Bistro for Baird

Shinan Govani, Political press conferences so often take on the chimera of a closely followed Hollywood script.
How beautifully apropos, then, that last week, after John Baird presided over one of the biggest such scenes in the history of his Conservative government, he found himself at the very spot that so many Hollywood stars situate themselves after a film festival premiere. Just beautiful.

Hey, if you had just been publicly rebuked by David Suzuki, as Baird had, wouldn't you need a cocktail, too?
So, after unveiling the federal government's plan to combat climate change -- a plan that, in days since, has clearly taken on political tones of damned-if-youdo- damned-if-you-don't, and has even been attacked by Al Gore -- Baird kept pretty close to the bar. There, he was also eye-spied chumming about with friends, some of whom kept referring to him as "Johnny.

"
Bistro 990, which gets a lot of regulars -- social recycling, you might call it -- has been a frequent spot of Baird's ever since he served, some years ago, as a minister at Queen's Park down the road. Besides crusading ministers, the place also happens to be a fave of TV's most arresting and sweat-causin' agent, Jack Bauer.
Now, Kiefer Sutherland and John Baird?

How fabulous would it be if these two ended up at the Bistro together one night?
Did you know that celebrity cook and National Post contributor Bonnie Stern has a new recipe for mistaken identity?
In what is one of the most bizzare tales of the year, Stern has found herself spatially connected to the ongoing Anna Nicole Smith soap opera.

It's because she shares a name with the late pin-up's sister. (Yup, she's also Bonnie Stern!)
"A few weeks ago a friend of a friend saw me at someone's house and said that her friend had called her with some great gossip and that I was her sister!

I laughed and said they all knew for years and wouldn't they know if that was true?
"Then," our Stern goes on, "I got an e-mail from someone I used to work with on Canada AM who had moved to Chicago -- I hadn't heard from her in years and years and she brought me up to date with her work (NBC news and now a Web newscast) and family, etc. and then said 'I guess you know what I want' and I didn't know what she was talking about -- she wanted an interview about Danni Lynn!

"Then," she goes on still, "I got an e-mail from someone unknown in the States that I should e-mail all the U.S. media and tell them that I wasn't that Bonnie Stern because everyone was boycotting my Web site!

That's when I stopped laughing."
The whole thing has left the cook thoroughly confused: "What I can't figure out is, don't they do their research? I saw the other Bonnie Stern on an interview a few months ago and she seemed very nice but she definitely wasn't a cook from Canada!

Even I knew that and I don't know anything about the whole story!"