The Toronto International Film Festival, which has weathered a one-day 9/11 shutdown and a SARS scare in the last decade, is coping with another Northern invasion that’s preceded the dozens of celebrities arriving next week — a bedbug outbreak in the Canadian city.

“We’re on it, we’re talking to Cineplex & are planning for an itch-free #TIFF10” fest co-director Cameron Bailey tweeted yesterday after news broke that a patron reported bites at the festival’s new main press screening venue, Cineplex’s Scotiabank Theatre. Which may give us blood-sucking critics yet another reason to be nostalgic about the previous longtime screening venue, the Varsity.