After having not slept that much – day 3 turned out to be more about socialising and meeting people than about films.
The first event in the agenda was a press conference for Spike Lee’s new film Blackkklansman – which had its Cannes premiere Monday night. In attendance besides Lee were stars Topher Grace, Adam Driver, John David Washington and Laura Harriet. The film deals with racism in America and more specifically the events which took place in Charlottesville. Lee let it be known that he’s not a fan of Donald Trump (who is?) and said “this film is a wake-up call” and “fake has been trumped by the truth.” Lee added that “we are on the right side of the history of this film.” It will be interesting to see what the rest of the world thinks of the film when it’s released in the U.S. on August 10th – the one year anniversary of Charlottesville.
Next was a party at the American Pavilion for World Peace & Tolerance Initiative with Founder Princess Angelique Monét. Also in attendance were Sochi Film Festival & Awards founder Luba Balagova and …… Then went again to The Members Club right on the beach – luckily it was all blue skies today after two days of intermittent rain. There I met Emmy winning actor Vincent De Paul – very nice guy, and several attendees from the UK. At 3 pm was invited to attend the Tiffany’s Red Carpet Fashion Show. Held at the five star Carlton Hotel where Vietnamese designer Hoang Hai, who has designed two Miss universe contestants gown, opened the show. He presented a very beautiful flowery collection of dresses that were both stunning and delicious, and very affordable. Other designers from France, U.A.E, U.S., Dubai and Lebanon also showed their collections, all in the Carlton’s amazing ballroom – fit for Kings and Queens. There was one celebrity sighting – Chewbacca was in the lobby – setting the tone for the night’s big event premiere and party – ‘Solo: A Star Wars Party’ where yours truly scored a ticket to the premiere party, and what a party it was!
Held on the beach right across the street from the Carlton hotel, guests were ushered into the party after the red carpet premiere to find extremely heavy security to get in. Under the watch of the Stormtroopers, tickets were valid only if your name was also on the list – for if it weren’t then you weren’t going in! But once inside the party the champagne was flowing and the food was in abundance, but none of the stars of the film attended the party, not even Chewbacca! Never mind – for at 11:00 pm there was an amazing fireworks display for the film the likes Cannes has ever seen. The fireworks lit up the entire Cannes sky – it was truly spectacular and Disney must’ve paid an out of this world price for the party – but no doubt they will make it all back on the films opening weekend. And the only famous person I saw at the party was billionaire Paul Allen.
There was a bit more time at the end of the night to squeeze in one more party – so I went to the American Pavilion for their annual LGBT party – and it was rocking when I got there at 12:30 a.m. The music and the crowd were high energy and up for it – it was the liveliest party I’ve been to all week! And it was a good way to end the day! I hope Cannes Day 4 will be just as fun as day 3!!
By Tim Baros