Al Pacino -- this is big Al we are talking about! -- didn't get a seat for the premiere of his film, The Merchant Of Venice, as many as 200 tickets were doubly sold. Then, thanks to a bomb scare, Johnny Depp's Finding Neverland was pushed to a 2 am screening.

Some Hollywood honchos have vowed they will never return to Venice -- the film festival, not the city; for who can resist the city's allure, its magnificient waterways and its charming gondolas -- because of poor management.

The organisers promised better arrangements for the screening of Nicole Kidman's Birth, and also beefed up security.

Design: Uday Kuckian
Photographs: Getty Images