Sven Hoogerhuis/Capital Pictures/Sipa USAWhere's Inspector Clouseau when you need him?
First, $1 million worth of Chopard jewels were stolen from a Cannes Film Festival hotel room last week in a case worthy of one of the Pink Panther movies. Now word has surfaced that a Chinese film executive had his luggage lifted while attending the French Riviera confab.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, China Film Group vice president Zhang Qiang scrapped his scheduled appearance at a press conference with Keanu Reeves for the actor's directorial debut Man of Tai Chi after discovering last Thursday that his bags had been pilfered from his rented pad at Pierre & Vacances Résidence Cannes Beach.
Qiang made the discovery after he returned from dinner and later complained on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, that hotel staff ignored his pleas for assistance save offering to change the locks and told him he'd need to file a report with police on his own.
"Security in France is so bad, and the [people] are so arrogant," he ranted, later adding, "This film festival is not worth mentioning!"
So far, no word on any suspects.
The news comes three days after the heist at the Novotel Hotel in which someone broke into the safe of a Chopard employee and made off with baubles the Swiss jeweler was loaning out to celebs to wear on the red carpet.
And Cannes was rocked further on Friday when an apparently deranged man fired blank gunshots during a live broadcast of Le Grand Journal along the Croisette. He was subsequently arrested.