From sea to sea: Toronto.

Toronto experienced yet another unprecedented boom year in film and TV production this past summer, on track to surpass the record $1.2 billion that poured into the city's coffers in 1999. Over the first six moths of 2000, 129 major productions (features, MOWs, TV specials and series) were recorded by the Toronto Film and Television Office. It's become a cliche to say that you can't get around the city without running into a long line of production vehicles. Hollywood stars are all over the place, to the delight of the gossip-column types who are having a field day keeping track of their wining and dinning habits. Such luminaries as Jennifer Lopez, Christian Slater, Laura Dern, William H. Macey, Natasha Richardson, Denzel Washington, Leslie Nielsen and Sly Stallone kept the paparazzi hopping. And of course, the local branch of ACTRA was very pleased to announce that earnings by its members were up 30 per cent over last year. Stallone's Champs, a car-racing movie partially shot during the Toronto Molson Indy, had the biggest budget, worth more than $70 million (U.S.).... Many more Hollywood stars showed up for the 25th anniversary edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, a yearly event that has become one big corporate bore. The festival snatched Denys Arcand's Stardom from the Montreal World Film Festival for its opening night gala, and in an unusual move, the prestigious opening night of Perspective Canada had the world premiere of Denis Villeneuve's Maelstrom, the director's follow-up to his much-heralded Un 32 aout sur terre, making it the first time both nights honoured Quebec-produced films. Local heroes John Greyson (The Law of Enclosures) and Clement Virgo (Love Come Down) were also featured in Perspective Canada.... In the spring issue of Take One, in this space, it was reported that wannabe filmmaker Paris Roger was set to take on the Cannes Film Festival with filmonline.com, a Web site supposedly devoted to promoting independent Canadian films. Unfortunately, what Roger lacked in expertise, he matched with incompetence and bad luck. In a classic case of Murphy's Law, whatever could go wrong did and Roger arrived at Cannes late, with no chance of getting his Web site launched in time for the festival. His sponsors, sensing a con job, pulled out and even though the Web site is now up and running, law suits are flying thick and fast. Yet another case of an inexperienced overachiever who wanted to play with the big boys and got burnt.