The event: The Paperboy cast dinner and after party
The location: Bloke & 4th on King St. West
The vibe: Dinner was an intimite affair in the newly renovated space (which used to be m:brgr) - low lighting (pink!), unobtrusive background music, a perfect scene to make anyone feel like a VIP. Guests enjoyed an heirloom beet salad with goat cheese tempura, crispy skin chicken (or pineapple and carrot with risotto for the vegetarians) and a mini molton chocolate cake for dessert.
When I first visited the Bask-It Style Lounge during TIFF 2011, I was surprised to come face-to-face with not one, but several published authors - including Tish Cohen - with their books on display. Wait, books? At a film festival? Yes! So I was delighted to see that the tradition had not been forsaken this year when I waltzed into the insanely swanky penthouse at the Pinnacle Centre on Bay St, aka the home of Bask-It 2012 edition.The view alone was well worth the trip!
It was great to get a sneak peek of the official Sh*t Girls Say book (which is now available in stores). More impressively it was great to see Adrienne Kress (pictured above) go from Hunger Games essayist to novelist in just 12 short months. (Speaking of which, keep an eye out for her new novel The Friday Society, coming to bookstores in the near future.)
President's Choice made the jump from one lounge to another this year but was still showcasing its delicious foods from their gourmet black label.
Other familiar brands at the lounge included the beauty geniuses of Mereadesso, the delicious flavours of Old Dutch Chips and artist Donna Koster.
And I'm not the only one who enjoyed the luxuries found at the Bask-It Style Lounge. A-list visitors during TIFF included Gabrielle Miller (pictured above), Helen Hunt, Jim Sturgess, William H. Macy and Penn Badgley.
(Photo by: Todd Williamson)
The event: vitaminwater presents Stars
The location: Kitch on Geary (near Dupont and Dufferin)
The vibe: TIFF exhaustion morphed into wild jubilee and celebratory reckless abandon! When Stars wasn't rocking the house, the DJ kept energy levels as everyone mingled in the colourful space or enjoyed the giant Lite Brite outside on the patio. Social media also played a massive role in entertaining the masses as tweets with the hashtag "#hydratetheparty" were projected onto a wall.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Aaron Paul in Smashed. (Sony Pictures Classics)
Premiered: Sept. 12 @ 6 p.m. at the Ryerson Theatre
The Pitch: Jesse Pinkman and Ramona Flowers get married
Famous Attendees: Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Octavia Spencer
Dress Code: Winstead soared to the top of our TIFF best dressed list in a stunning green number, while Spencer was radiant in a sky blue wrap dress.
Memorable moment: The audience’s collective sigh when they realized Aaron Paul, who had been spotted all over Toronto during the first few days of the festival, wouldn’t be showing up to the premiere.
Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace in Passion. Photo by SBS Films
Premiered: Sept. 11 @ 8 p.m. at the Winter Garden Theatre
The Pitch: Like a Hitchcock film, without all the parts that make you think.
Famous Attendees: Rachel McAdams and Brian de Palma
Dress Code: We didn't love the green Elie Saab gown she wore at The Wonder premiere the night before, but McAdams redeemed herself in sleek black pants and a matching halter.
Memorable moment: The audience sang "Happy Birthday" to
director de Palma before the screening.
The event: Alliance and MSN Canada's Anti-Viral after party
The location: Cube on Queen St. W
The vibe: Kinda club-y. Lots of business execs schmoozing with one another and TIFF-weary journalists all co-existing and enjoying a few drinks.
Famous faces spotted: David Cronenberg, Brandon Cronenberg, a surprising number of Rookie Blue cast members (they really do travel in packs!) including Missy Peregrym, Eric Johnson, Peter Mooney, Travis Milne and new addition Rachael Ancheril
The event: Grey Goose Soho House's late night lounge
The location: (...Do I really have to tell you anymore?) Soho House on Adelaide St. W
The vibe: Walking into at Soho shortly after 1am, it was obvious no one cared that it was a "school night." Monday morning be damned, tonight was going to be a PAR-TAY. Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul temporarily took over DJ'ing duties, threw on Dragonette's "Hello" and effectively sparked the crowd's crackling energy. Dance floors were created with reckless abandon and even the bartenders got in on the groove with Cocktail like moves behind the bar.
The glitz and glam of the Toronto International Film
Festival may seem like a world away from the slums of Haiti but they’re far
closer than you may think.
Since Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis launched “Artists
for Peace and Justice” at the festival in 2009, the star-infused Haiti charity has
raised almost $10 million ($1.5 million at TIFF fundraising events alone), money
that’s been used to build the country’s first free secondary school which will
eventually serve up to 3,000 students once the final wings are complete.
Already up and running since last year, the Academy of Peace
and Justice is offering brighter futures for the children of Port-au-Prince’s worst
slums, who otherwise would have been relegated to a vicious cycle of poverty
and neglect.
“That’s the very first time the children from the slums of
Haiti have been able to go to high school,” Haggis says. “To this point if they
were lucky enough to go to school, which is maybe half the kids, they would go
to grade six and then they were out on the street.”
The event: Writers and At Any Price cast parties at the Virgin Mobile Arts & Cinema Centre
The location: AMC's Storys pop-up on Duncan Street
The vibe: Depends on which floor you were on. The Writers event on the top floor was a considerably more laid back affair. Guests helped themselves to dinner at a long family-style buffet - which included a full carving station - in the middle of the room. Downstairs later in the evening, the At Any Price bash was more of a fancy late-night cocktail party with women camped out right beside the cordoned off VIP area taking many many photos of Zac Efron as he hung out with his people.
The event: The CAA party, hosted by smartwater
The location: Cinema in Liberty Village
The vibe: At this point during TIFF, my festival-weary butt is loathe to put on heels and leave my house on a Sunday night at midnight, unless it's for a really, really good party. And that's just what smartwater's annual CAA bash delivers. This is always one of my favorite TIFF shindigs, if for no other reason than the insane star-per-square-inch ratio. You can't walk two steps without bumping into an A-lister (often literally in the case of this klutz). The vibe is always relaxed and unguarded. There's not even a roped-off area for the boldface names; the entire room is a VIP section.
C. Joan Porter
Joan has tiny sneezes, suffers from a raging case of Bieber Fever and is still in denial about Friday Night Lights ending. She's also an unusually vocal supporter of the semicolon. At MSN.ca, she covers Celebs and TV and frequently sacrifices her voice and sleep to get MSN readers an inside scoop and the best from behind-the-scenes.
Ben Carrozza
Ben Carrozza’s meteoric rise to the middle of Canadian entertainment (web) journalism has led him down some dark and winding paths. He has endorsed extreme hamburgers for a major fast food chain. Visited a hotel made entirely of ice on an energy drink company’s dime. Played Britney Spears in an online video no one watched. And made-out with a skeleton. Clearly, integrity is very important to him.
Jen McDonnell
Jen McDonnell has spent nearly 10 years in entertainment journalism, during which time she's covered multiple movie junkets, attended the Cannes Film Festival, amassed an embarrassing amount of Twilight knowledge, and repeatedly resisted the urge to reach out and pet Colin Firth. She maintains that the best part of covering TIFF is attending film screenings (though she'll never complain about any party that puts her within petting distance of celebrities).
