There are worse places to be than Cannes on the opening weekend of the 60th annual film festival. The most stunning of promenades, the world’s biggest yachts parked just off shore, and more A-list eye candy than you can shake a stick at.

Last year the British dominated. Ken Loach’s Irish republican drama Wind That Shakes The Barley won the Palme d’Or, and Andrea Arnold’s bleak thriller Red Road received the jury prize.

This weekend saw an American surge, with new films from Michael Moore, Leonardo DiCaprio and the Coen brothers receiving rave reviews.

Leonardo DiCaprio had the paparazzi overheating as he arrived in Cannes to deliver a serious message about global warming. The Titanic star has directed and narrated documentary The 11th Hour, which warns that human beings face extinction as a result of the environmental crisis.

DiCaprio attacked President George Bush, saying: "It's very simple. He's done very little for the environmental movement." Deflecting criticism aimed at Al Gore, who last year racked up the air miles while promoting his own environmental documentary An Inconvenient Truth, DiCaprio said, "don't shoot the messenger. This person is trying to relay a message to the public and the way that he travels should not be splayed out like that."

The Titanic star said he tries to live his life in an environmentally friendly manner, installing solar panels at his house and driving a hybrid car. DiCaprio, who had arrived by commercial plane rather than private jet, added, "I'm not an expert on this issue. I'm taking the role of concerned citizen like everybody else."

"The reality of what is happening to us is very scary. To shy away from telling the truth about that would be the ultimate disservice. In the long run it's about environmental awareness and environmental consciousness. That's what's going on now. It's a huge movement, much more so than ever before."

Julia Roberts has signed up to play British wildlife conservationist Joan Root in a Working Title picture she will also produce, her first film with the British company since starring in hit movie Notting Hill. Root, 69, was shot and killed in Kenya last year by a gunman who had broken into her home.

Inspired by an article in Vanity Fair, the film will follow Root’s life making pioneering wildlife documentaries with her husband Alan. After their divorce in 1981, Root devoted herself to saving Kenya’s Lake Naivasha from the damaging flower-farm industry before her killing, either a botched robbery or an assassination by people opposed to her conservation work.

Working Title boss Tim Bevan said: "We are thrilled to be making a film about such a courageous, adventurous and passionate woman and delighted that Julia Roberts shares our enthusiasm for the project and will take on the role of Joan."

Amelie star Audrey Tautou has signed up to star as Coco Chanel in a new film about the fashion legend. The picture will focus on Chanel’s life before she became an international name. Film-makers are searching for a British actor to play Arthur “Boy” Capel, the wealthy English polo player who lent her money to set up her first shop.

Pamela Anderson hit the beach on Friday, - swapping her famous Baywatch swimsuit for tiny white hotpants. The star was promoting her new film Blonde And Blonder, described as "an air-headed comedy featuring two dim-witted blonde bombshells".

Anderson, who shot to fame as lifeguard CJ Parker in Baywatch 15 years ago, has always attracted attention because of her voluptuous figure. She recently divorced her second husband Kid Rock after six months of marriage.

James Bond star Daniel Craig has signed up to play a washed-up British Hollywood actor. Craig, who won rave reviews for his turn as 007 in Casino Royale, has been cast in Flashbacks of a Fool.

The hottest British party ticket was for the celebration of revived classic comedy series St Trinians, a picture that hasn’t even finished shooting, and features Madonna’s best friend Rupert Everett in drag as the school’s headmistress, alongside Mischa Barton and Colin Firth. After a hard days promotional activity, the film’s stars were out in force at last night’s St Trinian’s beach party, which coincided with the festival’s 60th birthday firework display.

Tonight, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt stroll the red carpet for Jolie’s A Mighty Heart, which charts the final days of Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl, who was abducted and beheaded by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002 while researching a story on British shoe bomber Richard Reid.

Jolie, 31, stars as Pearl's wife Mariane, who wrote about her husband’s disappearance, the intense effort to find him and his murderer in her memoir A Might Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl.

Mariane was six months' pregnant when the ordeal began and wrote the book to introduce her son to the father he would never meet. The film is directed by British film-maker Michael Winterbottom.

Pitt’s new film Ocean's Thirteen shows out of competition in Cannes on Thursday.

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