McConaughey Revives Woman at Film Screening

September 10, 2001 -- A woman who collapsed at a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival was revived in a novel way when she realized actor Matthew McConaughey was "stroking her hair and kissing her forehead."Janice Flisfeder told the Toronto Sun Sunday that she attributed her collapse at the screening of McConaughey's film Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, to not having eaten all day

"I felt a man stroking my hair and kissing my forehead saying, 'It's OK, sweetheart,' and realized it wasn't my husband," the mother of three told the newspaper. "When I opened my eyes and looked back to him I just thought, 'Nah can't be.'"But it was indeed the laidback Austin, Texas native, whose last rash of headlines was for being arrested in the buff in his own home for playing his bongos too loud. (Really, we couldn't make that one up if we tried.)

McConaughey seemed embarrassed about the incident at a press conference on Saturday to promote his latest film. His co-star Amy Irving described the U-571 star as a hero, saying "You gave her mouth-to-mouth."

"Which we found out afterwards was why she had the seizure," joked actor Alan Arkin. The audience wondered whether the incident might have been a publicity stunt, especially in light of its timing. A character in the film, played by John Turturro, had just uttered a line about a doctor. At the same time, a man in the theater asked for a doctor to help Flisfeder. The woman was taken to hospital and she looked "absolutely fine," according to a doctor who attended to the woman at the theater. Eyewitnesses reported that the woman left smiling.

Reuters contributed to this story.