Canadian sci-fi, horror, comic, and gaming fans of all stripes donned their geekwear again this weekend for the annual Fan Expo convention. Held every year, it's the closest thing us Canucks can get to the US' Comic Con. (In many cases, visiting celebs voiced their preference for Canada, though. So there.)

There was no dearth of costumes this year, and I counted at least 20 Storm Troopers. Honestly, just hire those guys (and gals) to be your security next year. I think the 5-year-old boy dressed as Batman would have provided better security than the staff at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, who inexplicably held back crowds of people on Front Street, citing capacity concerns. I mean, they were kidding, right? The place is the size of a zillion airplane hangars. Luckily nerds are generally adept at the art of argument, and before you could say 'Yoda' they were in.

I don't think anybody in 1987 could have predicted the success of the new show, Degrassi Junior High, premiering on CBC. Always gritty, sometimes ugly, and downright Canadian in every aspect, Degrassi has a longevity that no other homegrown show can brag about. Now, over 20 years later, the next-generation Degrassi kids are doing things that Caitlin, Joey, and Wheels could only dream about. They're heading to Hollywood.

How many movie and television iterations of this classic Lewis Carroll tale have been made? There was the Disney classic (of course), there was that weird TV miniseries/movie with Carol Channing and John Stamos that used to scare the bejesus out of me, and there was the little-seen 1988 psychedelic nightmare Alice, directed by Jan Svankmajer. There's probably more out there, depending what country you live in. The beauty of Carroll's story is just that - it's malleable, adaptable, and best of all, not ever confined within certain boundaries.

CTV and ABC are promoting their new apocalyptic drama, Flash Forward, as the new Lost. Starring Joseph Fiennes from Shakespeare in Love, John Cho (Harold and Kumar, Star Trek) and Brian F. O'Byrne (Million Dollar Baby), there is certainly no dearth of star power. And the premise - an unexplained, cataclysmic event causes the Earth's entire population to pass out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds - isn't bad either. But there's something about the show that's lacking.

I should have known from the moment I realized there was a Tiger Beat reporter standing next to me: this was going to be a teeny bopper's paradise.

With current hunk band the Jonas Brothers hosting this year's Much Music Video Awards live on downtown Toronto's Queen St. W., it was guaranteed there would be plenty of the Lipsmackers-and-braces brigade. I guess we all didn't anticipate what would actually happen - some girls no older than 12 were wearing jean shorts that defied gravity, and one girl had her phone numbers written in huge writing on a sign, which she promptly held up for any passing cameras. Scary times, people.

Short films get short shrift - it's a fact. But what most people don't realize is there are many rich layers encapsulated in the brief time frame, that get lost or too convoluted in a regular feature film's length. Often, an issue or theme can be conveyed within seconds rather than hours.

Running from June 16-21, 2009 in Toronto, the Worldwide Short Film Festival is the largest short film festival in North America, and one of the key short film festivals in the world. This year, audiences can view a wide-ranging collection of 295 short films, from 46 countries around the globe.

Sitting down to watch hundreds of little movies is more daunting than it actually sounds, but we've emerged from our dark cave with our top 10 picks of the festival. For complete listings and information, visit the WWSFF website at shorterisbetter.com.

Everyone hates Toronto. I get it. I've travelled from the west coast to the east coast of Canada, and whenever I say I was born and raised in this city, I get the same averted eyes, the same overt sneer. But despite it all, I'm still proud to say I'm from here, especially with the city's diversity and broad range of cultural events. The latest fest to crowd the streets is Luminato, a celebration of arts (visual, dance, music, and theatre) that runs from June 5-14. It's a time when Toronto's dirtiness and scuzziness (yes, I do agree they exist) are nicely shielded from tourists' eyes by a cornucopia of strange happenings.

When I heard that director J.J. Abrams was going to make Star Trek appeasing to the mainstream movie-going audience, I'll admit that I was worried. All I could picture was scantily-clad female aliens, or cheesy, complex love triangles dominating the storyline. To my immense pleasure, not only did Abrams steer clear of the traditional mainstream vehicles, but he made the Star Trek genre into something cool, something that everyone - nerds and non-nerds alike - can revel in.

Most people like silly slapstick humour - I have ever since I saw Leslie Nielson in The Naked Gun when I was a child. I would laugh at his stupid jokes, the shameless impersonations, and the crude boob/sex humour. Even co-stars Priscilla Presley and O.J. Simpson could get laughs out of me. Looking back, I realize that for the time, these were 'edgy' comedies; that is, the humour was pushing boundaries. So when I contemplate the date-rape scene in the Seth Rogen flick Observe and Report, I get concerned for several reasons.

NOTE: Spoilers ahead. Read on, but you've been warned!

The cast of Battlestar Galactica bade farewell to the dark, crumbling halls of Galactica many months ago, but we diehard fans are just preparing to leave. It's hard to believe the show's been on for five short (or long?) years, and we have to sever ties with our favourite characters already. I can't overstate what a pleasure it's been to be a passenger on BSG. In honour of the 13 Cylons and original colonies, here are the top 13 things that I loved the most about the show:

Everyone everywhere is blogging about how dull and predictable this ceremony will be, so we won't bore you with that same diatribe. But we will say that there probably won't be any surprises tonight: Slumdog Millionaire will win Best Picture, Danny Boyle will win Best Director, Heath Ledger will win Best Supporting Actor, and Wall-E will win Best Animated Feature. Hopefully, the 'surprises' the Academy has promised to wheel out are of the interesting variety. Anything to spice up this yawnfest.

So by now, everybody's heard about the Rihanna situation: allegedly, her boyfriend Chris Brown (hopefully her soon-to-be ex) beat her up in a fit of rage. There's still speculation as to what caused the debacle. Some say it was her infidelity, and some say it was his, while others attest there's a long back story involving a romance between Jay-Z and Rihanna. Any way you slice it, it's a horrific event that makes you stop and think.

There are some things that celebrities do that can never be taken back. Some examples include Britney's head shaving, Nick Nolte's erratic drug-and-alcohol fuelled bender a few years ago, and Michael Richards' racist explosion. Near the top of the celebrity mishap list is Tom Cruise's infamous couch-jumping on Oprah. Since then, it's been impossible to forget.

Going 'on the record' implies you're going to tell the uncensored truth. Not only that, it indicates that you're going to reveal something the world didn't previously know. But when celebrities aspire to 'tell all', I smell a large, stinky rat. A rat in the form of the PR machine, eager to dispel rumours, innuendo, and scandal.

Britney Spears joined the ranks of celebrity 'truth'-spewers last week, in her much-ballyhooed and much-watched TV special, On the Record. It's amazing that we still care about this girl, whose VERY public meltdown last year shocked and scared us. Spontaneous head shaving? Attacking a car with an umbrella? That's the stuff of a severe psychiatric case, not a multi-millionaire performing artist. And you'd think we'd have enough sense to leave the poor thing alone...but no. Instead her handlers and recording company still see gigantic dollar signs swimming around her, and they keep squeezing out every last dime.

Remember the good ol' days, when a celebrity was a celebrity and it ended there? I mean, sure, most stars would be in the occasional TV commercial, but there wasn't the mass market ridiculousness that there is today. A starring role in a movie or on television doesn't seem to cut it anymore. Celebrities feel the need to cast their net wider, at the same time maximizing profit and fame. As with everything, it all comes down to dollarz.