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Back to Hollywood Basics at Palais Stephanie in Cannes

Where: 50 Boulevard de la Croisette, Cannes, France, 06414

If your hotel’s in Cannes, you have to spend a lot of moolah to keep up with the crowd. Which is why the Palais Stephanie has just shelled out €38 million renovating and reinventing itself – and now it’s ready for its close up.

The hotel sits on the fancy Croisette boulevard, on the original site of the Palais des Congres – AKA where the first Cannes film festivals took place.

Thanks to the refurb, it’s looking pretty sleek – modern design in the 261 rooms, lots of butter, greige and chocolate colours, “hand stitched leather accents” and glam black and white pictures of classic film stars. The room photos also shows that the hotel's into technology too with flat-screen TVs in each rooms and MacBook laptops popped open on the desks (We're assuming you provide the laptop.)

On the roof, meanwhile, is a swimming pool and Le Panorama bar serving organic snacks. There's also a casino onsite and of course, a 820-seat theater. Perfect for Festival time. Rates start next weekend at 230 Euros a night.

Tags: Madonna / Cannes Hotels / Hotel News / Celebrity Scoop / → All Tags

French TV Crew Invades Madonna's Hotel in Cannes

Where: 58, BD. LA CROISETTE BP 155, Cannes, France, 06414

We've avoided covering the hotel scene at the Cannes Film Festival this year largely because the same shizz happens every year, practically on auto-pilot. Expensive hotels get more expensive, movies get booed and applauded, Sharon Stone walks the red carpet over and over and nothing really truly of interest happens.

Except when it happens to Madonna. Apparently, Madge was holed up in the Intercontinental Carlton Hotel in Cannes last week while there to promote her documentary, "I Am Because We Are", about orphans in Malawi. But she got pissed when she saw that a French TV crew had managed to sneak into her suite and film the place, including the special water and gym equipment she had requested.

And according to the French newspaper, Le Parisien, Madonna won't pay the $90,000 hotel bill because of the security breach. Usually, we think Madonna's a bit of a crackpot but she's actually very right in this instance. We bet a couple of people got fired at the Carlton this week.

Tags: Entourage Hotels / Cannes Hotel Reviews / Intercontinental Hotels / → All Tags

Johnny Drama Finds Love, Loses Hotel Room in Cannes

Where: 58, BD. LA CROISETTE BP 155, Cannes, France, 06414

In Sunday night's Entourage season finale the boys head to Cannes (courtesy of Kanye West's private jet) and promptly shack up at the Intercontinental Carlton Cannes Hotel---well, all of them except Johnny Drama. Apparently, the room he reserved months ago and confirmed "at least a dozen times" is nowhere to be found.

Considering that his old show "Viking Quest" was a huge hit in France, Drama expects the hotel to rectify the situation immediately and put him in an ocean-facing suite like his brother Vince. Unfortunately, the hotel takes quite a few hours only to show Drama a closet-sized room with a twin bed not facing the ocean.

Making matters worse, Drama has met a girl, Jacqueline, and thinks he's in love. So he asks her to wait in the room while he goes downstairs and demands a suite. But he gets angry, calls the manager a "French f--k" and is carried out of the hotel by security. When he tips a bellman to look for the girl, the bellman says she's missing. Also, Drama only tips him a lone American dollar.

But don't worry this is Entourage. All ends well all the time. At least for Drama in this episode and not so much for the boys behind "Medellin." Drama ends up finding Jacqueline and having sex with her for three hours on the beach. Guess he didn't need that twin bed after all.