Terry Clegg, Stuart Villard, Catherine Saxton and Lord Richard Attenborough

A Very Cannes Do!

AVE you ever thought about being in Cannes at Film Festival time?  The celebrities, the photographers, the press, the parties, the glamour, the excitement, the magic. You have?

Well, mostly forget it!  It is filled with the infamous “lookie loos!” those non-attached people who come to gaze and stare at celebrity and events and press their noses against the window of fame.

Cannes is still a major happening, attracting huge crowds, major celebs (Brad Pitt, Charlize Theron, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Aniston) – and the glamorous Michael Moore (who nabbed this year’s Palme D’Or for Best Picture, stunning almost everyone).

I was there for a very special launch of Britain’s Dragon International Studios.  It will be located in Wales, under the leadership of two of filmdom’s greatest stars, Lord Richard Attenborough and CEO Stuart Villard.

Archduke Karl von Hapsburg, along with sisters Princesses Michaela and Gabriella, were on hand for the celebrations at the British Beachside Pavilion.

What a glorious evening it was!  Shaded under an elegant tent, flaps open, framing a picture of glistening yachts on shimmering sea, the event attracted movie insiders by the score, and the Dragon boat set sail as gloriously as the Queen Mary 2.

Elke Gazzara , Ben Gazzara, Robert Duvall

Time To Tango

OR a change of pace – literally – and if only I could write the strains of a tango, then you’d get the feel for the magical evening of dancing at Tango Argentino 2004.

Created by Joseph Elmaleh Fish, a tango aficionado, the evening brought 300 elite (well some amateurs too) tango dancers to the venerable Metropolitan Club, which had been draped in the blue and white colors of Argentina.

Mango Tango Argentinos greeted guests (happily filled with Cruzan Rum). The evening was capped by some of the most sensuous, glamorous and provocative dancing I have ever seen here or anywhere in the world.

Sharyn and Stephen Mann, Leba and Neil Sedaka, Ben and Elke Gazzara, Robert Duvall and Luciana Pedraza were among the 300 enjoying the performance.  Monies raised go to a children’s hospital in Argentina and restoration of the Academia Nacional del Tango in Buenos Aries.

Stewart Lane, Stephen Baldwin, Chazz Palminteri and Aiden Turner Photo by Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images

Two Readings On Broadway

HAZZ PALMINTERI and Stephen Baldwin starred in a magnificent play, The Final Appeal, written by Billy Goda. Chazz played the head Mafioso (of course) which he portrayed without a flaw.

Stephen Baldwin played a young innocent boyfriend in love with an older woman, played by Bonnie Comley (wife of Stewart F. Lane, the show’s director) which ends tragically.

Aiden Turner from All My Children sat in the front row to cheer on the two actors.

The second reading, In the Wings, starred Shannen Doherty, one of Hollywood’s hottest young stars, known as much for her temperament as her talents.

The two readings, in front of several hundred people, made the two plays almost guarantees for try-outs on Broadway.  Stewart “Mr. Broadway” Lane both wrote and directed In the Wings.

Catherine Saxton has been a part of the New York social and celebrity scene for
the past 25 years. She has worked with Presidents, Kings and Princes,
plus celebrities including Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly,
Donald & Ivana Trump, Madonna, and on, and on.

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