"It's such a flagrant breach of the law!" cried Michael Perly, executive director of the Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco, about Sean Penn firing up ciggies while conducting a press conference touting "All the King's Men" at the Sutton Place Hotel during the film fest in obvious violation of the Smoke-Free Ontario Act. Toronto health authorities are now investigating the "crime" and are likely to issue Penn the standard $305 fine. Big deal. Most of Sean's bar tabs are bigger than that and, come on, the dollar amount is Canadian.

Penn hasn't been totally insensitive to others while in town, but he still caused outrage over his nicotine reliance. At a few parties he attended, he rushed past the hosts at the door to get out to patio areas where he could fire up. Even before he got a drink!

Meantime, there's no uproar about, or word of a pending fine against, Tim Robbins, who puffed away while giving an interview about "Catch a Fire" at the Park Hyatt. However, he did kindly ask his interviewer for permission before he lit up.

So did Kate Winslet when I had a private chat with her in a small, confined room at the Intercontinental.

"Do you mind if I smoke?" she asked oh-so-sweetly, then I nodded approval. Kate's a tough cookie off screen as well as on. She rolls her own. Not like a rapper stuffing a joint, but so gingerly that she looked like a governess rolling up an infant's sock.

Photo: Maybe Sean should go back to sucking his fingers like he did in "I Am Sam"? Hey, at least he got something for that role he's unlikely to reap for this one — Oscar and SAG noms.