Channing, Stiles give award-worthy performances in new movie.

Byline: Jay Boyar

TORONTO _ Two of the most Oscar-nominate-able performances given by actresses this year happen to be in the same little movie.

That movie is "The Business of Strangers," a tough, compelling tale of gamesmanship set in the world of corporate intrigue. And those performances are given by Stockard Channing and Julia Stiles, the former as a hardened older exec and the latter as a spiky junior assistant for the same company.

Except for Frederick Weller, who plays a young corporate headhunter, they are the only people with anything much to say or do in the entire film. The plot concerns what happens between these two very formidable _ and very angry _ women when they are stuck together overnight in an airport hotel.

Here in Toronto, where "The Business of Strangers" is featured in the 26th annual Toronto International Film Festival, it's being called a female version of "In the Company of Men" and being compared to such other business-world dramas as "The Big Kahuna" and "Glengarry Glen Ross." …