Everyone had been hoping for a nice sunny day especially me. I have with me only a thin jacket, which frankly does not do much justice to its price tag! The rest of my bag is filled with shorts, shirts and flip-flops. With the rain beating down I don't think these will be much in use.

Today was to be my big day with Woody Allen but then Cannes was to be witness to two absolutely different personalities. Mike Tyson was in town for the screening of his biographical documentary "Tyson" filmed by James Toback.

These two characters were diametrically opposite mystiques and Cannes seemed to relish in seeing them together. Woody Allen was in town for the premier of his film "Vicky Cristina Barcelona". The film stars Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson. Two friends, Vicky and Cristina are in Barcelona on a holiday from America. They fall into a whirlwind of romance, lust and partner variations during a summer in the Catalonian capital. Ahh, the old Woody that we know of !!! At the press conference for the film, a journo asked him whether he had fantasies of a "ménage a trios". In his wry and subtle nature Woody just said, "it's hard enough to get one person". By the way, it was a French journo who asked this question.

Right after Woody's press conference Tyson walked into the same arena. The contrast was there to see, one a bespeckled frail, rather nervous man and the other a huge hulk of meat add to that a menacing tattoo covering the left side of his face. Woody's press conference was packed to the galleys with journos while it was a sparse occasion for Tyson drawing a very different set of journos.

All the local dailies and the festival magazines had news on Reliance's one billion dollar deal. There were rumours that there would be another big announcement by the group tomorrow, this time something to do with Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Nicholas Cage and a few other Hollywood biggies. With the rain still dragging along I had to go to the Chopard press office to collect my pass for the evening press event with Woody and Penelope Cruz. Annoyingly, they had made this a strictly black tie evening. All I had was a black trouser and a white shirt which I had thought would be ideal given the weather...

One thing which I had noticed in the opening times of the shops here was that along with restaurants the only other places which were open till late were these shops which sold suits and formal wear. It's exactly for fools like me to spend some more cash in this place. I went to Clio', its like the Primark of London or the Sarojini of Delhi. Got myself a black coat in the same shade as my trousers and a bow tie all for 102 euros!! Dirt cheap by Cannes' standards.

The evening reception was to be held at a private venue on the beach in front of the croisette, I had to reach about an hour in advance or I would not be able to secure a good position for my camera. As I reached the venue there were already about 30 snappers {photographers} queing up outside the venue. They all looked ready for the party with their suits and bow ties in place, except here instead of the champagne glasses they had these bulky still cameras (some of them were larger than my video camera).

We were escorted down a couple of steps to a covered area in front of the beach. And just as it was to be the rain started pouring yet again. As we were waiting and chatting among ourselves I saw this guy in full suit and tie standing at the edge of the beach fully drenched. I pointed this to Camilla {one of the snappers who I got talking to}, she just shrugged and said that it was a choice he made in life and so be it. We made a choice to do our job and he's made a choice to be a security personnel. I just got wondering, do we really make choices or are choices thrown upon us?

Anyways, coming to Camilla. She is an Italian and believe me she is the first Italian I met who does not eat pasta or pizza. She has allergy to gluten. She makes up by eating rice all the time. We waited for about two hours till the first celebrity started walking in. Woody walked in with his wife Soo Yi Allen looking rather lost in his own self. I said hello to him and he just looked at me and smiled, just before he started to walk away he asked me whether I was from Thailand? When I told him I was Indian {here, I had expected a bemused look} he just said AHH!! And walked away... well that was it...

I had expected us to have conversations on ANNIE HALL, MANHATTAN, his role as an auteur...but I got my one minute with Woody Allen ending with a AHH!! I couldn't figure out whether it was AHH??? Or AHH !!!!

I was still trying to figure this out when Penelope Cruz and U2's Bono walked in hand in hand. I quickly got to work and started taking shots of the two of them...at the back of my mind ANNIE HALL was still going on and Woody's AHH was still ringing in my ear...

Later in the hotel, Mario, the receptionist, asked me who all I had met. I just said "Ahh" and began narrating my day. If the "Ahh" was an end point to my conversation with Woody, it was to start my conversation with Mario on Tyson. So it was Woody vs Tyson with the referee as "AHH"!!!