The pop superstar made a generous contribution to provide Toronto kids with Christmas gifts. It's time for homegrown stars like Drake and Ry
Taylor Swift just enjoyed the most spectacular year in entertainment history.
According to a recent breakdown in Time magazine, Ms. Swift was the most streamed artist of 2023 on both Apple Music and Spotify. Her Eras Tour, to burn up five continents before the pyrotechnics fade, will outpace the annual economic output of 42 countries.
In the United States, spending by Swifties jolted the economy by $5.7 billion. Her concert film box-office has surpassed $250 million. She gets an average of 7.8 million likes per Instagram post. Her catalogue includes 232 songs that landed on Billboard's Hot 100.
In 2023, by every metric, Taylor Swift rocketed across the outer orbit of showbiz.
But here’s the number that warms my heart: $13,000 (U.S.).
Yes, dear readers, it’s that time of year in which I sneak up behind your couch and ask for donations to the Star’s Santa Claus Fund. This charity has operated for more than a century with one tender belief: every child deserves to open a gift on Christmas.
It’s all about putting big smiles on small faces.
So this year, in addition to asking for your assistance, I expanded my sales pitch. I reached out to Time’s Person of the Year. It was a long shot. But I bowed my head, clutched a friendship bracelet, wished upon a superstar and hit send.
On Wednesday, to my shock, Taylor Swift pledged $13,000 to the Santa Claus Fund. I will have a concussion this Christmas after falling out of my chair.
Swifties know the power of 13. It is Taylor’s favourite number. It is also the date of her December birth. Think about that. On her special day this week, she was helping us send gifts to underprivileged kids throughout the GTA.
We should etch her face on the Star’s masthead.
Travis Kelce, you don’t just have a girlfriend — you are canoodling a superhuman.
So I am now asking Canadian celebrities to follow Taylor Swift’s lead.
Let us spread yuletide joy to those who need it most.
Drake? I reached out to your publicist but never heard back. No worries. Let’s focus on numerology. Just as Swift is all about 13, maybe you could donate 6ix grand? Justin Bieber? The number six also has special meaning to you. Can I put you down for $6,666? The Weeknd? I do not know your favourite number. But since you are ambivalent toward vowels, what if you donated five thousand and we logged it as fiv thousnd?
Ryan Reynolds, my twin daughters, now in holiday movie mode, just made me watch “Spirited.” You were hilarious. Imagine how funny it would be if you trolled your pal Taylor and donated $130,000 to the Santa Claus Fund!
Seth Rogen, if you can contribute, I will quit the Star and roll joints for you pro bono until next Christmas. I will need some training. But I promise to excel as your new CCE, chief cannabis exec. Then when you’re really high, I’ll hit you up for the Star’s Fresh Air Fund in the spring.
Will Arnett, you have the dulcet baritone of a bouncer outside the Pearly Gates who bluffs and says someone is not on the list before flashing a toothy grin and unhooking the velvet ropes. Your turbo-charged wit on the “SmartLess” podcast made me spit out my martini many times this year. That is gift enough.
I come to you, Pamela Anderson, cap in hand. I respectfully ask for a few seasonal coins, David Foster and William Shatner. Jim Carrey, I am sitting here with an exaggerated frown. Turn it upside down. Neil Young, do you remember what you once told me?
Here: “If you ever need help with the Santa Claus Fund, give me a call.”
Fine, we’ve never met. But pick up the phone because I’m calling.
I am also calling upon all wealthy Canadians.
According to Forbes, David Thomson is the richest man in the country. This is an awkward pitch since he also owns the Globe and Mail. Whatever. Christmas is no time for newspaper competition. Sir, if you can help the kids, I will moonlight as a Globe deliveryman in the Bugatti Chiron you buy me to expedite my route. If need be, I will also polish your shoes and blow out your dazzling hair.
Do it for the kids, David. Do it for the kids.
But if by slim chance the rich and famous miss this call to action, well, look behind your couch. Oh, hi! I hate asking you every year. But I ask every year because you always come through. If you can spare a few bucks, please know every wrapped box contains joy.
Thank you, Star readers. And thank you, Taylor Swift.
You capped an astonishing year by putting big smiles on small faces.
The Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund
GOAL: $1.5 million
Online: To donate by Visa, Mastercard or Amex use our secure form at www.thestar.com/scf
By cheque: Mail to The Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund, 8 Spadina Ave., Toronto, ON M5V 0S8
"We were really lucky to have 10 days in Phoenix before we opened in the stadium. So the first three days that we were there were basically my blocking days. I’m sure you remember, there were 46 numbers. [She’s onstage for three-and-a-half hours]. She doesn’t leave, except to change her clothes. And that stage is massive. So you can imagine, in three days, we barely got through the 46 numbers, just staging it. It’s also a video floor, so there was no way to have marks, which was really a trip, because we really had to figure out ways of, I can tell somebody to be symmetrical, right and left, but if the dancers can’t see where they’re standing onstage…we had to kind of come up with a system of like, ‘Hey, you’re crotching the line, or your toes are on the corner of the video screen.’ A huge part of that show looks like a VMAs performance, or a Grammy’s performance—every number, right?—I did all of the automation onstage, so I created all of the lifts that went up and down, and then did all of the choreography, all of her staging, and there was another director who did the cameras. And if he needed a certain camera at whatever point, we’d work together, and I’d tell her. She’s a superstar, she knows where she’s supposed to look at all times. It’s insane. It’s so cool."
— Eras Tour choreographer Mandy Moore to Dance Dish on rehearsing in Glendale (x)
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