Sean Penn continues to display a talent for making an ass of himself in every corner of the globe. While speaking at a press conference to flog his latest film for the Toronto film festival, the brooding actor (who’s looking even more hagged out these days than his ex-wife Madonna) lit up a smoke* and brought down the wrath of every official in the province on his pointy head. The people of Toronto don’t like to see their draconian indoor-smoking ban flouted by the likes of Mr. Penn. That, or they don’t like to see a bigshot Hollywood celebrity casually lighting up one of those American cancer sticks that would cost them a whopping ten loonies a pack—nearly a week’s wages for a typical Canadian family.

Normally I don’t favor this sort of nanny-state supression of vice, but I’ll endorse anything that shuts up Sean Penn and causes him some public embarrassment. This incident doesn’t rank as high as his attempt to bail out New Orleans with a plastic cup, but it still confirms his lifetime membership in the Hollywood League of Dumb-Assery.

*A habit Penn blames on Chimpy McHitlerburton.