Local businesses preparing for 'more mellow' TIFF as Hollywood strikes continue
CTV
With TIFF mum on how many celebrities could grace its red carpets and refusing to share projected attendance and media accreditation numbers until after the festival, a sense of uncertainty is looming large.
When the Toronto International Film Festival rolls around each year, few people are as busy as Charles Khabouth.
The nightlife impresario owns the Bisha Hotel and more than a dozen restaurants and clubs where the likes of Margot Robbie, George Clooney, Matt Damon and Javier Bardem have reportedly sipped wine, rubbed elbows or partied in recent years.
Khabouth is still expecting a buzz around his venues this year but knows this TIFF will be "more mellow" than those in the past.
"It might not be a 10, it will be an eight, but it'll still be great," the entertainment kingpin said a week before the 11-day festival's Sept. 7 kickoff.
The tempered expectations have come from twin Hollywood strikes that have halted film and television productions and scuttled press junkets, red carpets and star powered-premieres as the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Writers Guild of America hit the picket lines over the spring and summer.
With TIFF mum on how many celebrities could grace its red carpets -- the festival has yet to release a guest list -- and refusing to share projected attendance and media accreditation numbers until after the festival, a sense of uncertainty is looming large.
Local restaurants, hotels, limo and security companies are unsure whether their businesses will see their usual high demand come the event.
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