Vulture - Devouring Culture

If there's one defining difference between the celebrities and the little people at Cannes (you know, besides having won the genetic lottery), it's the ability to get one's self on a yacht. Sure, there are some yacht owners who dock near the Palais and welcome anyone friendly and daring enough to climb onboard, offering them a glass of Champagne no matter how mid-priced their wardrobe. But we're talking about the elites-only megayachts — the ones so big that they don't fit in no stinkin' harbor; the ones whose flashing lights and cheery revelers you watch from the beach each night, anchored just far enough out to sea to make it clear that you will never be able to board one. Like Roberto Cavalli's or — the mother lode — Paul Allen's yacht, on which he threw his annual special-people-only party on Tuesday, and where, special people tell us, a spontaneous band formed with Allen on guitar, Jeremy Irons on harmonica, and Cyndi Lauper on vocals. (Allen's guest list is, however, extremely respectful of the film festival, and he invites every director in competition to come ... the lucky, talented bastards).

"I'm hungry for something thick and juicy," growls Robert Pattinson at the start of Cosmopolis, and one can imagine Pattinson issuing the same order to his agents after years spent sinking his vampire teeth into wan Twilight flicks. His team earned their keep by landing Pattinson this David Cronenberg–directed movie and a berth at Cannes (where Kristen Stewart's On the Road premiered just a few days before). And yes, he's good in it.

We've seen a lot of unusual things at this year's Cannes Film Festival, like Marion Cotillard choreographing a triumphant, orca-summoning dance sequence to Katy Perry in Rust and Bone, or an anguished man in Los Tenebras Lux popping his own head off of his neck as though it were simply a grape from the vine, or Guy Pearce delivering a super-wackadoo performance in Lawless, or even Kristen Stewart shedding her Twilight inhibitions (and her clothes) in On the Road. Still, we can confidently predict that when it comes to wild, must-discuss moments from this year's fest, nothing will ever top the scene from the new Lee Daniels–directed film The Paperboy where Nicole Kidman looms over a supine Zac Efron, cries out, "If anyone's gonna pee on him, it's gonna be me," and then squirts an impressive stream of urine onto the High School Musical star's face and bare chest.