When Cannes went glam

Arriving at the Vanity Fair party at the exclusive Hotel du Cap at 11pm on Saturday, I walked down to its poolside terrace, shrouded in blue party smoke, and came across a lone party guest (a drummer for Mick Jagger, I later discovered). He was hiding in a bush, speaking urgently on his mobile: "Can't we hire a helicopter to get to Naomi's? Like, exactly how far is St Tropez? Just tell the pilot to land on the grass here. There's a lot of smoke gushing out of some machines they have fixed up, and some freaky monster light show, but he can land, and Mick and I can rush out," said the voice.

Such is the level of desperation here to make sure one makes it to the most exclusive event in town. And this year, after a lacklustre opening to the film festival, Vanity Fair's bash was up against Naomi Campbell's birthday party and MTV's James Bond do on La Croisette. Neither, as it turned out, were any match for the impossibly glamorous Graydon Carter production, an event that confirmed that Vanity Fair, of which he is the editor, is no longer just a magazine, but a brand. Which is one reason why a giant, 40-foot long, floating Vanity Fair logo was flown over from a warehouse in America to decorate the Hotel du Cap's pool.

The party certainly injected some much-needed glamour into the festival. As little as two years ago, you would be having a breakfast meeting at the Hotel du Cap at 8am while a barman would still be sweeping up the broken champagne glasses littering the steps from the party that started the night before and finished half an hour ago. Now the bar closes at midnight because guests complain about the noise. One reason for the flat atmosphere is that the Hollywood studios no longer have the money or the will to sit on a plane for 12 hours in order to spend a week here.

On the other hand, dozens of London socialites - from Nicky Haslam and Kate Reardon to TV fashion gurus Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine, who have little or nothing to do with the film business - will obviously jump at the chance of a weekend in Cannes. As will numerous party girls looking for a wild time or a rich man. If nothing else, the Vanity Fair party has created a wonderful social excuse for packing one's Jimmy Choos and heading to the south of France.

Mick Jagger certainly seemed to be enjoying himself. Wearing a red wool jersey under his jacket, saying it was cold, he was surrounded by various London society girls until about 2am. He had even given up tickets to watch the cricket back home to be here. "I was meant to be at the Test," said Jagger. "Any idea what the score is? Have England followed on?" Pierce Brosnan, meanwhile, turned up after putting in a brief appearance at the MTV Bond party, and ended up being one of the last to leave, still ordering Bellinis just before the bar closed at 3am.

Other Brit revellers included actor David Thewlis, Nick Jones, husband of Kirsty Young and owner of Soho house, BBC exec Alan Yentob, theatre producer Michael White, and actor Jason Flemyng, of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels fame. "We're here pimping for our show," said Trinny Woodall, who is doing a BBC2 Cannes Special for their clothes show What Not to Wear.

Wasting no time in closing in on Ivana Trump, her co-presenter, Suzannah Constantine, asked her if she would do an interview. "Can we do it towards the end of the day? During the day I like to jog and wear sweat pants. The last thing I want to do is to wear any make-up," pleaded Trump.

There was a healthy smattering of Hollywood, too. Christina Ricci, Milla Jovovich and Leonardo DiCaprio were happily mingling with popstars such as Sting and Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, photographer Helmut Newton, designer Giorgio Armani and Miramax chief, Harvey Weinstein. As Minnie Driver's sister, Kate, a close friend of Graydon Carter's - she co-produced his documentary about the legendary film producer Robert Evans, The Kid Stays in the Picture, which is showing here - said: "In a year that Hollywood has failed in Cannes, Graydon has succeeded."

COMPARED with the magazine's Oscars party, the Cannes effort was a far more civilised affair. And a lot less crowded - about 500 guests altogether. Security for the Oscar bash has become so serious that guests have to provide an official entry card along with photo ID. The Cannes party, however, had only parking passes that the staff didn't bother to ask for - although you still had to get past a team of Hotel du Cap doormen before three Vanity Fair staffers scrutinised each guest as they came in.

The problem with most "film industry" parties in Cannes is they are incredibly dull. But this one - now an annual event - was a throwback to a more glamorous age of Hollywood. Nothing exemplified this better than watching Barry Diller, the billionaire movie mogul who runs Universal Studios, and his designer wife Diane Von Furstenberg, discreetly leave after dinner, hop back to their yacht moored nearby, and return later dressed in more casual attire for the rest of the party.