What an odd weekend of TV, packed with all sorts of singular events and reports, some compelling, depending on your taste. You may remember news reports about a 16-year-old Barrie, Ont. boy and his on-line relationship with a 42-year-old mother of four from Texas. The case is the subject of Cyber Seduction (Saturday, Global, 7 p.m. on 16:9: The Bigger Picture) and includes exclusive interviews with the boy and his mother. Note also that if you got a kick out of the women's curling at the Olympics, then you might tune into the 2010 World Women's Championship (Sunday, TSN, 9 p.m.). It starts with Canada vs. Norway - Canada's team is led by the fabulous Jennifer Jones. Also on Sunday there's the start of Kirstie Alley's Big Life (A&E 10 p.m.) featuring the aggressively self-absorbed actress trying to lose weight, again. ''By creating this program I'll help millions of other flabby f---ers just like me,'' Alley announces, but it's really about her, of course. And her line of weight-loss products. The main TV menu has one major diva, one little diva and a very sobering doc about the continuing aftershocks of 9/11.
- Inside the Actors' Studio: James Cameron Sunday, Bravo! 5 p.m.
This series, with its famously unctuous and fawning host James Lipton, returns and kicks off with Cameron, even more famous for declaring himself "king of the world." It is, for much of the early going, fairly subdued and interesting. Lipton asks Cameron about his childhood in Canada but really he wants to move on to Cameron's start in the film business. Cameron, being well-used to praise and willing to cultivate it, is perfectly happy to talk about his youth and early days the movie racket. The epiphany moment for him was seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey. Another major moment was seeing Star Wars and later examining how it was made. There is also some interesting material about Cameron working for legendary B-movie mogul Roger Corman and making his first horror film for Corman's company. The audience in the studio for the interview is even more fawning than Lipton and applauds at almost every mention of a successful Cameron movie. Aliens was in part about the war in Vietnam, we're told. And he pitched Titanic as "Romeo and Juliet on the Titanic." Cameron also explains how environmental issues are at the core of Avatar and how he has been influenced by Hinduism. It's a fascinating interview, but not for those viewers easily upset by giant, predatory egos.
- FashionTelevision (Sunday, CTV, 5:30 p.m.)
Even if you're proud of not being on top of fashion trends and news, you've got to see this. This episode of the long-running fashion news series features one Tavi Gevinson as a guest reporter. Ms. Gevinson is 13 years old and, indicative of the sheer strangeness of the contemporary fashion world, she's a star. Her Style Rookie blog, which she began writing when she was an 11-year-old, attracts more readers than many newspapers and she's treated as an important figure by major designers. Also, to her credit, she dresses with formidable originality. Mind you, she has described herself as a "tiny 13-year-old dork that sits inside all day wearing awkward jackets and pretty hats." Here she examines clothes and accessories during New York fashion week, and interviews models and designers. She's in rapture about some sunglasses she sees and extols the virtues of pearls. What makes her compelling is that she's completely unawed by the stars she meets. She's also astute and articulate. Asked about her celebrity status she says, "The clothes are the important part. The parties and everything else are just fog." This being fashion, of course, there is considerable cattiness about little Tavi. The knives were out when she covered some couture shows in Paris, ending up in the front row with an outrageously large bow on her head. My dears, this little show featuring this little lady is one weird little insight into the fashion racket.
- 9/11: Phone Calls from the Towers (Sunday, CBCNN, 10 p.m.)
This new doc is a chilling reminder of the enduring impact of 9/11. It deals with phone calls made by people working in the twin towers and interviews with people - family and friends - who received the calls and messages that day. It opens with a recording of one of the first calls made to 911 by a worker in the towers who thought he just heard a bomb explode. Then it goes through many calls made and messages left in the first minutes, when it was not clear what was happening. As somebody points out in the program, those outside and watching on TV were far more aware of the seriousness of the situation than those inside. The documentary declares itself to be, in part, about "The choices people make in their final moments." And indeed it is that. Many people called family and declared their love. Soon after the first plane hit one of the towers, a man called his wife and left a message saying, "I don't know if I'm going to be okay. I love you so much." His wife managed to reach him and he was calm, but resigned to a terrible fate. A young man, who had recently arrived in New York City and just begun working there, called his parents and left a message to reassure them that he was fine. Her thought he was. But they never spoke again. This is not easy viewing, but it is revealing about how people behave and react in the face of horror.