Vroom, vroom: ‘Ferrari,’ ‘The Color Purple’ and more speed along a roaring Toronto party season

Fast cars and tiramisu.

That was the scene in part at the Ferrari party last Saturday at Casa Loma, as the holiday social scene continued to roar: the nights flying by in a December that has been truly dizzying, the biggest indication that the city has genuinely returned to the “before times” on the shindig front.

This particular blow-out: a celebration held after the Canadian premiere of the new Michael Mann movie about Enzo Ferrari. Bathed in a sporty red light throughout and held in a myriad of rooms, with a big band, bigger crowd and food aplenty – were those lamb meatballs? – it kind of felt like an old-school Toronto International Film Festival party.

Topic A, naturally: the movie, which reminded me once again why Mann is one of the greats. Staying firmly in the lane of pain and passion, and zooming in on a year in a life – I found it gripping in its specificity of Modena, 1957 – the movie is and isn’t an action film. More like the interior rattle and hum of its three main characters, as played by Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz and Shailene Woodley.

A very pregnant and very radiant Sarah Gadon, the Toronto actor who also stars in the project, could not, for one, believe she got to be directed by the legendary director. What she told me when I ran into her beside a showpiece Ferrari and the party – hosted by ICFF Canada and Elevation Pictures – rang around us. “When I looked up and saw my name onscreen in the credits! I mean, it is Michael Mann!” she gushed.

“It is a movie that he has been working for 20 years. A dream project,” is what producer Andrea Iervolino remarked when we chatted about the film.

If one holiday-timed movie party was not enough, however, I found myself at yet another two nights later, here in Toronto. One for “The Color Purple”! A whole other kind of dream project. Bathed in more of a purple haze (what else?) and set 51 floors up, at AP Restaurant in the Manulife Centre, there was – following an exclusive advance screening – tuna tataki going around, a jazz singer belting tunes and enough lively libations to dip into after the full emotional workout that is this latest adaptation of the classic (I would be lying if I told you I was not weeping for nearly the whole last hour of the movie!).

Chill: the word I would use for this smaller Monday night reception, by local party pro Kevin Pennant at the behest of Warner Bros. Canada, which had drawn a thankfully diverse crowd, the city sparkling below from both ends. If there was any consensus at all in the room, it would be that both Fantasia and Danielle Brooks, who star in it, are excellent (shoo-ins, in particular, for Oscar nominations, I think). And that this song-heavy “The Color Purple” will hopefully speak to a whole new gen.

My take: if we can have multiple “The Great Gatsbys” – movie versions! – we can certainly have two “The Color Purples.”

The party calendar? It has been full for sure over the last month. Everything from the first annual Lit Gala, held for Diwali (the best new gala in town!) to the annual Bloor Street Entertains event, composed of 27 dinners for CANFAR (including one put on by the upcoming Nobu Hotel in town) to the yearly rite that is the Giller Prize Gala (always an assemblage of society and bookworms). Spiffy holiday parties thrown by labels such as Hermès have gone on, as did the 25th anniversary of Canada’s Walk of Fame gala the other weekend (bringing out everyone from Avril Lavigne to Jason Priestley to Rosalie Abella!). Just the tip of the social iceberg.

Among the more smashing of invites lately? The supper that Hilary Weston threw on behalf of Holt Renfrew for the luxury brand Brunello Cucinelli. Flying in from Italy for the event to co-host? Carolina Cucinelli, no less, daughter of the fashion baron. Held on one long, long table (is there anything chicer?), stretching nearly the whole length of the Galleria Italia inside the Art Gallery of Ontario – those wooden Frank Gehry ribs bending toward us – the dinner was notable for one extra reason: it marked a return to hosting for Mrs. Weston. The first for the society queen since the death of her husband, magnate Galen Weston, in 2021 (notably, she did not speak at the dinner, but did dazzle in poinsettia red).

Spotted: invitees like Suzanne Boyd, Nancy Lockhart and Sasha Exeter enjoying champagne and Aperol Spritz while saxophonist Gaby Ruiz played during the reception hour. Spotted too (and most chic of all): bottles of Brunello’s own olive oil, imported directly from Solomeo, found accompanying the three-course dinner. As a burgeoning, part-time olive oil critic, allow me to confirm it was delish: deeply unctuous, with just the right whisper of Umbria. And, obviously, an olive oil that pairs just perfectly with a $5,000 cashmere sweater.

Last, but certainly not least? The classiest (and tartan-heavy dinner) that Ralph Lauren threw just a few nights ago (to mark their big new store in Toronto and the launch of its digital commerce site). Held at the University Club of Toronto – a place not often used for dinners such as this – it was giving me “Gilded Age.” That and fa-la-la-la-la-la. Luscious red roses (in baskets) on the table, bespoke Ralph bulbs on the designer Christmas trees, boughs of holly cramming the chandeliers. And, of course, there was Beef Wellington.

Looking around the table, made up of local Bright Young Things like Emmanuel Uddenberg and media darlings such as Bernadette Morra, I could not help but think of the description that one biographer once attributed to Lauren: “a visionary merchant of shared fantasies …”

As far as end-of-year soirées go, that is all one can ask for, right?