TORONTO - Talk about heat. Kristen Stewart had it, took it and spread it around as she appeared here Thursday night for the North American premiere of “On the Road†at the Toronto International Film Festival. Her red-carpet walk was her first professional public appearance since the meltdown of her relationship with “Twilight†co-star Rob Pattinson.
And what an appearance it was.
What looked like thousands of fans and dozens if not hundreds of media professionals had lined up to receive her. Not so much the rest of the cast, which includes Kirsten Dunst and Garrett Hedlund, but Ms. Stewart, for whom necks craned and strobe lights flashed from the second she stepped out of the car.
< p>There was some last-minute coaching by what appeared to be a publicist on the edge of the carpet - kind of like a pregame pep talk. Then out she stepped, clad in a black net dress with blood-red flowers and stiletto heels.In a remarkable display, Ms. Stewart and her fellow cast members lingered on the carpet for perhaps 40 minutes. She probably hadn't intended to stay that long. Word on the street had it that a Jason Reitman-supervised live reading of “American Beauty,†inside the theater, had gone long. Later, Piers Handling, the festival's chief, said only that the delay was caused by technical problems.
Whatever held up the show, Ms. Stewart was game. She worked the fan side first, getting up close and personal with a gallery of autograph seekers. Canadians being among the most polite movie crazies on earth, only a very few heckled.
Next, she moved on the pros, who kept the cameras rolling and will doubtless have plenty to show on Friday's cable programs.
After the screening, Ms. Stewart joined the director, Walter Salles, and Ms. Dunst and Mr. Hedlund onstage. She shuffled and squirmed, by then wearing sneakers with her evening dress, as Mr. Handling asked a polite question of each. Mumbling a response to his query about how she identified with the character she played, a young woman married to the unfettered rogue Dean Moriarty in “On the Road,†Ms. Stewart said something about love being like a “bottomless pit.†Mr. Handling threw the session open to just two questions, and the first one came straight to Ms. Stewart.
“I'm a huge fan and I love you so much,†a young woman began. The question was where Ms. Stewart would go, if she were to go on the road. “I don't know where I would end up. I don't know,†she said.
Earlier in the evening, another huge crowd showed up at a screening room for Part 1of an unusual two-part gala thrown by Sony Pictures and some of its allies for the mov ie “Looper,†a thriller about hit men and time travel. Before the last reel was over, Part 2 of the gala got under way about three-quarters of a mile away. It was the kind of feat a company with the publicist-power of Sony can pull off.
About 20 minutes into the screening, Jeff Daniels, who played a crime boss from the distant future sent back to run the rackets of Kansas City in the near future (it's a time-travel movie, don't think too hard) drew gales of knowing laughter when he advised the protagonist, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, not to waste his time by moving to France.
“I'm from the future, you should go to China,†Mr. Daniels' character snapped.
As with many movies these days, “Looper†was made with co-investment funds from China, and part of it was shot there.
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