Spruce Meadows, and manager of the equestrian facility's horse program, Southern-Heathcott's taken on more and more of the day-to-day operations, something that travelling and competing abroad wouldn't allow. uPlus, she retired her longtime four-legged partner Advantage Chrysler at the end of the 1998 season, and no longer has the countless hours to spend nurturing and developing younger horses. "With the young horses, it's not like putting on your old pair of shoes," said Sjbuthern-Heathcott. 1 Competing for Canada on Advantage Chrysler at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, she said, supplied some closure for her career. 'Southem-Heathcott had returned to the saddle that season after taking a year off to have Charlie.

I made the most of the Olympics," she smiled. went to both the opening and closing ceremonies. As an athlete I en-jayed every minute of it. I stayed in the athletes' village, I bombed around to all the events. I knew I had to see everything and do everything." Southern-Heathcott didn't have a good howing in Atlanta, bowled over by a tidal wave of Olympic-sized nerves.

iYet, when she ponders what she'll ifliss the most from the competitive ring, she says, it will probably be that rash of energy that took over on game day. I'The adrenaline, being so focused," she said. The hardest thing, she says, is wondering whether she'll find that same passion in the office as she did on the tack of a horse. you don't feel the same way ajxmt work," said Southern-Heathcott. "But it's difficult to say you won't, "firne changes your views." FromAI Trustees: money anywhere' And up to 137 teaching positions Say still have to be cut by next September.

The Catholic board announced Wednesday its rainy day savings fund has been spent covering three consecutive budget shortfalls. ZThe funding formula distributes ftnds on a per-student basis, with extra money going to rural boards to compensate for the distances students must travel to school and to urban Boards for their greater population of Ipecial needs students. But in many cases the government caps funding at numbers below the actual enrolment, forcing the board to pay the difference out of general revalues. lilt's one of the reasons, critics say, that 26 of 60 boards in the province can operating deficits in the 199798 school year, including the public and Catholic systems in Edmonton and Calgary. "When the government started off oq this venture on the whole idea of equity, I didn't know they meant we'd all be equally disadvantaged," said Linda Wellman, the chairwoman of the Calgary Catholic board.

Oberg has said he will have to be convinced more money is needed for education before he loosens the government purse strings. "Am I going to go and jump and plead and pound the desk for more money? No, I am not. "But if after looking at the budget and if it's not enough, I won't rule out anything," Oberg said. Fred Latreille, the president of the CBE's caretakers' union local, also blamed the funding framework for shortchanging urban boards and he wondered where Oberg thinks he can find more money. no more money to be found anywhere," said Latreille, whose local might lose more than 15 positions planned for next year.

algary Herald 215 -16th Street S.E. R0. Box 2400 Station Calgary, Alberta, T2P 0W8 Guide ih, Associated Press American porn movie actress Nina Hartley stars in Bubbles Galore, which was granted $120,000 in funding from the Canada Council and four other art agencies. an exciting experience and particularly enjoyed working with actors who rehearse their scenes. Although she admits Bubbles presents a radically positive view of sex and pornography, she calls the film "sweet and fun.

It was a like a soap opera or a little bit of a cartoon. It was meant to be taken metaphorically." And the ending, in which her character winds up in the arms of another woman, she found particularly uplifting. "She defeats evil and finds true love. You can't beat that," Hartley says. Hartley feels that adult films can be fun and educational for both men and women.

"Sex like anything is a skill," she says. The Ottawa Citizen on Visii Our OiviEqA BoutIque at our new locAiioiN 409 5Rd St. S.W. TeL 266-1669 I Calgary Herald www.calgaryherald.com i Nkvvspapkr SubscriptionRates Monthly home delivered in Calgary .415.13 Monthly home delivered by Motor Route Single-copy purchases $L0O Prices differ outside Calgary city limits. Daily mailed in Canada Daity mailed outside Canada -472600 annualty .41466.00 annualry Rates include applicable G.SX Member of Audit Bureau of Circulation I i 4 Pierce Brosnan'S Choice 7 MATTHEW CAMPBELL Washington A group of black schoolchildren from Chicago had an unusual lesson last week.

On a visit to a gift shop specializing in black U.S. history, they were invited to try on leg irons and manacles to discover how it must have felt to be a white man's slave. Marchel'le Barber, the shopkeeper, was unapologetic about putting the children in chains. "We like to talk to children about black history," she said. Trying on the shackles had been "a wonderful experience for them." It is also big business, as recent Hollywood films have fuelled a craze for memorabilia of the slave days.

From manacles to bullwhips to plantation ledgers, the grim relics are being traded and collected as enthusiastically as antique furniture. Critics who believe the market exploits one of the most shameful chapters of U.S. history are being all but drowned out in the rush by blacks to acquire valuable slavery souvenirs. Lotteries Saturday's Lotto 649:2,10,12,15, 18,36. Bonus: 14.

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