Tattle: At Toronto fest, stargazing goes stupid

TORONTO TEENAGERS are again huddling in hotel driveways and anywhere they see a limo, red carpet or rope line. Celebrity spotting is the thing to do during the week of the city's International Film Festival.

But since last year, the star-stalkers have either gotten a little desperate . . . or a little dumber.

At the ritzy, boutique Hazelton Hotel, people blocked the entranceways and garages for hours hoping to catch a glimpse of anyone famous, and soon were settling for anyone at all. When Tattle left the building, we had OUR picture taken. This getting-confused-with-Brad Pitt thing is getting old.

On Saturday, while we waited in the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel with two lovely, slim women from Paramount, passers-by put their noses to the glass and snapped photos, convinced that one of them was Jennifer Aniston.

And yesterday in front of the Park Hyatt, Rachel Weisz blew kisses to her son Henry as she got into an Escalade Limo while young girls screamed "Keira! Keira!" The tinted window rolled down and Weisz shouted out, "Wrong actress!"

Here are some other unrelated notes from a weekend of chatting with filmmakers:

_ Jenny Lumet, the talented screenwriter/daughter of directing great Sidney Lumet, in town for her well-received Jonathan Demme film, "Rachel Getting Married," said that her favorite film of her father's was "Murder on the Orient Express."

"It's not his best film," she said. "It's sort of demented and insane." But she recalls being on the London set at age 6 and seeing Lauren Bacall walking around with giant purple feathers in her hat. "My sister and I still do 'Murder on the Express,' " she said. "We do Wendy Hiller."And she broke into the accent of an 80-year-old Englishwoman.

_ Still-awesome quote machine Debra Winger, who plays Anne Hathaway's mother in "Rachel Getting Married," gave a surprising answer to why she started looking for acting roles after some time off - "There Will Be Blood."

"It was a compelling film that made me want to act again," she said. "That film alone."

_ Noted New York Knicks fan Spike Lee ("The Miracle at St. Anna," based on James McBride's book about the Buffalo Soldiers in Italy during World War II) wouldn't give his own take on the 76ers recent acquisitions, but told Tattle, "I know Maurice Cheeks is happy!"

Lee, who wore a Barack Obama T-shirt during his film's press day, said what really irked him about the Republican convention was when former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani questioned Obama's strategy.

"What was HIS strategy," Lee said. "Win Florida? What kind of strategy was that?"

_ Three stars from "The Secret Life of Bees" spoke a bit about music:

Alicia Keys had to change her interview times because she and Jack White had a night video shoot in Toronto for "Another Way to Die." It's going to be the theme for the new James Bond movie. She said that the Bond movie was tremendous, "but not as good as 'The Secret Life of Bees.' "

Meanwhile, co-star Jennifer Hudson mentioned her album, finally dropping Sept. 30, and co-star Queen Latifah talked up her "bangin'" hip-hop album, due in December.

Latifah had just returned from a much-needed vacation to Egypt, Greece and Spain and got excited about the juxtaposition of ancient pyramids and new fast-food joints.

"That's dirty-ass Cairo for you," she said. "I loved it. Every car in Egypt has been sideswiped. It's just the way they drive."

_ Asked if she'd had a political awakening while shooting "The Duchess," about an 18th-century celebrity royal (Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire) who had a large role in the formation of the Whig Party and the rise of her lover, Charles Grey, to prime minister, the eminently quotable Keira Knightley told a room full of reporters, "If I had a political awakening, I certainly wouldn't share it with you." *