Front Row at Dior: Gray Matter

GRAY MATTER: The Dior couture show on Monday couldn’t possibly start until the arrival of the house’s face, Marion Cotillard. The Oscar-winning actress said she is working in a film by French director François Cluzon, but won’t have time to take any summer vacation once filming wraps. “After that, I will be back in L.A. to work with Leonardo DiCaprio in a film directed by Christopher Nolan,” she said.

Fellow French actress Nora Arnezeder, instead, will be heading to Bali in August to take a break from recording a music album, before her appearance in an advertising campaign in September to launch Idylle, a new fragrance for women by Guerlain.

Clotilde Courau, the actress wife of Emmanuel-Philibert de Savoie, is also looking forward to her summer break. “I am taking a vacation in Umbria, in central Italy, with my family,” she said.

Meanwhile, Japanese percussionist Nobu Saïto and actress and singer Mari Natsuki, both in Paris for Japan Expo, said they’re planning to join forces at the fair next year. “We have a rock band: Gibier du Mari,” Natsuki explained. And the costumes are all figured out.

“Manga,” pronounced Saïto.