Paris Hilton's photocall at the Cannes film festival. Photograph: Dave Hogan/Getty
Xan Brooks, editor of Guardian Unlimited Film
For all its reputation as a celebration of cinema and art and stuff, the Cannes film festival has never been shy about embracing the kind of celebrities who, some might say, wouldn't know art if it came up and bit them on the derriere. This weekend the event plays host to one Miss Paris Hilton, the American hotel heiress famous for having a homemade sex tape leak onto the internet and for trying (and thus far failing) to have her catchphrase - "That's so hot!" - turned into a trademark.
Fresh(ish) from her success in Fox reality show The Simple Life, Miss Hilton is now concentrating on her movie career.
Fans may remember her from such films as The Cat in the Hat (credited as "female club-goer") and Wishman (as "girl on beach"). But tomorrow she's holding a press conference to discuss her starring role in the upcoming National Lampoon's Pledge This!, which is "the most hilarious, outrageous and sexy comedy". That's what the movie poster says, anyway.
Sharon Stone is also blowing through town to promote her role in Basic Instinct 2, directed by Britain's Michael Caton Jones. The original Instinct was the film that made Stone a star, paving the way for a move into more serious drama and an Oscar nomination for her work in Martin Scorsese's Casino. But in recent years her career has been becalmed. It strikes me that the last I heard of her was when she and her husband took a private tour of the Los Angeles zoo and found themselves savaged by a Komodo dragon.
Less good-looking than Stone but just as dragonish as the dragon, Harvey Weinstein arrived on Wednesday in a blizzard of announcements and acquisitions. But away from the marketplace, Weinstein will also find time to unveil footage from Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm. The film is Gilliam's first project since his ill-fated, ultimately aborted The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (see Lost in La Mancha for details).
The footage reportedly runs to about 20 minutes tops, but is likely to be the hottest ticket of the day. There's nothing that galvanises Cannes more, it seems, than the promise of a glimpse of something fresh and barely finished; a film that's yet to come, whether it's courtesy of Terry Gilliam, Sharon Stone or Paris Hilton.
Follow the latest news from Cannes, via our special report or get a flavour of the festival with our picture gallery.
