CANNES DAILY: Reality Intrudes on La Croisette

Has the reality craze hit Cannes? Despite the requisite pomp,circumstance, celebration and silliness, one of the most markedcharacteristics of the festival thus far is how reality keeps creeping inamongst the art and artifice.

For example, the face of Madeleine McCann, the little missing British girlwho made headlines last week when a reward was put up by such celebrities asRichard Branson and J.K. Rowling, is plastered all over town. Onmulti-lingual flyers, the blaring headline “Look into my eyes!” issuperimposed over her cherubic face with a plea to contact U.K. charityCrimestoppers with any information on her abduction. Daniel Craig has evenagreed to wear a yellow ribbon in support of the cause when he hits townthis weekend.

French authorities also blocked a Cannes Market-destined filmcalled “Last Looks” from entering the country this week because the film ispurported to show the actual deaths of cast and crew members during theshooting of U.S. indie horror film “The Evil Eye” last summer. Outside thefamed Palais des Festivals, posters are being handed out encouraging aboycott of the movie.

During Wednesday’s jury press conference, the talk was almost hardly aboutcinema. President Stephen Frears and actors Maggie Cheung, Toni Collette,Michel Piccoli and Sarah Polley fielded some questions but the bigexcitement was reserved for Nobel Prize winning author Orhan Pamuk.Journalists lavished praise and lobbed questions at the Turkish writer abouthis views on France’s new president and the European Union’s position onTurkey.

And, later today, Iranian director Samira Makhmalbaf will hold a pressconference during which it is thought she will show footage of a bombing onthe Afghanistan set of her latest film, “The Two-Legged Horse,” in what isbelieved to have been an attempt on the lives of the film-maker and herfamily.

Still, star-wattage has been pretty strong so far with the castsof “My Blueberry Nights” and “Zodiac” in town, Moby playing at a party onopening night, Pamela Anderson tub-thumping “Blonde and Blonder” and theno-longer-blonde Jessica Simpson in town to launch her latest film, “MajorMovie Star.”