Hello Cannes.
The early 70’s brought about huge changes at Cannes. Bani says that some money funneled over to some people at the Festival made things a little more accessible. Now, basically a couple of people chose the films and the countries other than France that they came from. Huh. So, instead of countries submitting films, it was the committee who chose the films. The films with the actresses that these guys wanted to meet. Fast forward a little bit. Bani and his special friends had two tables at the Golden Globes this year. Why? To let the assistants to the big buyers and players get a look at many of the women in the flesh. They went to multiple after parties for the same purpose. They then pass certain information along to their bosses. Pictures are just pictures. They also invade the SAG Awards but don’t attend the Academy Awards or Emmy Awards. For the most part, they are not picking up A listers. Yes, they do get certain ones which I will mention later, but they are going for the B listers. Those are the people who tag along to the Golden Globes. The show gets invited and there are all the people from that show or movie. Same with the SAG Awards. They love the after parties because they are filled with their prime targets. The ones they all know and recognize, but who were not invited to the show. All they could do was muster an after party invite. They throw out lots of business cards during those parties. Anyway, we will get back to that. For now, let’s go back to Cannes.
Back before they had the internet, the brokers would head to Cannes and also Paris Fashion Week and take Polaroid photos of all the models and actresses that were looking for hostess work. That is what they called it then. Now they call it promotional work. You would be a hostess at a hotel party or on a yacht, but there would be 20 hostesses and most of them would end up naked and having sex by the end of the night. All for money of course. The Polaroid photos would be taken and then copied into a black and white book. Beneath each photo it had her nationality, movies or television shows. Kind of like a mini version of IMDb. It would also list the cost for the woman. At the time it was per night and per week. Now, there is usually a minimum of a week unless it is a big star. They can get away with charging for one night. Most that do this kind of work though do it for a week or longer.
There would be a contact phone number for the celebrity or model and the person who “discovered” her. There was and is still a huge bonus to the people who work for Bani to get their name in the discovered box the most. Not only for sheer volume, but also for quality. Bonuses are awarded to the guys who find the most used women. So, you want to make sure you are providing the best. The best, yesterday and today are the people they know. Models used to be a big deal, but now, they want people that are easily recognizable. They save models from various Fashion Weeks for yachts in the summertime for mass parties and keep them in Dubai hotels or condos for when businessmen come to town and need to be convinced to sign a contract. It is really low end work by their standards and they are not included in the book.
The early 70’s were before Bani’s time but he still has the records of some of the actresses that agreed to have some fun being a hostess. At the time they were not going back to the Middle East. The fun had to be either during Cannes or during the summer in France or every so often back in LA, but times were different then, and it rarely happened.
In the late 70’s this former A list (YA) mostly movie actress who got her start in television and has offspring galore in the business had her movie career crash. She was always a free spirit and judging by what I saw, she got paid almost as much for one night as she did on most of her movies in the 70’s.
If you were ever going to think of an actress (YB) back then who would be into this type of thing it would be this A lister at the time from a huge franchise who never had any other luck. For a few years she was someone everyone wanted and apparently many enjoyed.
One I was shocked to see was someone who has won an Academy Award (YC). Back in the 70’s everyone loved her acting and by the time the last year of the decade arrived she was one of the biggest stars on the planet. The year before that though she struggled to earn money and this actress who is now an A list mostly television actress was a favorite of a lot of people. Probably the most requested of the decade.
I asked Bani about Studio 54 and if that was a hunting ground for the assistant brokers and he said no. When I asked why he said that it was one thing for these guys to pay for sex and have some booze and be out partying, but that they drew the line at drugs and felt like everyone who was partying there did drugs and they didn’t want to be caught up in something like that because it could mean death. It is the same reason today that they will not touch singers. They believe that every singer is on drugs. There are a couple of exceptions I will get to when I reach that decade, but singers are a no no and there are some very strange other prohibitions and rules about other groups of people too.
Asians , Russians And The Murder That Shook Things Up
