Party Pages: The Dark Knight Rises premiere after-party at Wayne Manor

Party Pages: The Dark Knight Rises premiere after-party at Wayne Manor

Nestor Carbonell plays the mayor of Gotham in The Dark Knight Rises (Image: George Pimentel/WireImage)

One of the most anticipated films of the year, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, premiered last night at Scotiabank Theatre in all its IMAX glory. Cast members Matthew Modine and Nestor Carbonell were present (alas, there was no sign of Anne Hathaway, Christian Bale and Joseph Gordon-Levitt), but it was starlet Sarah Gadon who really stole the show—her frosty blonde locks stood out in the crowd, and her draped black cocktail dress was just coquettish enough. After the popcorn was eaten and the nearly three-hour-long film finished, guests moved on to a Dark Knight gala at 1 King West, which for one night only was converted into Wayne Manor. That project involved glossy couches, spotlights, live bats in a cage (shoved in a corner and not looking too pleased to be there) and an assembly of women who were hired to observe the party from a balcony and cast flirty glances at anyone who made eye contact (it was like Eyes Wide Shut, but without public, somewhat awkward looking, intercourse). There was much to see, from the replica Batman, Bane and Catwoman costumes to eTalk’s Ben Mulroney interviewing guests on a small stage (how he could hear anything, we’re not sure).

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In the small, two-sofa VIP section, Modine sat with friends and guests chatting quietly. In fact, he spent the whole night there, while Carbonell mixed in the main room, where Suzanne Boyd and Moses Znaimer amiably mugged for cameras in their festive masquerade masks, Shinan Govani flopped on the central couches for some rest (or perhaps to observe the cast members of Degrassi, who seem to only do the party circuit as a unit) and designer David Dixon chaperoned some kids who were big Batman fans (although they told us they liked the sinister Bane most of all). As the evening wound down, model Yasmin Warsame and several guests continued to debate the differences between The Dark Knight Rises and The Dark Knight, while others took to their own personal bat caves for a night’s rest.