Toronto's celebrity orgy

This is the reason I don’t like – or should I be more polite and say, I’m not really enamoured of – the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). If you take a look at the coverage of the fest (now underway until, mercifully, this weekend) in virtually any Toronto-based media outlet (for Yank fiends, Toronto is the equivalent of New York and controls much of the Canadian media) virtually all of it is focussed on celebrities attending the event. Very little is on coverage of the actual films. Of course, I suppose, this isn’t TIFF’s fault. But then again perhaps the festival is a colossal enabler, don’t you think? One of my other beefs with the festival is its large selection of Hollywood films. The number of H’wood flicks is because Toronto is a mammoth business festival, and film wheelers and dealers use it to broker distribution deals. But why would I want to go to a festival that screens Hollywood films when those same films will open in local cinemas two, three months from now?