BC Producers Replacing Carradine In "Portland"...

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The sudden death of actor David Carradine has the Vancouver-based producers of the film "Portland" scrambling to fill a major role.

The indie film, by writer/director Matthew Mishory, has pushed back its production schedule in Vancouver, Portland and Laguna Beach, Calif.

Carradine was to play the role of a priest in the film.

"Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time," said executive producers Adrian Salpeter and Elizabeth Levine of Vancouver-based Random Bench Productions.

Carradine died in Bangkok, during production of the feature film "Stretch".

Carradine appeared in more than 100 feature films and best known for his role as 'Kwai Chang Caine', a Shaolin priest who roamed the American frontier in the TV series "Kung Fu", 1972-75.

He played Caine's grandson in the 1990's Toronto-lensed syndicated series "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues"recently and enjoyed renewed success as an actor in director Quentin Tarantino's 2 part "Kill Bill" features...

CRTC Says No To Internet Regulation...

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The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC), Canada's broadcast regulator has ruled that it will not regulate new media broadcasts, upholding a decision from 1999, with no re-examination of the new media issue for five years.

"While broadcasting in new media is growing in importance, we do not believe that regulatory intervention is necessary at this time," said commission chairman Konrad von Finckenstein.

"We found that the Internet and mobile services are acting in a complementary fashion to the traditional broadcasting system. Any intervention on our part would only get in the way of innovation."

"The reason the Internet has been so powerful and changed so much of our lives is because it hasn't been regulated and hasn't been taxed, and it's been allowed to grow and develop in ways that users wanted it to
grow," said Ken Englehart, VP Rogers Communications.

"Government regulation and taxation would slow us down."

"The rights of Canadians to talk and communicate across the Internet are vastly too important to be subjected to a scheme of government licensing," said Commisioner Timothy Fenton.

"If more Canadians were aware how close their communications have come to being regulated by this commission, not by our will, but because we administer an obsolete statute (the Broadcasting Act), they would be
rightly concerned..."