The Globe and Mail

Frank Gehry

It was a tired, rather frail-looking Frank Gehry who stood at the lectern at the Art Gallery of Ontario yesterday, a bamboo cane in his left hand. But even though the 76-year-old architect had just flown into Toronto on an early-morning flight from Los Angeles and his back was bothering him, he had some things he wanted to share right away with the local media -- and they had nothing to do with his $210-million reconstruction of the AGO. No, Gehry's thoughts were with Wayne Gretzky, the executive director of the Canadian men's Olympic hockey squad who's currently entangled in an investigation into an illegal gambling ring allegedly run by his friend and Phoenix Coyotes assistant coach Rick Tocchet. "He's getting beat up by the press right now" in an "unconscionable" way, opined Gehry, whose friendship with Gretzky and passion for hockey are well known. "The guy is one of the straightest arrows in history. He deserves better. He did nothing wrong and I swear by that."