Canadian actor Dan Aykroyd, left, poses for a picture with Larry Kingston yesterday at an NB Liquor store in Saint John
Metro meets Aykroyd today
Canadian actor in Dieppe today as part of wine tour of N.B.
By ROD ALLEN
SAINT JOHN - Not to be outdone by the City of Fredericton where Canadian movie star Dan Aykroyd personally signed 1,933 bottles of his Aykroyd wine plus a leg earlier this week, the Saint Johners produced a belly.
"A pregnant woman came in and asked him to sign her belly," says Norah Lacey, spokesperson for NB Liquor and the sponsor of the New Brunswick leg of Aykroyd's Atlantic Canadian tour of duty wrapping on The Rock Friday.
"So, he did. It's been kind of 'wild and crazy' around here."
Indeed.
The star of Saturday Night Live and dozens of hit movies like Ghostbusters -- he's currently on new-release video shelves this week for his part in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry -- has taken the province by storm since arriving Sunday in the provincial capital, where he signed bottles, photographs, movie DVDs and a man's 'Blues Brothers' leg tattoo.
At his second Fredericton stop he signed 1,044 bottles of wine, the first time he's sold anywhere close to 1,000 bottles at any one stop on a cross-Canada tour, leaving his distributor Diamond Estates of Niagara Falls agape.
Clearly a competition has since emerged.
Although they might have managed a coup in the body-part department with the leg the Saint Johners, however valiantly, did not quite beat those deep-pocketed Frederictonians with the port city's tally yesterday of just under 1,000 bottles.
However, Lacey noted Aykroyd also signed and sold 55 bottles of Patron Tequila, that distributor's all-time sales record for any one promotional event.
Now, there are some as might look askance at encouraging the free flow of Christmas cheer at this time of year, but it is probably safe to assume that Metro Monctonians fully intend to salt their signed bottles of Aykroyd Cabernet-Merlot or Chardonnay under the tree or in the sock rather than consume them in any irresponsible or unseemly fashion.
However, it seems just as likely that they fully intend to beat our rival cities into the snow in the arena of conviviality.
Aykroyd arrives at Dieppe's fabulous St. Paul Street NB Liquor outlet at 11 a.m. and will hang in there until the last bottle is signed, figures Lacey; that's been his way all week.
Incidentally, everyone in the province has been following the story; a number of charitable fundraising events, such as Moncton's Peter Gzowski Invitational for Literacy, have contacted the actor in hopes of luring him back here this summer.
Sadly, Aykroyd is in Europe for the Aug. 21 event but his penchant for accommodation hasn't failed PGI's beneficiary, the Literacy Coalition of New Brunswick. Executive director Anne Leslie told the Times & Transcript he is donating a consignment of wine to PGI's dining event, as well as a personal item that will go in the PGI auction, all to raise funds for literacy programs in the province.
After today he heads for Prince Edward Island and then Newfoundland before heading home for his native Ontario.