Why Rachel Weisz does her own nude scenes

The competition among leading ladies to dazzle at the Cannes film festival hotted up at the weekend, with English actress Rachel Weisz generally reckoned to have taken the red carpet prize. She looked ravishing on Sunday night in a floor-length green gown split to the top of the thigh for the premiere of her film Agora and announced to the gob-smacked press that she had felt "fit" enough to appear naked in the film.

Weisz (above left) plays the 4th century Greek philosopher and astronomer Hypatia whose slave, played by Max Minghella, becomes infatuated with his mistress. In one scene, she emerges naked from her bath while Minghella awaits with her towel. Asked if a body double was used, she responded: "Absolutely not. It was all me, never even thought of using a double."

The previous night, it was the French actress Sophie Marceau and the Italian Monica Belluci who put on the most stunning display, both turning up in scarlet gowns for the premiere of their psychodrama Don't Look Back. Belluci (on the left in the right-hand picture) showed more decolletage than former Bond villainess Marceau, but it was a close-run thing between the two brunettes.

Also making a splash over the weekend were the Americans Mariah Carey and Eva Longoria. Carey was here to help promote the film Precious in which, against all expectations, she plays a dowdy Harlem social worker, to great effect. In real life, however, she was not going to disappoint her fans: she arrived with the sort of luggage Elizabeth Taylor might have brought to the Cote d'Azur in the 1950s.

Not to be outdone in the diva stakes, Longoria lunched on Friday at La Plage Vitamin Water restaurant with her basketball player husband Tony Parker and demanded that the beach was closed to the public. According to the paparazzi, she had only a glass of water for lunch: she had a tight dress to squeeze into later for the premiere of Jane Campion's new film, Bright Star.