TIFF celebrities soak in the red-carpet razzmatazz

She pulled a Pacino.

After causing old-school pandemonium in the very belly of the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, Taylor Swift shook it off with dinner in a considerably more serene way, according to an eyewitness account. Found going through a side entrance into Opus, the classic restaurant on Prince Arthur, just north of Bloor. Away from the downtown core all those Swifties who had gathered, with their angel-lit faces — to sing, to dance, to simply bear witness — on King Street, outside the Lightbox.

Made a beeline to Opus, TaySwift, after her much-buzzed onstage talk in Toronto — the very low-key spot that “Michael Corleone” also, indeed, popped in for a surprise-dinner when he was at TIFF for a talk a few years back, if I recall. She settled with a few people in the back patio area. A sort of secret garden.

Opus, which turned 30 this year — an almost-unheard-of feat these days in restaurant-land — remains one of those places that exude a kind of hushed luxury. Regulars (and in many cased now, their children) have long been darting here to feast on menu items like “seared foie gras and maple apples with current puree” or “black-pepper crusted tuna loin on shredded vegetables with green onion beurre blanc.” Oenophiles have long had a soft spot for the place, since it also happens to have one of the finest wine cellars in the city, and it is also the kind of place where stars like Robin Williams would regularly hang out when he was working in town. I once had a very memorable night with the late great comedian there, when he got behind the bar and spontaneously started to do a “set.”

Back here in 2022, meanwhile, the town is still buzzing on a high of Swift. By all accounts, she truly charmed the audience during her earlier onstage chit-chat, tied to her new short film. Not only did she reveal that is a huge fan of Guillermo del Toro, but she also shared that her favourite films include “Breakfast Club,” “Marriage Story” and “The Way We Were.” No argument here!

One other moment stood out during her time onstage: when a woman rushed the stage at one point, security pounced, at which point the pop princess intercepted. “It’s OK. It’s just flowers.”

Meanwhile:

Another millennial icon, Zac Efron — in town for his madcap gala film, “The Greatest Beer Run,” with Russell Crowe — was in a confessional mood when he revealed recently that he suffers from agoraphobia. “I just don’t go out,” he told Men’s Health for a cover story, calling “people in large groups” a “trigger” for his anxiety disorder. (A career hazard for a movie star, I would think. And TIFF certainly challenging, if so).

The red carpet razzmatazz for him will, in any case, be a far departure from how Efron spent most of his pandemic — sequestered in Byron Bay, a beachy enclave in Australia. According to the mag: “He slept on a hammock in the trees. He dated a civilian.”

Also:

Hillary and Chelsea Clinton are certainly making the rounds in Toronto. Popped up at the Middle Eastern-inspired Shook, on Portland St, Friday. Was a reception for their Netflix doc “In Her Hands” — about an inspiring young Afghan woman. Huma Abedin, Hillary’s trusted adviser? She was there too. Pass the tahini. Later that eve, the Clintons were also eye-spied at Louix Louis, inside the St. Regis. It takes a village — and it also takes fuel.

Finally:

“Not since my bar mitzvah have I seen a celebration like this.” So gushed Billy Eichner at the elegant party that Variety threw for him — and his big, fat rom-com “Bros” — at Hotel Le Germain the other night, on Mercer. This was just hours before the rapturous response that the movie got during its world premiere later, at Roy Thomson. Something I have heard again and again, in terms of the response, is that not only does it make fulfil all your ’90s rom-com itches — think of it as a gay “You’ve Got Mail” — but there were actually so many rapid-fire zingers that many people missed some of the jokes because there too busy laughing at the joke that had just zinged right before!

Shinan Govani is a Toronto-based freelance contributing columnist covering culture and society. Follow him on Twitter: @shinangovani

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