The notoriously travel-wary director Lars Von Trier agreed to drive from his native Denmark to the world premiere of Dogville (his stark allegory about a woman hiding from an abstract malevolent force in a tiny mountain hamlet during the Great Depression) in Cannes in 2003 on one condition -- that Nicole Kidman, the film's star, greet the press in her bare feet.

[Kidman dutifully paused on the red carpet to remove her high heels.]