fourONEsixSTYLE

Okay, so I don’t really stalk the stars but I am privy to some insider info because of my connections to film and TV people and I thought, in the spirit of Gawker, I’d give you the dish on celebs running about the 416. I know you Toronto kids like your celebrity gossip too. So here’s the latest…

Miss Drew Barrymore’s been spotted regularly sucking back bevies at Ossington hideaway Sweaty Betty’s. She’s in town filming the HBO MOW version of documentary classic Grey Gardens. Friends caught lovely Jude Law at a Leafs game, and I spotted model, coach and Canada’s Next Top Model judge Stacy McKenzie (pictured above) riffling through the racks at a GSUS sindustries sample sale this afternoon (runs until Friday at 6PM).

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Originally uploaded by nsbkim

Yesterday the Toronto International Film Festival prepared itself for the next wave of filmsters, opening up single ticket sales. I was impressed with the addition of a relatively quiet stand at Roy Thompson Hall to take the burden off the continually busy box offices at Manulife and College Park. However, I wasn’t so impressed when I walked down to RTH only to find the film I wanted to see had already sold out. Though I might be able to RUSH This Beautiful City, a film about the gentrification and friction between classes in Toronto’s Parkdale neighborhood, I’m doing my best to work facebook and craigslist angles to see what pops up first.

The festival starts today!

I’ve been sitting on the edge of the fence, deciding whether I wanna pay my $80, for day one of Virgin Festival on Toronto Island September 8th. I would’ve gone for Amy Winehouse and Bjork but now the bitchy crooner has dropped out and I don’t feel like paying the bucks to see cute little Bjork perform for only an hour or two. I’ve seen her on the Island before and it was okay. The view sucked for everyone unless you were on a picnic table or right at the front since the grounds have no naturally built-in gradient.

My fav show/concert ever was Bjork at the Hummingbird Centre, each song built up methodically over 15 minutes, layering effects by computer technicians Matmos, a choir from Greenland, a harp and Bjork herself emerging on stage as if in a fairy tale. Virgin festival, with its wham bam attitude, won’t come close to comparing.

Winehouse was really the clincher for me, having missed her appearance at The Mod Club earlier this year, but she’s cancelled all her September shows and is out of the line up for Branson’s big music festival. Must have something to do with all the gory details emerging from a bloody fight with her beau. Hope those two sort out their drug problems before Winehouse’s father-in-law convinces everyone to boycott her and business plummets. Despite her drug issues and bitchy demeanour I would’ve dropped the cash in a sec to see her. Now I’m dropping my plans to go to V-fest instead.

Ask anybody who the new James Bond is and they’ll likely be able to answer, they’ll probably even add an opinion as to whether actor Daniel Craig will fill the famous Bond shoes, but ask anyone who Frank Pickersgill is and you’ll likely draw a blank stare. Pickersgill, however, is not very different than Bond, except that he was a real spy, and a hero, a Torontonian and didn’t sport the same kind of Bond bling. Frank fought for our country, during World War II, as part of a unique group called the SOE - Special Operations Executive - initiated by Winston Churchill.

To train this elite force Camp X was created, close to the shores of Whitby, Ontario. It was at this spy school, the largest in North America, that Canadian, American and English men and women were taught how to transmit messages secretly, kill silently, and how to handle interrogation if captured.

Ian Fleming was part of the spy school at Camp X, but space was limited so he was living on Avenue Road in Toronto and travelling to the school when necessary. It was while while living here in Toronto that the author penned his first book Casino Royale and named the character James Bond from a nearby church.

Fleming went onto great fame and success but not all of his comrades at Camp X were so lucky. Pickersgill was captured, and interrogated, on a couple different occasions. The first time he broke out by sawing out his cell window, using a blade baked into a loaf of bread. Years later, the Canadian spy parachuted into enemy-occupied France. Fellow SOE members drove into the Loire Valley to find him but all were intercepted and Pickersgill was taken back to prison. This time his escape through a second floor window didn’t end successfully. He was recaptured and later executed. A garden is dedicated in his honour on UofT’s campus.

It’s not the ending fellow Camp X alum Ian Fleming, creator of agent 007, would have written but it’s a story that deserves to be told out of respect to those who helped gain our freedom.

If Fleming were aiming for authenticity it may’ve been with a Canadian accent that we would hear the famous spy’s introduction: “Bond, James Bond” and Canadians would realize that their biggest heroes are not Hollywood-born.

The Toronto Film Festival is showcasing 352 films this year and we all know it can be a bit daunting to jump into it at this stage of the game. If you haven’t made any picks for this week there are still plenty of options. I’ve narrowed down what I think are some very worthwhile films and documentaries for this Tuesday and Thursday night, all of which had tickets available at the time I posted this.

Filmmaker Bruce LaBruce personally recommended Cuban doc The Sugar Curtain about 70s utopian dreams: Tuesday at 8:15PM.

More reasons to make fun of the suburbs, Radiant City, Tuesday at 8:45PM.

Not just for the title, Dong, a documentary which explores the building of the Three Gorges dam in China and its subsequent devastation of everything surrounding it, Thursday at 7:15PM.

For Liz and Craig - competitive gymnasts in White Palms, Thursday at 8PM.

First love warms up cold Toronto nights, In Between Days Thursday at 8:30PM.

If you ever been compelled to Hula, uplifting Hula Girls Thursday at 8:45PM.

With so many terrific films at the festival you can’t go wrong, but get your tickets soon.

The weekend’s here and I wanted to let you know that the itunes canada free download of the week is K-OS’ new Electrik HeaT - the Seek - wiLL, the music video that my man just finished working on last week. If you were a fan of Rob Base in HS you’ll dig the funky base line. The pic attached is a little peak onto the set, and the video to come.

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Originally uploaded by DracoRed.

A couple things weirded me out about Canada’s newest borrowed TV format Canada’s Next Top Model, which debuted a couple weeks back. First, CityTV couldn’t seem to find a level for the audio, it was jumping all over the board. The worst thing however, was the location of the show. Fashion in the forest? I just don’t see it. The model’s retreat is a gorgeous spot on the lake outside of Victoria, B.C. where “Supermodel” Tricia Helfer flies in to meet the young models on a float plane. Sure, great shot, great scenery, but where’s the context?

Canada’s Next Top Model comes across as “Super” amateur because of this bad decision. The show should be pushing this country’s fashion-focused metropoli, Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal. That’s where the talent, the passion and the energy are, which sadly seem to be missing from the Canadian version of this show.

Reprinted for film’s world debut.

I’d been excited to see DAVE CHAPPELLE’S BLOCK PARTY at the Toronto International Film Festival and was bummed when I couldn’t get tickets. So last night I took my chances and tried “rushing” the film. This means you must get in line quite early and hope there are free seats available when the flick starts. Best laid plans fell apart and I showed up with only 35 minutes to showtime and discovered about 100 people in line ahead of me at the Elgin Theatre. At least I could “star watch” I thought…but the elusive Chappelle and his entourage were a no show. I did snap this pic of genius director Michel Gondry on the way up the red carpet and eventually made my way in to the flick with my friends.

The synopsis on the TIFF site raised the question: “What do you do when your net worth tops 50 million dollars?” “Start with a party.” Chappelle had just signed a 50 mil contract with Comedy Central so his idea, in this verite documentary, was to throw the kind of concert he always wanted to see. With hip hop connections like his the line-up was guarateed ghettofabulous: Kanye West, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, The Roots, Dead Prez, Jill Scott. As if that weren’t enough to get your heart pumping, he adds THE FUGEES to the mix, reuniting after 8 long years, to the surprise to everyone at the Brooklyn Block Party. It was the most fun I’ve ever had at a movie and probably the only time I cried while I was dancing (standing at the back) when Lauryn Hill busted into a sweet and sultry version of Killing Me Softly. Wow.

Beyond the prep for the concert Dave made his usual jokes and pointed out some funny things about the hood in Brooklyn, where one school director welcomed him to the ‘mixed school’ where Black and Mexican kids played. Chappelle laughs, “this is what they call a mixed school?” The element of race was always present and I found it kind of sad that Chappelle always sees the world in black and white, though I thought it was inspiring when Wyclef spoke to the (almost all black) University marching band that were invited by Chappelle to open the party. “Don’t ever blame anything on the white man…I came from Haiti and didn’t speak a word of English, English was my third language and I’ve made a good life for myself.” Take out the element of race and we can all relate to his thoughts - don’t let anyone hold you back. As one black marching band student agreed…”Yeah, like Eminem said: You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow, opportunity comes once in a lifetime.”

Chappelle’s had his opportunity, let’s see what he does with it.