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The Bell “lounge” at Roy Thomson Hall. It’s basically a shipping crate that blasts Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” before a gala starts. Dancers then emerge from the crate (complete with smoke effects) and do a half-assed number to get people’s attention, though neither the media nor fans seemed to care. (Image: Karon Liu)
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A Snooki impersonator tried to walk the red carpet at Roy Thomson Hall for Black Swan. It’s a sad day in pop culture history when Snooki is considered red carpet royalty. (Image: Jeff Lewis)
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Hotel workers striking in front of the Regency Park Hyatt, where everything TIFF-related took place. (Image: Karon Liu)
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When their publicist walks behind them holding a card announcing their name and title. (Image: Karon Liu)
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Score: A Hockey Musical, which will probably be remembered as the worst movie to open TIFF.
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The press and industry screening of Dustin Lance Black’s What’s Wrong With Virginia, which cleared out halfway through, foreshadowing such reviews as “Everything Is ‘Wrong With Virginia.’”
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The Elgin Theatre, where fans had to line up on the other side of Yonge Street hoping that the zoom on their iPhones would be good enough. (Image: Karon Liu)
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During the introduction of A Beginner’s Guide to Endings, a producer made a very long speech while the cast stood onstage, wondering when he would shut up. Suddenly Harvey Keitel threw his hands in the air and walked off; the cast followed him. (Image: Karon Liu)
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Two-time Oscar winner Paul Haggis being turned away from Soho House, while Josh Brolin helped his pal out by breaking into hysterics. They later made up. (Image: Stefania Yarhi)
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Quebec filmmaker Xavier Dolan, who managed to answer “How did your success at TIFF last year affect your new film?” with a passionate rant against his critics. (Image: Jag Gundu/Getty Images)
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Little Miss Sunshine star Abigail Breslin, now 14, taking the famous stage at the Horseshoe to sing an acoustic ballad. (Image: Jason Merritt/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images)
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Our hard-fought battle against tears at the end of Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling’s drama Blue Valentine.
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Taking a 20-minute nap in the Elgin Theatre’s media pit while waiting four hours for Nicole Kidman’s arrival. Then, during some attempted downtime with Battlestar Galactica, we fell asleep in our armchair holding a glass of water, only to be awakened when we spilled it all over ourselves.
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Natalie Portman, the leading lady in the Oscar race for her role in Black Swan. (Image: Karon Liu)
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When Ben Mulroney and Shinan Govani walk the carpet. (Image: Karon Liu)
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Uma Thurman’s strict Mexican-only menu, which she requested at an after-party dinner at Brassaii. (Image: George Pimentel)
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The ET Canada party for where a generator that burst into flames was replaced in just 20 minutes. (Image: Staci L.)
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Peter Fonda, whose left-wing politics mixed uneasily with guests at the Best Buddies gala. (Image: Ryan Porter)
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It’s not like we were expecting to sidle up to Don Draper at the bar and have him offer us a Lucky Strike and a Canadian Club, but missing Jon Hamm at all the glitzy film after parties was our biggest celeb letdown. (Image: Karon Liu)
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Belinda Stronach, who was spotted at Maison in the wee hours, hanging with a group of 20-somethings, one of whom was not wearing a shirt.
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Blake Lively, for wiping out all traces of Gossip Girl’s pristine Serena van der Woodsen to wear the trashtacular tube tops of Boston broad Krista in Ben Affleck’s The Town.
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At the Absolut party, we rode up to the garage in chauffeured golf carts at breakneck speed. (Image: Carldunn)
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A Mexican tabloid reporter asked Hilary Swank if she would appear in a vampire movie. For the record, she said no. (Image: Karon Liu)
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Meeting Ryan Kwanten, who, like us, turns out to be a bit of a mama’s boy. The True Blood hunk (have you ever seen better abs?) took his mom to the Amfar gala and on an Alaskan cruise. (Image: Karon Liu)
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We hit the swag lounges hard this year and came away with some great stuff, albeit mostly for women. Hear that, Mom? Christmas comes early this year!
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A fan had Kevin Spacey sign her cheque book for the premiere of Casino Jack. Unbeknownst to her, the media’s zoom lenses got shots of all her cheque book details, including name and account number. The photographers we talked to blurred out that info before uploading them. (Image: Karon Liu)
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If even for two weeks, we were able to forget about Justin Bieber. (Image: Jake Auzzie)
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James Franco’s movie 127 Hours. One particularly graphic scene caused three audience members to faint at the screening. Others walked out.
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Rachel McAdams and Michael Sheen were reportedly canoodling at Sheen’s party for Beautiful Boy at Cheval. (Images: Sheen by Toby Canham/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images, McAdams by James Helmer)
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The hype for Casey Affleck’s Joaquin Phoenix doc I’m Still Here was strong, but by the end of the week, the reviews were harsh, and we learned it was all a hoax. The film might be in theatres, but we’re not.
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Martin Sheen picketed for 20 minutes with striking Royal York staffers one day and showed off his undies to photographers at a party another day. (Image: Stefania Yarhi)
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(Images by Karon Liu and Stefania Yarhi)