Hello, Dali.
The surreal raison d’être for one TIFF party this past week. One that drew Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley to Louix Louis atop the St. Regis Hotel and, notably, featured a basket of stick-on, party-hardy moustaches beckoning revellers at the door. Don’t mind if I do!
In town to plug his new biopic “Daliland,” in which he takes on Salvador Dali, one of the most influential artists of all time, Kingsley arrived looking all sinewy and feral in a sweater the shade of Welch’s Grape Juice: 78 years old! This dude was born Krishna Pandit Bhanji in Yorkshire, the child of a Gujarati doctor and an English model-mother.
“He swims every day,” Mary Harron told me. She is the Canadian auteur behind the new film, a force whose filmography already includes such gems as “I Shot Andy Warhol” and “American Psycho.” Kingsley (whose career stretches from “Gandhi” to “Schindler’s List” to “Sexy Beast”) was really the perfect choice to play Dali, she said. I could immediately see it, too: that kinetic energy.
The perfect spot to hold this fête, meanwhile (for a film that actually closes the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday)? The St. Regis, a hotel legacy that factors fantastically into the story of Dali. For four decades, starting in 1934, whenever he and his wife would travel to New York City, they would stay at the fabled St. Regis there, making their home in Suite 1501, where the incorrigible Catalan famously knocked down a wall between two suites to create a roomier studio. Where he threw crazy parties, wooed patrons, even first met a young upstart named Andy Warhol.
He was the Eloise of the St. Regis, as it has been said, and his endless stunts and pranks kept the Manhattan newspapers in a state of frenzy during those years. (This, after all, was a man who once delivered a lecture wearing an old-fashioned diving suit! Who famously fashioned a sofa from pink satin in the shape of a pair of lips!)
As a nod to the suite that is at the heart of Daliland — and as a bit of fun for TIFF — the St. Regis has even built a replica of the famous Dali lair. In the lobby. Up now!
This! That!
- A civilized lunch! Most of the cast of “Glass Onion” — including Daniel Craig, Kate Hudson and Janelle Monáe — were on hand for a noon-timer at Le Sélect Bistro on Wellington the day after their premiere.
- Logan Roy, a.k.a. Brian Cox, was telling me, “Scotland will be independent” when I caught up with him at a party held Wednesday night for his TIFF film “Prisoner’s Daughter.” What a talker! Just a fascinating man. Both he and his co-star Kate Beckinsale — looking delicious in pink — hung out for a while at the Ketel One-doused party.
- The great Michelle Yeoh stopped into her favourite spot in Toronto — Patois on Dundas West — for an impromptu dinner Sunday night after receiving her TIFF Tribute Award earlier that eve. Noodles were had.
- The wonderful Kiernan Shipka celebrated her film “Wildflower” at a party held at Miss Likklemore’s. When I told her there just has to be a “Mad Men” spinoff at some point, with her Sally Draper character living in Lauren Canyon or something in the 1970s, her face went aglow. “I am so in,” she said.
- Hugh Jackman looking handsome (on-brand!) and making the rounds at a party at RBC House inside Storys some nights ago for his new one, “The Son,” directed by Florian Zeller. Notably, he was probably the only celeb I saw with a mask on at parties (removing it only briefly to take some photos) and that is, I hear, because he is on Broadway right now with “The Music Man.” The stakes: high!
- The most glamorous dinner during TIFF was held, unsurprisingly, by Chanel, in conjunction with Variety. Taking over two floors at Soho House — cocktails on the roof, a white-flower-speckled sit-down in the main dining room — it was a celebration of women in film. Spotted: Tilda Swinton, Minnie Driver, Margaret Qualley, Darren Aronofsky, Anna Kendrick. Even Andrew Scott, the “hot priest” from “Fleabag”!
- Fire marshal in the house! The prize for the biggest, buzziest party of the fest would definitely have to be go to Amazon Prime at Chotto Matte Sunday night. It really was huge. So huge that they had to stop letting guests in for a bit after there were capacity issues. Enjoying the ceviche and more: dreamboats and Paul Mescal. Also: Emma Corrin, Emily Hampshire, Lena Dunham.
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