SEX, LIES, AND CONTROVERSY: BURN THIS BLOG AFTER READING

PEOPLE… WHO NEED FILM FESTIVALS

Is Toronto still the people’s festival? That’s the big question on everyone’s sleep-deprived minds this weekend. Yesterday, The Toronto Sun lambasted TIFF Director and CEO Piers Handling for turning what was once a peaceful film festival into a “an elitist corporate spectacle which is disconnecting it from the public that made it so important in the first place.” During the opening gala at Roy Thomson Hall for Guy Ritchie Ciccone’s movie premiere, RockNRolla, 200 people all holding passes and tickets to the film were turned away. One livid ticket holder, Degrassi: The Next Generation publicist Iain Christiansen tells The Cadillac Insider, “The festival has become only about seeing the stars — and not seeing the films. Doesn’t make sense to me.” To make matters worse, my pal, Entertainment Tonight Canada host Cheryl Hickey tells The Cadillac Insider that she was turned away at the Hollywood Life Lounge during a cocktail reception for Claire Danes and Zac Efron pic, Me and Orson Welles. A spy tells me, “Those LA flacks were rude to anyone Canadian. This is still a Canuck festival, right?” Good question.

Piers sighs, “I understand the staff were not great. You have my apologies for that but I think that’s unusual for the festival.” Handling defends TIFF by saying government cut backs have required his staff to solicit corporate fund raising. Actor/director Paul Gross weighs in on the matter to the Cadillac Insider. “Prime Minister Stephen Harper cut more than 40 million dollars to federal arts programs. Does he hate the arts? I think he just doesn’t care about them.” Ouch.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 7th, 2008 at 11:20 am and is filed under TIFF. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.