1.   Annan will walk up the red-carpeted steps of the festival palace with French Culture Minister Catherine Trautmann on opening night Wednesday, said a festival statement.

2.   Badges allow the bearers to attend press screenings of films and attend news conferences in the festival palace.

3.   Deals are negotiated in booths in the basement of the festival palace, in hotel bars and suites, on yachts moored off the coast.

4.   His journey up the famous red steps of the festival palace should bring the loudest screams of the fortnight.

5.   Hundreds of fans sang his songs and screamed in delight both inside and outside the festival palace.

6.   Steve spends the afternoon canvassing the hotels, trying to get film company types to come to his screenings in a small basement room at the festival palace.

7.   The night began with Annan and other luminaries walking up the red-carpeted steps of the festival palace.

8.   The stars will take part in a traditional parade on the Cannes sea front before climbing the steps of the Festival palace.