The mean streets of King West (Image: Google Maps)
With the Bell Lightbox TIFF headquarters at King and John finished, doomsayers have begun predicting the demise of Yorkville as the festival epicentre. The new Lightbox—with its five screening rooms, festival programming and trendy new restaurants—is obviously going to provide Yorkville’s facilities with some competition. It’s also across from the Hyatt Regency, the official host hotel, and very close to the Thompson Hotel, where Shenae Grimes, Adrian Grenier and Enrique Iglesias have been spotted recently.
But the Star‘s Rita Zekas thinks the rumours of Yorkville’s demise are overblown. Apparently, celebrities prefer “brand name” hotels, like the Four Seasons, Park Hyatt and the Windsor Arms. TIFF VP Jennifer Bell agrees. “They are brands everyone knows, and they will stay at those hotels. The Thompson Hotel will give the studios some options, but a lot of studios will book talent through familiarity and branding. People like the Hazelton; Brad Pitt loves the Hyatt. It’s easy to hop in the car and come down to King Street.”
And, as Miriam Blumenfeld, a rep for the Bloor Yorkville BIA, told Zekas, “Yorkville is very chi-chi, very prestigious, and it is so safe to walk around Yorkville. The Jonas Brothers hung out at the Starbucks by the Four Seasons—we are very polite stalkers.” Blumenfeld seems to imply that King Street is full of unsavoury characters, a statement contradicted by the fact that King has always been a tourist destination—Roy Thomson Hall, the Princess of Wales Theatre and the row of restaurants don’t exactly scream danger.
Whether we spend our time hunting celebs at the Thompson or Hazelton doesn’t much matter to us (five subway stops isn’t particularly far). As long as the next hip hotel doesn’t open in Scarborough, we’re fine.
• Yorkville has own brand of star power [Toronto Star]
• Big Stars Hit Toronto’s Thompson Hotel [Woman.ca]
Will the stars hang out in Yorkville or King West…
Who cares?
August 28, 2010 at 4:48 pm | by DowntownGuy2010Hey! Quit with the Scarborough digs…FU!
August 29, 2010 at 3:04 am | by KatieExactly. Quit the divisive Scarborough digs. Do you want the whole city to be considered Toronto or should only those who live by the subway or under an overpass qualify?
August 29, 2010 at 7:11 pm | by DanI wish people and the media would stop taking jabs at Scarborough, which is a lovely part of Toronto. Besides the real estate being more affordable and you get bigger property for your buck, it has a lot to offer aside from the Toronto Zoo: the Bluffs Park and Marina, the Guildwood park, Scarborough Town Centre, U of T Campus, Rouge Valley park, Highland Creek Village, not to mention all the Canadian celebrities born/raised in this area: Mike Myers, Eric McCormack,, John Candy, Barenaked Ladies, Maestro Fresh Wes, Choclair, Kardinal Offishall to name a few.
August 30, 2010 at 11:47 am | by EsterThis article was boring and pretty pointless. Yorkville has been sliding back down to earth since the 80s and Toronto is big enough to have more than one neighbourhood that douchebag Hollywood douches can hang out in. But watch out, y’all… you might get shot in your hipster fedora on King Street and be taken to Scarborough General where all the doctors are dyslexic and mental! F**k off!
August 30, 2010 at 1:35 pm | by KPShe just called her own neighbourhood “chichi”? Really?
August 31, 2010 at 2:18 am | by Lulu