NOTEBOOK-Paps boo Pam, Polanski boos press in Cannes

CANNES, France (Reuters) - The 60th Cannes Film Festival is underway and the on- and off-screen action is in full swing. Following are some snippets of news and views from along the palm-lined Croisette beachfront.

SNAPPERS SNAP AT PAM

Photographers got their own back on U.S. television star Pamela Anderson, who kept them waiting for more than an hour at a photo opportunity to promote her latest movie "Blonde and Blonder" and then only stayed two minutes to be snapped.

The photographers booed her as she left.

She obviously did not warn starlet Jessica Simpson about the mood of the media along the Croisette. The 26-year-old, in town to promote the yet-to-be-shot "Major Movie Star", was 90 minutes late for an evening event. This time the press was more polite.

POLANSKI PEEVED

Director Roman Polanski walked out of a news conference on Sunday, blaming roughly 200 reporters from around the globe for failing to ask questions that probed deeply the segments of "Chacun son Cinema" ("To Each His Own Cinema").

In the movie, some 35 directors -- most of whom were at the conference -- offered short films about their love of cinema. Polanski, 73, the director of movies including "Rosemary's Baby" and his Oscar winner "The Pianist", made one segment that dealt with sex in the cinema.

Near the end of the roughly one-hour conference, Polanski said reporters failed to provide readers with in-depth analysis of film because they spent too much time behind their computers.

MOORE DOES IT AGAIN

Michael Moore lit up Cannes in 2004 when his controversial anti-Bush polemic "Fahrenheit 9/11" was the shock winner of the Palme d'Or top prize.

This year he has done it again with the out-of-competition "SiCKO", a documentary about the U.S. health care system that had viewers laughing and crying before cheering at the end. The director is in hot water with the U.S. authorities for making an unauthorised trip to Cuba as part of the film, but as far as Cannes is concerned, he can do no wrong.

U2 PERFORMS

Irish rockers U2 performed two songs on the stairs leading to the main festival cinema just after midnight on Saturday, and hundreds of passers by waited to watch and cheer the free mini-concert. The band is in town for digital 3D movie "U2 3D".

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