The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 24

The Weekend Sun Saturday, February 1, 1997 Arts Entertainment Editor Bart Jackson 732-2120 FAX 732-2521 I Hold the front page, the tabloid hounds are in town and hot on the scent KERRY GOLD j-iii, iiM I fi Somehow, this middle-aged British stranger in a creased raincoat has entered her home and coaxed her to reveal details that make her heart skip. For the past week Vancouver has been the destination for a convoy of press hounds who cover standard-fare celebrity, oddball and sensation stories. It's not often the "tabloid" press descend on this city, but with a burgeoning local film industry, it's a parasitic relationship that can only flourish. The story began two weeks ago as a slow trickle of interest, when rumors surfaced that X-Files star Gillian Anderson and a local actor named Adrian Hughes had a romantic relationship. When the story broke that Hughes has five counts of sexual assault charges against him, the frenzy turned into something close to hysteria.

Tabloid from the U.K., checked into the Four Seasons Hotel and went to Work, flushing out alleged victims for interviews and photographs, hounding an already aggravated Hughes, all the while tossing out large amounts of money. Vancouver Police Constable Anne Drennan told reporters Thursday she had been taking up to 50 calls a day from reporters in England, the U.S., France and Germany. Some were polite, others obnoxious. Some even offered money. "He said: 'Listen luv, let's cut to the chase," she says of a British reporter.

"We're willing to offer you five I said: 'Oh my God, we can't accept and he slammed the phone down." A Vancouver woman named Laura, who offered to sell a photo of Hughes for her girlfriend, was told her photo would be worth thousands of dollars if her girlfriend was willing to be quoted as saying: "He looked at me, and sent a shiver down my spine." She and her friend rejected the offer. "I thought these guys were sleazeballs." Ian Markham-Smith has worked on newspapers for almost three decades. He's covered small-paper, dog-napping stories, has been a war correspondent Vancouver Sun A tabloid reporter is inside the apartment of a Vancouver woman, whispering into his cellular phone. The woman is in the next room, and the reporter's voice is charged with adrenalin, like a kid waiting to open his Christmas stocking. Tm with a victim right now, and she's talking," he hisses in a British accent.

"She's in the next room. "She's got photos too good ones, The man is apparently so pleased with his lucky break he's willing to share the news with anyone who phones. He whispers so as not to disappoint the woman, to whose home he's obviously gained access, whose trust he's won, and who, if his charm and quick wit can sustain that trust, will disclose the painfully intimate details of an alleged rape that she had previously disclosed to only a few close friends, family and police. MARK VAN MANENVancouver Sun FRONTAL ASSAULT: Ian Markham-Smith shows how London tabloids do it boom" stories), was a magazine now runs his own news agency out of editor in Hong Kong for three years, Los Angeles with his wife. worked for the National Enquirer and pime see Tabloids, BIO WEEKEND FOCUS The latest collaboration between the UBC and the First Nations has dug up striking details of a past culture SMILING FROG: contemporary artist Susan Point has recreated complete totem figure from a fragment for Written in the Earth exhibit 0 Unearthed treasures WRITTEN IN THE EARTH Archaeology of the South Coast UBC Museum of Anthropology, until March IS MICHAEL SCOTT ill ill i the complex protocols involved, the first thing visitors to the exhibition see is the framed official "Permit to conduct Archaeological investigations on a Musqueam Traditional Territory" issued to the museum by the Musqueam First Nation, on whose traditional territory the museum sits.

The story told in Written in the Earth begins 3,000 years ago, at a time when a loose confederation of aboriginal people lived around the southern end of Georgia Straight groups we know today as the Squamish, Burrard, Katzie, Semiahmoo, Swinomish, Songhees, Saanich, Tsawwassen, Nanaimo and Musqueam. Once labelled incorrectly as Coast Salish, these relatively independent groups today prefer to be called X'dlmdx (pronounced Whul-mookh), a term in their shared language that means "the people." The artifacts presented here show a culture steeped in myth and highly skilled at artistic expression. Working in antler, stone, wood and bone, the Whul-mookh turned even harpoon blades and pestles into intricately adorned art works. Almost a third of the artifacts on display came from a giant midden in what is now the Marpole neighborhood of Vancouver. Covering more than two hectares, this refuse pile was largely destroyed by road construction and amateur pot hunters in the 1950s and '60s before the provincial government had enacted effective heritage regulations.

Even picked over and bulldozed, the Great Fraser Midden has produced fragments of greatness: from the wonderful amber-colored heron pendant that doubled as a pestle for ceremonial pigments, to intricately carved brow ornaments and labrets. Contemporary artist Susan Point has taken a fragment of a Marpole brow ornament and recreated the complete totem figure from which it sprang, Smiling Frog. Brow ornaments were worn knotted together around the forehead by high-born Whul-mookh, along with labrets and other facial adornments. One of the great treasures of the exhibition was found farther south, in a muddy side stream of the Skagit River. This wooden atlatl, or throwing lever, dates back 1,500 years to an era before the bow and arrow.

An atlatl, common to native cultures throughout North and South America is a small, hand-held pivot that hunters used to multiply the force of their spear tosses. This example shows a feathered sea-monster and a human figure, rising from its spine in a magnificently carved arc. Please see Artifacts, B10 Vancouver Sun Art Critic When a man destroys a centuries'-old living treasure in Haida Gwaii, we all suffer the loss. When a road builder drives a bulldozer through an unmapped burial site in Coquitlam, the aboriginal descendants of the people interred there are not the only ones who lose the threads of their heritage. The latest collaboration between the University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology and the province's First Nations is a stark reminder mat we are indeed, all pieces of the same continent, all part of the same main.

Written in the Earth explores the rich archeological record of the South Coast of British Columbia and the messages inscribed there below ground. Like its predecessor, From Under the Delta, a survey mounted last year of wet-site archeology in the lower Fraser delta, Written in the Earth is a painstaking partnership between the academic forces of the museum and the aboriginal groups whose lands and artifacts the archeologists are examining. Attesting to TWO USES: amber-colored heron pendant doubled as a pestle MEDIA Baton promises B.C. boost, but TV channel win gets mixed reception ALEX STPACHAN and TIM CARLSON Vancouver Sun The B.C. film and television production industry is elated with Baton Broadcasting's win in Friday's television licensing decision.

There is disappointment, however, in the wider entertainment community which generally supported Toronto media mogul Moses Znaimer's proposal to establish Vtv, based on the active and colorful style of CHUM's CityTV in Toronto. The Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications decided to grant a sole licence to Baton Broadcasting and CrvT-Vancouver Television Inc. for a new over-the-air station for Vancouver. Baton's CIVT was approved over lUM's Vtv, Craig Broadcasting's VTTV, CanWest-Global's Vancouver Island Television and Rogers Broadcasting's CFMV. The new station will be on the air mitted feeling disappointed.

"It could have opened up all sorts of doors for the local arts community," he said. Mulligan said he has faith in Baton's commitment to bring a new voice to Vancouver's broadcasting scene, but says he wishes the CRTC had taken a leap of faith and granted more than one licence. Ellie OTJay, executive director of the Pacific Music Industry Association, supported the Vtv proposal, but felt there was room for another station as well. "I really hoped that they would have chosen more than one station. That's my first disappointment," says O'Day, who is also a member of the B.C.

Film Commission board and a director of the Vancouver Cultural Alliance. "We are so far behind in this market Its been well over 20 years since we've had a new li cent memory, including The Boys Of St. Vincent, underlined CrVTs commitment to B.C.-based production. CIVTs eight-member board of directors includes four prominent British Columbians, Fecan noted: Daryl Duke, Calvin Helin, David Y. H.

Lui and Catherine Murray. "They're all known for their opinions and their passion, and I doubt they will let much get by them," Fecan said. "We were conscious that we're not from Vancouver, but then neither were any of the other candidates. And we're absolutely determined to be good citizens in Vancouver." The Vtv proposal offered Vancouver's growing entertainment scene the most open forum, with conduits to Much Music and the arts channel Bravol where CI IUM proved its commitment to music and arts programming. Terry David Mulligan, part-time actor, host of MuchMusic's MusicWest and co-host of Bravol's Music Television, ad dren's and documentary programming.

Programming will come from independent producers, and Baton has guaranteed at least half will come from B.C. Baton also committed to air two new Canadian one-hour drama series in prime time. B.C. Film president and CEO Wayne Sterloff said the CRTC decision is sound. "It's going to present the TV viewers in British Columbia with a great alternative," Sterloff said.

"I think the couch potatoes had better start reaching for the memory on their remote control." Sterloff said Baton went out of its way to make a commitment to B.C. com-munties in its application, citing CrVTs promise to establish six news bureaus staffed with multilingual reporters and based in ethnic communities. From Toronto, Baton president Ivan Fecan, a former programming chief of CBC-TV and the man widely considered to have been the architect behind some of the CBCs most powerful drama in re TERRY DAVID MULLIGAN: admits to feeling disappointed to B.C. production: $72 million over seven years, augmented by $36 million from Baton's nationwide station group, $53 million of which will go to licence fees for Canadian drama, variety, chil censee." Sept. 1.

Please set TV channel, B8 Baton has made a firm commitment.