FLARE's exclusive coverage of the biggest celebrity event in the country
Sep
21
A quick post to recap the goings-on at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
Best in dress: Megan Fox. Living up to her last name, the posh Miss Fox blazed the red carpet in Valentino at the premiere of Jennifer’s Body.
The Stella McCartney Award: Goes to Abbie Cornish, who plays a strong-willed woman who makes her own clothes in Jane Campion’s latest flick, Bright Star. Once you hear Ms. Cornish deliver all her stylista dialogue (she riffs on “mushroom collars” and “light-as-a-leaf fabrics”), you’ll think her script was taken from a style.com runway report written by Hamish Bowles.
Most Likely to Win The Oscar: Mo’Nique in the Oprah-ordained film Precious. We always loved Mo’s humour (rent The Queens of Comedy DVD for proof) but we never knew she had it in her to conjure the demon of a character she helped to create in this film. If she doesn’t win, it will be Oscar’s greatest tragedy.
Best Film Festival Glow: Hands down, Penelope Cruz. Sun-kissed with a slight touch of make-up, the Broken Embraces star gave good face as well as a strong performance.
Best Use of Shoe: This award goes to the flame-haired English supermodel/actress Lily Cole, who stars in the much-buzzed-about film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Tapping her fab Chanel flats against the carpet of a hotel suite at the Intercon, she talked about co-stars Heath Ledger and Colin Farell with passion (tap, tap!) and confessed that she would love to play Vivienne Westwood (if the biopic ever gets made).
Best Royal Blessing: The Duchess of York, aka Sarah Ferguson. She’s turning 50 in a few weeks and as a gift to herself, she co-produced the beautiful Emily Blunt-starring movie, Young Victoria. In person, she told me how she begged Hollywood bigwig Martin Scorsese to green light the project for years.
Worst Wig: Jennifer Connelly’s husband, Paul Bettany, wore a weave that nobody could believe in the Darwin biopic, Creation. Through the whole film, I just kept on thinking, weave me alone!
Worst Fashion Blunder: We had such high hopes for the film Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky. But they were dashed after watching what seemed like hours of Coco’s famed affair with Russian composer Igor Stravinsky (very dry). Not that we didn’t love the love but the director decided to foolishly not showcase what went on behind the seams when Coco created her divine collections during this complex time in her life. Who makes a fashion movie that isn’t about fashion? Let’s hope the next Coco biopic, Coco avant Chanel focuses on the legendary designer’s body of work, rather than just her romances. However, this review does not give us much hope: http://stalepopcornau.blogspot.com/2009/07/review-coco-avant-chanel.html Maybe Coco’s mysteries were never meant to be on the big screen? Perhaps Karl Lagerfeld would be a better biopic choice.
Most Intense Scene: Would be 9am in the morning on the first TIFF Saturday when weary journalists from around the world sat down to watch the soul-throttling film Precious. By 10am, many are crying, sighing or on the way to break down city. Yes, its that good. And, yes Mariah Carey can act and you won’t recognize her.
Best Parties: 1st Place: One x One Charity Event at the Rogers Estate with Bill Clinton, Matt Damon, Mary J. Blige and Elvis Costello. It was the S’mores cupcakes that did it for us. 2nd Place: The Men Who Stare At Goats film party in a house on the Bridal Path. George Clooney, Jeff Bridges and Mena Suvari showed up and there were tables and tables and tables of Vitamin Water to be had.
Strangest Conversation Award: Would have to go to model/film icon Isabella Rossellini. She made a series of short films about the mating habits of underwater sea creatures (click onto sundancechannel.com to see them) shown during TIFF at the Royal Ontario Museum. She candidly chatted with us about how fish are kinkier than humans.
Bouncing Back Beautifully Award: Goes to Twilight star Rachelle Lefevre, who was partying it up at the rooftop bar at Park Hyatt, which was sponsored by Marc Jacobs’ fragrances (love them). She looked stunning in a white and gold cocktail dress. She was there to show her love to the Save the Seals charity which took over the top of the building that night. No wonder she was so happy, she was just cast in a film adaptation of Mordechai Richler’s novel Barney’s Version.
Fashion Blogger’s Delight Award: Goes to model/Flare cover girl Coco Rocha, who danced her way into a short film produced by the folks at Holt Renfrew. It was screened during an exclusive party the dept. store threw on Queen West (which was closed by The Stills on stage!).
The All-Honesty Award: Belongs to Amanda Seyfried. Why? She described her playing her character in Chloe (Canuck director Atom Egoyan’s next flick) as “delusional and obsessive” and described her process for building the role as “a complex nightmare.” So much more refreshing than the usual “I had such a good time on set” shtick you usually get when stars talk about movie prep.
The Organic Star Award: Goes to Natalie Portman, who told Flare she wants to revive her vegan shoe line asap (the company which distributed the line went under this year). This was during an interview for a fine film called Love and Other Impossible Pursuits.
Best Feel Good Flick: Drew Barrymore! Ellen Page! Whip It! Saw it at the Royal Bank “mystery” screening on Saturday and it was a hilarious way to end the just as amusement park-like week. See you next year. -EI
Sep
18
Tomorrow I’m heading to Vancouver for a travel conference. So, I’ll have to say good-bye to TIFF until next year. The entire week was a blast (and a lot of hard work and late nights), but my highlights were definitely interviewing Natalie Portman (love, love, love her!) and Julianne Moore. Be sure to checkout our TIFF coverage in our December issue. And, of course, we’ll be featuring our interviews in the mag or on flare.com as the films are released. Speaking of films, my favourites were Precious: based on the novel Push by Sapphire and An Education. I also really liked Love and Other Impossible Pursuits and thought the The Trotsky was pretty clever and funny too. Surprise run-ins included bumping into an insanely hot George Clooney at the Sutton Place hotel. He was on his way to the men’s room and I was heading to the blackberry lounge in the same corridor. I also got to ride the elevator at the Intercontinental Hotel with the ghostly white, impeccably dressed and staggeringly tall (she was in stilettos) Tilda Swinton. As for my biggest surprise of the festival, I would have to say it was Juliette Lewis. Lewis, who stars in Drew Barrymore’s Whip It!, played a gig at the Opera house to promote her new cd, Terra Incognita, while she was in town and she totally rocked it!—Alexandra Breen
Sep
18
Only a couple of more days until the festival comes to a close. My last interview was yesterday with Canuck funny guy Michael Cera. He’s here with the comedy Youth in Revolt. Yes, he plays the same sort of nerdy awkward teen he played in Juno, Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist and Arrested Development. However, he also plays his character’s bad-boy French alter ego in this flick so we do get to witness his more edgy side. In person, he’s very sweet, and very much like the characters he loves to portray. And for the record, no, he’s not worried about being typecast. He just finished filming Scott Pilgrim vs. the World in Toronto. And, his favourite hangouts here include Saving Grace for brunch and the music mega store Sonic Boom.—Alexandra Breen
Sep
17
Few people know that director Ridley Scott has a very talented daughter. Her name is Jordan Scott and she has taken it upon herself to follow her father’s footsteps and direct as well. Her fourth film, which recently screened at TIFF, is a stunner called Cracks. Its a movie that contains characters of the girl mafia variety (best seen in movies such as Heathers or Mean Girls). Set in a posh all-girl boarding school, the movie focuses on an impeccably stylish teacher called Miss G who has fallen in love with an exotic, silver-spooned student from Spain. The beautiful Ms. Scott (who is only 31 years old and looks like a Westwood model) was in attendance at the screening and talked about how her father gave her millions of tips during the process of making the film (it shows, its flawless) and expanded on the way the script approached the tender topic of forbidden love. No news yet on release dates yet but stay tuned. -Elio Iannacci
Sep
16
Today I had the chance to interview one of my favourite leading ladies, the exquisite Natalie Portman. Our interview took place at Signatures restaurant at the Intercontinental hotel and she was absolutely lovely. She was wearing a white patterned blouse (untucked), black pants, a blinged out Tom Binns necklace and gold Stella McCartney stilettos. When asked about her own vegan collection of footwear she said that they’re trying to revive the company. She’s here with the film Love and Other Impossible Pursuits. It’s the latest from Don Roos (Single White Female, The Opposite of Sex, Marley & Me) and has Portman playing a stepmother searching for the meaning of love. Her character is quite flawed and not overly likeable, but Portman delivers a very moving performance—kind of sort of in the Rachel Getting Married vein. Can’t wait to see what she wears to tonight’s gala (as of our 12pm interview, she was still undecided).
For more in-depth TIFF coverage go to: 
