The Associated Press

Martin Short is taking Hollywood to task with Jiminy Glick in Lalawood, a comic tale of celebrity culture that will close next month's Toronto International Film Festival.

Short plays the title character, an unknown entertainment critic for a Butte, Mont., TV station who comes to the Toronto festival and scores an unlikely coup: A rare interview with a reclusive movie megastar.

Jiminy ends up in the middle of a tawdry sex scandal when a starlet turns up dead in his bed.

Directed by Vadim Jean, the film was co-written by Short, who is also a producer on the movie.

The movie is based on the character Short originated on his TV shows The Martin Short Show and Primetime Glick.

Other high-profile films announced Tuesday by the Toronto festival include:

• David O. Russell's ensemble comedy I Heart Huckabees, featuring Dustin Hoffman, Naomi Watts, Jude Law, Lily Tomlin and Mark Wahlberg.

• Kinsey, starring Liam Neeson and Laura Linney in Bill Condon's film biography of Alfred Kinsey, the pioneer of human-sexuality research.

• Imaginary Heroes, a coming-of-age tale featuring Emile Hirsch, Sigourney Weaver, Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams.

• Head in the Clouds, a romantic drama starring Charlize Theron as a woman trying to maintain her hedonistic life against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War and World War II.

• Sideways, Alexander Payne's road-trip story about aging pals (Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church) on a last joy ride before one of them gets married.

• Crash, a film about eight characters drawn together by a car wreck and a murder investigation. The cast includes Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon and Thandie Newton.

• Sean Penn and Naomi Watts in The Assassination of Richard Nixon, about a failed salesman who sets out to kill President Nixon in 1974.

The Toronto festival, a key launching pad for Hollywood's big fall releases and Academy Awards contenders, runs Sept. 9-18.