THE LONG AND LONG OF IT: Willem Dafoe's penis came up in conversation yesterday at a news conference for the movie Antichrist.

Lars von Trier's controversial film features Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg and plenty of nudity; according to a German news magazine, actual shots of Dafoe's penis were cut from the movie because the actor is so well endowed it was feared viewers would be distracted.

Said Von Trier: "I was a little puzzled by his longing to be naked, and ah, I found out why he wanted to be naked."

Obviously goading his star, the Danish director playfully asked of Dafoe, "Is this something we shouldn't talk about?"

"I don't think that's what the movie is about," said an abashed Dafoe.

We didn't hear any denials, though.

-- Liz Braun

BUGS TO VAMPS: From British naturalist Charles Darwin to "a vampire-killing priest in an alternate reality."

Life doesn't get much better for British actor Paul Bettany, who quickly shed the 40 pounds he gained to play Darwin in the TIFF opening-night film Creation, to star in his next film, titled Priest.

"I feel really priviledged to sort of get real sort of sustenance from a movie where I receive something from it, and then I get to get on a wire and stab vampires," he said at a news conference in support of Creation. "It's absolutely awesome and imperative."

Later during roundtable interviews for Creation, Bettany said he understood the enduring legacy of vampire projects, which are (blood?) red hot these days -- thanks to the popularity of the book and movie series Twilight and TV show True Blood.

"Our vampires (in Priest) are very different," Bettany said. "They're much more animals. I love vampire movies. I love zombie movies. Zombie movies are sort of a guilty pleasure 'cause it's sort of a (fascist) fantasy of getting rid of the riff-raff -- one needs to be honest about it. And vampire movies, at their best, you see a movie like Let the Right One In. It's a great movie about loneliness.

"There are many reasons I became an actor, and as I got older, I guess, you started reading Shakespeare and Racine but frankly when I was kid, I wanted a gun and I wanted to jump off things and shoot things. That was my first impulse. And it's undeniable. I am having as much fun making that movie (Priest) as I did making this movie ... It's great to kill vampires. I hate vampires."

-- Jane Stevenson

TOUGH BUT GREAT: In a career that has spawned more than 100 documentaries, including Shake Hands With the Devil, The Journey of Romeo Dallaire and A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman, filmmaker Peter Raymont has developed a reputation for being a bit of a tough taskmaster.

But given the chance to share directing duties with Raymont on Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould, Michele Hozer didn't hesitate -- even though she worked with him as editor on numerous other projects.

Indeed, she says she leapt at the chance precisely because she has worked with him before -- and worked very well with him.

"I tell people that it's like working on a treadmill," she says with a laugh, taking a much-needed break from preparing the final cut of Genius for its TIFF premiere screening as part of the Real to Reel program.

"You work very hard and you sweat a lot, but you end up looking great."

-- John Coulbourn

THIS KAT LOVES READING: Kat Dennings, who stars with Woody Harrelson in the movie Defendor, is a big reader. She's busy with Dodie Smith's novel, I Capture The Castle, at the moment, recommends Haruki Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase and mentions that she's also writing herself.

At the moment, she's got a screenplay on the go that she wrote with one of her brothers.

Dennings, who also starred recently in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Shorts, says she really, really loves acting, but writing is also a big passion of hers.

"And I want to have something else I can do, just in case I get into a, you know, disfiguring, fiery accident." She laughs. "I'm just saying."

-- Liz Braun

GOATS HEAD SOUP: Remember when the music group The Moldy Peaches broke into the mainstream after their song Anyone Else But You was used in the TIFF breakout film, Juno, a couple of years ago?

Well, the '70s classic rock anthem More Than A Feeling by Boston could get the same boost from its prominent use in the George Clooney war comedy The Men Who Stare At Goats, which had its premiere screening at TIFF on Thursday night.

Trust me when I say you'll leave the theatre humming; "It's more than a feeling, when I hear that old song they used to play."

Among the other great late-'70s and early-'80s songs in the hilarious film about psychic soldiers include Generation X's Dancing WIth Myself and Billy Squier's Everybody Wants You. Clooney even dances on screen. Twice.

-- Jane Stevenson