Trudeau bares bottom, refuses stunt double

Would-be Liberal politician, new-father-to-be, and thespian -- Justin Trudeau is doing it all.

This week has been an especially big one for him: There was the announcement that he and his wife, Sophie Gregoire, are expecting their first child in the fall; news that the nomination fight for the Montreal riding of Papineau that he wants to represent will take place on April 29; and a movie in which he acted, The Great War, aired last weekend and will be broadcast again on CBC Newsworld today and tomorrow.

The Great War Experience, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the four-hour film on the First World War, will be shown tomorrow at 8 p.m. The film, by Robin McKenna, shows how the 150 actors, all descendants of the First World War soldiers, lived for two weeks in a boot camp at St. Bruno, Que. They slept in tents, ate First World War rations and bonded.

Mr. Trudeau, however, did not live at the camp. Rather, he swept in for his scenes. Ms. McKenna said the women who played the nurses swooned over him. The men who played the soldiers made fun of him because he was "the pretty boy who showed up for the day," while the other guys had been sleeping on the ground in tents.

Mr. Trudeau played the role of war hero Talbot Papineau. Ms. McKenna said he refused a stunt double for some of the riskier scenes, such as running through barbed wire. He rode his own horse and was very adventurous.

Mr. Trudeau was the first to suggest that he and the other actors run naked into the water for one scene. Ms. McKenna said the actors had initially decided to wear underwear for the swimming scene until one of them showed an old picture that depicted a bunch of skinny soldiers running naked into the water. Mr. Trudeau said that he'd bare his backside if the other guys did. He said it was the first time he'd been naked on CBC.

Timing is everything

The much-anticipated race for the Liberal nomination in Ottawa Centre between two long-time Liberals -- Penny Collenette and Scott Bradley -- is to take place today with speeches beginning at 1 p.m. and voting between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. The second playoff game between the Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins begins at 3 p.m. at Scotiabank Place, about 30 minutes east of the voting venue. The challenge for the two candidates will be to keep their delegates in the room; they may have to sit on them. Go Sens go!

Hot and not

Not: PM and the national media. Prime Minister Stephen Harper travelled on the same plane with the press to Vimy, France, for the rededication of the Canadian monument and 90th anniversary of the famous First World War battle. But he did not speak to the news media during the trip, nor did he sleep in the same town as reporters. Rather, he and his family stayed in Lille, which is about 40 kilometres away from Arras, where the Canadian news media were put up for several days. On the way home, however, certain reporters were asked if they would like to have an off-the-record chat with the PM at the front of the plane. Several agreed and met with him but did not report the conversations because of the cone-of-PM-silence clause.

Hot: Duelling dinners. The Tories are so in charge of the social scene in Ottawa these days that not one but two major dinners are being held at the same hotel -- the Fairmont Chateau Laurier -- on Wednesday night. Former Tory prime minister Brian Mulroney will be feted by the Ukrainian government at the same time as former Reform Party leader Preston Manning will be the star attraction at the Manning Centre for Building Democracy's inaugural Future Leaders' Series fundraising dinner. Mr. Harper is to shuttle between both.

Not: Liberal women in politics. Stéphane Dion seems to be spending more time getting a woman from another party elected -- Green Party Leader Elizabeth May -- than he is fulfilling his promise of having 33 per cent of his candidates women. This week he lost high-profile MP Belinda Stronach. She has decided to go back to the family business, Magna International. Lucienne Robillard, a veteran Montreal MP, announced recently she was leaving, and then on Thursday night, long-time Liberal policy guru Marva Wisdom lost the nomination in Guelph, Ont., to local lawyer, Frank Valeriote.