Fashion Wire Daily Cannes May 19, 2003 - Want a little fromage with that free whine?
Jaded journalists at the Cannes Film Festival are grousing that this year's fest is "lackluster." But the seasoned scribes said the same thing last year, the year before and the year before that. In fact, they've probably said it for the last 56 years, except maybe in 1953 when Brigitte Bardot first set body and foot here.
But so far Cannes 2003's roster -- Nicole Kidman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Liz Hurley, Catherine Deneuve, Meg Ryan, Carrie-Anne Moss, Kevin Costner and Keanu Reeves -- is better than last year's moldy oldies: Woody Allen, Jack Nicholson and Sharon ("I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille") Stone. Madame Stone lingered so long on the red carpets each night that photographers aimed empty cameras at her so they wouldn't waste film.
When they're not strutting the rouge rugs, posing for paparazzi or popping into posh parties on yachts, the stars need their beauty rest. Surprisingly, most hole up in the beachfront hotels on the town's main drag, the Croisette, which is lousy with French cinephiles (French for film-freak stalkers) who wait outside for hours, hoping to sneak peeks of their favorite stars. Here are the guests of honor at the three top hotels:
The Carlton's big guns: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, Claire Danes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Oliver Stone, Ewan McGregor, Steven Soderbergh and his beaming bride, Jules Asner.
The Majestic's Euro-flashers: Monica Bellucci, Beatrice Dalles, Gerard
Depardieu, Isabelle Huppert, James Cameron, his wife Suzy Amis, and oh yeah, Vincent Gallo.
The Martinez's sex-pots: Andie MacDowell, Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling, Meg Ryan and Laetitia Casta, steaming up the sand with new beau Italian actor Stefano Accorsi. She dumped her (much) older beau, photog Stephane Sednaoui, and father of her two-year-old daughter. Big surprise that Casta, here for festival sponsor L'Oreal, is trying to forge herself a film career.
On Sunday, Nicole Kidman hit the town wearing a black double-breasted suit, pink top, pink lips and a red scarf. The actress will walk the red carpet tonight for the premiere of "Dogville," in which she plays a woman on the run from gangsters, a role that may win her an acting award. But don't expect any wild after-party. Seems the studio can't afford it. British tab The Daily Mirror reports that the cost of flying her here on a private jet and putting her up at a $3,750 a night hotel (probably the Martinez) has put the kibosh on Zoetropa's usual blowout bash.
"Dogville" director Lars von Trier ("Breaking the Waves," "Dancer in the Dark") shot the film -- set in the '30s in a bleak Rocky Mountain town -- totally in-studio with minimal props to allow the actors maximum freedom and full exposure. Kidman was already emotionally drained when shooting began in 2001, due to her husband Tom Cruise leaving her for actress Penelope Cruz. "Lars told me he would not be hard on me," Kidman said. "He said, 'You are already broken.'"
Kidman has definitely put herself back together again very nicely though. And Cruz, who was here (sans Cruise) last week for the premiere of her poorly received French farce, "Fanfan la Tulipe," has left the packed port town for safer harbors.
The guest of honor at Friday's Chopard dinner at the Hotel Martinez was the lovely Isabelle Adjani, wearing a Chopard diamond and multicolored gemstone necklace. But the paparazzi went ballistic for Liz Hurley, who has dieted back down to supermodel fighting weight and showed off her shape in a sexy purple Versace gown. Also dining at Chopard: Juliette Lewis, Michael Madsen, and new face Diane Kruger, who stars with Brad Pitt in the upcoming epic, "Troy." She's Helen, he's Achilles.
"Terminator 3's" Ahnuld gave his Cannes fans a treat Saturday afternoon when he appeared outside the Carlton, which had been decorated with fierce cyborgs and robots. "I'll be back," Schwarzie (that's what the French press calls him) shouted to the few thousand fans that had waited for hours to see the former Mr. Universe. Wonder what they'd think if they saw the paparazzi pix of Arnold in a bathing suit taped to the wall of a famous Beverly Hills trainer's gym, who keeps J.Lo, Cameron Diaz and Sly Stallone in shape. Under the pix of a then-paunchy and sagging star, the trainer wrote, "I'll be back ... for seconds."
But the former Austrian muscleman/Hollywood action star kept up the pace all weekend. First he chowed down Friday night at a private dinner onboard the Anheuser-Busch yacht. He took a tour of the boat, speaking a little German with Deutschland fans, while his female Terminator Kristanna Loken, shivering in a frothy Collette Dinnegan gown, shot a giggly TV interview on deck. Guests deserting the ship at eve's end were tossed goodie bags containing T3 hats, sunglasses, a lighter and a pair of socks. But before the night was all over, one overindulgent reveler actually asked the life-size Arnold statue onboard for an autograph. Either the statue was very life-like or Arnold is very statuesque.
The Anheuser-Busch boat also played host Saturday to Kevin Costner's private dinner, which drew Miramax's heavyweight honcho Harvey Weinstein and Oscar winner Adrien Brody, who tried to blend into the crowd with his green camouflage print cap. Nothing, we repeat, nothing can disguise his now famous schnozz.
Very late Saturday night, Schwarzenegger and wife Maria stopped by the extravagant MTV "T3" party, the second hottest Cannes 2003 bash -- next to Thursday night's "Matrix Reloaded" fete, which featured fireworks and bartenders dressed like agents. But T3's décor definitely topped that: high-tech laser displays, lots of shiny silver robots, colored lights and fog machines surrounded Pierre Cardin's space shuttle-shaped house in the hills.
Other MTV T3 attendees included Terminator fighter Claire Danes, in a sexy silver sheath' Loken in a silver split mini-skirt and tube top' Mick Jagger's ex-wife Jerry Hall in a black-and-white floral print gown; and Matrix stars Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith) and Neil and Adrian Rayment (the real-life twins who play Matrix's albino twins).
Random Cannes sightings: Jane Fonda's son Troy Garity at the party for
"Milwaukee, Minnesota," a film about a retarded ice fisherman that's getting big buzz; Andie MacDowell looking lovely in a black smock frock at the packed HBO party on the Martinez Beach Saturday night; Gus Van Sant and the cast of his controversial, buzzed about "Elephant;" and the cast of "American Splendor." Showing off her new Christian Louboutin strappy heels, the down-home MacDowell drawled, "Aren't they FABulous? But my feet are killing me. These are for walking from the limo to the dinner table, not standing around."
Luke Wilson (Drew Barrymore and Gwyneth Paltrow's ex) turned up inexplicably at the Variety party. Saturday afternoon spunky Latina star Michelle Rodriguez ("The Fast and Furious," "Blue Crush") did a photo shoot at the American Pavilion where she devoured some spicy fare prepared by two of Bon Appetit magazine's celeb chefs, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, owners of LA's hottest (literally) restaurants, Cuidad and Border Grill. Even skinny mini T3 star Claire Danes popped in to have a bite of their spicy shrimp salad. Okay, literally, a bite. But for a size-2 actress in Cannes, that's like, a three-course meal.
