{"id":434173,"date":"2026-01-26T11:19:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T11:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/434173\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T11:19:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T11:19:23","slug":"b-c-cities-lay-claim-to-heated-rivalry-star-hudson-williams-in-tourism-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/434173\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. cities lay claim to Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams in tourism push"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Hudson Williams attends the Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Jan. 11.MICHAEL TRAN\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a Heated Rivalry beef, with a side-serving of spaghetti, as British Columbia cities lay claim to Hudson Williams, star of the gay hockey television phenomenon.<\/p>\n

Williams, who stars as Shane Hollander in the Crave series, has connections with multiple B.C. cities \u2013 he was born in Kelowna, grew up in Kamloops, lives in Vancouver and worked in New Westminster.<\/p>\n

The cities\u2019 tourism bodies have been leaning into the success of the series about rival hockey players who develop an off-ice romance by participating in a tongue-in-cheek competition to \u201cclaim\u201d Williams as their own on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in a Heated Rivalry psychosis and I\u2019m all for it,\u201d Destination Vancouver\u2019s consumer marketing manager Samantha Clark said.<\/p>\n

After Ottawa Tourism changed its Instagram bio to read \u201cbirthplace of Shane Hollander,\u201d Clark said Vancouver had to respond.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Destination Vancouver\u2019s Instagram bio now calls itself the \u201chome of Hudson Williams.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kamloops boasted it was the \u201cbirthplace of Hudson Williams,\u201d though it later removed the claim after Williams clarified in a podcast appearance that he was born in Kelowna.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tourism New Westminster, meanwhile, is staking its claim, calling itself the \u201cproud home of Hudson Williams\u2019 former workplace,\u201d since the actor used to work at the Old Spaghetti Factory there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Connor Storrie, left, and Hudson Williams, right, star in the gay hockey television phenomenon Heated Rivalry.Kevork Djansezian\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you\u2019ve served spaghetti in New West, you\u2019re officially a New Westie,\u201d said Tourism New Westminster marketing manager Jasmine Crisp, adding that Williams recently returned to the city to meet his former co-workers.<\/p>\n

Douglas College, which has a New Westminster campus, adds a degree of separation by saying in its Instagram bio that it is: \u201cAcross the street from Hudson Williams\u2019 former workplace.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Langara College in Vancouver touts itself online as Williams\u2019 alma mater.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clark said the social media one-upmanship is helping promote B.C. tourism, prompting her organization to create its own travel guide for fans of the show and Williams \u2013 including a stop at the Old Spaghetti Factory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that this show has beautifully showcased Canada,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s just a fun way to show people all you can do in Canada through a show that has really captured the hearts of so many people internationally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark said that while \u201ceveryone can have a piece of\u201d Williams, Vancouver\u2019s claim is the strongest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no Shane Hollander without Hudson Williams. And Hudson Williams became who he is when he moved here,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Destination Vancouver posted its own \u201cinvestigation\u201d into the competing claims over Williams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the video, a \u201clawyer\u201d presents evidence of Williams\u2019 Vancouver connections \u2013 including his time as a student at Langara, that he spent New Year\u2019s Eve in the city, and said he lives in Vancouver with his mother.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing more Vancouver than that,\u201d Destination Vancouver says in the video. \u201cThis man is ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others disagree. \u201cWhen you see other cities trying to claim one of your own, you\u2019ve got to defend your turf,\u201d Tourism Kamloops content specialist Katy Morrison said in response to the \u201cbeef.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the Canadians fight it out, the claim over Williams could go international.<\/p>\n

He and his American co-star Connor Storrie were recently announced as torchbearers for the Olympic flame at the Milan Cortina Games in February.<\/p>\n

Heated Rivalry, based on a book series by Nova Scotia\u2019s Rachel Reid, has become an international sensation, with Williams and Storrie appearing on late night talk shows and presenting at the Golden Globes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Hudson Williams attends the Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Jan.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":{"0":"post-434173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-business","15":"tag-ca","16":"tag-canada","17":"tag-canada-news","18":"tag-canada-sports","19":"tag-canada-sports-news","20":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","21":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","22":"tag-canadian-news","23":"tag-economy","24":"tag-education","25":"tag-environment","26":"tag-federal-government","27":"tag-foreign-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","30":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","31":"tag-government","32":"tag-life-news","33":"tag-lifestyle","34":"tag-local-news","35":"tag-manitoba","36":"tag-national-news","37":"tag-new-brunswick","38":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","39":"tag-northwest-territories","40":"tag-nova-scotia","41":"tag-nunavut","42":"tag-ontario","43":"tag-pei","44":"tag-photos","45":"tag-political-news","46":"tag-political-opinion","47":"tag-politics","48":"tag-politics-news","49":"tag-quebec","50":"tag-sports-news","51":"tag-technology","52":"tag-travel","53":"tag-trudeau","54":"tag-us-news","55":"tag-world-news","56":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}