{"id":444876,"date":"2026-01-31T09:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T09:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/444876\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T09:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T09:40:17","slug":"mark-carney-heated-rivalry-star-embrace-on-the-red-carpet-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/444876\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Carney, \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 star embrace on the red carpet – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> swapped the Davos stage for a more playful red carpet appearance Thursday night at an event promoting the Canadian film industry, where he and breakout Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams<\/a> cozied up for a photo.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2018I\u2019m not above taking credit\u2019: Carney jokes he stood up to U.S., \u2018greenlit\u2019 \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Williams gifted the former Bank of England and Bank of Canada governor a fleece worn by his character in the Canadian-made show, which has received international attention for its portrayal of a red-hot love affair between two closeted queer hockey players drafted to the sport\u2019s highest ranks.<\/p>\n

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During the photocall, Carney told Williams to \u201cdo the leg thing.\u201d Williams obliged as the men showed the cameras their biggest grins.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tPrime Minister Mark Carney poses for a photo on the red carpet with Hudson Williams, star of the TV series \u2018Heated Rivalry,\u2019 at the Prime Time screen and media industry conference gala in Ottawa, on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tTHE CANADIAN PRESS\/ Patrick Doyle\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Later, addressing a crowd of industry professionals gathered at the \u201cPrime Time\u201d conference in the nation\u2019s capital, Carney said Williams was his \u201cnew best friend\u201d and commented that studios \u201csouth of the border\u201d wanted to tone down the show.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"For<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat is the point of that?\u201d the prime minister joked, receiving a laugh from the audience.<\/p>\n

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The drama, which was made in Canada, could only be Canadian, the prime minister said, praising a country he said \u201ccelebrates what makes us different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is true soft power,\u201d Carney said, in reference to former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau\u2019s recent Davos speech<\/a> on the importance of wielding tools such as music, food, sports and other cultural commodities to strengthen a country\u2019s global reputation and relationships with other nations.<\/p>\n

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He also noted the show\u2019s significance at a time when the 2SLGBTQI+ community faces increasing threats to their lives and well-being.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re also two young men who are terrified of being their fullest selves. And we live in an increasingly dangerous, divided and intolerant world and the hard-fought rights of the 2SLGBTQI+ community are under threat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations on creating a story that has struck a chord with so many across this country, around the world. Because of you, cottage season will have a whole new meaning this summer,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

The prime minister jokingly took credit for green-lighting the show despite not being in power when government funding was approved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a politician, I\u2019m not above taking credit for the Canadian funding that helped you share this story with the world,\u201d Carney said. \u201cI green-lit this thing. I stood up to the Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Mark Carney swapped the Davos stage for a more playful red carpet appearance Thursday night at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,140293,140290,2659,519],"class_list":["post-444876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-heated-rivalry","tag-hudson-williams","tag-mark-carney","tag-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444876","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=444876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}