At the Cannes film festival, a lot of both was on display heading into the first weekend of parties Friday night. Along the beach on the Croisette, Relativity Media, which in recent years has been a major financier and producer of films, held a late afternoon bash at a flashy restaurant on the beach. You could spot the likes of Harvey Weinstein, who runs Weinstein Co., Jon Feltheimer, the chief executive of Lionsgate Entertainment, and Cassian Elwes and Rena Ronson, the powerful film agents from the William Morris Agency.

That was all money power.

That night aboard a yacht moored in the harbor, independent producer Nu Image, whose Millennium Films earlier Friday unveiled a deal to make a $60 million film starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, held a swanky affair attended by celebrity actress Jessica Simpson. Simpson was trailed by hundreds of photographers and television crews shouting her name and snapping her picture. She paraded up the gangplank, spent about 15 minutes in a room guarded by security, then paraded right back out and into a waiting limousine cameras chattering all the way.

And that is star power.

Simpson will get you splashy pictures on covers of movie and celebrity magazines. Over at the Relativity party, those men and women will get your movie.