CANNES, France (AFP) - Celebrities who walked the red carpet at the world's most glamourous festival chose substance over style while under the glare of the cameras, prompting paparazzi fears that bad-boy antics might be a thing of the past. An almost pious Leonardo DiCaprio unveiled his new eco-documentary "The 11th Hour," an appeal to save the world from global warming, during the festival's first weekend. Flanked by environmental experts interviewed in the film and his earnest producers, the 32-year-old waxed lyrical at a news conference about his hybrid car, recycling and the solar panels on his California mansion.
But the "Titanic" star bristled when one journalist asked whether he had arrived in France on a fume-spewing jet: "No, I took a train across the Atlantic," he snapped, before quickly adding, "I try to travel commercial as much as I can." Golden couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt arrived later in Cannes and, brows furrowed, lamented the state of the world ahead of the premiere of "A Mighty Heart" about the widow of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl who was beheaded by Islamic extremists. Pitt said starting a family with Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, had pushed him to pursue more meaningful projects.
"As a father, too, I look at my kids and realise that they will inherit this world," Pitt said. "We want to do everything we can to throw our weight in and make it a little bit better." Later in the week, Pitt joined his co-stars in the new heist romp "Ocean's Thirteen" George Clooney, Matt Damon and Don Cheadle for a glittering soiree on a yacht.
(L-R)Matt Damon, George Clooney and Brad Pitt It was "a chance to raise some money for something we thought was important," Clooney told reporters. The problem in Darfur, which he has seen in person, "isn't going to go away until the rest of the world is outraged enough to stop it," he said. Damon added: "This is a life-and-death struggle going on right now.
" Sharon Stone got in on the act, raising a record seven million dollars at the fourth annual amfAR dinner and auction for AIDS research on the sidelines of the festival. Clooney also attended her star-studded fete, taking bids for a one-week cruise on a yacht that finally went for 375,000 dollars. The price, paid by the wife of a wealthy American producer, included a smooch with the Hollywood heartbreaker that met with cheers from the guests.
Political activism and support for humanitarian causes have a long tradition in the entertainment industry, both in Hollywood and Cannes, which was initially conceived in the 1940s as a riposte to the Fascist-backed festival in Venice, cinema historian Loic Artiaga noted. Good causes "are also, more cynically, a way for actors to ensure 'sustainable development' of their own careers," he said. But a long-time tracker of the beautiful people in Cannes, Paris Match reporter Henry-Jean Servat, said he was genuinely convinced of the sincerity and selflessness demonstrated by Jolie, Pitt, Clooney and friends.
"This is closely linked to the fact that people are exasperated with Bush's policies whether it be on environmental protection, foreign policy or immigration," influential French producer and critic Pierre Rissient added. "A sense of adventure is getting lost a bit," he said. "I hope they haven't gone away because they keep the media working!
" he said.
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