...AZ describes the Toronto media world pretty well today...

thestar.blogs.com/azerb/2..._batt.html

...It was the battle of the book launch parties last night in the Bathurst/King area.

First up was the slap-up for A Great Feast of Light: Growing Up Irish in the Television Age, a memoir by the Globe and Mail's wonderfully acerbic TV critic and soccer maniac John Doyle. Plenty of TV boldface in attendance at the, natch, Irish pub. Interestingly, most of it was from CBC and not CTV, although they both share the same Bell Globemedia ownership.

It was hard to see who was there the Paddock pub was so packed, but I did spot The National's Peter Mansbridge, who rushed off early to return to the air for the first time since the end of the lockout, plus the fifth estate's Linden MacIntyre, Made in Canada's Dan Lett, comic Daryn Jones and exec producer Gerald Lunz, both of Rick Mercer's (used to be) Monday Report, and documentarian Mark Starowicz, who'd parked himself on a barstool at the back. Many behind-the-scene CBCers were also there and everybody told me that they were so glad to be back to work, and that the mood in the Broadcast Centre was not as hostile as they had feared.

As for CTV types, well, it was hard to outdazzle the presence of themselves, Bell Globemedia president and CEO Ivan Fecan and his producer wife Sandra Faire, who braved the crowd. Spotted huddled from the rain on the front patio with the unrepentant smokers was cheery comedian Mike Bullard who was the subject of a profile by Doyle today.