(writing and reporting by Cameron French)

Hugh Hefner — media mogul, millionaire lades man, porn baron, feminist icon.  …

Umm, feminist icon?

That last description doesn’t exactly jump to mind when discussing the founder of Playboy magazine and its numerous adult-oriented offshoots in publishing and on television. Yet, a new documentary screening here at the Toronto International Film Festival, “Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist & Rebel” shines a different light on Hef’s past — his work in the feminist and civil rights movements — and considers the notion that his Playboy empire has been a vehicle for female empowerment.

It might be easy to snicker at that premise, but the crowd at the film’s premiere gave Hef, who arrived with three blondes whose combined age doesn’t match his own, two standing ovations after the screening.

In fact, the only booing or catcalls came when one audience member asked Hef a particularly badly-worded question, wondering who would carry on Hefner’s work now that he is in the “very final chapter” of his life.

Hef, who at 83 years-old is looking his age but appears as sharpwitted as ever, snapped back: “My mother lived to 101.” 

His answer drew another round of applause from the crowd which, perhaps surprisingly, appeared largely middle-aged and about half female.

What is an interesting question, however, is exactly what Hefner’s legacy will be: 1) Porn king or 2) feminist and free speech icon? Or, maybe both. Want to weigh-in? Give us a comment below.

Much has been made of superstar Matt Damon adding 30 lbs of heft to take on his new role in Steven Soderbergh directed movie “The Informant!”. The movie hits U.S. theaters on Sept. 17, but it premiered at the Venice film festival earlier this week. You can read about it here.

“The Informant!,” whose backers hope to win an award for Damon playing a corporate whistle-blower in a U.S. agri-business, also debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival this week. On Friday in Toronto, Damon was talking to the media about his role.

Notably, the most asked question was about the extra junk he put in his trunk. How’d he do it? Mostly by eating pizza and drinking beer, he said. And Damon, perhaps uncharacteristically of a movie star once named People’s magazine’s sexiest man alive, said he liked carrying the extra pounds! He also said fans watching him shoot the movie in the midwestern U.S. would tell him he looked good with his wig, mustache and full face.

Or, were they lying? You be the judge, click below to watch.

If there’s one Hollywood rule that is nearly universal, it is that stars will almost always be late to anything – to dinners, to events, to interviews — and that even includes so-called “gifting lounges” where they get stuff free. Free!

Gifting lounges are nothing new at film festivals such TIFF, Sundance or Cannes or at big award shows (the value of past Oscar gift bags notoriously runs in the tens of thousands of dollars) but lately organizers have been doing more than just giving away items to create buzz around their venues. They look upon the lounges as “media hubs” where actors schedule press interviews, photo shoots and parties — not just as quick, down-and-dirty stops to grab free stuff.

We ventured over to Hollywood Life magazine’s gifting lounge at the Toronto International Film Festival to get an idea of why companies want to give their designer goods to stars (the answer is publicity) and if the added attention actually helps sell more products (that answer is yes).

“Our customers are looking to celebrities and seeing what they should wear and where they should shop. We’ve found a lot of success as a brand through courting celebrities and dressing celebrities and converting that directly into sales,” said Sarah Wetenhall, a spokeswoman for British-based French Connection (otherwise known as FCUK), one of the sponsors at the Hollywood Life House. 

So on the festival’s opening day, Hollywood Life House sponsors including Hamilton watches, Parasuco denim, Hennessy cognac and Miami Boutique Hotels, and a handful of Toronto television media were eagerly awaiting the fashionably-one-hour-late cast members of director Guy Ritchie’s “RocknRolla” with an eventual appearance of Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Toby Kebbell and Thandie Newton and a disappointing no-show from “Entourage” star Jeremy Piven.

Still, the sponsers say it is worth the wait, and eventually celebs do come around.

“From a hundred celebrities who pass through here, if two of them are caught wearing this, or are on the ‘cover of’ or ‘inside of’ (a magazine) that’s what it’s all about, ” said Parasuco spokeswoman Ida Mirijello.

Montreal-based Parasuco, famed for it’s rock-star embellished jeans and outfitting Bon Jovi’s latest world tour, also sponsors award shows such as the American Music Awards and Golden Globes, where “Desperate Housewives” star Nicollette Sheridan picked up a pair of “Rock Me Baby” jeans a couple years ago and showed them off on the Late Show with David Letterman.

“Here she is on the David Letterman show, blinging her butt to the world, that’s what it’s all about,” said Mirijello

(Reporting by Ka Yan Ng)

Even before she arrives for the Toronto film festival, the business of being Paris Hilton has rolled into town.

Hilton made headlines on the first day of the Toronto International Film Festival when the New York Post’s Page Six reported that she forced festival organizers to cancel two of three screenings of a documentary about her, “Paris, Not France,” in order to amp up the promotional volume for the premiere.

“We wanted to create more buzz - create some hype . . . We felt the impact would be more extreme if we had one screening,” her spokesman Jason Moore is quoted as saying in the Post.

We tried to reach Moore and festival organizers, but neither was immediately available late in the afternoon. The film’s makers, however, did release a statement saying: “We are pleased to have this opportunity to screen the film. For a variety of reasons — which we are unable to discuss — the film will only be screened once. We are optimistic that the film will ultimately be released commercially, but we are not able to comment further.” 

Oh well. Paris happens.

The documentary is among the hottest — pardon the pun — titles here at Toronto. It is described on the Toronto web site as an exploration of the business of being Paris Hilton, and the human being behind the public persona. Its title is a nod to some polls that have revealed that amongst certain people, a higher percentage identify the name “Paris” with Hilton rather than with the Paris, France, according to the festival.

Directed by Adria Petty, the documentary is set to premiere on Tuesday and that debut, for now, appears to be the only showing. And one wonders, will the world feel the impact?