Toronto Notebook: Stars Fly North as Canadian Festival Gears Up for 10-Day Cinema Smorgasbord

Though it's rumored to be a down year at the prestigious gathering you can't tell by the celeb turnout

The first day of the Toronto International Film Festival unfolds beneath slate-gray skies—but the star power is already making the streets shine. Plenty of luminaries from film, music and even big business are in town for the Festival's 10-day run, with an opening weekend overstuffed with visiting stars.

See which big names are already making the scene, and learn why Bruce Springsteen will be on hand...

Natalie Portman, for one, has already flown in. But we're not sure if she took a plane or just floated into town on the warm wave of praise she just earned at the Telluride and Venice film festivals for her dark ballet drama Black Swan. Some are saying the early Oscar talk for Portman is crazy talk, but considering that the last film director Darren Aronofsky brought to Toronto was The Wrestler, which revived Mickey Rourke's moribund career, we wouldn't bet against Portman.

Other early arrivals include Will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas who is hosting a party Saturday night—the same night as Fox Searchlight's prestigous bash with scheduled guests including James Franco (of the wilderness drama 127 Hours), An Education's Oscar-nominee Carey Mulligan (here with the dark psychodrama Never Let Me Go), two-time Oscar-winner Hilary Swank (debuting the true-life tale Conviction) and many more.

The Festival's opening-night film—Score! A Hockey Musical—couldn't sound any more Canadian if it was slathered in maple syrup and served with a beer chaser. It's a hometown pick decidedly low on star wattage. The only recognizable name to folks south of the 49th parallel is Olivia Newton-John, playing the mother of a sensitive home-schooled nerd who proves to be a hockey prodigy. If you've been waiting for a musical that dares to rhyme 'baloney' with 'Zamboni,' you are in luck. Everyone else? Not so much.

But fear not, star gazers. Friday and Saturday are set up as a one-two punch of pure Hollywood, as director David Schwimmer—yes, Ross from Friends—takes to the red carpet with his drama Trust alongside leading man Clive Owen at Roy Thompson Hall on Friday. And Saturday sees director Ben Affleck bring his Boston heist-flick The Town to Toronto with a great-looking cast that includes Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Hall and Blake Lively.

Also on tap at the fest are some movie-star/music-star conversational mashups. Among the most intriguing is Edward Norton and Bruce Springsteen's Tuesday discussion session. The Boss is in Toronto as a documentary subject (The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town), while Norton's on hand for Stone, in which he plays a con eager for parole opposite Robert De Niro's conflicted, compromised parole officer. We can't wait to hear Ed and Bruce exploring the edge of darkness, in the joint and on the outskirts of our imagination.

Today, the Toronto Film Festival is just stretching and waking up. Let's all savor this moment of relative calm, because the city won't sleep again until the 19th.

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