As many of you know, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is taking place now and there are numerous celebrities in town. I was most excited to see Mega Producer, Quincy Jones, who was here for the screening of the Netflix documentary, QUINCY, co-directed by his daughter Rashida Jones, with Alan Hicks. The film screened at Toronto's acclaimed Princess of Wales Theatre in the city's entertainment district on King Street West, which is blocked to traffic and transforms into Festival Street during TIFF. I was advised by some people volunteering for the festival that they would be coming out the back door of the theatre, so that's where I waited patiently. Quincy and Rashida had already walked the red carpet before the film began.
After about a 20 minute wait on an unusually chilly and below-seasonal Summer Sunday afternoon, amidst a small crowd of about 20 anxious paparazzi (some official and others just there for the thrill of spotting a celebrity), a black Suburban pulled up and a lady with scarlet red hair slipped out as a man tried to give her a pair of shoes. Her back was turned to us so noone was really sure of who it was, but to our surprise as she hustled into the venue it turned out to be none other than superstar singer Chaka Khan! We were very upset. No looks, no waves, no acknowledgement to her fans in waiting.
Chaka was scheduled to perform an original song from the film with DJ/Producer/Musician, Mark Ronson, the mastermind behind the very popular song, "Uptown Funk" featuring Bruno Mars.
Feeling a little bummed, we knew that she had to come out at some point. And, after a good 45 minutes, she did! This time she did not disappoint. She walked by all of us, shook hands, took pictures and basked in all of her glory. After all, this woman is an Icon! I've seen her in concert before, but to see her up close and personal was a dream come true!
Shortly after she whisked away in her black Suburban, the back door opened up and I caught a glimpse of Quincy Jones who appeared to be sitting in wheelchair. Surrounded by security guards, Quincy emerged and slipped right into a Suburban which had been parked in front of the door. He looked a little bit frail to me, so I can understand that standing out in the chilly temperature and greeting everyone like Chaka did may not have been on his agenda. Plus, he had already done the red carpet unlike Chaka. Nevertheless, at the urging of onlookers, he pulled his window down long enough for me to get a quick picture, waved, signed albums that people had in their hands, then was driven off into the sunset by a chaffeur.
As I took a quick moment to reflect on the fact that I had just seen two of the most incredibly talented people in the world, a friend of mine passed me and said, ¨Did you see Jesse?¨ I replied, ¨Jesse who?¨ She said, ¨Jesse Williams from Grey's Anatomy! He was right behind you in the orange and red hoodie!¨ I said, ¨Oh no. I didn't see him.¨ Turns out, while I was busy focused on getting shots of Quincy, Jesse managed to pass by me undetected, likely because he had a hoodie on and was trying to remain incognito. But, how the heck do you try to hide in an orange and red hoodie? Go figure. That smooth, good-looking babyface is a little hard to hide. As I walked toward the front of the theatre, who did I see? None other than Jesse. He was moving a little quickly though as people were starting to recognize him and ask for autographs and pictures and I did not see him stop and oblige any of them. Even one of my other friends tried to ask him for a selfie, but he didn't flinch. I still managed to get a shot of him though.
After grabbing some soup for the soul, I headed over to one of the city's hot spots, Cube Nightclub on Queen Street West. It's popular for hosting the Hot Stepper Sundays Daytime patio parties weekly throughout the summer. However, a film fest party called Savour, was being held there that evening in support of the Love Jacked film due out this fall which stars Keith David, Amber Stevens West, Comedian Mike Epps along with Shamier Anderson and Lyriq Bent, both from Toronto. It was put on by Dr. Jay de Soca Prince who is responsible for bringing many Soca artists to the city and
Chef La-Toya Fagon from Twist Catering. I suspect that the original plan was to have the party on the patio, but it was way too cold so, thankfully it was inside on the lower level in the restaurant.
Savour was popping. The music was jamming. Free liquor was flowing and the smell of the food was tantalizing. I did not see any of the cast there at the time, but I did manage to see other faces that I recognized, notably Actor/Comedian, London Brown who stars alongside Dwayne ¨The Rock¨ Johnson in the hit HBO Series ¨Ballers¨ and plays the very comedic character, Reggie. As I headed over to grab some Caribbean doubles and jerk chicken tacos from the food station, I turned around and London was right beside me. I put my jerk chicken taco aside, pulled out my camera, introduced myself, asked for a picture and he graciously said yes! He is an absolute sweetheart, very humble with a million dollar smile and I love how he worked the room with his charm. It's always great when you set out to do one thing and other good things happen at the spur of the moment. My TIFF 2018 celebrity spotting mission was accomplished and then some.
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