Since the hit hockey romance Heated Rivalry catapulted its stars to global fame, tourism associations in cities across Canada have been playfully “claiming” them as their own on social media.
The Instagram bio for Tourism Kamloops currently boasts the B.C. city is the birthplace of Crave series co-star Hudson Williams, while Ottawa Tourism proudly states it is the hometown of Shane Hollander, the character he plays.
Even McGill University has changed its bio to read “Alma Mater of Shane Hollander’s dad,” and references a scene in which Shane tells his lover Ilya Rozanov his dad played hockey at the school, and the Russian replies, “What the f*** is McGill? Is that a town?”
Now a Metro Vancouver city has come forward to take its piece of the Heated Rivalry pie.
“Canadian cities are jokingly fighting over who gets to ‘claim’ Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams, and while we love the enthusiasm, we’d like to remind you all of one key fact,” Tourism New West wrote in a post last week.
“Before the fame. Before the fan edits. Before the comment-section chaos. There was New Westminster.”
Williams recently revealed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that before his big break, he waited tables at the Old Spaghetti Factory.
“A lot of sourdough bread being served and spaghetti being dropped, bad reviews left,” the actor told Fallon.
When the host asked if he was any good at the job, Williams responded with a blunt “no, not at all.”
“I was pretty good at managing the amount of tables I had, but the thing I was kind of poor at was like, if I’m not feeling a smile I can’t put one on,” he explained. “That’s not very Canadian so they didn’t like that.”
But it appears Williams is back in New Westminster and the restaurant’s good books, as the tourism board has launched a contest for the chance to eat at his former workplace.
“Because once you’ve served spaghetti in New Westminster… you’re a New Westie,” the post reads.
The prize is a $100 gift card to the Old Spaghetti Factory and a package of New Westminster merch. Fans of Heated Rivalry, New Westminster, spaghetti, or all three, have until Thursday to enter.
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