Alternately described as the thinking woman’s crumpet and the universal lubricant — kids, ask your parents — Colin Firth really is as dashing in person as you may have heard, and his performance in “The King’s Speech” will very likely win him that Oscar he deserved last year for “A Single Man”.

We did a fine job of ignoring that sort of talk in our TIFF interview, which sees print in this week’s NOW (and also includes comments from the film’s director, Tom Hooper). The issue also includes a quick look at Toronto’s seasonal movie programming, since it’s our annual holiday special — and yes, someone’s screening “Die Hard”.

Online extras include a Q&A with Firth’s “King’s Speech” co-star, the very charming Geoffrey Rush, and my chat with visual effects god and gearhead supreme Douglas Trumbull, who’s going to be presenting a look behind the scenes of “Blade Runner” tonight at the Lightbox.

Fun fact: My sit-down with Colin Firth was actually our second meeting; we’d previously bumped into each other at the London film festival in 2007. Or rather, I bumped into him, very hard, opening a door into his face. You’ll be happy to know he accepted my (belated) apology most gracefully. He’s nice like that.

In a reversal of last weekend’s box-office fortunes, Disney’s “Tangled” and Warner’s “Harry Potter and the Moody Interlude” have traded places. “Tangled” took this weekend’s top spot with a modest $21.5 million gross, while “Harry Potter VII” dropped to second place with a still-respectable $16.7 million.

The weekend after the American Thanksgiving holiday is always a bit of a wasteland, with no major studio openings — well, Fox Searchlight eased “Black Swan” into Canada, but in a smallish, baby-step kind of way. Things ramp back up next week with “The Tourist” and “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, so expect the box-office numbers to inflate accordingly.

You have been warned.

People keep telling me there aren’t enough musicals these days. Well, today sees the release of three movies that are chock full of singing and/or dancing — though not necessarily the sort that’ll conjure up fond memories of the grand days of MGM.

“Black Swan“: Darren Aronofsky’s dazzling psychological thriller features Natalie Portman in a career-best turn as a ballerina crumbling under the stress of starring in “Swan Lake”. You’ll either embrace it or reject it in the first 20 minutes; all I can say is I wish Aronofsky had been willing to go even crazier.

“Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench”: A pair of young Bostonians try to find harmony together in Darien Chazelle’s black-and-white mumblecore musical — which, Glenn argues, might have been better in color.

“Sell Out!“: The first English-language musical from Malaysia to make it to Toronto screens, Yeo Joon Han’s delightful corporate satire has enough mirth and invention for three features. Don’t feel self-conscious when the karaoke lyrics come on; they’re there for you!

And don’t forget “Kings of Pastry”, which is playing an exclusive run at the Lightbox this week. And the Toronto Underground Cinema has a pretty nice series on English Canadian cinema going through Sunday; “Hard Core Logo” and “Pontypool” are screening tonight, so if you’ve already seen “Black Swan” you might want to catch those.

And now you know why I went to Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago. My interview with “Black Swan” star (and likely Oscar nominee) Natalie Portman is the cover story for the new issue of NOW — and she and director Darren Aronofsky discuss the film in greater detail in the audio clips, so don’t miss those. There’s also this fun little thing about her body of work.

Also in this issue, I interview Yeo Joon Han, writer and director of the very, very entertaining new Malaysian musical “Sell Out!”, which opens tomorrow at the Royal.

Oh, and “Kings of Pastry”, D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus’ documentary about cake bosses, opens at the Lightbox today. I thought it was a pretty fun little trifle when I caught it at Hot Docs earlier this year; Susan was slightly less enthused. You might want to check it out, is all I’m saying.

“Harry Potter and the Penultimate Installment” squeaked past Disney’s “Tangled” by a hair to keep the top spot at the North American box-office this holiday weekend: The Boy Who Lived pulled in $50.3 million, as opposed to the $49.1 million grossed by the Mane That Grew.

It’s probably just as well. If the 3D “Tangled” had topped the 2D “Harry”, studios and exhibitors would use its victory to agitate for more post-facto 3D conversions. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” was supposed to be one such release, but Warner abandoned the strategy several weeks ago when it became clear that the conversion wouldn’t be completed in time.

I’m still hoping the studio reneges on its promise to release “Part 2” in a 3D version. Anyone who’s seen David Yates’ other “Harry Potter” movies knows he uses darkness as a storytelling element, and I’d hate for his moody blacks, greens and browns to be turned into indistinct murk by the decreased brightness imposed by the 3D process.

“Tangled”, on the other hand, looks great in 3D. It was designed for it, it was “lit” for it, and the overall effect is exquisite. Have you seen it yet? It’s been playing for days!

The Friday after Thanksgiving is always a weird dead zone — the big movies opened on Wednesday, and everyone in the U.S. is out shopping. The Canadian release schedule invariably reflects this, which is why there are only three movies opening today. And they are?

“Cool It“: Documentarian Ondi Timoner participates in the image rehab of Bjorn Lomborg, whose pushback against Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” made him a useful idiot for climate-change deniers. Was he misunderstood, or a provocateur? Or is he just a publicity hound who took a consciously flexible position in order to make a big splash that could be walked back once people knew his name? One wonders.

“Made in Dagenham”: Nigel Cole, the director of “Calendar Girls”, returns with another tale of female empowerment through sexual role reversal, telling the true story of the women of the Dagenham Ford plant who went on strike for equal pay in 1968. Reviews have been mixed (including Susan’s), but Sally Hawkins has been building some serious awards-season momentum, so I’ll catch it before the TFCA ballots are due.

“The Nutcracker in 3D”: I likewise missed Andrei Konchalovsky’s new take on the classic Christmas-season tale, which I now regret, because it’s been getting some of the worst reviews of any movie released this year. (A children’s movie from the director of “Runaway Train” and “Tango & Cash”? How did that happen, anyway?) Rad dismisses it; Roger Ebert wants it expunged from living memory. Ah, well, there’s always Blu-ray.

And there you go. Unlike my American cousins, I’m facing a pretty busy work day, so I’ll be off. But spare a thought for me when you’re stuck in the checkout line at Best Buy …