TIFF PHOTO GALLERY: At the closing gala with Eva Mendes and Sam Worthington (who spent a whopping 35 minutes signing autographs)
Last year, we gave the title of most fan-friendly TIFF celebrity to George Clooney. This year, it has to go to Avatar and Last Night star Sam Worthington, who spent more than half an hour going down the barricade at Roy Thomson Hall last night, posing for photos and signing autographs. He even had security guards take pictures of him with the fans. Co-star Eva Mendes, who arrived 15 minutes later, was almost as generous with her time, spending about 20 minutes with the cheering hordes before walking the red carpet.
We later heard Worthington tell news crews that he felt obligated to sign autographs and take pictures with the fans, since they’re the ones who buy the tickets and keep him working. We also learned that he loves shopping at Honest Ed’s and dropping F-bombs in front of TV cameras (have fun bleeping those out, ET Canada).
The closing gala this year, Last Night, is about a couple (Worthington and Keira Knightley) on the rocks because each one believes the other is cheating—the man with an attractive co-worker (Mendes) and the woman with an ex-boyfriend (Guillaume Canet). Canet was in town earlier in the week to promote Little White Lies but was a no-show at the festival closer. Knightley was rumoured to walk the carpet, but considering she wasn’t here for her other TIFF film, Never Let Me Go, we weren’t holding our breath.
