TIFF PARTY: The annual George Christy luncheon attracted an impeccably turned-out crowd of stars and power brokers

By Matthew Hague | September 10, 2012

By Matthew Hague | 09/10/2012

It must be a precondition of being wealthy, famous or otherwise fabulous to look perfectly fresh the morning after a night on the town. Or perhaps the guests at the annual George Christy TIFF cocktail party and luncheon all spent sun up in a vat of Olay, because at noon sharp on Saturday, the A-list was immaculately turned out as they filed into the ballroom of the still unopened Four Seasons Hotel (the official unveil is October 5). Christy himself, who has hosted this event for the last 28 years, greeted guests at the door, looking modern in a suit jacket paired with sneakers. Hilary and Galen Weston (who looked elegant enough to be eating with the Queen, or at least Kate Middleton) mingled with Ben Mulroney, while Ewan McGregor sipped lemonade, posed for phone photos and chatted with Shinan Govani (who, in turn, chatted with just about everyone). Salman Rushdie, Deepa Mehta, Paul Haggis, Atom Egoyan, Suzanne Boyd and FASHION’s Bernadette Morra were also in attendance. But perhaps the event’s most charming guest was Conrad Black, who, despite his recent prison release and ongoing battle to retain his Order of Canada, worked the room with a keen, bright glint in his eye (as opposed to the broken, escaped-from-Oz look one might expect). Indeed, he almost had us convinced he could actually make a comeback to his former soaring status as a newspaper baron.