It is just over 12 hours until kickoff for the world’s press in Cannes covering this year’s film festival. Looking out from a swanky Wifi cafe at the Palais des Festivals, the view is the picture of tranquility — gleaming yachts bob up and down in the marina, couples stroll along the Croisette seafront as the sun sets, and glamorous girls serve coffee to reporters still tapping away at their laptops.

The calm won’t last. Reporters are advised to start limbering up for their first scrum. That is likely to be a “media event”, otherwise known as a chaotic stunt, to publicise “Kung Fu Panda“, a Hollywood animation comedy coming to town. Minutes later, there is the press screening of the opening film “Blindness”, which officially gets the 2008 edition of the festival underway.

The list of potential “flashpoints”, when sleep-deprived, highly-strung hacks attempt to get into venues more often than not too small to accommodate them, is endless.

But, as the old saying goes, someone’s got to do it, and few, if any, here in Cannes, would want to give up their place.

It may seem a little premature to be discussing who may win this year’s coveted Palme d’Or, the top prize at the Cannes film festival. The festival doesn’t start until Wednesday, there are 22 movies in competition and only a handful of them has actually been screened to critics and reporters.

That does not stop the speculation. France’s Le Monde newspaper has an interesting point — that Steven Soderbergh’s four-and-a-half-hour epic “Che”, only just completed in time to qualify for the main competition, would not be the first “last-minute” entry to walk away with the main award.

In 1979, Francis Ford Coppola brought an early cut of “Apocalypse Now” to the French Riviera and, although it differed from the version most viewers would have seen, it won. On the festival’s Web site it is listed as “Apocalypse Now (A Work in Progress”). In 1981, Polish director Andrzej Wajda’s “Man of Iron” made it to Cannes despite reluctance on the part of the Communist authorities. It also won the Golden Palm.

There is comfort for those who come away from the glitzy festival empty-handed, however. Last year, the Coen Brothers’ “No Country For Old Men” was overlooked by the jury yet went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars.

Another new week for “American Idol;” another new controversy for the No. 1 rated U.S. TV talent contest. And again, the uproar centers on David Archuleta’s dad, Jeff.

Numerous media reports over the weekend said Jeff Archuleta has been told by the show’s producers that he can no longer help David prepare and has been banned from backstage. Fox, the network that airs “Idol,” has declined to comment on those reports.

Media stories speculated that Jeff Archuleta was admonished for insisting his son change the lyrics to “Stand by Me,” which David sang on the May 6 episode. The problem is, when he changed the song to add a verse from Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls,” it cost the show’s producers more money because they must pay for music rights when contestants sing songs. In effect, the producers had to pay for two songs, “Stand by Me” and “Beautiful Girls,” when David sang only one.

Various reports say that Jeff Archuleta had been told David could not use the verse from “Beautiful Girls,” but he told his son to go ahead, anyway. None of those reports could be confirmed. 

Still, Jeff has been in hot water before for apparently choosing David’s songs, and there was some speculation that Jeff drove his son so hard, he made David cry. Last month in Us Weekly magazine, Jeff Archuleta said accusations he was an overbearing “stage dad” were simply wrong. “There was absolutely no truth in any of the stories about me yelling at David, making him cry, or withholding water from him. That was crazy!,” Jeff Archuleta told the magazine.

Playboy’s 82-year-old found Hugh Hefner wants 15-year-old “Hannah Montana” star Miley Cyrus to pose for his adult magazine — when she’s old enough. 

“She’d be welcomed in the magazine. Very pretty lady,” Hefner told the “Extra” celebrity news show. 

While Cyrus said she was embarrassed by sexually provocative photos of her that were recently posted online and another photo of her wrapped only in a bed sheet that was published in “Vanity Fair,” Hefner describes them as innocent.

“I think to make such a big to do over something as innocent as those photos, I think is a reflection on how schizophrenic America is about sexuality,” he said. 

What do you think about Hefner’s offer?

Five days and counting.

Showbiz hacks the world over will be sharpening their pencils (and fingernails), pouring over screening schedules, brushing up on blogging banter and taking plenty of deep breaths before heading for the Riviera resort of Cannes to cover the film festival which kicks off on Wednesday. Someone’s got to do it, I guess.

The first scheduling crunch comes on the first morning, no doubt a sign of things to come. “Kung Fu Panda”, a martial arts animation movie from DreamWorks, plans a stunt outside the swanky Carlton hotel on Wednesday morning at exactly the same time that the festival screens the opening competition film “Blindness”, by Fernando Meirelles of “City of God” fame. One promises to be fun yet silly, the other harrowing yet rewarding, summing up life in Cannes during the 12-day festival perfectly.

Madonna is at it again. At a gig this week in Paris to promote her latest album “Hard Candy”, the 49-year-old lip-kissed an unidentified woman on stage, drawing comparisons with her infamous snog with Britney Spears five years ago at the MTV Video Awards.

Some in the media were less than impressed. Britain’s Sun tabloid, the country’s top-selling daily, called the stunt “a bit old hat”. Rival newspaper the Daily Mirror ran the story under the headline “Desperately seeking attention” and opened its piece with the words: “Move on Madge!” Having said that, it should be pointed out that the publication nonetheless saw it fit to feature a large picture of the embrace on page 3.

Does the “Queen of Reinvention” need to reinvent again, or has she done it so many times that there’s nowhere new to go?

Jason Castro may not have shot the deputy, but with a swift but painful rendition of a Bob Marley classic, he annihilated his hopes of becoming the next “American Idol.”

Now ask him if he cares.

The dreadlocked, easygoing Texan was sent packing from “American Idol” on Wednesday night in what was arguably the most jubilant exit of any contestant ever.

Admitting that his inexperience had gotten the better of him during the previous night’s grueling performances of “I Shot the Sheriff” and “Mr. Tambourine Man,” Castro appeared visibly relieved to have the pressure of the competition behind him. Having to perform two songs in one week, he said, was tough to handle.

The 20-year-old college student, who all season long seemed to take the pressure of the show less seriously than his rivals, even said he had appreciated one of the barbs sent his way after he had forgotten some of the words to “Mr. Tambourine Man.”

“Somebody told me that I shot the Tambourine Man yesterday,” he said, laughing. “I thought that was pretty funny.”

Later, host Ryan Seacrest pointed out that Castro appeared to be relieved.

“There’s three songs next week,” Castro responded. “I don’t know what I would have done.”

Castro then launched into his final performance on the show, laughing and joking his way through “I Shot the Sheriff” one more time.

All in all, Castro’s gleeful exit was a welcome change from the tears and melodrama that often accompany the ousting of an “Idol” contestant.

Still, without Castro around to remind us that dude, this is just a TV show, the competition is bound to start feeling more serious. After all, we are down to just three singers now, all of whom are formidable contestants with their eyes laser focused on taking the “Idol” throne.

Miss those dreadlocks yet?

Decisions, decisions. In a bizarre admission, British socialite Jemima Khan has revealed how she decided once and for all to dump a boyfriend only when the watch he bought her stopped. In a recent article in Vogue magazine, the 34-year-old described her indecision as a “chronic affliction” that had got steadily worse over the last decade.

While no names were mentioned, the British press wasted little time in naming the jilted lover in this case as actor Hugh Grant, who the Daily Mail reported bought then-girlfriend Khan a 3,000-pound watch to match his own in 2004. The couple split in 2007.

“I’ve even found myself waiting for ‘a sign’,” Khan said in the article. “The watch given to me by a boyfriend when we first met packed up at the point at which the relationship had clearly run its course. I took it as the clear signal I needed that our time was finally up, though of course I’d known that for months.”

Would Khan and Grant still be an item had the time piece in question kept ticking?

There’s no question that Syesha Mercado is one tough “American Idol” contestant.

Week after week, the 21-year-old beauty from Sarasota, Florida, has stepped up her game, delivering performances in recent episodes that many thought she wasn’t capable of. Now, despite having been among the lowest three vote-getters a whopping five times, Mercado is the only woman to have made it to the show’s Top 4.

For making it this, Mercado certainly deserves a lot of credit. On Tuesday night’s episode, judge Randy Jackson singled out the TV commercial actress after her performance of “Proud Mary” for “showing the heat late in the competition when you need it.”

Paula Abdul, meanwhile, told Mercado: “You started this competiton as a pretty girl with a big voice, and you turned into this beautiful woman with a magnetic voice and presence.”

Still, it was more than a little strange when, just before singing her second song of the evening, Mercado appeared to liken her run on “Idol” to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.

In a pre-taped interview shown before her performance of “A Change is Gonna Come,” Mercado explained why she chose the song by legendary R&B singer Sam Cooke.

“It was released after his death in 1965 during the Civil Rights Movement, which was a very pivotal time in history. And now I’m singing it during a pivotal time in my life — Top 4, amazing experience… I’m just so thankful to still be here and this song just took on a totally different meaning for me.”

Later, Mercado broke down in tears after judge Randy Jackson said he hadn’t liked her performance, while Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell both praised her singing.

Choking back tears, she explained again that the song meant a lot to her, again referencing its links with the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

“I just couldn’t stop crying, because I feel like I’ve changed a lot,” Mercado said.

Then, as she wiped the streams of tears off her face, Mercado suddenly snapped back to the harsh reality of live TV: “I probably look like crap right now,” she said.

It’s an age-old solution for when a celebrity finds themselves in trouble with their fans — do charity work. For a while it seemed that nothing could stop the meteoric rise of fresh-faced Miley Cyrus, better known as “Hannah Montana.”  Then, she made the mistake of posing topless, wrapped in a satin sheet, in a photo shoot for Vanity Fair magazine by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. Cyrus, 15, has apologized to all her fans for an error in judgment and for letting them down, and she’s now out there with her mother to help a charity for women battling breast cancer.

The Libby Ross Foundation said Miley and Trish Cyrus were among a list of celebrity mothers and daughters helping raise funds for the charity by decorating yoga bags with Swarovski jewels that will be listed on eBay for sale from May 5-15. Other celebrities duos include Susan Sarandon and daughter Eva Amurri and Hayden Panettiere and her mother Lesley Panattiere.

Photo of the bag designed by Miley Cyrus courtesy of The Libby Ross Foundation.