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Though the star-struck citizens of Toronto didn’t mind, there was heard a lot of grumbling last week at the Toronto Film Festival about how this venerable showcase for world cinema has been turned into a mere stepping stone for the Hollywood studios’ Oscar campaigns. With the likes of Jodie Foster, Brad Pitt, Keira Knightley, George Clooney and Tommy Lee Jones parading down Bloor Street, one could be forgiven for mistaking North America’s most influential film festival for an out-of-town Hollywood press junket.

It’s true that for a member of the press it was harder than ever to pursue hidden foreign gems such as the charming Israeli comedy “The Band’s Visit” or Mexican visionary Carlos Reygadas’s mesmerizing, demanding “Silent Light,” about adultery and transcendence in a Mennonite community. The pressure was to keep up with the fall’s major prestige items, such as “Atonement” or Ang Lee’s Chinese-language potboiler “Lust, Caution” or the Coen brothers‘ riveting film noir “No Country for Old Men,” their best film in ages.  

The spirit of Terry Malick (”Badlands,” “Days of Heaven”) hovers over “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” a poetic, melancholy, leisurely reverie on the last years of the legendary outlaw’s life. Brad Pitt is terrific as the manic Jesse, alternately charming and paranoid, and Casey Affleck superbly creepy as the callow Judas who grabs fame with a bullet. New Zealand-born writer-director Andrew Dominik’s uncompromising, ’70s-style Western, like Penn’s sprawling odyssey, turns its back on the fast-cutting, action-dominated style in current fashion.

Though it courts tedium at times, it’s clearly the work of an immensely talented filmmaker. Much more audience-friendly but equally indebted to the ’70s (think of such paranoid thrillers as “The Parallax View”) is Tony Gilroy’s dense, gripping anticorporate thriller “Michael Clayton,” with George Clooney as a law firm “fixer” attempting to staunch a corporate scandal, and risking his life in the process. Coproducer Clooney, who has often proclaimed his love for ’70s American films, seems determined to revive the socially conscious genre movies of that era.

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IF JOHN GALLIANO is looking for a new muse, Australia’s own Jennifer Hawkins could be it. Galliano, the fashion designer for labels such as Christian Dior, and the professional brand ambassador Hawko already look as though they are sharing the same hair stylist, sporting matching locks at this photo opportunity in Paris yesterday.

Galliano is a red-carpet favourite of actors including Charlize Theron, Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman and has a long-standing relationship with Kylie Minogue, designing tour costumes for the singer.

Hawkins - already the face of a department store, a lingerie brand and a cosmetics empire - was in the city of light at the invitation of the house of Dior with tickets to her first-ever Paris couture shows. While no cash exchanged hands in her “no-strings-attached” appearance the model was reportedly offered a deal no girl could refuse: flown first-class to Paris for the shows and no doubt leaving with more than a few designer goodies, if the looks of mutual admiration in this photo are anything to go by.

The series, which features male and female contestants, is a spin-off of a British series of the same name and the free-to-air equivalent of the Foxtel series Australia’s Next Top Model. The latter ended its fourth series last night with a live eviction episode at Luna Park, with one notable absence host Jodhi Meares. SiT revealed yesterday that Meares would not attend the event, nervous of her performance in front of a live audience, and would instead appear in pre-filmed packages, leaving viewers at home none the wiser.

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It took less than 30 minutes for the strawberries to sell out at the Beverly Farmers Market.

A steady stream of customers stopped by yesterday, on the stand’s first day of business, to buy local honey and sauces, shelling peas, Swiss chard, and masses of strange, curled stems with bulbs attached.

Garlic scapes, said Katie Fiorella, community outreach coordinator for The Food Project, a Lynn-based organization that employs local high school students, sells most of its produce at farmers markets, and gives the rest away to food pantries and shelters.

Since they started three years ago, Fiorella said she’s seen many regulars in Beverly, and a growing number of new people stopping by, asking questions and buying something.

Pelletier was both a regular customer and an intrigued one, as she held up the pile of garlic scapes the green tops that grow on garlic bulbs.

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For movie marketers there is one truth: a film either makes it on its first weekend in a territory or it fails. With the advent of digital, they have the added channels of broadband, mobile and interactive TV to get people sufficiently enthused about an upcoming release to buy tickets and make it enough of a theatrical success that the DVD also sells well and a sequel is commissioned.

While attention can sometimes be drawn to stand-out campaigns such as the site for Untraceable, which claimed people were killing others by logging on, or the recent alternative-reality game for Dark Knight the vast majority of movie marketing is centred on the trailer. Getting it seen by as many people as possible is still the priority for movie studios.

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In the past few months the young singer/songwriter has scrapped the recording sessions on her debut album, acquired a new band, moved house, seen the end of a long-term relationship and joined one of the coolest bands of the year.

But if anyone is capable of taking things in their stride it’s Le Bon, who is so laid back she should be prescribed on the NHS as a cure for stress.

When we met for a cup of tea in Cardiff Bay’s stylish Cantina Bar I was keen to find out how her debut album was coming along.

But rather than being a setback for Le Bon, that aborted effort has spurred her on and, earlier this week, she released her debut EP Edrych Yn Llygaid Ceffyl Benthyg, a five-track Welsh language offering of woozy, bluesy alt-folk.

“Recording the EP was a chemical reaction to the first attempt at the album going nowhere,” she says, distractingly picking up a red cushion, placing it on her lap and stroking it like Blofeld’s cat.

“It was quite an impromptu gathering at a friend’s parents’ house in Cardiff but, obviously, Gruff is a really talented songwriter with real musical integrity, so that was quite nerve-wracking.”

Since then Rhys has offered Le Bon numerous to-die-for platforms, including the support slot on his solo tour and a guest vocal on I Lust U, the first single from Stainless Style, the debut album from Rhys’ superb side project Neon Neon.

That inclusivity has extended to Le Bon joining the Neon Neon band as a bassist and backing vocalist for their upcoming summer tour, which lessens the rush for her to find a new home.

Le Bon has uprooted from her Cardiff base following the end of a long-term relationship and is currently bunking with her parents back in West Wales.

Her changing love life has also sunk a new seam of inspiration which has impacted on an album, which has the very loose working title of Pet Deaths.

But far from seeming emotionally delicate about the situation, Le Bon’s perspective is in serene check.

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