The Rage arrived in Cannes on Wednesday night, just in time to hit a panoply of opening night parties. At the Chopard/Alberta Ferretti bash -- imagine a beach decorated with chic white leather Chesterfield chairs -- Juliette Lewis deejayed old school rock and roll like the Stones' " Miss You" and James Brown's "Sex Machine." Cate
Blanchett, wearing earrings by Chopard that could finance a year at Yale, sipped Champagne alongside the designer hosts. Meanwhile, just a few steps away, the after-party for "Blindness" raged on a pier with three bars and a deserted VIP area. Danny Glover and director Michel Gondry--along with Gael Garcia Bernal (who is as compact as a Citroen) -- opted to circulate with the masses. Here in Cannes, sequestering yourself with other celebrities is considered bad form. The attitude is very laissez-faire, with many guests arriving late with the excuse, "So sorry! I got stuck on this yacht..." Margherita Missoni co-hosted an intimate soiree aboard the boat, Pegasus, on Friday night. Guests had to check their shoes on the dock and one party goer hesitated before saying: "I just know someone is going to steal my Pradas." (In the end, she tucked them into the crook of her arm and cradled the pink platforms like an infant.) FYI: The Rage has seen many a bandaided heel and crimson toes here in the South of France. The smart set carry their flats and only don killer heels just before making an 
entrance. Luckily, she picked up these Lanvin sandals with a practical chunky heel just before leaving and can attest that they are perfect for hobbling along cobblestone streets at midnight.
Tonight, the premiere of Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" screens at the Palais. Afterward, there's a party on the plage -- again, Cannes is no place for high heels.
photos: Wire Image; Barneys.com.
 Right about now, "Project Runway "is operating a lot like backstage at the New York shows, two minutes before Marc Jacobs shows his collections--WWD reports. There are important decisions to be made--will Nina Garcia, far left, stay at Elle as a contributor and continue her role as judge? Will another magazine--like, say, InStyle -- step in as sponsor? (Elle's circulation jumped, thanks to its exposure on the hit show. Other mags would love a slice of that hot mess.) Garcia is also rumored to be in talks with Marie Claire to sign on as an editor. If the Weinsteins wield negotiations on who gets to co-sponsor, there will be plenty of back-and-forth on how to divide up this pie. They are notorious for leveraging their partnerships. Then, there's the issue of the show moving to Los Angeles for season six--a rumor that ired enough New Yorkers to fill an F train. The Rage thinks "Project Runway" set in Hollywood could be a boon for our fashion community. Maybe the contestants can be challenged to teach some women on Rodeo Drive how to dress age appropriately and come up with an alternative to the flip-flop. Seriously, it would be nice to see local talent like Rodarte, Magda Berliner and Louis Verdad get some love.
photo: Bravo.com
 IT'S NOT a boy. Nor is it a girl. Not yet anyway. That's a ways down the road. But seeing as baby showers are the "it" event right now, I feel like I should plan ahead.
So who wants to host this sucker?
FYI: Online site Baby-Shower.com suggests you create a 10-week timeline. Hmm. Let's make it 12 weeks. After all, you'll need three months to come up with a hip theme, hire a live band and concoct a signature drink -- the "infantini" or a "gin 'n' colic," perhaps?
"Baby showers are becoming as sophisticated as weddings," says celebrity party planner Mindy Weiss, who worked with Nicole Richie on her "The Wizard of Oz"-themed shower at the Beverly Hills Hotel, which featured stuffed Totos and ruby red slippers as centerpieces and a yellow brick road edged with candy. "They're not homespun and low-key anymore."
Neither are the registries. Last December, Jennifer Lopez tailored a wish list with local baby shop Petit Tresor that would make Santa squirm. A $3,495 enameled Silver Cross Balmoral stroller topped her registry, along with a $289 suede play mat and $349 cashmere outfits. Jessica Alba -- like Isla Fisher, Christina Aguilera and Naomi Watts -- all registered at ultra-chic Bel Bambini in West Hollywood for the $249.99 Svan high chair. Sign me up too. (I can hang my clothes on it in the meantime.)
But, hey, let's also think outside of the jack-in-the-box. Strollers are cute, but someone has to push them. How about a Moto Guzzi motorcycle instead? Don't laugh. Kim Porter -- mother of P. Diddy's twins -- requested an $88,000 R-Class Mercedes-Benz for her registry back in 2006.
And don't think I won't know who might shaft me with a measly breast pump or a burping blanket. I'll have someone taking names and making notes, and we'll have plenty of time. "Right now, it's a big deal to open gifts and pass them around and ooh and ah, " says Weiss, who estimates that a baby shower typically runs about three hours if the mother-to-be wants to play games, open gifts and eat.
 In that case, Beyoncé’s little sister Solange's baby shower probably lasted three days because she had 300 guests. Weiss recently planned a shower at which a gift display table shaved a good hour off the event. I like that idea. We can spend those 60 minutes doing the hora and the hokeypokey.
On to invites. According to Michelle Black of L.A.-based Lehr & Black -- who created Britney Spears’ baby shower invites -- ribbons, buttons, glitter and crystals are in vogue. "People are steering away from those traditional blue or pink invites," she says. As they should. Pastels are so passé. I'm thinking python pop-up cards. People are also ponying up about $35 to $45 per invite. And by the way, Richie had hers hand delivered to guests. What if we had mine delivered by llamas?
Of course, there's no reason to outdo ourselves on the shower. Before you know it, we'll be ordering 14-karat gold-leafed balloons for baby's 1st birthday party. Last month, Suri Cruise had live butterflies, Wolfgang Puck food and a four-tiered cake for her 2nd birthday party.
Is it too early to book Cirque du Soleil? For the backyard?
photos: Silver Cross; Mindy Weiss; TheCookduke.com
 In June's Harper's Bazaar, photographer Peter Lindbergh visually documents the dissolution of a marriage after a public sex scandal. Clearly, the story echoes the Eliot and Silda Spitzer story, right down to the model's loyal stance at a press conference.
But in this photo essay, the jilted wife eventually dumps her sex addict politician hubbo for a young buck with floppy emo hair. Oh, and she trades in that matronly updo and conservative Hermes scarf too. Poor Silda. Imagine flipping through a magazine while getting a manicure and seeing your painful life story reduced to a fashion spread.
photos: Peter Lindbergh for Harper's Bazaar
Our travel reporter Susan Spano blogged recently from Rome on the Daily Travel & Deal site about the must-have
Italian footwear in Italy. Not Gucci nor Fendi nor Missoni. It's Superga sneakers --originated in 1925 -- that you will find on the feet of chic hipsters.
Spano gives some background and the link to get a pair of your own.
photos: Paramount; superga-usa.com.
 What happens when the designer for Lanvin suits up to launch a collection of denim for the hottest brand out of Sweden? Um, you're wearing Alber Elbaz of Lanvin for Acne jeans, baby. And that's a mouthful.
WSGN (subscription required) reports today that the dapper designer will create a high-end--and high-priced--line that will debut next year. At right, a shot of Acne's Spring '08 collection. Can we expect denim with ruching, artillery adornments and other touches he showed in his Fall '08 line, at left?
Meanwhile, Hedi Slimane (of Dior Homme fame and slim cut suits that made many a man skip a second helping) is in talks with Diesel to launch a premium label called Red. It's all so very meta -- designer-designer duds.
photos: Kirk McKoy/Los Angeles Times; acnejeans.com.
 Stop insisting that you don't look good in hats, darling. No one really cares what you think. The floppy hat -- imagine Brer Rabbit meets a chic hippie chick with nary a care -- has firmly planted itself as a spring essential. Marc Jacobs, a lover of all things unstable, showed them in his 2008 resort line (see left), as did Oscar de la Renta. Which one is right for you?
Right now, there are plenty of floppy hats. At Net-a-Porter.com, a Missoni stunner, at right, is on sale for $265 (reduced from $530). This multicolored hat is for the woman who still smokes long, skinny cigarettes on the beach and refuses to apply SPF to her prized, bony clavicle. "You can't get clavicle cancer," she shrieks, with a throaty laugh.
 At left, we have the more subdued blue floppy straw hat from Urbanoutfitters.com, which sells for $28. This one suits a woman who shops at farmers markets and can pick the best fennel bulb in the bunch. Her laugh is like the tinkle of a shattered Champagne flute and she speaks very softly so that people have to get very, very close to hear. Warning: She often cancels plans at the last minute with whispered complaints of feeling "out of sync."
Now, this humdinger on the right is no hat for the leery. It's bold, ultra floppy ($38 at anthropologie.com) and the right fit for a woman who can snatch a boiling lobster from a pot. This gal can pull off black tie with scuba fins and a crimson pout. She was not a debutante -- maybe even hails from Newark, N.J. -- but doesn't care a whit. Andy Warhol would have loved her; she would have found him clingy and annoying.
photos: Marc Jacobs; Net-a-Porter.com; Urbanoutfitters.com; Anthropologie.com.
 SO WHAT if a good man is hard to find? No one seems to be looking anymore. The real search -- as any woman knows -- is for the ultimate and loyal BFF.
Recently, Victoria Beckham caused a froth among tabloids and gossip blogs when she celebrated her 34th birthday over dinner with Eva Longoria Parker and Kate Beckinsale. Why didn't she invite Katie Holmes, a nation wondered. The absence of Holmes -- Posh's BFF with matching bob and gargantuan sunglasses for the last year or so -- was widely reported and analyzed and over-analyzed. It was the snub heard around the world. Forever just isn't forever anymore.
"In society, women's friendships are always thought to be steadfast and impervious," says Liz Pryor, author of "What Did I Do Wrong: When Women Don't Tell Each Other the Friendship is Over." "We have these images of great girlfriends like Lucy and Ethel and Thelma and Louise."
Nowadays, the notion of link-armed Laverne and Shirley has been replaced by Paris glaring at Nicole. Or Heidi Montag refusing to be photographed within spitting distance of ex-BFF Lauren Conrad. Lindsay Lohan reportedly snapped at Ashley Olsen with the ferocity of a lioness last week in New York, when the starlet approached Lohan's new BFF, Samantha Ronson. But perhaps it's all for the better. Maybe these feuding and fiercely protective friends make more accurate role models than those musty, bygone tokens of sisterhood.
Haven't you ever bickered with a bestie? Or felt the sting of a friendship ulcer when you introduce two pals and later find out that they're planning a road trip to Baja and forgot to include you? ¿Qué?
 Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned -- for another woman. Why else would there be dozens of soothing, pastel pink and purse-sized books geared to keeping BFFs from becoming BEEs (bitter eternal enemies)? Last year saw the publication of "The Friend Who Got Away: Twenty Women's True-Life Tales of Friendships that Blew Up, Burned Out, or Faded Away." Add that to the arsenal of self-help manuals like "Secrets and Confidences: The Complicated Truth About Women's Friendships" and "Between Women: Love, Envy, and Competition in Women's Friendships." There's even a "The Friendships of Women" workbook. What's next: "Gal Pals for Dummies"?
Oh, and apparently, men don't need to read up on making nice with their friends. They get angry at each other, throw a kidney punch and call it a day. Compared with the plethora of literature for women, only one somewhat recent book -- "The Company You Keep: The Transforming Power of Male Friendship" -- explores why dudes need dudes. (Interestingly enough, a 2005 study by the Pew Internet Project found that men tend to use the Internet mostly for news and jobs, while women are more apt to rely on it to maintain friendships and form new ones.)
"Women go into relationships too fast and too furiously with other women," says Pryor. "They need to slow down."
But slowing down could have its consequences. A study from Harvard Medical School found that the more friends a women has, the less likely are her chances of developing physical impairments as she ages.
Oh, dear. That means Paris Hilton could live forever. Right now on parisbff.com, thousands of people are vying to befriend the socialite and land a role on her upcoming reality series, "Paris Hilton's My New BFF." Got great listening skills or a knack for bolstering a pal with the blues? Forget it. Casting directors at MTV are seeking "hot" babes and "Fabulously Fierce Guys" who are "at least the age of 21 and appear under 30" for the show. Well, so much for friendship.
That's OK. We'll always have the upcoming "Sex and the City" movie. Watch Carrie and Miranda coo over wedding dresses. See Samantha make Charlotte choke on her frittata with her dirty talk. Girlfriends! Who's ready for another round of Cosmos? Wait. Could it be true that these actresses squabble like hungry chinchillas behind the scenes?
She who is without fault can cast the first Choo.
photos: Holmes and Beckham, Wire Image; Book cover, Free Press.
 Your computer may be grimy and yes, those are barbecue potato chip particles in your keyboard. But now, you can dress it up with a themed Google bar by Dolce & Gabbana, Oscar de la Renta (above), Tory Burch, Nigo or another designer.
You can even set the function to rotate different Google themes, which is a bit like changing outfits every hour. The Rage thinks the D&G leopard print logo (above) is rather uninspired, but the Oscar de la Renta theme actually feels like a swatch from the runway. Same goes for Diane von Furstenberg, who used patterns from her dresses as themes.
The Todd Oldham bar is fun: kind of like Frank Stella meets Starship Enterprise, (below).
To get one, go to Google and start downloading. It's the only time you'll ever get a free Oscar de la Renta.
Photos: Google.com
 In the old days, women supported the troops by sacrificing the nylon for their stockings to be used for parachutes. Now, ladies can salute our soldiers by wearing Manolo Blahnik camouflage suede pumps ($555 at neimanmarcus.com). Call the Rage a patriotic frump but it feels disrespectful to teeter about in camouflage heels when U.S. troops are wishing to hell that they could get out of Iraq. The Paul Smith camouflage bucket hat ($90 at saks.com) for men affects her the same way. If you had just returned home from Baghdad and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, would you be thrilled to see some chick skip by in her camo Manolos?
Weigh in, vets and troops.
Photos: Neimanmarcus.com; saks.com
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The Rage arrived in Cannes on Wednesday night, just in time to hit a panoply of opening night parties. At the Chopard/Alberta Ferretti bash -- imagine a beach decorated with chic white leather Chesterfield chairs -- Juliette Lewis deejayed old school rock and roll like the Stones' " Miss You" and James Brown's "Sex Machine." Cate
Blanchett, wearing earrings by Chopard that could finance a year at Yale, sipped Champagne alongside the designer hosts. Meanwhile, just a few steps away, the after-party for "Blindness" raged on a pier with three bars and a deserted VIP area. Danny Glover and director Michel Gondry--along with Gael Garcia Bernal (who is as compact as a Citroen) -- opted to circulate with the masses. Here in Cannes, sequestering yourself with other celebrities is considered bad form. The attitude is very laissez-faire, with many guests arriving late with the excuse, "So sorry! I got stuck on this yacht..." Margherita Missoni co-hosted an intimate soiree aboard the boat, Pegasus, on Friday night. Guests had to check their shoes on the dock and one party goer hesitated before saying: "I just know someone is going to steal my Pradas." (In the end, she tucked them into the crook of her arm and cradled the pink platforms like an infant.) FYI: The Rage has seen many a bandaided heel and crimson toes here in the South of France. The smart set carry their flats and only don killer heels just before making an 
entrance. Luckily, she picked up these Lanvin sandals with a practical chunky heel just before leaving and can attest that they are perfect for hobbling along cobblestone streets at midnight. 
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