BARBARA HERSHENHORN , A.K.A. PARTY BARBARA
Party Barb, the director of special events for the Toronto International Film Festival for the past 25 years, is the person who has made TIFF a social event as much as a cinematic celebration. Her specialty is the blow-out party, attended by up to 3,500 thrill-seekers at a time.
"I don't do intimate dinners," she says with her big whisky voice. "My motto is 'Go big or go home.' "
A no-nonsense mover and shaker, she has 12 parties to organize during the 10-day festival, and just one assistant to help her do it. Rondon Rollocks, as retiring as Ms. Hershenhorn is commanding, trails her, taking notes while she plows through a day wearing sensible but chic Chanel ballerina flats and driving a black Mercedes C280.
Waking up at 6:40 a.m. after grabbing less than five hours sleep, she motors to the first appointment of the day, her linen supplier, Around the Table, located north of the 401. Next is a whirlwind appointment with her florist at Emblem, a sprawling flower shop on Dupont near Spadina, where the white flowers she wants aren't white enough: "They won't read under my lighting guy's lights."
In between, she makes a pit stop at the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces, where the pint-sized powerhouse cajoles military brass into lending her a mini-platoon of Canadian soldiers for this year's opening-night bash, the new Canadian war movie Passchendaele. "I could have hired a bunch of actors and put them in costume," Ms. Hershenhorn says, cocking a hip in front of an armoured vehicle she also hopes to secure as a prop for her upcoming event. "But I want the real deal. I'm all about operating in that small, exclusive space where most people just wouldn't go."
The day continues, sans lunch, at Metro Hall, where the fortysomething daughter of a former clothing manufacturer previews portable bar tables assembled for her approval. Her concept is for a giant outdoor cocktail party in advance of the closing-night film , Stone of Destiny, that will screen at Roy Thomson Hall. "I'm creating a play where hopefully the audience will enjoy every act of the production," pronounces the grande dame of the finely tuned fete, just as rain clouds thicken overhead. "I want them to come in and say, 'Ah!' Or, as I like to say, experience the big goose bumps."
But as the wind whips up her long dark hair, Ms. Hershenhorn looks uneasy. "My biggest challenge this year is the weather," she says.
Rushing home to shower and change, she arrives refreshed at the festival's annual patron's party, taking place at the Windsor Arms Hotel later in the afternoon. Air-kissing the suits that buzz around her like bees to a flower, Ms. Hershenhorn seems to relish the parties she organizes - except that her critical eye can't help but notice that a vase is out of place. "I'm always working," she says.
Over the years, she has only seen two films at the festival, Children of a Lesser God and Dance with a Stranger - debut screenings that took place back in the 1980s, before the parties took over her life. Rushing out the door to her day's last meeting, a business dinner with Joel Dubin of Westbury National Show Systems Ltd. that will end after midnight, Ms. Hershenhorn sums up her modus operandi: "In my business," she continues, "you're only as good as your last party."
DEBRA GOLDBLATT, ROCK-IT PROMOTIONS
A10-festival veteran, Debra Goldblatt earned her reputation by launching Tastemakers, the first VIP gift lounge at the festival, four years ago. Today, she is publicist for the Drake Hotel, hot spot for festival parties, and will also be handling the Canadian media for five foreign films (including Dean Spanley, starring Jeremy Northam, and Faubourg 36) for another client, Alliance Atlantis.
On Sept. 5, she will assist on Holt Renfrew's promotional event for a new Converse shoe by American fashion designer John Varvatos.
"Some of our sponsors this year are HBC, Joe Fresh, AG Hair and Strellson men's wear, Canadian lines that we want the American stars at the festival to get exposure to," she says.
The hope is that celebrities will be photographed wearing the product, and their images circulated around the world, which was the case two years ago when actress Isla Fisher was snapped wearing a Joe Fresh sweater during TIFF.
"I'm very particular about what I put in the lounge," says Ms. Goldblatt, who speaks softly but carries a big sense of purpose when speaking about her job. "It's important to me that the talent gets useful product. I'm not giving them coffee makers, for instance. That would be ridiculous."
In the past, coffee is what the 34-year-old former poet lived on to get through the festival, accompanied by cigarettes and plenty of sleepless nights. But not this year. Now five months pregnant, the first-time mother says she has given up all her old vices, instead downing fistfuls of vitamins that her actor-husband, Matt Austin, pushes her way in the tight squeeze of a home office they share in their St. Clair West semi. "But I'm still loving what I do," she says, flashing a toothy smile.
The daughter of a sports agent, she and her two sisters grew up with hockey stars in their family's Toronto home. "It's why being around famous people has never fazed me," she says. The paparazzi have already hunted down some celebrity meat, in the form of Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, seen canoodling inside Grace Restaurant, one of Ms. Goldblatt's clients, on College Street, on Monday night. The media calls come flooding in when Ms. Goldblatt, barefoot and pregnant, sits down before her computer first thing in the morning to answer the first of nearly 500 e-mails she will receive throughout the day.
She fields queries about the stars' reported romantic reunion by People magazine, Life & Style Weekly and Entertainment Tonight Canada. With each media outlet, she is gentle but firm. "No, I can't tell you what they were eating. Yes, I can tell you that definitely they were there. They arrived at 10 o'clock."
The calls continue throughout a day that involves her taking a taxi to a photo shoot, and making a stopover at Belly, the maternity fashion wear store where she gets outfitted with a number of red-carpet looks for the festival.
Sitting down to a lunch of grilled chicken and rice, she fields calls on her BlackBerry from the five members of her staff. "Normally, I never stop to eat," she says.
"I don't usually have time. My clients are my No. 1 priority."
NATASHA KOIFMAN, NKPR INC.
NKPR's clients, Hello! Canada and TIME Cinematic Event, are hosting high-profile parties at the festival. Other clients, like Skyy Vodka, have their product placed at other parties throughout the 10-day run. But the gregarious Natasha Koifman, the veteran of 12 festivals, is best known for having launched the International Trends, or IT, Lounge in 2006.
Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Mena Suvari have all come to collect $4,000 gift bags at the swag-laden room at the Windsor Arms Hotel that they then donate to Ms. Koifman's pet charity, Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Benicio Del Toro and Bryan Adams are said to be making appearances there this year. But also look for Guy Ritchie, director of RocknRolla, whose opening-night party Ms. Koifman is helping organize.
"The theme for this year's IT Lounge is survival, and we are stocking it with all the things I think you need to endure the craziness of the festival, from Teva running shoes [to]hair accessories by Goody ..." Ms. Koifman says.
With less than two weeks to go, Ms. Koifman already has her own festival survival plan in place. She has had her manicure and pedicure done, and pre-selected her outfits, most of them purchased online in order to save time, and laid out in chronological order (days one through 10) on a floor in her upscale Rosedale home. She has shed 15 pounds after following a pre-festival stress-busting diet customized for her by her naturopathic practitioner.
This weekend, the thirtysomething glamour puss, who is never without her three-and-a-half-inch Gucci peep-toe heels, is driving her 18-year-old son to Queen's University in Kingston. "To get the festival to work for you, you have to be organized," she says, "and I'm a very organized person."
Each day has a logic to it. She arises punctually at 7 a.m. and walks her two black labs with her husband, Jamie Dunn, a downtown lawyer. At precisely 8 a.m. every Tuesday, she gets her naturally curly hair blown out at Look Hair Studio on Bayview Avenue. She checks her BlackBerry for messages while two women wrestle with her locks. "I get about 400 e-mails a day," she says, chowing down on a power bar. "People think PR is glamorous, but I'm working 13 hours a day, sometimes more."
Leaving the salon, she drives her black BMW convertible to buy high-end beauty products that will keep her looking fresh during the festivalBack at her chic 2,000-square-foot office on John Street, she breezes past the white leather furniture in the foyer, and greets by name each person on her six-member staff, who are busily typing out press releases. "We are a team. I couldn't do what I do without them."
Later in the day, staff attend a meeting where representatives of Hello! grill Ms. Koifman on how she will handle the talent expected to walk the red carpet at the Legendary Couples party at Birks on Sept. 6, including Canadian actor Gil Bellows and his wife Rya Kihlstedt, and Galen Weston Jr. and his wife Alexandra. Ms. Koifman listens carefully, writing notes to herself, and serenely answers that all is under control. Within 15 minutes the storm in the room is quieted. The client stops to hug her.
TIFF 08 cheat sheet
Runs: Thursday, Sept. 4 to Sunday, Sept. 13
Newest film venue: AMC Toronto Life 24. Ten cinemas; you only have to go up four, five or six floors by escalator to your seat!
Important dates:
Aug. 23: Premium tickets (Galas at Roy Thomson Hall, Presentations at the Elgin Theatre) on sale at 10 a.m.
Aug. 26: Festival box office opens at Yonge-Dundas Square,
program book and official film schedule available at 9 a.m.
Sept. 3: All single tickets on sale as of 7 a.m.; festival box office opens at Roy Thomson Hall at 7 a.m.
Staff