I woke up this morning to an overcast sky. I was on the floor of my apartment in the Carleton Hotel. It wasn't because I couldn't make it into bed last night; rather, all the hotels are so booked up that I couldn't garner a comfy mattress for myself. As everyone in the room began to wake up, we discussed last night's amfAR event.

With men in tuxedos and women in ball-gowns, I stood in the hotel lobby yesterday feeling like a father sending his child to prom. I would have loved to attend the amfAR event myself, but the exclusivity of the event forbid the opportunity. So I stood in the atrium absorbing the prefab excitement like a sponge. Within our party there were a few well-known faces.

Doctor James D. Watson, Nobel laureate and former director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, was escorted by his wife Liz, who ... Read More

My palms strangled my thighs as I sat in the back of the Mercedes-Benz cab. As we raced through a gauntlet of windy narrow side streets I couldn't help thinking we would crash before arriving at the hotel. Although I'm a bit hungry and overtired from the 7+hour flight, I'm smiling because I just arrived in France for the 62nd Annual Cannes Film Festival.

As we pull up to the Carleton Hotel my brother turns to me with a look of shock and awe. "This is not what I remember," he says. The scene resembles a Hollywood lot more closely than the Cote d'Azur. It is the middle of May but the hotel lawn is frosted with pearly white snow. Draped between two Christmas trees is a poster for Jim Carey's upcoming film A Christmas Carol. Just across the drive, a statue of "Bumble Bee", a character from this summer's sequel ... Read More