TORONTO — A goat got too cozy with a lady guest and tried to chomp off part of her dress. The woman and her friends broke into nervous laughter and giggles. This was one incident that we could still remember, after a week of seemingly nonstop day interviews and evening parties left us feeling like zombies in Toronto.
What was a goat doing, schmoozing with a designer dress-clad chick, you might ask. Well, it was the party for George Clooney’s goofy comedy, “The Men Who Stare At Goats.” There were goats in pens in front of an 18,000-sq. ft. mansion in the Bridle Path, which my Toronto-based cousins, beauty queen Samantha Viado East and Michael Acedillo, pointed out is one of the most chic neighborhoods in this Canadian city.
One goat named George, according to his handler (or agent or publicist—you never know when Hollywood descends into Toronto), was luckier than the rest since he was on the red carpet, albeit with a leash. We asked Mena Suvari to pose with George and both gamely obliged. This was before one of the goats in the pens tried to bite off a part of a woman’s dress. Mena was wearing a smart leopard print dress. We now shudder at the thought—what if George mistook Mena for a real leopard?
Patricia Clarkson petted the herd but didn’t want to pose for pictures because she pitied the animals. The other George (Clooney), in the meantime, mingled with the humans, including Jeff Bridges, Jason Bateman and wife Amanda Anka (daughter of singer Paul Anka), Adam Brody, Robert Duvall and Peter Gallagher. Despite such name guests, most of us were reduced to staring at the goats.
Purple hair
The only reason we remember the party for Drew Barrymore’s roller derby-themed directorial debut, “Whip It!,” was that we got a yin-yang tattoo in the neck while waiting for the star to show up. The bash was held at the Tattoo Rock Parlour. What would a couple like Janet and me do, after the novelty of seeing girls in miniskirts, fishnets and Rollerblade swoosh by in conga lines has worn off? Get tattoos, of course. Downstairs, Janet even got a purple hair extension.
When Drew finally arrived, she was greeted by her film’s star, “Juno’s” Ellen Page. “Whip It!” got a good review from Variety, so Drew is off to a good start. Other guests included Drew’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, Justin Long, director Jason Reitman and Michelle Lee who make a beautiful couple (his George Clooney entry, “Up in the Air” is a winner), and “Precious” actress Gabourey Sidibe. In keeping with the film’s roller derby milieu, pizza and mini-burgers were served. Did we say we were hankering for real food like kaldereta?
A funny thing (well, it’s funny now) happened to us on our way to The Weinstein Company bash in a mall. A dude and his date came out looking relieved when the elevator doors opened. He said the lift was not working. But then he and the girl went back in; foolishly, we followed them. When the doors closed, it was pitch dark and the lift froze. We kept pressing the emergency buttons but the lift stayed shut and dark. After what seemed like an eternity, the door finally opened. Party time again!
We tackled many flights of stairs to reach our destination. The trudge up was worth it if only for the chance to meet Jason Reitman’s discovery in “Up in the Air,” Anna Kendrick. Watch this young actress go mano a mano with George and Vera Farmiga.
How do you eat spare ribs in a cocktail party and keep your dignity intact? A guest at the Opus restaurant bash for the Coen brothers’ enjoyable “A Serious Man” showed us. She went into a corner and discreetly, slowly, bit the meat off the bone.
Sorry, Mariah
Leave it to Michael Moore to come up with a fitting venue for the shindig of his well-received documentary, “Capitalism: A Love Story.” He welcomed guests at a branch of Fran’s restaurant, a chain similar to Denny’s.
We skipped a chance to party with Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige and Robert De Niro at the “Precious” cocktails in order to watch Mike Sandejas’ entry “If I Knew What You Said (Dinig Sana Kita).” How’s that for extreme sacrifice? We kid, of course. Watching the sold-out screening was worth it.
Two nights later, we brought Mike to the InStyle party co-hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. This annual bash at the Windsor Arms, which began in 2000, has become the climax party of the Toronto International Film Festival. Man of the hour was Colin Firth, who had just won the Venice Film Festival Best Actor prize for his performance in fashion designer Tom Ford’s filmmaking debut, “A Single Man.” Colin, still the Mr. Darcy to beat to this day, told us that it will take a while for the significance of his win to sink in.
Singer Eve turned heads because her cleavage had paw prints. George the goat’s?
Guests included Clive Owen, emotionally powerful in Scott Hicks’ drama entry “The Boys Are Back”; Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, who expressed her desire to be a presenter at the next Golden Globe Awards; Nicolas Cage and wife Alice Kim; Anthony LaPaglia, Radha Mitchell and Bill Nighy. Keanu Reeves strode in with a group that included Fil-Am Rowena Arguelles, a top Hollywood agent. Upon hearing of “Dinig’s” popular screenings, the smart, lovely daughter of recently retired ambassador Romeo Arguelles congratulated Mike. Patricia Clarkson showed up again but this time she didn’t have to worry about goats. She just had to fret about making her way through the mob of party animals.
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We reported earlier about how a bomb threat in Beverly Hills forced us out of scheduled interviews with “The Ugly Truth” stars Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl and director Robert Luketic at the Four Seasons and into a traffic island. The hotel guests and staff had to wait outdoors as the police searched for explosive devices.
When it became apparent that it would take a while for the inspection to be completed, a quick decision was made for us to have the interview at Il Cielo, a restaurant across from the Four Seasons. We met the trio at the same time instead of individually because we had lost a lot of time. It was a blessing in disguise—the joint interview and the cozier venue made for a livelier, more intimate (and naughtier) exchange between Gerard and Katherine and their filmmaker, Robert Luketic. In the comedy, Gerard plays Mike Chadway, a chauvinistic TV celeb while Katherine is a TV producer searching for Mr. Perfect.
Below are snippets of our interview with Katherine (K), Gerard (G) and Robert (R):
About a scene in which Katherine fakes an orgasm:
K: It was my favorite scene when I read the script. I kind of forgot about what it would be like to actually do it.
G: In front of a hundred people.
K: People I didn’t know that well and some I didn’t know at all. But it ended up being really fun although it was exhausting.
G: I remember spraying coffee over my script supervisor. I was having coffee while watching Katherine Heigl have an orgasm at a dinner table! It was interesting to see about a hundred extras arrive, who had no idea what we were doing.
Anecdotes:
G: We did the movie so long ago. But I do remember grabbing Kate’s breasts…
K: Oh yeah.
R: And slapping her ass.
K: That was a beautiful moment on camera.
G: There’s a scene where she goes to answer the door and I’m like, “Wait, come here.” She came back and I spanked her ass. I have no idea why (laughter).
R: But I love it. It’s flirtation.
G: It was my first day. I was actually very nervous because I was doing the American accent. I had to fight to do that.
K: Scottish is so sexy.
G: By the way, any time I do an American accent, the lead actress always says, “I don’t know why you don’t just use your Scottish accent. It’s so much sexier.”
K: Yeah.
On the value of honesty:
G: If you have great tits, I’d love to be able to tell you, “Your tits look amazing.” But in polite society, I can’t do that (laughter). But honesty would be nice. I tell Kate all the time she has great tits.
K: And I feel great, I’m not offended.
Is he a gambler?
G: I have one of those arcade games in my house with about 60 different games and the only one it doesn’t have is the one I asked to get, which is Galaga. So that’s a little bit hopeless. I’m not really a gambler because my father was a big gambler. We used to have five bookie shops until he over-gambled and went bankrupt. We all moved to Canada very quickly (laughter).
K: Oh my God.
G: Yeah, the sheriff’s office was chasing us. My mom was five months pregnant with me.
R: That explains a lot.
K: It really does.
G: A lot.
K: You should have told us that sooner.
G: You know that Casanova principle— kids who were abandoned by their father are never quite … there you go. No father since I was two years old. So now you know why I’m playing Mike Chadway. That wasn’t funny, obviously.
E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585 @yahoo.com and read his blog, “The Nepales Report,” on http:// blogs.inquirer.net/ne-palesreport.
