By Jake Brooks

September 19, 2004 | 8:00 p.m

TORONTO-On Monday, Sept. 13, a fleet of limousines pulled up

in front of Remington's, a male strip club in the heart of the antiseptic downtown here. Director John Waters disembarked, followed by the actors Selma Blair and Johnny Knoxville, as well as Bob Shaye, the co-president of New Line. The group was headed to an "impromptu" after-party for Mr. Waters' latest movie, A Dirty Shame, about a sex-addict messiah and his disciples, which had premiered to an enthusiastic crowd hours earlier. According to eyewitnesses (which included marketing execs from Warner Independent, UA/MGM and HBO), Ms. Blair subsequently offered up quite the photo op: a rising Hollywood starlet receiving a personal lap dance from one of Remington's naked, glistening staffers. "I did get asked-really more than asked-to come up and be the magician's assistant. That girl-that-gets-picked-up-to-wave-the-wand-around type of thing," Ms. Blair said the next morning in a courtyard restaurant at the Intercontinental hotel, looking typically winsome in a floral blouse, but in desperate need of a cup of coffee. "It was very funny to see my agent at this bar. And of course I'm dressed like something out of an Adam Ant video-like the goody two-shoes thing. I looked a bit peculiar, but very chic, I think, with a nice big cock waving in my face." If the action at Toronto is any indication, American independent film is entering a sexed-up phase, joining European fare like Anatomy of Hell, starring an oft-nude Amira Cesar, and Michael Winterbottom's Nine Songs, which shows real sex and little else. Kinsey, about the iconic sex doctor Alfred Kinsey, was a big hit at the festival here, thanks in part to one passionate kiss between Liam Neeson (as Kinsey) and Peter Sarsgaard; and in Oliver Stone's Alexander (as in: the Great), Colin Farrell flip-flops so much he puts John Kerry to shame. Let's not forget that Mr. Farrell also plays for both teams in A Home at the End of the World. "I've had three interviews this morning-I think I've said 'vagina' in every one of them," said Toronto festival director Noah Cowan with a hoarse laugh. "I think you're seeing a greater attention to sex, and to how we address sex in cinema. And that moves with the times. The times right now are: 'Let's talk about gay stuff. Let's talk about bisexual stuff. Let's talk about sexual stuff.' And it's O.K. for stars to participate in those worlds now." It's a brave new world for actresses and actors alike: Chloë Sevigny can go down on Vincent Gallo and still have six projects in the works; Neve Campbell plays a bisexual temptress who masturbates in the shower in James Toback's When Will I Be Loved, accepting money for sex from a character played by Dominic Chianese (Dominic Chianese!). Roget Ebert considers Ms. Campbell an Oscar front-runner-and before you laugh, remember that he made the same prediction for Charlize Theron in Monster. "I think the exploration of bisexuality is something that's very popular at the moment," Ms. Campbell said, sitting in a comfy love seat in a room at the Intercontinental. "I don't know if there are many actresses my age in Hollywood who haven't done a [bisexual] scene. It is somewhat trendy at the moment." That's an understatement-and it's not just women who are having the fun. Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, about homosexual cowboys and starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, is scheduled for release in October 2005 by Focus Features. John Cameron Mitchell is in pre-production on Short Bus, another film featuring explicit nookie of all types. Mr. Waters ventured that in the acting world, sexuality is the new mentally handicapped. "The same way that an actress would first vomit in a movie or play retarded people-that shows they were serious about their craft, and they've all been shot on a toilet-now that's the next thing," he said in an interview, also at the Intercontinental. "The final thing is to have real sex." As with actual encounters, if the audience is not turned on by an actress' or actor's performance, it is forgotten the next morning (see Elizabeth Berkley and Maria Schneider). As Ms. Sevigny romped through Fashion Week in New York, it already seemed like her foray into Mr. Gallo's lascivious den was slipping into pop-culture amnesia. (A rep for the once-Oscar-nominated actress was traveling and unavailable for comment.) It can be dangerous to play against type. Sharon Stone flashing her crotch in Basic Instinct made her a star, but receiving explicit oral sex in In the Cut did little for America's sweetheart, Meg Ryan. Ms. Campbell, however, had high hopes for how her onscreen rolls in the hay might help her with future roles. "I've wanted to play against my looks," she said, "which I have nothing to do with, because I wanted it to be about talent as opposed to …. " Then she paused for a moment. "I was a dancer my entire life-so for me, it was about developing myself into something." In When Will I Be Loved, Ms. Campbell has a Sapphic encounter with a girlfriend, doggy-style sex with her boyfriend, and accepts money to sleep with Dominic Chianese (Dominic Chianese!). In the opening scene of the movie, the actress is shown using the detachable shower head to masturbate in the shower-no Party of Five necessary. "I like the fact that the scene is in the film," insisted Ms. Campbell, who also played bisexual in 1998's Wild Things. She trotted out the old girl-power argument: "People like to put women on this innocent pedestal and like to believe that they're not explorative in some ways. And it's not true." She added: "I've gotten to a place where I'm not concerning myself with what the industry thinks or what the audiences think, because there's really no controlling that anyway. At the beginning of people's careers, we tend to really obsess over what the right next step is. And that gets really old and frustrating." Ms. Blair has a similar take. In A Dirty Shame, due for release on Sept. 24, she plays a sex-addicted stripper with augmented assets: two breasts that each could double for the atomic bomb dropped in Dr. Strangelove. "Girls have it in them, too, to really goof around," she said, looking and sounding much more chipper after getting her coffee. "I really don't care if my child sees Tracy Ullman pick up a bottle with her cooter. I don't think that will scar them-I just don't. I think it's silly. It's funny. And maybe inspirational." She scoffed at the notion that her career might be affected negatively by playing an overtly sexual role. "I don't believe in career-making or -breaking performances," Ms. Blair said. "I don't really care what people think of me in that process. I care more what people think of me on a more personal level."