No thanks to Lloyd Grove, Aaron Eckhart has zero clue what is happening with his film Thank You For Smoking (Photo: Room 9 Entertainment)

Look out world! Lowdown's Lloyd Grove name-drops up a storm today from the Toronto Film Festival, where he has Robin Wright Penn's reaction to everyone who shuddered--then laughed--in horror at husband Sean's waterlogged misadventures in New Orleans:

"To them, I say 'F--k you!'" Robin Wright Penn told me yesterday at the Toronto International Film Festival, where she was hawking a very peculiar indie movie, Sorry, Haters, in which she stars as a deranged but beautiful rap video channel employee who's seeking post-9/11 vengeance against a Syrian taxi driver.

"I think it's f-----g pathetic to be belittling him," Wright Penn raged - a blond, blue-eyed lioness protecting her mate. ... "Do we have to go to the bowels of infantile behavior?" she demanded. "Here people are dying, and if it wasn't Sean Penn going crazy watching CNN and saying, 'I have to do something' - but instead it was 'Joe Smith from Morgan City' - then those people would be thanking him, not attacking him."

Grove then moved on to Son of Reitman's riff on "my pal Christopher Buckley"'s novel Thank You For Smoking, packed screenings of which evidently led to a heated acquisitions battle. But while Grove briefly mentions that Fox Searchlight nabbed the film, he missed out on the bigger scoop that both Fox and Paramount were claiming Smoking rights when the dust cleared Sunday.

According to indieWIRE's Eugene Hernandez, the speculation represents "one of the more perplexing industry situations ever to emerge surrounding a film at a festival":

While Paramount maintains that it reached an agreement at 9:45 PM Saturday night by topping a Fox offer for the film, Fox stands by Sunday's (2 p.m.) announcement, saying that it has the deal for the movie. Buzz on the festival party circuit Saturday night was that Paramount had acquired the movie, with multiple sources pegging the pact at about $6.5 million. Paramount was said to be celebrating the deal Saturday as lawyers ironed out the finer points of the deal. Industry insiders, buzzing considerably about the situation Sunday afternoon, speculated that (producers) Elwes and Sacks probably re-opened discussions with Fox Searchlight despite a handshake agreement with Paramount. While an observer told indieWIRE that in such a case Paramount would technically have a deal, the insider added that securing delivery of the film from the producer could prove difficult in that situation.

Really, though, fuck all that--this is Toronto we are talking about! There is so much more going on. Indeed, Grove broke the story of Steve Martin's diet tips and yielded a tell-all dispatch from the "pre-premiere dinner" for Martin's film Shopgirl:

I decided to give the Steve Martin Diet a try ... But after a promising start on the heirloom tomato salad with pesto drizzle and buffalo mozzarella, I fell off the wagon and ended up cleaning my plate of every last vestige of salmon and steak - and even downed all of the lethal chocolate ganache.

Whoa--"lethal chocolate ganache." That would have to suck--surving a Hollywood "lioness" only to fall prey to dessert? But at least dying supplies an excuse for missing out on the festival's biggest scoop. Get well soon, LG!