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All festivals are, by their own nature, a perfect environment for promotion. The most spectacular feats of publicity are usually reserved for Venice's younger cousin, Cannes, but Lido & Lagoon have their own particular dose of look-at-me-strategies.

One of the most unique aspects of the Venice Film Festival is how intimate it feels, compared to similar grade AA events in the festival circuit. Maybe because it takes place on a resort island that exudes calm and relaxation, maybe because it's infused with warm Italian joy de vivre, Venice brings audiences and movies, stars and fans as close together as they can be without causing a conflagration.

The weekend arrives noisy and busy on the Lido. It's the ideal frame for parties, celebrations and assorted special events.

Yellow, color and nudes continue on track at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The trend is to be sedate and shocking simultaneously – oops did I forget my petticoat or did I really want to walk the red carpet in my undies with some very pretty net as a distraction? Yellow continued to be a choice – from muted gold to glimmering mustard and daisy fresh bright yellow, Jennifer Lopez’s Golden Globe statement has stayed.

As the stars turned out to chat with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,  the women showed how versatile black can be while the men embraced the move toward grey-blue. Of course if you are Jason Statham you can wear whatever the heck you want and make a fashion statement – or any other kind of statement he wants to.

What is the proper word? Falicia? Vibender? Does it matter? On the second day on the Lido the Light was on the red carpet, and the fans found it very good. Golden Globe nominees Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender - who met and became an item on the set of Derek Cianfrance's The Light Between Oceans - were everywhere as their film screened in competition- followed closely by Golden Globe winner Amy Adams and Golden Globe nominee Jeremy Renner, stars of Denis Villeneuve's Arrival, and Lido veteran Wim Wenders, his excellent sneaker collection and his The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez.

It's hot, humid and gorgeous - on the brink of Fall the Lido island, the easternmost on the Venice lagoon, bordering the Adriatic Sea on its outer shore, becomes a cinema hub of major importance. The oldest film festival in existence, Venice had the ups and downs to be expected in any long career.

The fashionistas of Hollywood are paying tribute to what everyone knows – ponytails are popular. Wearing your hair straight, curly? Yawn.

It’s such a challenge for guys – what to wear to a cocktail party? Um. A suit! How about to the big power meeting? A suit! When you really wanna impress? Yeah.

Body text: August is almost over so if you haven’t flaunted your whites, do so now, because traditionalists in the USA decreed: no whites after Labor Day! I guess if you live somewhere else in the world where no Labor Day exists its okay to wear whatever color you want for as long as you want – which is how winter white became so popular. All sarcasm aside, it’s been a long, hot summer and the stars have kept cool: both the men and women in fresh grays, shimmering silver and naked nudes - a perfect break from the never ending all-year-round basic black.