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The Toronto Film Festival this year didn't disappoint. In fact, the festival was once again excellent. Compared to the Venice Film Festival it was utterly brilliant. The Toronto International Film Festival -TIFF- is easily one of the best film festivals there is. It hasn't got the nightmarish chaos of the Cannes Film Festival, which although good, can be hard to cover due to the sheer size and huge amount of media competing for the same 'slice of cake'. The Venice festival is not as big as Cannes but it can be as chaotic, and the allocation of certain media passes is erratic and illogical. I have experienced colleagues who will be given accreditation for the festival but then denied the further pass needed to cover the red carpet and photocall events! So what's the point? Of course, their press office will not tell you this until after the day you arrive. If this information was forthcoming BEFORE the start of the festival, many colleagues would not cover it and save themselves a small fortune. But they don't tell you this. They just want you to turn up so that you have to cover the event. Toronto does not do this. The one pass you get is the pass for everything. One can cover the whole event. In Cannes however, you need three passes! How absurd. OK so Cannes has the beaches and the glitz granted, but Toronto has even more big names attending and is easier to cover and ten times less expensive. In between premieres and parties, you can just see Toronto which is a brilliant city. Add to this the friendly nature of the Canadians -compared to the French! - and is heaven.
Paris Hilton
Ed Harris
Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffiths
Tim Robbins
Jeremy Irons
This year's festival had the likes of PARIS HILTON, -plugging her new flick 'Paris, Not France- BRAD PITT, RACHEL WEISZ, JESSICA BIEL, TIM ROBBINS, RACHEL McADAMS, DANNY GLOVER, JENNIFER ANISTON, ADRIEN BRODY, MARK RUFFALO, KATE BECKINSALE, KEIRA KNIGHTLEY, JOHN MALKOVICH, RENEE ZELLWEGGER, VIGGO MORTENSEN, ED HARRIS, JEREMY IRONS, RICKY GERVAIS, JIMMY PAGE, U2's THE EDGE, JACK WHITE, ALAN ALDA, BENICIO DEL TORO, SIR BEN KINGSLEY and RALPH FIENNES amongst others.
Jack White
Jimmy Page
Jessica Biel
Renee Zellwegger
Rachel McAdams
Keira Knightley
Press conferences are very informal and fun to cover. Although the worst press conference of all the film festivals I have ever been to in my career was for 'Fifty Dead Men Walking'.
This press conference was a celebration of TERRORISM. Yes, terrorism. The film was about the 'troubles' in Northern Ireland. It was an utter glamorisation of the sheer cowardly acts of the terrorist group the provisional Irish Republican Army or as we all know it, the IRA. The elated faces of the moronic cast as they talked about how incredible and wonderful the IRA members were. They had 'infiltrated' the IRA -so they say- to get to know them better and get into their -f-cked up- minds. They wanted to know why they did what they did. I would've happily told them. They were murdering scum. Sheer cowards. Leaving bombs in public areas killing civilians including children. Jeez, what bravery. Couldn't confront the British Army face to face as they would've been wiped out. The British army's Special Air Service (SAS) had said -off the record- that they could wipe out the whole IRA in one night. However, they were of course stifled by our laws and regulations and 'human rights'. Why is it that only criminals have rights? We always protect their rights to the detriment of ours. Worst of the cast was the simpleton ROSE McGOWAN. This third rate 'actress' LOVED the IRA. She called herself Irish in her thick American accent -but couldn't spell 'Ireland' if you paid her- and had never been to Ireland before shooting the film. -Shame she wasn't shot- She was such a fan of these cowardly criminals that she even said in front of all the cameras that 'She would've been in the IRA had she not been an actress'. She is so dense, she would've -thankfully- blown herself up by mistaking a stick of dynamite for a tampon. She truly makes me puke.
Rose McGowan
She even said that the collateral damage from the IRA was just "unfortunate". All the innocent civilians including children blown up by the IRA was just "unfortunate". She said that it was so cool to meet the IRA members because they were just so "normal". They wore "normal clothes" and not dressed all in black with their faces covered as she had imagined. I kid you not. This woman is a complete and utter idiot. She makes Homer Simpson look intellectual. Her comments were extremely offensive. She also found the British flag in Northern Ireland "offensive". Never mind that the REAL Irish citizens living in Northern Ireland chose to have the British flag there. I am not exaggerating, what I am telling you has been recorded by TV cameras at the press conference. EVERYONE heard this. She said a lot more nonsense as well but I have no more space for moronic comments made by this thick, ignorant, badly educated, sack of crud of a woman. Do not watch this film. It is VILE. Like McGowan's mind. Luckily, it won't go far. People aren't as stupid as her and the rest of the cast. The only person that didn't praise the IRA was Sir BEN KINGSLEY who shockingly took part in this poorly made terrorist advert. The IRA didn't win. They 'fought' for a united Irish republic. There isn't one. There won't be one. Northern Ireland is still intact. Get over it!
On a lighter note, thankfully talented actors were in abundance in Toronto. BRAD PITT once again sent the fans wild as he attended the festival to promote his film 'Burn After Reading' where he plays a funny -dumb- character. He sends himself up in this film. It's quite funny. From the tough actor/heartthrob image to this. It's worth watching just for this camp performance. Having just photographed him at the Venice film festival it was so familiar yet strange -there's a paradox- to shoot him again. When we chatted, the thing he told me he missed the most was of course Angelina and the kids back in France.
Brad Pitt
Liam Neeson
Danny Glover
Julianne Moore
On my return flight from Toronto I was pleasantly surprised to find myself upgraded to 'Executive First'. This meant I had a bed, and limitless quantities of Champagne. How did they now? Whatever, It was brilliant. Cheers Air Canada.
A few hours after I landed -no rest for the wicked- I went over to collect my London Fashion Week -LFW- pass. LFW had started a day before I arrived. If there is one show to cover from the whole of LFW its always got to be the VIVIENNE WESTWOOD show.
Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne never disappoints. Her shows are always cutting edge with top models and guests. This season, she does it again. Although the venue she chose was a bit peculiar to say the least, -for one of her shows- Earl's Court arena provided a spacious enough venue. The guest list was impressive enough as always. It included: PAMELA ANDERSON, MISCHA BARTON, ERIN O'CONNOR, EMMA WATSON, KATE MOSS, NAOMI CAMPBELL, JAIME WINSTONE, DITTA VON TEASE, JOELY RICHARDSON and KIMBERLY STEWART to name a few. The security was excessive. There were around six burly security men standing in the way of photographers and TV to stop us photographing PAMELA ANDERSON and DITTA VON TEASE.
Mischa Barton
The girls actually wanted the pics taken as they still posed for us, but the security were useless and panicked. We still took our pictures despite the overgrown vacuous beef headed gorillas that posed as security. The show itself was good and loud, although not as many funky/weird outfits as before. Impressive nonetheless. There was even one model totally topless and the look on the audience was priceless. Jaws dropped. Don't know why. We've all seen them. I've seen and prodded thousands in my career. I won't say the rest. But it was a pleasant surprise for sure. After the show when I went backstage to congratulate Ms Westwood -yes quite handy these AAA /Access All Areas-passes- KATE MOSS was backstage smoking a 'fag' breaking the rules as always. Most shocking of all was to see the models sharing one, yes just ONE bottle of Champagne between them with tiny plastic flutes. I nearly wept. Had I know of this unfortunate state of affairs I would have brought a case of bubbly from my stock for them. There was a TV frenzy as various TV crews were trying to interview la Westwood but to no avail. I luckily had a chat with her and she posed for my pics with no problem. OK, so we've met before but it was chaotic -like a street market in Calcutta- to say the least. What was interesting was that KATE MOSS didn't want her picture taken, but she didn't exactly hide from my shots.
KATE MOSS
Joely Richardson
Westwood model on catwalk
Thus I had plenty of pics of her. However, in ALL of them she had red-eye. Erm, that means that her eyes -pupils- look bright red DESPITE having taken various pics WITH flash. Normally the burst of flash makes the pupils of the eyes contract so there's no red-eye. So, ah, well, it -probably- means that her pupils could not contract -were wide open- due perhaps to certain substances in the body. We'll say no more I think. despite all that, she looked fab.
Ditta Von Tease
DITTA VON TEASE was also in town to launch her new Wonderbra range. The launch took place in Covent Garden London and Ditta teased us by sitting on a giant bra. I'm sure she'll do well from that collection. Very sexy.
Well peeps, that's it for now.
Over and out, see ay next month.
JOE ALVAREZ
joealvarez@verycool.co.uk
Web-site: www.myspace.com/redcarpetspecialist
WORDS AND ALL PICTURES COPYRIGHT JOE ALVAREZ 2008 |
