Getting turned down

If I were a reporter from Variety, I'm sure I'd have better access.
***
Saturday got off to a good start, but now it's kind of a let down.

While waiting for the train in Juan le Pin, I met a group of 25 NYU students who are in the entertainment section of the MBA program. We swapped information, and I might meet up with them later.

Next, I saw "Selon Charlie" at the 8:30 a.m. and fortunately managed not to fall asleep; had a quick lunch and then caught the last 20 minutes of "Paris je't amie" that I missed a several days ago.

I took a lucid nap in the same theater, which later screened "Color Me Kubrick," a film -- "based on trueish events" -- starring John Malkovich as a Stanley Kubrick impersonator. The film got good buzz at the Tribeca Festival in New York City, and I saw enough of it to catch the gist, but not enough to feel comfortable reviewing it.

Finding films to nap in is a difficult strategy. The movies have to be good enough to watch in case I don't fall asleep, but not good enough that I'll regret it if I do.

While waiting in line for "Color Me Kubrick," a man who runs the Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Film Festival -- the longest running festival in the world at 38 days -- gave me some tips on how to get party invites. Big distributors such as Miramax, Warner Bros., Fox, etc., rent out offices in the nearby hotels. Sometimes, they will grant invites if you go to their offices. He gave me two tickets to the Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival party later this week.

Based on that conversation, I skipped my afternoon film, "Shortbus" -- directed by the guy who did "Hedwig and the Angry Itch" -- and went to nearby hotels with some ideas of the parties I wanted to attend. MTV, HBO, Kodak and Playboy all have private parties next week.

At the HBO office, the woman said she only was a sales person and didn't have power to add me to the list. At the Fox office, I got a pass to see "X-Men 3" in the evening and talked my way onto a shuttle that took me to a villa further in Cannes where a news conference was being held. Because my name wasn't on the list at the villa, I had to wait outside for 30 minutes, which was a good thing, because Kelsey Grammer came outside to talk on his cell phone and ended up sitting next to me and talking to me for a few minutes.

Sadly, I was turned away from the news conference -- because I wasn't on the list -- and forced to take a shuttle back. A few hours later, I received an e-mail saying I couldn't attend the "X-Men" film either. The Fox employees might have got annoyed at my attempt to get into the news conference without proper authorization. But whatever, Cannes is all about getting turned down for things. Everything is a numbers game.

Besides, "X-Men" still will be playing Monday for press. I'll watch it then.

On a side note, I was told that Fox gave away 250 more tickets than they could for the "X-Men" premiere Monday night! I wonder what's going to happen to those people who were promised tickets, ho hum.

Moving on, at the Kodak Pavillion, I was able to wiggle my way in by obtaining a pavillion badge without proper accreditation. However, I was unsuccessful working the guest list for the evening yacht party.

Meanwhile, at the American Pavillion, I tried to get into a press cocktail party for "Fast Food Nation," but was turned away at the entrance because it only was for large press like the New York Times or Los Angeles Times. As consilation, the publicist said I could get a seat at the Sunday afternoon roundtable with director Richard Linklater and the stars of "Fast Food Nation" -- so it's not a total loss.

So hopefully, Sunday will be better. There are a whole slew of films I want to see, including "Donnie Darko" director Richard Kelly's "Southland Tales" and the computer-animated film "Over the Hedge."