Canadian Heritage committee  You said on the west coast. Well, we have a $400 million film and television fund with SGF. We used that fund to produce the first season of Blue Mountain State. We will hopefully use it again for the second season, but in any case we are going to produce the second season in Quebec.

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, every time we have a movie that doesn't work, I feel that I've learned a lesson. But the lesson isn't not to do those movies. What we have done is balance our slate; we have a portfolio approach to our business. Mr. Icahn recently talked about one of our films that was more expensive, but he didn't notice that, as we put out in our shareholder presentation, our average exposure on production risk after international sales, for our entire slate of pictures, is around $13 million.

Canadian Heritage committee  We have never heard otherwise. Again, we are a Canadian company. We are a Canadian taxpayer under the Income Tax Act. We are controlled by a Canadian board. No one has ever questioned that. We are referred to every day as a Canadian company. We are a Canadian company, so unless somebody has some strong argument against it, I don't think that's a discussion that we even intend to have.

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, to start with, the chief executive officer is a guitar player. I come out of the creative end of the business. Nothing means more to me than supporting artists. I appreciate the recent law that was just passed that supports artists' rights. Again, I think I've expressed through my comments that we are not only distributors but also significant producers.

Canadian Heritage committee  That's a fair question. I think the fiduciary responsibility that our board has at this point is the interests of the shareholders. We are not here to debate that issue right now; we are here to talk about the specific issue of net benefit to Canada. If there is a significantly changed offer, obviously, our board has to review it, but that's really not the point of our meeting here today.

Canadian Heritage committee  Again, I can't guarantee what they will do. I can only point to what we have done as opposed to what we have said. Our production here is as late as tomorrow and as late as yesterday, and it's ongoing. I don't think one could point to any bit of evidence that we don't do what we say and that we haven't done everything we could to support the film industry and overall industry in Canada.

Canadian Heritage committee  That's a very complicated question. I can only say I enjoyed the time I spent in Vancouver and Toronto and would have no problem living in any of the great Canadian cities and no problem being in business here if invited to do so, but at this point my intention is to continue to grow Lionsgate.

Canadian Heritage committee  I didn't bring a business card, I apologize. But if I did, it would have a Santa Monica, California, address.

Canadian Heritage committee  Of course I would.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's nice to be wanted, but it depends whom you're wanted by. We got there, I would say, because we created a business plan from the beginning that we followed very strictly, with a lot of discipline. We've grown, but we haven't grown with tremendous spurts. We've grown steadily.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think that's a very good point. I think Lionsgate had from the very beginning a good reputation. It distributed quality films. As I said, it wasn't really in a position originally to do much production at all; it wasn't in the television business and didn't really have much of a film production business.

Canadian Heritage committee  We have certainly tried to meet with the minister, and we certainly respect the fact that he wishes to remain neutral and therefore hasn't wanted to meet with us again. I revert to what I said before, which is that we have an ongoing relationship in Quebec with SGF. We have ongoing conversations with the mayor of Edmonton, who has written a letter on our behalf saying he believes an Icahn Group takeover of Lionsgate would not be good for the city of Edmonton.

Canadian Heritage committee  I tried very hard not to listen to a lot of the criticism. On MGM, for example, I think it's on the record that he offered us a bridge loan to buy MGM. I think there is a certain playbook that Mr. Icahn and his group follow on pretty much every acquisition. He takes a stake in a company.

Canadian Heritage committee  To buy MGM.

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, again--