Cannes, France – What do you get the celebrity who has everything?
If you are Nathalie Dubois, and run the DPA Lounge, a high-end gifting suite at the Cannes Film Festival, the answer is, among other things, reversible jeans by Bleulab, stretch leather fashion by Pascal Piveteau, organic eyelash nourishment from Padina, and nine nights of free lodging at three exclusive resorts in and around Bora Bora.
That’s right: nine nights at three resorts. But wait, there’s more!
If you are one of five lucky celebrities, you also get a Jean Richard watch that retails for about $6,000.
"Keanu Reeves and Adrien Brody are coming in to get theirs," Dubois told FOX411 at the DPA Lounge set up inside the insanely luxurious Cartlon Hotel in Cannes, France. "And Sharon Stone gets one too if she comes. I haven't figured out who gets the last two."
There will be no shortage of celebs to choose from. Dubois first set up shop in Cannes in 2005. Born in France, but a Los Angeles resident for the past 26 years, ("I told my mother I am more American now than French, she was so upset") Dubois said was the first to bring the Hollywood gifting craze overseas.
To make sure celebs will show up, Dubois hand delivers 500 RSVP cards in April after she has a good idea which stars will be coming in for the festival. She then gathers brands she thinks the rich and famous will want to see, and brands who want to up their celebrity quotient.
Pascal Piveteau, designer of the eponymous stretchy leather line, recently left 20 years running a big time fashion house to start his own line. His first fashion show was this January at Hong Kong Fashion Week. He sees Dubois' suite at Cannes as the perfect opportunity to take his brand recognition to the next level.
"I would be proud to start a relationship with movie stars," he told us. "So I can share my passion with them."
Dubois may have been one of the first to bring the LA gift suite to Cannes, but she's not the last. Gavin Keilly, the owner of GBK PR, set up his gifting suite inside a celebrity pampering palace in Cannes called Hollywood Boudoir. There, along with a five-day all expenses paid vacation at the Sparkling Hill Resort (owned by the king of sparkle, Swarovski), one of a kind Renee by Renee jewelry, and a year’s supply of Gold Collagen, which claims to reduce skin aging one bottle at a time, celebs can also get free fashion and beauty help!
Set up in adjacent rooms, the Hong Kong based L'Exclusif offers free hair and makeup, while Wear It My Way stylists from Los Angeles have racks of dresses for stars like Petra Nemcova, Emma Roberts, and Eva Longoria to wear on the red carpet.
So why do brands like these – we saw about 40-50 at these two suites alone -- pay companies like DPA and GBK big bucks for the opportunity to give their products away to some of the few people rich enough to actually buy them?
"You can't pay Justin Timberlake what it would cost to endorse your $1,000 watch. It would cost what, half a million?" Keilly said. "So if you can gift him your watch, and he is photographed and seen wearing it. That is priceless."
Keilly acknowledged that giving expensive gifts to well-off celebs does sound a little … off. “The rich get richer, right?” he said. To help counteract that, Keilly says he gives 20 percent of all profits to charity.
"We have given over $2 million since I started the company," he told us. "It's important that we give back."
One of his gifting partners, the nonprofit liver cancer group HOPE, agrees. The founder, Suzanne Lindley, a cancer survivor, wants to spread her message that those with cancer can never give up. One way she thought to do that is to offer celebrities a free Kindle if they send her a photo of themselves with her signature word “HOPE” written in the sand.
Hopefully the celebs send her their pics, but let her keep the Kindle. That would also be a nice gift.
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