A crush of paparazzi and screaming teenage fans you could hear from a block away had mobbed the Canadian cultural capital's Ryerson Theatre for the premiere of Jennifer's Body, the horror-comedy written by Oscar-winning Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody.
But the glitzy event's undeniable focal point was a femme fatale of a different stripe: Megan Fox.
The 163cm-tall screen siren worked the red carpet like a veteran, frequently turning and posing so the asymmetrical hem of her strapless mini-dress showed as much thigh as possible.
Fox portrays a demon-girl cheerleader who (literally) devours her horny high school classmates in the film, which earned a lacklustre $6.8 million at the box office on its opening weekend in the United States.
But her movie stardom is almost beside the point. Fox is becoming to the current generation what Farrah Fawcett was during her '70s heyday or Pamela Anderson was at the apogee of her Baywatch fame. Call Megan Fox the first bona fide sex symbol of the 21st century.
Time after time, to the chagrin of her publicist, she has displayed a refreshing candour, blurting out whatever is on her mind.
There are a handful of salient facts about her that have exploded into the public consciousness, mainly because the 23-year-old, Tennessee-born ingenue has said them for maximum effect in numerous magazine cover stories.
• She carried on a lesbian love affair with a Russian stripper at age 18.
• She was once "obsessed" with porn star Jenna Jameson.
• She struggles with the idea she has a "mild form of schizophrenia", fearing she'll wind up like her idol, Marilyn Monroe (whose face is tattooed on Fox's right inner forearm).
At least once over the course of each of these stories the model-turned-actress will say she is at peace with being a sex symbol.
"I'm just really confident sexually, and I think that sort of oozes out of my pores," Fox told Esquire.
Fox has achieved pop-culture ubiquity, thanks to photos being endlessly splashed across the internet.
"She oozes sex and isn't ashamed to do so," author of www.pinkisthenewblog.com, Trent Venegas, said.
"She seems very willing to use her sexuality to her maximum benefit without giving too much away. She definitely became a Hollywood "it" girl because of her looks rather than her talents."
While Jessica Biel laments being named sexiest woman alive has been a liability to her stated goal of being seen first as an actress, Fox is not bothered.
"I didn't decide I'm going to be an actress 'cause I want to be respected for how I play chess," Fox told Entertainment Tonight.
"Part of Hollywood is being perceived as attractive."
With her mane of black hair, taut physique, eight tattoos (including a Shakespearean quote, "We will all laugh at gilded butterflies," from King Lear) and bedroom eyes, she projects an unapologetic sultriness.
But among the blognoscenti, there is a school of thought Fox may have crossed a line with some of her recent comments - remarks that potentially could imperil her sex symbol status.
Among the comments in question:
• Fox's view that the "tween" television movie franchise High School Musical is really "about this group of boys who are all being molested by the basketball coach ... It's about them struggling to cope with this molestation."
• Her verdict that Transformers director Michael Bay "wants to be Hitler".
• Her admission in Rolling Stone that she's cautioned her on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Austin Green (of Beverly Hills, 90210 fame), "You have to go and stop talking to me, because I'm going to kill you."
But according to blogger Venegas, in this age when only the most outrageous acts make noise above the constant din of celebrity blather, there's no such thing as bad publicity - especially if you're a loose-cannon sex symbol like Megan Fox.
