3. Prostitution Scandals
An escort who works at the Cannes Film Festival refers to it as "the biggest payday of the year", in which prostitutes and high-class escorts are brought aboard the yachts and palaces of movie stars to service their every need. Doesn't sound that shocking or out of the ordinary, right? A lawyer for an anti-prostitution organisation, however, claims that the businessman running the ring in question, Elie Nahas, had been using women who had been tricked or coerced into working for him, previously unaware that they would be working in such a capacity. Roger Ebert famously said that "Hookers stand out in Cannes. They're the ones who are well-dressed and not smoking", while Nahas, offered the following candid comment:
"Every year during the festival there are 30 or 40 luxury yachts in the bay at Cannes, and every boat belongs to a very rich person. Every boat has about 10 girls on it; they are usually models, and they are usually nude or half nude. It's drugs and drink and beautiful women. Go out on one and you'll see. The girls are all waiting for their envelopes at the end of the night. It's been going on there for 60 years."
Nahas further commented that a lot of fallen B-list actresses would essentially be performing the same work as the hookers, with names such as Heather Graham and Salma Hayek being frequently bandied about.