Guy Laliberté s’envole dans l’espace !
Montréal – Mardi 29 septembre 2009 – Le fondateur du Cirque du Soleil décollera le 30 septembre du cosmodrome de Baïkonour, au Kazakhstan, pour un séjour touristique dans l’espace célébrant son cinquantième anniversaire. C’est le premier Canadien à s’offrir un voyage à bord de la navette spatiale internationale, périple estimé à 35 millions de dollars. Là-haut, il lira un poème au message universel pour interpeller les citoyens du monde sur la situation de l’eau et appeler à l’économiser. Une série de spectacles sera également organisée dans 14 villes du globe à partir du 9 octobre. L’ancien vice-président américain Al Gore, le chanteur Peter Gabriel ou encore le groupe U2 ont d’ores et déjà annoncé qu’ils participeront à l’événement.
Le 2 juin dernier, Transit Éditeur a été la première maison d’édition à publier une biographie indépendante sur Guy Laliberté, cet homme exceptionnel au parcours singulier. Un Canadien pas comme les autres qui a quitté le domicile familial à seulement 14 ans pour parcourir le monde et vivre des arts de rue. Un artiste inspirant qui a distrait des millions de spectateurs en créant, il y a 25 ans, le Cirque du Soleil. Un homme d’affaires atypique devenu l’une des personnalités les plus riches de la planète.
À propos du livre :
Le bestseller qui raconte son histoire, Guy Laliberté: La vie fabuleuse du créateur du Cirque du Soleil, publié en français et en anglais, s’est déjà vendu à plus de 50 000 exemplaires dans tout le Canada. Il est disponible sur le site de Transit, www.transitediteur.com.
L’auteur de cette biographie indépendante, le Montréalais Ian Halperin, a également signé le titre phare de l’été Michael Jackson : Les dernières années qui s’est classé en tête de la prestigieuse liste des bestsellers du New York Times et qui a atteint les meilleures places des principaux palmarès américains, canadiens et français ces dernières semaines. Il se tiendra à la disposition des journalistes durant le séjour de 12 jours de Guy Laliberté dans l’espace pour répondre aux questions sur l’artiste, l’homme d’affaires et maintenant l’astronaute sur qui il a continué d’enquêter après la sortie de son livre.
Cirque du Soleil’s Guy Laliberté Heading into Outer Space !
Ian Halperin, author of the sole biography of Laliberté, will be available for media questions during Laliberté’s 12-day mission
Montreal, Tuesday, September 29, 2009 – On September 30, in celebration of his 50th birthday, Guy Laliberté, the billionaire founder of Cirque du Soleil, will blast off into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. In doing so, he will officially become Canada’s first space tourist atan estimated personal cost of $35 million.
Laliberté’s 12-day visit to the International Space Station is his personal “Poetic Social Mission in Space,” whose purpose is to educate people on global water issues. On October 9, while orbiting the Earth, Laliberté will host a special 2-hour “artistic happening,” entitled Moving Stars and Earth for Water, which will be broadcast from 14 cities around the world. This global spectacle is intended to raise world awareness for water conservation. The theme of the show will unfold as Laliberté reads from a specially commissioned story by renowned Canadian novelist and Man-Booker Prize-winner Yann Martel. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, singers Peter Gabriel and Shakira, actress Salma Hayek, Canadian astronaut Julie Payette, and musical group U2 have already announced their participation in this unprecedented global event.
On June 2, 2009, Montreal-based Transit Publishing released the first critical, independent biography of Laliberté entitled Guy Laliberté: The Fabulous Story of the Creator of Cirque du Soleil www.transitpublishing.com/Guy_Laliberte.php. Author Ian Halperin, will be available between Sept. 29th and Oct. 12 to answer questions about Laliberté the artist, entrepreneur, and now space traveller. Ian is also the author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller, Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson published in July 2009.
Guy Laliberté is a Canadian like no other. He left home at age 14 to travel the world as a street performer. Since founding Cirque du Soleil 25 years ago, he has entertained millions of spectators worldwide. His creative genius and maverick business acumen have made him one of the richest people on the planet.
On Sept. 23, the 2nd edition of Guy Laliberté: The Fabulous Story of the Creator of Cirque du Soleil was released in Canada and, on the same day, became available in the U.S. for the first time.
About the book:
Guy Laliberté: The Fabulous Story of the Creator of Cirque du Soleil is available in both English and French editions. Over 50,000 copies have been sold in Canada.
The author of this independent biography, former Montrealer Ian Halperin, has also written the flagship book of the summer, Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson,which topped the prestigious New York Times bestseller list and has reached the highest ranks of major book sales lists in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and France. Ian Halperin is a journalist, filmmaker and author of ten books. A specialist in undercover investigations, he contributes to FoxNews.com, E Channel and Court TV.
The French version of this press release is available on demand.
Contact:
François Turgeon
General Director, Transit Publishing Inc.
+1-514-273-0123
For more information about Transit and our books, please visit: www.transitpublishing.com
About Transit Publishing:
At Transit Publishing, boundaries exist only to be crossed. We publish in English and French from the culturally diverse cities of Montreal, Toronto, and New York. Transit specializes in popular biographies and produces both non-fiction and general fiction titles. Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson by Ian Halperin was our runaway international bestseller this year. Transit is headed by Pierre Turgeon, a two-time Canadian Governor General’s Literary Award winner with over 30 years of experience in the international publishing industry as a journalist, historian, editor, and novelist. Transit books in English are distributed by Georgetown Publications (www.georgetownpublications.com) in Canada and by the National Book Network (www.nbnbooks.com) in the United States.
Guy Laliberté et Le Cirque du Soleil mettent en demeure le magazine Maclean’s au sujet d’un reportage
Site personnel du journaliste québécois Patrick White, couvrant la scène
culturelle au Québec et ailleurs.
Guy
Laliberté et Le Cirque du Soleil mettent en demeure le magazine Maclean’s au
sujet d’un reportage
Soumis par Webmestre le 14 juin, 2009 – 18:37
Le Cirque du Soleil a mis en demeure dimanche soir le magazine Maclean’s de rétracter la couverture de sa dernière édition et elle met également en demeure Transit Médias – Éditeur, en lien avec la parution de la biographie non autorisée de Guy Laliberté publiée chez l’éditeur– et dont des extraits ont paru dans l’édition du 15 juin dernier (Volume 122, numéro 22) de Maclean’s.
Voici l’article en question : http://www2.macleans.ca/tag/guy-laliberte
La mise en demeure adressée à MacLean’s lui reproche la présentation en page couverture de l’édition du 15 juin 2009 d’un montage constituant un exercice de sensationnalisme extrême avec un titre et une mise en page suggérant une image trompeuse et diffamatoire de l’entreprise. La démarche du magazine Maclean’s va à l’encontre de sa réputation de publication qui se veut crédible et dont la fonction est de proposer un contenu d’actualités générales de type « news ».
Le Cirque du Soleil est une entreprise canadienne qui a bâti sa réputation au fil de ses 25 années de réussite. Son image de marque est basée sur la qualité de ses spectacles, la compétence de ses artistes et employés et sur le sérieux de sa démarche d’entreprise citoyenne.
Le Cirque du Soleil a également signifié une mise en demeure à l’éditeur Transit Médias pour contrefaçon de droits d’auteurs dans la publication d’une biographie non autorisée publiée récemment par Ian Halperin.
Le site de M. Halperin : http://ianundercover.com
Le Cirque du Soleil a indiqué dans un communiqué qu’il ne commentera pas davantage ces mises en demeure.
Maclean’s [ Sex Drugs & Acrobats ] – Cirque du Soleil
Sex, drugs & acrobats
On the eve of Cirque du Soleil’s 25th anniversary, a new book exposes the stunning rise and wild times of its billionaire founder
As it approaches its 25th anniversary on June 16, Cirque du Soleil is solidly entrenched as one of Canada’s greatest entertainment and business success stories. From its almost mythic origin as the creation of a group of young Québécois idealists, hard-working, hard-living, utopian-minded street performers led by a (literal) fire-breather named Guy Laliberté, the Cirque and its postmodern, animal-free productions now span the globe. Laliberté, who used to sleep in parks while performing for spare change, parlayed his extraordinary drive and ambition—and rode the wave of Quebec nationalism unleashed by the Parti Québécois election victory of 1976 (premier René Lévesque was a crucial early Cirque supporter)—into becoming one of Quebec’s six billionaires. On the eve of his 50th birthday, Laliberté’s $2.5-billion personal fortune now puts him at number 261 in Forbes’ ranking of the world’s richest people.
As for the Cirque’s other founding mythology—that its long, strange trip has always been a sex- and drug-fuelled odyssey, according to Guy Laliberté: The Fabulous Story of the Creator of Cirque du Soleil (Transit)—rumour hardly exceeds reality. Author Ian Halperin, a journalist and gossip writer whose previous unauthorized biographies include Céline Dion: Behind the Fairytale and Love & Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain, argues that a heady ’60s mix of hedonism and social consciousness has always marked the Cirque. Halperin, a Montrealer, is from that world—he had an uneasy platonic relationship with Laliberté’s embittered ex-common-law wife, described at length in the book, even as he eventually sided with Laliberté in their split—and he approves of his subjects’ zest for life. Especially Laliberté’s, of whom Halperin writes that he shares the author’s own “unquenchable thirst for life’s pleasures balanced with a passion for social justice, traits we know are not incompatible.”
ALSO AT MACLEANS.CA Dishing the dirt on Cirque: Unauthorized biographer Ian Halperin on how he discovered the seedier side of the biggest show on earth & Exclusive excerpt: How to party like a cirque star: ‘Everything you wanted was available at Guy’s parties— drugs, the best music, the wildest sex’
Still, even Halperin was bowled over by the “Fellini-esque” account provided by one veteran of the Cirque’s early days. “Annie,” who worked there for years as an acrobat and part-time choreographer, describes a sex-obsessed world, where the Cirque’s upper echelon, a decent enough lot ordinarily, became, when stoned or drunk, “the animals absent from their circus.” In its early days, says Annie, working for the Cirque was an unglamorous, dangerous and stressful job. “That’s why we were all f–king each other’s brains out at night. We needed a release.”
As for drugs, Annie claims there were so many around the Cirque that it could have been called the biggest pharmaceutical operation in Quebec. “Whatever your drug of choice was, there would be a clown, a technician, or a performer to supply it.” She’s amazed that so many performers were able to carry out their audacious circus acts stoned. Annie explains that backstage before a show, while the audience was piling into the tent, people were running around like crazy, half-naked, excited, and stoned out of their minds or, like her, having last-minute sex. “We’d barely have time to catch our breath,” she says. “You disengage and then head right on stage. I liked to live on the edge. But I think everyone in Cirque lived that way.”
If they did, some were working flat out at the same time, and one in particular showed a hard-edged practical side. In the summer of 1981, Guy Laliberté was a slim, good-looking 22-year-old fire-breather with long blond hair. He took part in an artistically impressive but commercially ruinous free circus festival in Baie-St-Paul, a resort town about 100 km east of his Quebec City home. According to Halperin, Laliberté took the lead in digging the festival out of its $10,000 hole, as “the only person involved capable of doing the math.” He convinced organizers to market better in the future, to replace ungifted amateurs with more seasoned acts, and—scandalously to his idealistic companions—proposed the novel idea of charging for admission. In 1982, the festival was an artistic and financial success, and Laliberté was looking for new ground to conquer.
The 1984 celebrations for the 450th anniversary of Jacques Cartier’s arrival in New France provided the means. Although Quebec’s PQ government was on the whole lukewarm to the very idea of providing funding for an old-fashioned-sounding enterprise like a circus, René Lévesque felt differently—possibly, Halperin says, because the premier’s mistress was also intimately involved with several Cirque members. His government provided a $1.4-million grant, Laliberté’s group formally adopted the name Cirque du Soleil—because, one associate told Halperin, “Guy worships the sun as if it’s his god”—and the first production opened on June 16, 1984, in the Gaspé.
Laliberté made sure his circus was a success during its 11-city provincial run that year by throwing himself into what would become his signature networking ways. He gave grand parties, and provided Cirque tickets (and party invitations) to anyone he thought might be of use in the future. He also drove his acts hard. Low pay, long work hours and consequent unhappy, mediocre performances almost scuttled the Cirque on an unsuccessful cross-Canada tour in 1985. Even an emergency $250,000 bailout from Lévesque wasn’t enough, and Laliberté had to go cap in hand to all the business contacts he had so assiduously built up. Impressed by his artistic vision and, even more so, by his unshakable self-confidence and charisma, they came through for him.
By 1986 and the Cirque’s invitation to Vancouver’s Expo 86, Laliberté had already brought on board cutting-edge costume designers and musicians, and moved from traditional circus fare to single-concept, postmodern productions. La Magie Continue featured 35 performers from not only Quebec but Cambodia, Mexico, Holland and elsewhere. It hit an upscale demographic, with most spectators between the ages of 21 and 45, and was successful enough to spark an invitation from the Los Angeles Arts Festival. It was an offer rife with chances of both reward and risk.
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page 2 :
Sex, drugs & acrobats
On the eve of Cirque du Soleil’s 25th anniversary, a new book exposes the stunning rise and wild times of its billionaire founder
The LAFT promised to hand out a million flyers in advertising, but couldn’t afford to finance the Cirque—it would have to perform for a percentage of gate receipts. In short, success would literally open a world of opportunities, while failure would mean, in Halperin’s words, that “the Cirque would have to walk back to Montreal.” Laliberté, as always, took the chance, being sure to maximize his marketing opportunities by sending the cast out to roam L.A.’s streets in costume. On opening night it all worked out, when the likes of Michael Jackson, Madonna and Jane Fonda came. Johnny Carson brought several Cirque performers onto his show, and scalpers started charging $200 for $19 tickets.
In the next few years, Laliberté successfully resisted the siren call of Columbia Pictures (after he realized he would lose control of the Cirque), conquered New York, fought off both an inter-management takeover threat and performer discontent (a 25 per cent raise worked wonders there), and became very rich. But Cirque watchers hadn’t seen anything yet, for Laliberté had developed a Vegas obsession. “He loved everything about Las Vegas,” recalls a former Cirque executive, “from the hot weather to the casinos to the atmosphere on the strip. He knew that everyone who came to Vegas came for one thing: to spend money. Guy smelled success there.” What he needed was the right person to offer the right opportunity.
Rejection by Caesar’s CEO J. Terrence Lanni depressed and angered Laliberté, but he soon found the right match—a fellow Vegas newcomer and gambler much like himself, casino developer Steve Wynn. In 1993 Wynn was about to open the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino. He was looking for a show to generate buzz for his $450-million development; Laliberté told Wynn he had the answer, Cirque’s new production, Mystère. The two men got along famously, and soon signed a 10-year contract. Laliberté now had a permanent home, in the endless sunshine he worshipped, for his circus. Or so it seemed, until, with just weeks to go, Wynn started to get cold feet. Was the show too risqué? Too dark? Too much of a departure from Vegas normality? After watching numerous rehearsals, a nervous Wynn blurted out to Laliberté and Cirque artistic director Franco Dragone, “You guys have made a German opera here.”
Dragone said later he took the comment as a compliment on his artistic vision, but Laliberté knew better. Wynn was threatening to postpone indefinitely the grand opening unless changes were made, a public relations disaster Laliberté refused to countenance. The final weeks turned into a blur for Laliberté, as he desperately raced to make just enough changes to keep both Wynn and his cast and crew onside. On Christmas Day 1993, Mystère opened to glowing reviews. Dragone’s concept, featuring 72 performers exploring the origins of life in the universe and set to a spectacular soundtrack of Spanish, African and east European music, was a hit with fans and critics. The Cirque was now 10 years old, and while it would go from strength to strength over the next 15 years—Laliberté is one of the minority of world billionaires to have increased his wealth over the past, recession-wracked year—he had already made it to the top of the A-list heap.
True to his hard-partying instincts—and his hard-won marketing insights—Laliberté threw what Halperin calls “the mother of all Vegas parties, one he will be remembered forever for.” A long-time friend confided to the author that it had “everything you could think of, including the best alcohol, drugs and hottest women in Vegas. Even if I lived in Alaska and had no money I’d walk all the way to Vegas to be at his party. People would do anything for Guy, so long as he promised them an invitation to his parties.”
The Las Vegas gala set the tone for his future parties even as they grew ever more lavish and elaborate (or, as a friend put it, “better and crazier each time”). Eventually they culminated with Laliberté’s Grand Prix bashes in Montreal, in productions as dazzling, in their own way, as a Cirque show.
Guy Laliberté [ Biographie non-autorisée - Ian Halperin ]
Photo by Cirque Du Soleil/ADC/KEYSTONE , Press © Copyright 2008 by ADC
et © Michel Ponomareff / PonoPresse Internationale
BIOGRAPHIE non autorisée :
La vie fabuleuse du créateur du Cirque du Soleil, Ian Halperin écrit la première biographie de Guy Laliberté. Son enquête nous entraine dans les coulisses du Cirque du Soleil, cet empire valant des milliards de dollars. Halperin présente ici de nouvelles informations biographiques fascinantes sur Laliberté : l’homme, l’homme d’affaires, l’imprésario, l’amoureux et le joueur de poker de classe mondiale. De plus, il révèle un grand nombre de secrets d’affaires qui ont fait de Laliberté l’entrepreneur du show biz ayant le plus de succès au monde.
Ian Halperin a connu pendant six ans l’amitié de Rizia Moreira qui lui a raconté sa liaison avec Laliberté. Halperin nous le raconte avec vivacité et passion dans ce livre qui parait simultanément en anglais et en français.
_______________________
L’auteur :
Ian Halperin, auteur renommé figurant sur la liste des bestsellers du New York Times, nous présente son nouveau livre La vie fabuleuse du créateur du Cirque du Soleil. Pour la première fois, le public aura droit à un récit biographique de Guy Laliberté : l’homme, l’homme d’affaires, l’impresario, le mari, et le joueur de poker de classe mondiale. L’auteur, qui est ami intime de Guy Laliberté et de son ex-conjointe de fait Rizia Moreira, dévoile dans cet ouvrage des secrets extraordinaire sur cet homme mystérieux qui est devenu l’entrepreneur du show biz ayant le plus de succès au monde.
_______________________
Photo by Cirque Du Soleil/ADC/KEYSTONE ,
Press © Copyright 2008 by ADC
et © Michel Ponomareff / PonoPresse Internationale
The Book :
In his fabulous story of the creator of Cirque du Soleil, Ian Halperin brings readers the first ever biography of Guy Laliberté. In this behind-the-scenes investigation we are offered a glimpse into a billion dollar business empire, including a peek at many of the trade secrets that made Laliberté the world’s most successful entertainment entrepreneur.
The author’s six-year friendship with Laliberté’s former common-law partner, Rizia Moreira, made him privy to many extraordinary secrets about the personal lives of Moreira. Halperin shares his many insights into Laliberté as husband, impresario, businessman, and world class poker player.
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The Authors :
Ian Halperin is the author of seven books, including Celine Dion: Behind the Fairytale. He co-authored Who Killed Kurt Cobain? and Love & Death, which was a 2004 New York Times bestseller.
He has contributed to 60 Minutes II, the CBC’s Fifth Estate, the Montreal Gazette, and the Globe & Mail. Halperin is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker and a former co-winner of Rolling Stone magazine’s College Journalism Award.
Transit Medias
Transit Medias
Transit publie, dès son début, les livres en anglais et en français. De plus, la maison d’édition achètera les droits français sur les Bestsellers américains et internationaux, les rendant ainsi disponibles au public francophone. Plus encore, Transit entend se procurer les droits sur des bestsellers francophones pour une diffusion sur le marché du Canada anglais ainsi que les États-Unis.
Transit Medias
Transit publishes books in both English and French. Our mandate includes bringing American and international bestsellers to the francophone public through the acquisition of their French rights. Additionally, Transit acquires the rights for french-language bestsellers for distribution to the English Canadian and American markets.
