Guest columnist Kathy Barthel fills in this issue while Samantha Yaffe is away on her honeymoon.

Filming is underway in Toronto on the Alliance Atlantis Communications TV movie The Jenifer Estess Project (working title), a two-hour, event movie for CBS. The US$5-million film tells the true story of a young New York theatre producer Jenifer Estess (Laura San Giocomo - Just Shoot Me), who contracts Lou Gehrig's Disease, and with the help of her sisters Valerie (Jane Kaczmarek - Malcolm in the Middle) and Meredith (Annabella Sciorra - The Sopranos), begins a foundation to speed research for a cure.

But it's not a typical "disease-of-the-week movie, " according to Ed Gernon, executive vice-president, movies and miniseries, Alliance Atlantis Television Production. "The film takes the disease-of-the-week formula and flips it on its ear," he says. "This is a lady with a ribald sense of humor and [it's also] a strange kind of love story. This movie is about a woman who discovers love in the twilight of her life."

The film features appearances by Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinnie) and Rob Morrow (Northern Exposure), who got their start at Jenifer Estess' New York theatre company Naked Angels. Also starring are Edie Falco (The Sopranos), Julianna Margulies (ER), and Camryn Manheim (The Practice). All the actors worked for scale, and many donated their earnings to Estess' foundation, Project ALS.

AAC Emmy and Golden Globe nominees Peter Sussman and Gernon (Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, Nuremberg, Joan of Arc) will executive produce along with Brenda Friend (A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story). David Marshall Grant and Patricia Resnick wrote the teleplay from a story by Valerie Estess and Geoffrey Nauffts. Co-executive producers are Jenifer Estess and Sue Leibman. Michael Maschio is producer.

This will be the first long-form project for director Jace Alexander (Law & Order, Ally McBeal), whose mother Jane Alexander has a cameo role in the production. The CBS airdate is undetermined, and the producers are looking for a Canadian network simulcast. The film wraps in Toronto, June 11.

July shoot for Hurt

The new feature film Hurt tells the story of three troubled 16-year-olds who meet at a party, become best friends, and over the course of the next 48 hours, plot to kill two of their fathers.

"It's a story about friendship, pain, family, relationships and how parents can really affect and influence teens through how they treat them," says producer Bob Banack (formerly of Goldman Sachs Canada, now partner and business affairs producer at Toronto's Charlotte Bernard Entertainment). It is also a timely project, according to Banack, since it reminds us of real-life stories like the tragedy of Columbine High School.

Budgeted at $750,000, the film will shoot in July around Toronto and stars three young Torontonians as the troubled teens: Terra Vnessa, Stephanie Nickoladis and Andrew Martin-Smith. Banack and Joel Awerbuck (former partner in Paradox Productions) will produce through their company Charlotte Bernard Entertainment.