Intro for September 14, 2026

Dear Gossips,

It’s been another incredibly busy weekend at TIFF, and I’m delighted to say I was able to be out in it this year for the first time in a long time. As exciting as it is to have the festival in our city, the irony is that lots of film & TV professionals who are working during the festival don’t actually get to see or experience much of it at all.

But over the weekend I managed to hit a few events, where I met up with, or ran into, people I’ve worked with and love – the Venn diagram of which is often an almost-perfect circle. Originally I even thought I’d meet up with Lainey for a drink, but she was ‘working hard’ or something. I could pretend to be annoyed and write about the audacity of it all, but actually, it was great and underscored something else I love about the festival – because while Lainey and I can and will have drinks (or, if she gets her way, a long weekend walk – how is that the same hangout?) at any time of year, a lot of times in TV & Film, ‘work friends’ feel weird about reaching out when we aren’t working together, or don’t have some kind of project-based premise to structure a meetup around.  So we become isolated, which is bad – until we work together again, and then we feel amazing… until the project ends, and we’re isolated again.

Which is silly, because we all love hanging out doing the work. Which threatens to sound super capitalist, but stay with me – we form these tight friendships because when you find people who love what you do the way we do, they get you like nobody else. Especially at a time when the industry is changing and morphing, what remains is yes, sorry, the friends we made along the way. I know. I know! But it’s not just me who’s this cheesy -

As I was running around and hugging people I was so happy to see and celebrate with, and to remember how long we’ve all been doing this,  I saw this quote from Heated Rivalry and Slo-Pitch star Nadine Bhabha, who I adored working with a few years ago:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nadine Bhabha (@nadinebhabs)

“Make sh-t with your friends. You’ll be broke and happy.”

The point here isn’t being broke per se, but that the alleged financial upside is never why we do this.  Then I saw both Lainey and Kathleen post this photo with etalk anchor Tyrone Edwards and CBC film critic Eli Glasner, and all of them had the same sentiment:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Eli Glasner (@glasnerd)

The point isn’t the trenches or even the entertainment… the point is the together. SORRY.

Lots coming up today from Lainey and from Sarah and we’re getting ready for the EMMYS TONIGHT! On the Squawk from 5:30 EST and LIVE on Substack with Hunter Harris, Hailee Steinfeld, Evan Ross Katz and more faves at 8 PM EST!

Attached - Babies premiere at TIFF. I can't absolutely swear all these people are for-real friends who made this movie because it would be fun, but given it's Lauren Miller Rogen's feature debut and includes objectively hilarious types like Issa and Anna, doesn't it seem like they are, and it would be?

Yours in Gossip,

Duana