AMERICAN cultural imperialism is alive and well and living in Cannes. Bruce Willis, at the festival for the opening film, The Fifth Element, in which he stars, turned up a night later accompanied by his wife, Demi Moore, to open the Cannes outlet of Planet Hollywood, the restaurant chain in which they are shareholders.
Meanwhile, up the road at the elegant old Carlton hotel, the entrance was covered by a massive hoarding for the TV spin-off movie, Beavis And Butthead Do America. And out on the bay floated a 40-foot inflatable dummy of the American radio shock-jock, Howard Stern, to promote Stern's arrival in Cannes to promote his first movie, Private Parts - on the eve of Frencb president Jacques Chirac's visit to Cannes on Sunday.
The Stern balloon was soon deflated when two speedboats carrying special security French CRS police all armed with machine guns issued the film's distributors with an ultimatum: take the balloon down or they would shoot it down. The less than happy distributors promptly let the air out of Stern.
. SEE for yourself: Readers with access to TV5 can see highlights of the 50th Cannes Film Festival on Monday at 9.39 p.m.