Editor’s Note

Yes We Can(ada)!

I’d like to use this space to welcome our cover girl Scarlett Johansson to Canada.

Now, I know, you haven’t moved here, Scarlett. And marrying a Canadian — actor Ryan Reynolds — doesn’t even mean you have Canadian citizenship. But it is a good first step. Here are some reasons we think you might want to go all the way and become a full-fledged Canuck.

• It will make it easier for you to get bit parts in movies shot in Canada. You see, films shot here get tax credits for hiring Canadians. That’s why you see so many unknown Canadian actors playing “girl on bus,” “gossipy woman” or “man at party” in big American movies. You could be “girl on bus.”
• Our young stars are very well behaved. Sarah Polley made it all the way from child star to award-winning director without ever getting out of a car sans underwear.
• We work words like “sans” into regular conversation.
• Ten years ago Canadian Atom Egoyan was nominated for a Best Director Oscar for The Sweet Hereafter. It’s true. We’re still talking about it.
• We have our own version of the Oscars. It’s called the Geminis. No, wait, the Junos. No, the Genies. Yes, the Genies.
• Lots of directors and producers you’d like to work with are from here and — we’re not supposed to tell you this, but — they will give you preferential treatment if you’re Canadian. They include Norman Jewison, Lorne Michaels, David Cronenberg and Pamela Anderson. (What? She produced episodes of V.I.P, Stacked and Pam: Girl on the Loose.)
• Our men are hot. Not just your Ryan, but even some of our non-actors have managed to snag big-time celebrity partners. There’s French-Canadian model Gabriel Aubry, Halle Berry’s baby-daddy. And no-name David Furnish is married to Elton John. Oh yeah, gay marriage has been legal here for years. We don’t know for sure, but have a feeling you voted against Prop 8. Didn’t all celebrities?
• We really liked Ghost World.

Speaking of your comic book-based movies, we have “Fanboys’ Dream,” an interview with you, Scarlett, and your co-star Eva Mendes about your second foray into the genre. This time, the film is The Spirit, about a cop who returns from the dead to fight crime. (Oh yeah, we have much better gun control.)

Keanu Reeves is Canadian. And in “Space Man” he tells us about playing an alien in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. But don’t worry, we also asked him about hockey.

"A Great Plot" is part one of my interview with Tom Cruise (who lived in Ottawa from age nine to 11) about his World War II pic Valkyrie. Pick up the January issue for the rest of the interview.