Dionne Warwick, Star Of A New Documentary, Keeps Smiling

THE first standing ovation Dionne Warwick ever received was as a 6-year-old, when her reverend grandfather brought her up to the pulpit of the St. Luke’s AME Church in Newark, New Jersey, where she sang “Jesus Loves Me” for a rapt congregation.

Warwick’s most recent standing ovation, though, was on Saturday, at the Toronto International Film Festival after the premiere of the documentary “Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over.”

Though the festival has been a more muted affair this year because of the pandemic, the 80-year-old Warwick has made the most of it. Over the weekend, she took over the festival’s official Twitter account and posed with “my Sherlock Holmes,” Benedict Cumberbatch.

As the pop-soul legend of songs like “I Say a Little Prayer,” “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” and “Walk on By,” Warwick has always cut a distantly un-diva path. And, in an interview, Warwick wondered just why