Entrapment star Catherine Zeta Jones has demanded a crew of six bodyguards to escort her around town when she arrives for Friday’s screening, it has been rumoured. Normally, that might seem like an outrageous request from someone who’s only appeared in one major hit. Given the grim goings on at last month’s Cannes-based confab, MIP-TV, though, it seems downright prudent.

Indeed, Cannes’ reputation as a safe haven for the rich and famous suffered a potentially serious blow at this year’s MIP – with everyone from journalists to execs being victimised.

In April, former Variety reporter Bruce Alderman was kidnapped from the Croisette and driven out of town by thugs. Fortunately the police were extremely vigilant, stopping the car to check who was out driving at 3am and Alderman was released unharmed.

Although Jean-Claude Suzanne, chief of the Cannes commissariat, says this is the first kidnapping he has heard of, other crime victims haven’t been so lucky.

An MTV exec is rumoured to have been mugged while another man is said to have been the target of an attempted rape. There were also reports of a group of MIP participants returning from the Colombe d’Or restaurant who were literally victims of highway robbery. Chased by a motorcycle and forced to stop, a second perpetrator emerged from nowhere and proceeded to punch one of the passengers and get away with various goods. A local police officer was quoted as saying: “This happens all the time.” If that is the case, then Festival time raises the risk several times