Toronto Notebook: Oprah Mania + Obama Shocker!

Winfrey and Tyler Perry premiere Precious and Michael Moore throws some political bombs at the Toronto Film Festival

By James Rocchi Sep 15, 2009 6:32 PMTags
Oprah WinfreyGeorge Pimentel/Getty Images

Recent events at the Toronto Film Fest ran from high-power star sightings to high-minded public policy. Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry brought eyes—and surprise guests—to their gritty flick Precious, while fiery filmmaker Michael Moore dropped hints that he might be eyeing a doc about...Barack Obama?

Here's how it all went down:

First up, at the red-carpet premiere of Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, a group of heavy hitters arrived for the gritty indie film that already earned raves at Sundance and Cannes. Mary J. Blige and Mariah Carey were in attendance, as well as producers Winfrey and Perry.

Oprah, media maven that she is, wasn't just in Toronto to celebrate Precious' success—but also to chronicle it, capturing footage for an upcoming episode of, yes, Oprah about Precious.

Also in attendance? Precious stars Sherri Shepherd, Paula Patton and Gabourey Sidibe. The last star to hit the Precious red carpet? Robert De Niro, who, as part of his unexpected and unforeseen arrival, hit the press pit to show his support before heading in.

Across town, the Elgin Theater was packed with anticipation for the North American premiere of the new documentary by Michael Moore, Capitalism: A Love Story. (Let it never be said Toronto's not a great town for serious film nerds.)

After his scathing critique of our "free" market system, Moore took questions from the rowdy crowd. Asked for his opinion on whether Obama's handling of the economy, Moore was frank and fair: "It's too early. He's been in office for eight months. I know a lot of people on the left are upset; I'm not that upset yet. I'm willing to give him a chance based on what he's got in front of him."

Moore then added, "But a year from now, my next movie may be about him."

Moore then headed to the private party for Capitalism: A Love Story, catching up with Harvey Weinstein before jetting to Pittsburgh to debut Capitalism: A Love Story at the AFL-CIO union convention. Something tells us that's a gig De Niro won't be making a surprise appearance at.

We'll have plenty more this week from the Toronto Film Fest, so keep reading E! Online and following @redcarpet on Twitter.

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