TORONTO -- Viggo Mortensen played the piano in a hotel lobby, John Malkovich clarified he was here in "Disgrace" (not disgrace), and questions about the Obama-McCain presidential race proved you can run but you cannot hide from American politics.

Paris Hilton was live and in a documentary called "Paris, Not France," Mark Ruffalo scored a triple play with "The Brothers Bloom," "Blindness" and "What Doesn't Kill You," and Mickey Rourke emerged as the Comeback Kid at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The 33rd annual event ended Saturday night with Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" winning the Cadillac People's Choice Award.

Based on the novel "Q & A" by Vikas Swarup, it's the story of an 18-year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai who is one question away from winning 20 million rupees (roughly $438,000 in U.S. dollars) on India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." Fox Searchlight will release it into theaters in late November.

First runner-up for audience favorite was "More Than a Game," a documentary about an Akron high school basketball team that includes future superstar LeBron James. Second runner-up was "The Stoning of Soraya M.," the dramatization of a true story about "honor" killing starring Shohreh Aghdashloo.

Other winners: best Canadian first feature, "Before Tomorrow," about an Inuit woman and her grandson trapped on a remote island; best Canadian feature, "Lost Song," a portrait of post-partum depression; and Diesel Discovery Award, "Hunger," starring Michael Fassbender as Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands.

Also, Prize of the International Critics to both "Lymelife," about life and Lyme disease in 1970s Long Island, and "Disgrace," an adaptation of the J.M. Coetzee novel starring Malkovich as a professor in Cape Town whose life falls apart after an affair with a student.

Here is a snapshot of some of the sights and sounds of the festival, with more to come as the fall movies roll out:

Moviemaking as history lesson: Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, who plays a housekeeper in the 1960s South in "The Secret Life of Bees," said she didn't realize how unaware she was about the civil rights era until she was hired for this movie.

Then, she immersed herself in history to the point where she was terrified "because I did so much research that my mind was just clouded with the South being so horrible and people being lynched and people being hosed and beaten, crazy stuff like that."

But when director Gina Prince-Bythewood asked her to meet co-star Dakota Fanning at a North Carolina store, Hudson complied. Prince-Bythewood handed Hudson a shopping list and said, "Whatever you do, don't hit anyone." Once she was inside, the all-white employees treated Dakota like a "queen" and were rude or dismissive to Hudson, asking her to empty her pockets at one point.

When the actresses went to buy ice cream, the clerk told Dakota, "You know she can't be in here, right?" Hudson said, "Did I hear him right? ... I sit down at the parlor and there's this white man eating his food and he leans over to the clerk, 'Can you get this [N-word] out of here, I'm trying to eat my food.' And the only thing I can hear was Gina in my head, 'Whatever you do, don't hit anybody. ' "

It had been a set-up, to test their reactions and get them into the 1960s frame of mind, and it worked.

Reminder it's all in the details: Mickey Rourke's character in "The Wrestler" may have a body built on steroids and exercise but he also has an old-fashioned, oversize hearing aid and a pair of reading glasses, which lend a touching vulnerability to Randy "The Ram" Robinson.

Finding religion ... or not: Bill Maher and director Larry Charles ("Borat") say they didn't plan for their comic documentary about religion called "Religulous" to come out in an election year but consider the timing fortuitous.

"Laughter, I would say, is a good weapon to make points," said Charles, whose long graying beard makes him look like an extra from "The Ten Commandments." He acknowledged, "This is a hard subject, and it's a hard subject for people to hear their beliefs threatened and questioned -- these kind of core beliefs -- and by using comedy, it makes that a more palatable equation."

But Maher says if you're religious "you're defending indefensible, primitive mythic thinking. If you're an adult and you still believe this stuff, I'm sorry, you can't have it both ways, you're a rube. There are just no two ways about it. We all have this imaginary person in our mind who is somehow this smart person but he's a religious person, but he's never any of us."

Guess it all depends on the "us."

Sorry I missed: Mortensen, here in "Appaloosa" and "Good" and soon to be seen in "The Road," playing the piano in the lobby of the Sutton Place Hotel.

Glad I missed: A New York Post critic whacking Roger Ebert with a rolled-up program or festival binder. An embarrassed Ebert wrote about it, explaining how he tapped the person in front of him to signal he was blocking his view of the "Slumdog Millionaire" subtitles and the critic swatted back. Ebert's medical condition has left him unable to speak, so tapping was his way of communicating.

I was at a press conference when this happened but witnessed cross words at "The Wrestler" when a man confronted someone who appeared to be saving a pair of seats, forbidden at jam-packed screenings. No fisticuffs ensued, just sharp words exchanged in a 580-seat theater with almost no place left to plop down.

Movie I was sorry to miss: The very same "Slumdog Millionaire."

Pittsburgh connections: Gaylen Ross, who starred in "Dawn of the Dead" and "Creepshow" many years ago, directed a documentary called "Killing Kasztner," about Dr. Israel Kasztner, a Hungarian Jew who negotiated with Adolf Eichmann to save Jewish lives.

Kevin Smith's "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," set largely in Monroeville, had its world premiere, and "The Hurt Locker" stars Brian Geraghty, who lived in Pittsburgh from roughly ages 3 to 7 and attended North Allegheny's Espe Elementary School.

Wacky questions: "Pride and Glory" director Gavin O'Connor was asked if he and his twin brother, Greg, were made to dress alike as children. Keira Knightley was questioned about reports that she opposed movie-poster enhancement of her breasts and asked if she'd prefer to have a son or daughter some day, and Ricky Gervais was quizzed about his imperfect teeth in "Ghost Town." It turns out they're really his.