Tuesday 2 October 2007

Thanks Jim Bawden

Lois Maxwell, aka Miss Moneypenny, worked for the Toronto Sun for 15 years, not the Toronto Star, but the Star's Jim Bawden gave her a superior sendoff Monday.

Shame on the Toronto Sun for brushing off her death in Perth Australia, with a Canadian Press story on Page 53 that only briefly mentioned her years at the Sun.

You can't use time as an excuse.

Lois, who appeared in 14 James Bond movies as Miss Moneypenny and wrote a weekly column for the Sun from 1979 to 1994, died Saturday and the news broke early Sunday afternoon.

There was more than ample time Sunday for the Sun to talk to current and former employees who worked with Lois, research her lengthy career as a radio, television and movie actress and put some heart into the international story.

But a CP story? We went from the high of Mike Strobel's tribute to the Sun's soon-to-be-unemployed pressmen on Friday to the low of Monday's lame Lois obit.

That is one erratic tabloid.

Bawden, an entertainment columnist, researched Lois' acting and newspaper career and had the right stuff. It wasn't a CP rewrite and he provided background on Lois that probably wasn't commonly known.

The Star had a front page photo of Lois throwing to the Page 2 story, with a second photo of Lois with the story.

No mention of Lois, who was a Sun reader favourite with her Moneypenny column, on the Sun's front page. There was a photo and a throw to the Page 53 story on Page 2.

The Page 53 CP story included one paragraph saying she was a former Sun columnist. The same CP story is on the Sun's web site, but as of now it has not been updated.

We can only hope a heart-felt column by one of the Sun vets will be in Tuesday's paper.

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