Breakfast With Scot star keeps his sportscaster in the closet

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      TORONTO–In Breakfast With Scot, Thomas Cavanagh plays a former Toronto Maple Leaf hockey player with something to hide: he's gay. However, Cavanagh himself admits to something that some Canadians would consider a really dark secret. Although born in Ottawa and having lived in several Canadian cities, including Trail, B.C., and Lennoxville, Quebec, he was "thrilled" to don a hockey sweater that is detested by many of those cities' inhabitants.

      In an interview room at the Toronto International Film Festival, Cavanagh, perhaps best known for playing the title role on NBC's sitcom Ed, says that there was a time when he hated the Leafs too.

      "I was a Habs fan, and so I couldn't stand the Leafs," he says. "But I first went to New York in 1989, and the longer you spend away from home, the more protective you become of certain things, not the least of which is the hockey-mad culture. New York represents it well, but the one difference is that even though they know their hockey–with the Rangers and Islanders and Devils all based there–they have never played the game.

      "Although it would have been unthinkable when I was a teenager to root for the Maple Leafs, the longer you spend away from home, the more you realize that it is good for Canada and the culture for the Canadian teams to do well," he continued. "So, despite yourself, you start pulling for all Canadian teams, including the Maple Leafs. At first I shocked myself, but after being away from Canada for so many years I am now unabashedly pro–Canadian hockey teams. The Calgary Flames' playoff run of a couple of years ago was huge for Canadians. Think about it. Either Calgary is going to hoist the [Stanley] Cup or Tampa frikking Bay is. If the [Vancouver] Canucks do well, I'm happy with that, although I don't think it's going to happen until they realize their best chance of winning is to wear the Orland Kurtenbach [–era] blue and green sweaters every night. That's a beautiful jersey."

      Breakfast With Scot opens in Vancouver on Friday (November 16), with Cavanagh as Eric, a sports commentator who had to leave hockey after suffering a serious injury. Although Eric lives with a lawyer named Sam (Ben Shenkman), he does everything possible to stay in the closet. He fears that his broadcasting career would be over if it was discovered that he was gay.

      It becomes more difficult for Eric to deny his sexual preference when Sam's 11-year-old nephew, Scot (Noah Bernett), comes to live with the couple. Scot likes to dress up in women's clothes and parade around malls, thereby drawing unwanted attention to his uncle and his partner.

      Rather than the film asserting that the majority of Canadians are homophobic, Cavanagh believes that his character is more concerned that some of the sports figures he works with might feel uncomfortable being interviewed by a gay man.

      "Canada, like any country, will offer the gamut of opinion, but overall it is an extremely tolerant and well-educated country," Cavanagh explains. "Not everyone shares the same views, and this particular case has less to do with Canadiana and more to do with the sports ethic. Eric feels that some things in sports are still taboo, and so he is trying to walk that line. But he understands the difference between the hockey world and the other world. He knows that his partner lives in a different and more accepting world."

      Cavanagh's own world changed when he was 10. After four years of living in Ghana, his parents moved him and his four siblings back to Canada, to Lennoxville. He had never strapped on skates and hardly remembered Canadian winters. His father decided to introduce the family to hockey and flooded the backyard. Cavanagh says that he has been playing hockey for 34 years now and takes even casual games seriously.

      "Having a rink was a huge deal for me, especially coming at it a little late," he says. "You're saying, 'Wait a minute. You can divvy us up and you try to put the puck in that net and we will try to put the puck in your net? This is the best thing I have ever heard of.' I didn't start skating at two, so I never took it for granted. I was 10, but I made up for it in that backyard.

      "I still play in a league in New York," Cavanagh goes on. "It would be embarrassing to say how seriously we take it, but anyone who is involved in beer-league hockey in Canada knows how important it can be. My father used to say 'hockey matters', and I would definitely agree with that."

      Links: Review of Breakfast With Scot
      Breakfast With Scot at Capri Films

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