Camera: Toronto’s peerage class gets dolled up for a royal visit at the TIFF Lightbox

By Fraser Abe | Photography by George Pimentel

November 2, TIFF Lightbox. It’s not often that royalty comes to town (not that we’re bitter, Will and Kate). So when Prince Albert Grimaldi, ruler of Monaco, arrived with his new wife, the South African former Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock, Toronto’s peerage class got all dolled up. The couple was here for the launch of Grace Kelly: From Movie Star to Princess, a TIFF exhibit celebrating Prince Albert’s late mom. They toured the exhibit, then repaired to the VIP room, where the prince downed brewskis and the press-shy Wittstock, understated in Dior, chatted quietly with the much less understated Suzannes (Boyd and Rogers). Though the royals departed around 8:30, the rest of the party hit the dance floor to the grooves of a live Motown band, energized as they were by their brush with nobility—the champagne-soaked jelly desserts didn’t hurt, either.