Sean Penn lights up, hotel fined

Toronto: Actor Sean Penn flouted no-smoking laws this week at the Toronto film festival but a hotel is paying the price.

Oscar-winning Penn lit up during a press conference for his new film, All the King's Men, at the downtown Toronto Sutton Place Hotel. That was in violation of the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, which bans smoking in all enclosed spaces that are open to the public.

Christopher Ashby, spokesman for the Sutton Place, confirmed on Friday that the hotel has been slapped with fines for allowing Penn to smoke. The standard penalties would be C$605 ($540).

Asked why hotel staff did not inform Penn of the no-smoking rules, Ashby said: "It was a private event. Our staff were not present in the room and therefore we couldn't intervene because we weren't present."

Penn himself is escaping the incident with a slap on the wrist in the form a sternly worded letter from Toronto public health officials.

While other celebrities at the film festival have been spotted puffing away in public spaces, Penn may have been singled out because photographic evidence of his misbehaviour was splashed across newspaper pages and TV screens.