The Festival du Cannes is all about movies– and parties.
And while the movies are lining up nicely, the party schedule will suffer this year– especially up at the Hotel du Cap and Eden Roc restaurant.
Obviously gone is Harvey Weinstein, but with him are not only his own company’s parties but a couple of others as well.
Weinstein was the straw that stirred the drink in Cannes social life for the last 20 years. His movie company would host one, two, or sometimes three of the hottest invites. There was always a kind of general party for stars, distributors, and beautiful people at which Harvey would run a showcase of clips of upcoming films. These gatherings were legendary and often set the tone for the upcoming Oscar season.
Weinstein was also the central guest of honor every year at Charles Finch’s annual “Filmmakers Party” at the Eden Roc, where everyone from Mick Jagger to Edward Norton, famous directors and bevvies of beauties would hob nob all night. But Finch– a PR man who’s the son of the late British actor Peter Finch– has cancelled the soiree this year. There’s no Harvey, and there’s no Jagger since the Rolling Stones will be rehearsing for a short British-European tour of stadiums that begins May 17th in Dublin.
Johnny Pigozzi, heir to the Simca automobile fortune, also gives an afternoon party at his villa next to the Hotel duCap, featuring Jagger. He may have to get someone who moves like Jagger instead.
Weinstein’s absence will also be tied to the annual amFAR dinner at the Eden Roc, which this year should be quite the calamity without its perpetual host and celebrity wrangler, not to mention absent a good deal of its board and chairman, Kenneth Cole. Between controversies over Weinstein and Cole’s handling of a donation last year, not to mention a huge amount of internal squabbling, plus their continued snubbing of Sharon Stone, amFAR in Cannes won’t be the usual pageant of sycophancy as in the past.
Finally, Vanity Fair is skipping its annual gala at the Eden Roc. Graydon Carter is gone, and so are the VF parties. They’ve already gotten rid of their Tribeca Film Festival gathering at the Customs House in downtown New York. Plus the get together after the White House Correspondents Dinner is over with the arrival of Trump. VF had been alternating years for Cannes, and gave a party last year.
