Dogged patience pays off for celebrity blogger

“She’s a thoroughbred,” the lad known as Mr. Will Wong was saying. “Very promising.”

He is Toronto’s most ubiquitous street-snapper of late, a sniper with a velvet glove. The “she” of the hour: a horse just named after him; one that makes its neighs at the Woodbine Racetrack which, as it happens, is Wong’s second home.

Christened “A Pic by Mr Will,” the beast was inspired by the blogger-photog who has selfie’d with the best of them. From Mirren to Ferrell, Reese to Rihanna: 2,000 or so selfies and counting.

Striking a chord with the owner of the animal, with whom he shared a surname, his horse-homage came about naturally and is a dream come true for a boy who grew up going to tracks with his parents in Asia and, moreover, wanted to own a filly so badly he would doodle images of horses as a child.

So does said horse have a favourite Instagram filter yet? The jury: out. She does have a suitable yen for miniature carrots, though.

Sitting down recently at the Sam James Coffee pop-up, in front of the Club Monaco at Bloor and Avenue, Wong was more than ready to giddy up himself conversationally.

Having become part of the wallpaper in this town — a status enlivened by his ability to be wherever celebs happen to be, both during TIFF and in the off season — he doesn’t do irony and has, you might say, the pluck of the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

“I still see myself as the ultimate fan,” the 30-something said. Though he’s sometimes now invited inside the parties he once loomed outside, and can also be found commenting on the music-film axis on CP24, at the end of the day he’s just a guy who’s in love with the love of stars.

You never forget your first — celebrity “get” that is. In Wong’s case, it was Selma Blair.

“It’s fully off-centre and blurry,” he offers when asked to recall that photo.

Asked to muse on other memorable moments, he remembers Bradley Cooper fondly (he tinkled some piano for him when they met) and rising star Ansel Elgort (“he’s tall

Will Wong doesn’t do irony and has, you might say, the pluck of the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

and sensitive . . . and he retweeted my photo of him”) and Matt Damon, who is in town now shooting and has been spotted in the Beach a fair bit (“just a regular guy”).

The nicest celebrity, in his estimation? That would be Jessica Chastain (he has enough photos of her to fill a photo album, he says, primarily because she’s filmed so much in Toronto over the last several years), while others are more likely to say thanks but no thanks.

Frances McDormand, for instance, graciously but firmly declined when he approached her. “I don’t do that,” she said. That’s OK, he said. “She’s allowed! She’s Frances McDormand!”

Among his greatest hits? Definitely Nicole Kidman, coming out of a bash during TIFF on King West.

“Literally, if you look at the photo (of Wong with her), my eyes are watering. She’s a movie star: glamour, glamour, glamour.”

Patience is more than a virtue in his moonlight career (Wong has a day job in customer relations at a communications company) and it proved too true when he tried and failed with Lady Gaga many, many times over the years. But he finally got her.

“It’s all timing; doesn’t matter how big or fledging the star is. It’s a moment,” he explained, giving a celebrity game plan that could also double as life philosophy.

Part of what keeps it endlessly interesting to him is the prospect of what’s next, who’s next. Nothing stays static in the snakes-and-ladders-ness of fame and he lives to be a human thermometer.

Take Sarah Paulson, who’s been in the acting trenches for years but who seems to be at a tipping point now, prompted in part by her mesmerizing performance in the FX miniseries The People v. OJ Simpson. Or take Quantico’s Priyanka Chopra, the first woman from the Indian subcontinent to carry a major network show and who’s now mainstreaming it on the covers of U.S. magazines like InStyle.

One name he’s definitely circling now: Nate Parker, the star/director/ writer of the fall prestige release Birth of a Nation. We both agreed that Parker will be someone we’ll be seeing tons during next year’s awards season.

One of Wong’s secret weapons? His 12-year-old Shih Tzu, Billy, who’s a celebrity magnet, big time. The aforementioned Dame Helen Mirren met the doggy for the first time outside the Windsor Arms Hotel and “she loved him! Was obsessed with him!”

Between his horse and his Shih Tzu, it seems that Wong has a hearty herd.

ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE/TORONTO STAR Toronto blogger Will Wong holds his dog, Billy, the secret weapon that helped him meet Dame Helen Mirren, who became “obsessed with him.”