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| Annette Bening at Variety party - photo: Mirco Toffolo |
(Venice, Italy) The exclusive
Variety party held on the terrace of the Hotel Danieli is in its ninth consecutive year, and honors the President of the Jury of the Venice International Film Festival, which this year is Annette Bening -- the first woman to serve as president in 11 years. There have only been six female presidents in the history of the world's oldest film festival -- this is the 74th edition -- so let's hope her appointment shakes things up a bit. Over the years, it has been my experience that the president does influence the choices the jury makes, and I think it is in fine hands with Bening at the helm.
The name of this year's soirée was
Faces of a Woman, with food and cocktails inspired by four different films in which Bening has starred, prepared by the executive chefs of four hotels:
The Kids are Alright by The Western Europa & Regina,
Being Julia by The Gritti Palace,
The Grifters by Hotel Danieli and
20th Century Women by the JW Marriott Venice Resort & Spa.
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| Annette Bening at Variety party - Photo: Cat Bauer |
Annette Bening was friendly and charming, gamely sampling each of the dishes and drinks created in her honor (the food was yummy, but some of it was pretty strange-looking), posing for photos, chatting with the guests -- I even had the opportunity to meet her myself.
At the party, I ran into Alberto Bozzo, the CEO of Al Duca d'Aosta, a fashion brand with shops in Venice and the Veneto. Alberto is always doing great things for Venice, like
giving the gondoliers their own logo and line of clothing and donating a percentage of the sales to support the ancient profession, and providing all the white umbrellas when about 1,000 residents of Venice made a huge
white heart in Piazza San Marco to show the world the deep love we have for our city.
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| Cat Bauer wearing eVe T-shirt: Words are not enough |
Alberto invited me to a party yesterday evening during the film festival at the Terrazza Mediterranea overlooking the sea to promote his latest good cause:
The eVe Project: Words are not enough, whose mission is to help women who have experienced a form of violence. Al Duca d'Aosta has created some very cool T-shirts and hats with the eVe logo, which you can buy during the film festival at Terrazza Mediterranea, which is directly across from the Palazzo del Casinò on the Lido.
All the proceeds go to support The eVe Project. So, if you are at the Venice Film Festival, please stop by and support the very fine cause.
Ciao from the Venice Film Festival,
Cat Bauer
Venetian Cat- The Venice Blog
Annette Bening was friendly and charming, gamely sampling each of the dishes and drinks created in her honor (the food was yummy, but some of it was pretty strange-looking), posing for photos, chatting with the guests -- I even had the opportunity to meet her myself.
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