by Richard Skelly » Mon Oct 08, 2018 3:02 am
What better way of discussing Corey Hart and megahit Sunglasses At Night, then by changing the subject to longtime Canadian arts broadcaster Laurie Brown!
You remember tv Laurie? Veejay at MUCH Music and other Toronto stations. Then longtime arts correspondent for CBC’s The Journal and other Mother Corp fare. Then family time off...only to re-emerge in the early 2000s as a late night CBC Radio 2 deejay. Early on, there were even two or three movie acting credits for the Michigan-to-TO transplant.
What started the Brown ball rolling was her appearance in the video for Corey Hart’s worldwide smash Sunglasses At Night. Spoiler alert: Laurie wore sunglasses for all but a few seconds of the menacing creation. Remember? It depicted an imprisoned Mr. Hart shoved around and dragged up and down hallways like a buff, hunky and oh-so-pouty-lipped man who’s been done wrong by the Deep State.
Playing a cop- or guard-in-charge, Laurie checks him out from behind her shades. Several times. Getting an eyeful behind guarded eyes, Eventually the sunglasses come off. I always expected some clothing to also drop away, too, in a hot clinch. But, no, Laurie slowly pulls close...then springs Corey—giving him freedom from the evil joint. He sulkily walks away, pouty countenance intact, presumably to start work on followup hit singles.
Back to present day. Depending on the source, Laurie is either 65 (IMDb birthdate May 25/1953) or just turning 61 (wikipedia birthdate October 7/1957). So in that 1984 Sunglasses video, she was either five or eight years older than her leading man (Corey was born May 31/1962). Her Signal evening show on Radio 2 ran from 2007 to 2017. I loved her knowledgeable between songs patter. But Signal featured music a little too fey, precious and ‘out there’ for my tastes. To each their own, however,
I’m unsure if Laurie then retired and became a freelancer. Or if she’s still on CBC’s payroll. Whatever the case, Laurie Brown has lately been subbing for Tom Power on Q or q. Darn fine, too. Back in her element of deftly interviewing musicians, actors, authors and artists.