“Where’d you get that coat, anyway?”

I can’t remember if I said “hello” first when I was introduced to Terry Gilliam in Toronto the other night, taking in a boxy outer-inner that was one-part Foreign Correspondent; another part, Jackson Pollock Spring Collection.

“You like my coat?” he asked, his marble-mouth packed with Monty Python mischief.

“Let me guess,” I rolled on. “It’s from Laos.”

“It’s from Bath!” he said.

I liked the English sound of that, so I kept on talking. Congratulated him on his latest flick, unspooling this night at The Carlu as part of a special American Express Canada presentation. Entitled The Imagnarium of Doctor Parnassus, but also known far and wide as Heath Ledger’s Last Movie, it’s the latest flick to emerge from the weirdo house of mirrors that is Gilliam’s head.

At some point, or another, standing in a too-lit VIP room — really, it was like an obstetrician’s waiting room in there — he used the word “centurian” with me. I can’t remember exactly how, or why, but I truly appreciated it. To repay him, I insouciantly vocab-slipped the word “fraught” into passing conversation. This got his attention. Clearly.

“What’s the future perfect tense for ‘fraught,’ anyway?” asked the hyper-realist, looking like someone who’s never had a not-enjoyable day.

“F-frright?” I wondered out loud.

After that — or was it before? — we got to talking about ballroom dancing. He’s a fan! I’d brought the subject up because at the top of my list of favourite Gilliam moments in film comes in 1991’s Fisher King, in that surrealistic rush-hour sequence in which all the commuters start dancing around Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges. Sensational.

“We had just one night to shoot it,” he recalled, when I brought it up. Had to start around midnight, after all the trains had stopped. Used about 1,000 extras!
So, Don Quixote next? It’s what I asked as someone else was begging for the auteur’s attention. Yes, he enthused, confirming precisely what he’s been saying on the hustings of late. His dream Don Quixote project is, indeed, next up for him — starring a kinda-perfect Robert Duvall.

“Nice to meet you,” I said, letting Gilliam be.

And, you know what? I actually meant it.

This! That!

Menswear ace Larry Rosen got in one of his holiday stops the other night at Splendido, on Harbord.

Bespectacled heiress Taylor Thomson! Seen Friday at College Street’s Cinq 01, following in the dinner-steps of Mila Mulroney, who saw and was seen there just a few nights earlier.

Dashing through the rain: Eugene Levy, yesterday! Spotted, cakebox in hand, headed to his Lexus, parked on Roxborough, outside of Caffé Doria.

[Photo by Gareth Watkins / Reuters]

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