Celebrity Hunting at #TIFF2012

I always say year after year that I am going to go to Toronto and find celebrities during the internationally known Toronto International Film Festival (aka TIFF), but somehow I always find some excuse not to go (and always end up totally regretting it later). This year (while I did make a few major mistakes in the short-timed planning process) I decided that it was a must, and I just had to make it happen!

Friday a friend and I decided to stake out in the general areas of Wellington and John Streets and King and John Streets to see who we could see. This festival is known for reeling in the big wigs of the Entertainment/Movie industry so I was nervous and excited to see who we could get a glimpse of. To be honest I was 100% there to scope out Ryan Gosling (I have the tiniest biggest crush on the man and I was totally stoked to be in the same city as him), but I was excited in general to be amongst some major celebrities!

A tiny tidbit about myself before we move on is that I have been head-over-heals obsessed with anything and everything entertainment, celebrities and music all of my life. My mother was always telling me to be realistic and not fantasize about it all the time. Funny thing is, I still am crazy about it after all these years and if I ever get the chance to work in the business (on the writing/journalism/media end of things) I will consider it my dream/passion come true! So if anybody out there needs a grunt, admin, researcher...I'm available!!

Anyways, back to business. We stuck around the Bell Light Box (which is TIFF headquarters), The Ritz-Carleton Hotel, and Roy Thompson Hall/Princess of Wales where they were known for celebrity sightings during the day/evenings - and we weren't wrong! Just walking by the back end of the Bell Light Box we spotted a tv crew and a mysterious van. Not too long after that the one and only Snoop Lion (uh, aka Snoop Dogg?) step out of the vehicle and into the building. While he didn't stop to talk to anyone going in, he took to twitter to tweet his doings while waiting for his press conference to start.

The Ritz-Carleton was full of celebrities and I'm sure we only saw less than an 1/8th of the entire hotel. While we did spot some amazing actors/actresses we had yet to see Gosling (oh yes, I'm totally going back there). It's hard to write about all of them in sentences so here's a list of who we saw at the Ritz:

- Andy Samberg (aka first well know for being on Saturday Night Live - he's super cute btw)
- Viggo Mortenson (I was excited for this - first thing I squealed was that he's from Lord of the Rings haha)
- Fran Dresher (ya know, from The Nanny! I grew watching her!)
- Kate Hudson (only had a glance as she had her little baby with her)
- David Spade
- Numerous directors/producers (I'm assuming - I believe we saw one who was later on at the after-party for The Place Beyond the Pines).

We headed over to the red carpet for Roy Thompson Hall and The Princess of Wales to catch a glimpse of even more celebs! These were the main theatres so they had the most action so it was definitely awesome to be apart of such a big crowd and event. While we were at Roy Thompson we managed to see the likes of Bryan Cranston (anybody watch Breaking Bad?), just a tiny glimpse of Jennifer Garner and of course the wonderful (and super amazingly friendly) Ben Affleck! At first we thought Ben would skip our side (as they were trying to push him into the media tent) but he came our way and we were like inches away from him! I even managed an autograph of my He's Just Not That Into You DVD cover along with the comment "Woah, haven't seen this one in awhile!". To be honest I was going to bring another cover but it had both Bradley Cooper AND him so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone! Too bad I never saw Bradley Cooper haha.

Then *deep breaths* we headed over to the Princess of Wales to...wait for it... see Ryan Gosling!! Sadly I only got a brief glimpse of his beautiful face, but it was just enough that I was able to breath in the same air. I'm sure all of the other girls felt the same way but still...I was stoked! He was looking dapper as always and while it was only for a second, it definitely made my night (other than Ben Affleck of course!).

So you can probably get the picture as to how the rest of the evening went. We went back to the hotel, the back to the red carpet at Roy Thompson (this time to see Alexander Skarsgard and Julianne Moore), and then back to the hotel - with a trip to Starbucks and Boston Pizza in between. Oh and went back to the Princess of Wales to catch Amy Adams,  and Joaquin Phoenix, at their premier of The Master.

Director Derek Cianfrance from
The Place Beyond the Pines

 Nearing the end of the night we got word that Ryan and Bradley Cooper (who are castmates on The Place  Beyond the Pines) - thanks Twitter! - were at a local restuarant/bar for their after-party. So, as dedicated stalkers...I mean hunters, we headed over to Ame to see if those beautiful boys would make an appearance. Unfortunately they didn't *sadface*, but it was interesting just the same to see who else we could spot. We did end up seeing the director of the film as well as one of the other actors Dane DeHann.

Sadly that was the end of our long day/night but it was a blast none the less!

TIFF runs from September 7th until the 13th so there is still plenty of chances for you to go and find your own celebrity experiences! The first weekend is the biggest for the stars but there are PLENTY to go around! Plus, if you're a Cineplex SCENE card holder you can save money and get TIFF tickets for as little as $12 dollars a ticket! That's awesome!! (Tickets regularly start around $19.99 and go up to around $40!)

Hope you have your own fun stalking...uh, I mean...hunting...down celebrities! Pictures will come as soon as I have some!

If you're on Twitter make sure you follow @EtalkCTV and @ETCanada to get all the up-to-date info about what's going on at TIFF!

- Taryn

P.S. I was serious about the job part! If anybody from Etalk or ET Canada sees this...I'm yours!