TORONTO -- Life imitates art at the Toronto film festival. A strike that crippled Air France yesterday stranded actor Jean Reno.

The strike also nearly nabbed actress Juliette Binoche and director Daniele Thompson, who got out of Paris just in time for their Air France Toronto flight, one of the last to get out.

Ironically, they're all due in Toronto for tomorrow's premiere of Thompson's romantic comedy Jet Lag. It's about two people -- played by Reno and Binoche -- who meet when stranded at the same Paris airport after a strike cripples Air France, plus every other airline flying out of Charles de Gaulle.

Lions Gate officials in Toronto are now frantically trying to find an alternative airline to whisk Reno into the festival in time for the red-carpet walk to the gala. And they claim innocence about being involved in the strike.

"No," says Lions Gate's John Bain, "we didn't arrange this as a savvy way to get some cheap press for Jet Lag."

It figures that Reno would be the one to be stuck behind -- because it's his sometimes grumpy character in the movie who trashes France for its incessant cycle of strikes.


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