TIFF '08 Reporter's Notebook: Kevin Smith on Canadian Critics, Brad & Jen's Avoidance Techniques

Sun., Sep. 7, 2008 3:36 PM PDT by Barry Brown

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• Kevin Smith figures there's one thing wrong with bringing a movie to the Toronto Film Fest: The audiences are way too polite.

"In Toronto, nobody turns their nose up at almost anything," said Smith, in town to hype his latest comedy, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks.

"If you tank in Toronto, then something's seriously wrong with that movie."

• Brad Pitt's promotion of his latest film, the Coen brothers' Burn After Reading, brings him in town for one overlapping day with his ex-missus, Jennifer Aniston, whose Management is also in the festival. Sources tell E! News their respective handlers worked overtime to find luxury hotels at opposite ends of the city, but the former pair checked into accommodations within walking distance of each other. Avoiding each other will apparently take management by both sides.

Despite this, a survey found 51 percent of Canadians want to see Brad and Jen together again.

• Late summer isn't usually the time for hockey—even in puck-mad Canada. But Tim Robbins laced his skates for the TIFF-sponsored Festival Cup charity hockey game at the Air Canada Centre. Robbins knows his way around a rink, having played in several charity games over the years, but was a little nervous about playing with NHL pros.

"Those guys are fast," he said, and "I seem to be slowing down a little bit."

• Spike Lee likes to wear his politics on his sleeves—just check out his Barack Obama sweatshirt. His film, Miracle at St. Anna, is about four African-American soldiers fighting Nazi fascism and racism in their own ranks during World War II. Lee says Obama's nomination "was one of the greatest moments of my life." Asked whether he's thinking of making a film about Obama, Lee replied, "It's too soon." Then he laughed and said, "But I heard Will Smith's campaigning for [the part] already."

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• Guitar heroes Jack White of the White Stripes and the Raconteurs, U2's The Edge and Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page gathered to promote the documentary It Might Get Loud, a history of the electric guitar as told by three generations of rockers, directed by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth).

"It was terrifying," The Edge said, admitting he was afraid of revealing too much of himself on camera but realizing it was crucial to the story.

Growing up as a white kid in Detroit in a neighborhood where "it was uncool to play guitar" made White think he wasn't "allowed" to play R&B music. He didn't pay attention to the naysayers.

Page, who denied all Zeppelin reunion rumors, said he didn't think the idea of three players from three different backgrounds and styles would work. "But it did and I learned something about myself."

Check out all the stars in our TIFF '08 photo gallery.