Cake will be released in the US and Canada tomorrow and can be purchased through Amazon.com and rented through Blockbuster and Netflix. Happy Valentine’s Day! 
When it comes to romance and independence, can you have your cake and eat it, too?
That’s the question posed by a new romantic comedy called Cake, which opens in theatres across Canada on Friday. It’s Canadian in that it was written, produced and directed by homegrown talent, although two bankable American stars – Heather Graham and Taye Diggs – have been cast in the leads.
On a recent Tuesday night, the rooftop penthouse level of the Checkers Hilton pool was the scene of a wrap party for Broken — a low-profile indie with high-profile stars Heather Graham and Jeremy Sisto backed by Linda Hamilton, Jake Busey and a cast of 20. No Pat O’Brien, red carpets, PR flacks or paparazzi here; this affair was a low-key throwback to when independent films were really independent and so were the wrap parties.
Up on the roof the movie stars hung around the swimming pool on a spectral summer night. That secret Art Deco alcove provided a view of all the natural and man-made wonders of Los Angeles — skyscrapers towering into a perfect, blue, cloud-laced, edible L.A. August sky, jumbo jets swooping gracefully into their approach. By 8 p.m. there were around 100 cast and crew eating, drinking and relaxing.
IT IS the Hollywood divorce that eclipses even Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston in sound and fury, but next month Harvey and Bob Weinstein finally break up their successful but tumultuous partnership with Disney after 12 years. And as with many divorces, the split has caused some devastation, since this is a divorce with children. As the company winds up, almost two dozen long-overdue films have been taken off Miramax’s shelves, dusted down and sent out into cinemas to face their uncertain futures.
When you watch The Crying Game, Pulp Fiction, Il Postino or Chicago, the first thing you will see is the stylised rendering of the Manhattan skyline at night, the brand image of Miramax. In the 26 years since founding the company, which they named after their parents Miriam and Max, the Weinstein brothers have become the most influential executives in the indie film world, charging up the art-house sector with a more competitive, more aggressive approach to marketing their movies to the mainstream. A Miramax movie carries the promise of a little darkness, a corkscrew of the conventional, emotion and danger.
The daring director Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant) has a North American premiere of Mary, a complicated tale of an independent director (Matthew Modine) who casts himself as Jesus Christ in his film, while the actress (Juliette Binoche) who plays Mary Magdalene travels alone to Jerusalem after her shoot to continue her spiritual quest. A year later in Manhattan, a superstar network journalist (Forest Whitaker) investigates the life and times of Jesus Christ. His show receives high ratings, but he and his wife (Heather Graham) reach a relationship boiling point.