Little Mosque on the Prairie

This morning started out fantastically with PRECIOUS. The film had huge word of mouth at Sundance but we missed it. Wow. Excellent script, acting (um - Mariah Carey! Mo' Nique!) and we're opening it at the Sundance Kabuki in November. This article in today's LA Times talks about the screening I was at this morning. Saw Kristin Scott Thomas in a very nice French film LEAVING[Partir]. Two hours of drama and really great looking people making love. She is on a roll, and looks and sounds as French as Pepi La Peau (a compliment). Then we saw THE ROAD, based on the Cormac McCarthy novel with Viggo Mortensen. Intense and one of the bigger films at the Festival. I finished off the day with the fabulous new Documentary DANIEL ELLSBERG: The Most Dangerous Man in America. Fantastic history lesson that might impart feelings of deja vu.

Two entities who I hope will not read this entry: 1) Canadians 2) My boss.
And two things: 1) Canada is very large and 2) It's not the United States.
I have to admit that I have some ingrained prejudices about our Neighbors to the Nanook. A lot of my prejudice revolves around the word 'boring'. There - I said it. So tonight, on my way to trying to get into a screening (here's the part that I hope my boss doesn't see), I fell into a huge crowd waiting for stars to enter a party. Gotta say the folks in Toronto get REAL excited about the festival, so any possibility for star gazing includes a mob scene.
I got pretty far up to the front surrounded by several nice ladies clutching cameras and screaming as 'stars' began to arrive. Oooooh Miss Canada! Ooooooh Joey Smith! [who is that?] Ooooooh Ricky Rumpus! [who?] Oooooh Lisa Lupus [pardon?] and finally Oooooh Carlo Ponti [whoozat? The Star of LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE - huh?] and screams and a lots of photos. At that, with an hour wasted and a missed film, I began my trek back to my hotel to prepare for another day. It was a one chicken dog day.