Terminator 3 hyped at Cannes

Arnold Schwarzenegger is bringing his own freaky sideshow to the three-ring circus that is the 56th Cannes Film Festival.

In a move that demonstrates once again how the sacred and the profane sit cheek-by-jowl at the world's most prestigious filmfest, the beefy Austrian-American movie star is planning a huge publicity stunt today.

Schwarzenegger will mock-fight "the machines" from his next movie. He will do it on stage in public in front of the famed Carlton Hotel, the elegant edifice which dominates the Croisette, a beach-front promenade through the heart of this Riviera resort town.

Schwarzenegger will obviously be promoting his new summer flick, T3: The Rise Of The Machines, the third and probably the final movie in The Terminator series, sci-fi movies which pit man against cyborgs out to exterminate humans. Unlike The Matrix Reloaded -- another one of the potential summer blockbusters from Warner Bros. -- T3 is not being officially screened in Cannes. But the studio and its star want to create enough stir to launch the film in Europe this summer -- without having to return for more media events.

Yesterday, Schwarzenegger was already on hand in Cannes for an exclusive meet-and-greet on a yacht. Tonight, in what is being hyped as THE party of Cannes 2003, the would-be future governor of California is the star guest at a swank promo-reception at Pierre Cardin's space-age Cannes villa, the Bubble Palace. The party is being sponsored by various movers and martini shakers, including MTV and Columbia TriStar, the international distributors.

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