The sex scandal surrounding disgraced ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn today returned to Cannes as clips of an upcoming film about the affair leaked onto the Internet.
Strauss-Kahn was the talk of the festival two years ago when he was arrested in New York on sexual assault charges.
Within days of the scandal breaking, festival industry figures were eyeing the cinematic possibilities.
"Humanity, power, women, sex, money -- it's got it all," said Jean-Andre Yerles, co-president of the French Screenwriters' Guild, at the time.
Yesterday, clips of "Welcome to New York" in which Gerard Depardieu plays the Socialist politician appeared on the Internet after a producer was seen showing them on a handheld computer.
British actress Jacqueline Bisset plays opposite Depardieu as Strauss-Kahn's wife Anne Sinclair in the movie which is being shown to potential buyers but not the press at the Cannes Film Festival.
According to production company Wild Bunch, the images are "pre-sale material intended to be shown to potential foreign buyers".
However, according to journalists, a Wild Bunch producer was yesterday seen in a Cannes restaurant showing the film on his tablet to an entourage.
Strauss-Kahn last December agreed a financial settlement with the hotel maid whose 2011 allegation of sexual assault forced him to resign from the International Monetary Fund.
He is still being investigated in France as part of a probe into allegations he procured prostitutes for sex parties in Europe and in Washington.
Strauss-Kahn has also tried to ban a book entitled "Beauty and the Beast" about his affair with the author Marcela Iacub. He says the work was "despicable and false" and wreaked "havoc" on his personal life.
A Paris court in February turned down his attempt to stop the book going on sale.
