SHIPS CROSSING IN THE NIGHT: If Alicia Keys winds up starring in a movie for Miramax directed by Brett Ratner, the seed for that project might just have been planted Friday night on the Budweiser Big Eagle in the old harbor. Keys, hosting a bash on the boat in between European tour stops, found herself in the Miramax mix when Harvey Weinstein climbed his way to the upper deck just as Keys was having a chat with the always affable and energetic helmer Ratner. Keys' agent Nicole David of WMA -- who is known for steering the crossover careers of such performers as Whitney Houston, Lauryn Hill and Eve -- stepped in to introduce the two, saying she'd like to set up a meeting when Keys comes to New York after she completes her current stage duties. ("She is a hard worker, and she loves to work," David dished). But before all that happens, Keys told Reporter at Large, she already has another movie on her mind, one that is being produced by Halle Berry, another client of David's. "Right now I'm looking at a movie about a woman named Phillippa Schuyler who was born in the 1930s and grew up in Harlem; she's so much like me that it's almost scary," Keys said. "She was a biracial woman growing up in the '40s and '50s, and (it tells the story) of what she had to go through being biracial and the relationship between her and her mother -- it's triumph and tragedy all at once." But if Keys appears to have caught an acting bug, don't blame it on Cannes. "My mother is an actress, so I've already had the fever -- it's something that's been in my blood for years and years and years." (Chris Gardner)

NOT-SO-REBEL WOMAN: The conversation had to move along quickly at the American Pavilion on Saturday because Italian actress-director Asia Argento and short-story writer J.T. Leroy arrived 40 minutes late for a discussion of their new film, "The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things." Her arrival may have been fashionably tardy, but Argento insisted that she's changed her rebel ways. "There is not much anger in me anymore," said the 28-year filmmaker, who both stars in and directed the film, based on Leroy's stories, about a Southern woman who rescues her son from a foster home and then embarks on a series of adventures. "I still speak my mind. I still say if there is something that I don't think is right or something that is bad; I will still say it," she elaborated. "But I mean, what is rebelling? We always have this image of rebels -- people like James Dean and Kurt Cobain, people who died. I don't want to be that rebel. I want to live fast and die old." As for the intense project, Argento said her approach differed from her previous outings because of a self-imposed strict adherence to the book's message. When asked how she raised money for such an atypical film, the feisty Italian claimed that she herself would learn the names of her difficult financiers once the film had screened as part of Directors' Fortnight. "And I will be waiting with my knives," she threatened. (Peter Kiefer)

HEAD OVER HEELS: Walking in high heels was a "painful experience," Mexican star Gael Garcia Bernal said when he hit Cannes on Wednesday to pump his upcoming film "Bad Education," which opened the festival this year. In "Bad," Garcia Bernal plays a transvestite and spends much of the movie standing in stilettos. "I got a lot of advice from many different people giving great tips on the way to walk in high heels that you can't get from magazines," Bernal quipped. "You have to move differently." But the heartthrob's bunions must have healed up because Bernal was seen walking on air at "Bad's" after-party. Thrown at Cannes' funky old port, the fete featured fireworks and a drag show. Even the film's director, Pedro Alomodovar, got into the act, being pulled onstage to dance with a gyrating cadre of cross-dressed performers. Bernal worked the room and got down on the dance floor all night long. Hopefully, Bernal packed a spare pair of dancing shoes because he also will have to hit the party scene for another of his Cannes vehicles, Walter Salles' "The Motorcycle Diaries," screening Wednesday. (Pamela Rolfe)

DOUBLE DIPPING: Popping into Cannes for 24 hours was versatile British actor Timothy Spall, taking time out from filming "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" with Jim Carrey, to promote the new Australian film "Gettin' Square," which screens Tuesday. Spall plays an ex-con trying to go straight in the comedy, the first feature from Jonathan Teplitzky. Its producers include Working Title and Macquarie Films. "I really liked working on it," Spall said. "Its comedy really translates, and I'd love to do another Australian film." While shooting "Square," Spall was doing double duty, simultaneously filming "The Last Samurai," and that required a lot of crisscrossing the Pacific. In Japan, he recalled, in one location almost no one spoke any English, and ordering food became so difficult he went to McDonald's for the first time in 20 years. On another occasion, he tried to order soup but was served up a tomato on a plate. He describes his current film as "rather intriguing," though he noted the pitfalls of shooting with children: "There are three kids in the film, including a baby, and sometimes they just don't want to be in show business." (Blake Murdoch)

TARANTINO, CHAPTER ONE: Quentin Tarantino has been spotted deep in talks. Again. The Festival de Cannes jury chief was having an extremely animated chat with Miramax's Harvey Weinstein and his right-hand man Rick Sands in the Majestic Bar on Friday night. But the threesome, relaxed and clearly having fun, weren't holding down a table but instead were ensconced in a small roped-off area beside the door. But what actually attracted attention to the independent film heavyweights was Tarantino's ridiculously blue and shiny shirt. Clearly not a product of crony capitalism, Tarantino's shirt shouted "handmade." Unfortunately, no one could get close enough to the "Kill Bill" helmer to ask where he got the shirt as the red rope clashed with the backdrop and the conversation verily flowed, as did the drinks. (Stuart Kemp)