Cannes Diary: Quality assurance in Lebanon

THOSE who think the press can be beastly will have their minds change if they attend the daily press conferences for the stars at the Palais des Festivals. Here, the film critics of the world gather for an orgy of sycophancy.

For some reason the ladies from Lebanon manage to take sycophancy to realms hitherto unknown. Last year one said to Charlton Heston: "You are a god in Lebanon. You are my father, my mother, my sister and my brother." Heston was too gobsmacked to reply.

But Emma Thompson, (pictured above) is never lost for words.

Another Lebanese woman asked her this week if she was aware that her name on a film was an assurance of quality. Thompson leaned forward to the woman and asked: "Where is it you come from, and how easy is it for me to move there?"