(
)
Proving that Madison Avenue still has much to roar about, the hottest party of the Cannes Lions festival went off in style last night at the Hotel du Cap Eden Roc in Antibes. Stars of the advertising and media industry mingled at sunset on the hotel terrace before being treated to a performance by Michael Bublé and the band Fun. The MediaLink and Clear Channel VIP dinner included co-hosts MediaLink chief Michael Kassan and Clear Channel president and CEO Bob Pittman, Clear Channel Entertainment Enterprises president John Skykes, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Naz, Steve Stoute, BBDO president and CEO John Osborn, Xbox’s David Kohl, Star Media’s Valentina Hilmer, Vice’s Spencer Bain and Eddy Moretti, and Barbarian Group co-founder and CEO Benjamin Palmer, who was celebrating winning the Grand Prix in the inaugural Innovation Lions for the platform Cinder. Also at the party were Full Picture’s Desiree Gruber, Arianna Huffington, Conde Nast president of entertainment Dawn Ostroff, Facebook’s Carolyn Everson, Clear Channel Chairman and CEO John Hogan, Signalray Media managing partner Sacha Taylor, Paramount and Insurge’s Amy Powell and WPP chief Sir Martin Sorrell. Last year’s performer at the same bash, Elton John, needed his own piano flown in, and, according to Cannes Lions mythology, Hotel du Cap bosses had to cut a hole in the wall to get the piano inside. This year, there was no such issue.
Annie shares ‘Dreams’
Annie Leibovitz (right) described her difficult role in persuading stars to pose for her “Disney Dream Portraits” series, saying, “Nobody ever wants to be Cruella De Ville … actresses always want to be princesses.”
The famed photographer told a packed audience at Cannes Lions yesterday she had no trouble persuading Scarlett Johansson to be Cinderella, while Rihanna, when approached, also wanted to be a princess.
Discussing her seven-year campaign to transform stars into fairy-tale characters, Leibovitz took the stage with McGarryBowen co-founder and chief creative officer Gordon Bowen and Disney Parks and Resorts’s Leslie Ferrar. Leibovitz said, “Scarlett was so funny. I didn’t know if she’d wear a tiara, but she was, like, ‘Give me that tiara, I have wanted to be Cinderella ever since I was a little girl.’ She owned Cinderella.”
Bowen added, “And it wasn’t the usual tiara you can buy at Disneyland, it was custom made by Harry Winston.”
Leibovitz continued, “Every celebrity wants to be a princess. I went to Rihanna, and she said, ‘I want to be a princess.”
She said of working with Julianne Moore on “The Little Mermaid,” “That was one of the more emotional shoots. She did it because her daughter’s favorite movie is ‘The Little Mermaid.’”
Diddy gets creative
SEAN “Diddy” Combs landed in Cannes last night and was immediately swapping ideas with the creative elite on the Croisette. The recording artist and Ciroc mogul was seen on the terrace of the Carlton Hotel yesterday afternoon deep in discussion with a group including MediaLink’s Michael Kassan and GroupM Global’s Chief Digital Officer Rob Norman about streaming music on mobile devices, as well as media and marketing.
Inside Google X
Google’s secretive innovation unit Google X is working on a green energy project. The unit, overseen by Astro Teller and responsible for Google Glass among other projects, describes its programs as “moonshots.” Teller said, “The thing that excites me the most is not any one of those moonshots — it is not Google Glass, it is not the Self Driving Car … It’s if you can do it over and over again.” Of his engineers, “I have this incredible collection of Peter Pans with Ph.D.’s all kind of running amok in this very productive, sort of loosely organized way.” Google is working with Makani Power, the wind-power company it recently acquired, on the project, which uses wind turbines to generate electricity.