Yorkville, Faux Hawks, Codice Rosso, and props on my Italian speaking skills

My boss's assistant has proclaimed Toronto to be one of his favorite cities. He was born and raised in Venice, California and his hometown, Amsterdam, and now Toronto are the cities he enjoys the most.

One thing he brought to my attention last night was people here do not all look or dress the same. Not all the men are wearing faux hawks, in fact I haven't seen any yet.

Unless your name is Maddox Jolie-Pitt or you are this guy,


please, I beg all wanna be actors, reality stars and 85 percent of the male population of Los Angeles, to try something new.

J and I went to meet our boss at his place then we walked over to Yorkville. This area reminded me Montana Avenue in L.A., cool shops and restaurants but pricey. The Four Seasons is in this neighborhood and it's where most of the film industry people are staying during the Toronto Film Festival.

All of us went to Cafe Nervosa. Our food was very good but spicy (I am a wimp when it comes to spicy food so it could be just me.) Our waiter was Italian and complimented me as we were leaving on my "excellent" italian. Let's see, I only said vongole (clams), buona sera, grazie, and prego but I appreciated the props. LOL

Speaking of Italian, I caught Codice Rosso (Code Red) the Italian version of Emergency! (does anyone remember this show from the late 70s with Randolph Mantooth...I just liked saying his name) the other night. There was a lot of yelling, fighting, and reflection going on during the finale. I understood maybe 1/4 of the words. The next morning when I clicked on the TV that channel was on and I starting to get aggravated that my Italian had declined so much already from not being in classes or speaking it regularly during the last 6 months. That it was a kid's show with some kind of muppets made me more irritated.

Hello, the show was in Spanish. Doh! The channel I was watching, TLN, has half of its progamming in Spanish and half in Italian. The Sopranos, uncut, also comes on at 10. It's in English. This is not a premium cable channel and yet every F-bomb and Bada Bing breast was shown. They do say a very clear and specific parental advisory though before the show starts and at the end of every commerical break. I remember when I was in London, my friend said Sex and The City came on regular TV at 10. Again uncut. That would never fly in the States, we clearly can't figure out by ourselves what our kids should or shouldn't be watching.

Today is the last day of pre-production. We start shooting on Monday. The suits (the studio execs, including the head of the studio) are coming in for the Festival but will also be stopping by the set. No pressure. Ha.