Part of the InterContinental Hotels Group, the Carlton is famous for hosting movie stars from around the world during the annual Film Festival. The hotel was also featured in Elton John's well-known 1983 music video for the single, "I'm Still Standin'", and the exterior and interior features in New Order's 1993 music video for the single, "World (The Price of Love)". More famously, the hotel was a central location for the Alfred Hitchcock film "To Catch a Thief" starring Grace Kelly and Cary Grant.
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The Carlton's distinctive domes on both seaward corners were reputedly designed to resemble the breasts of Caroline Otero, "La Belle Otero" the most famous (or infamous) courtesan of the French Riviera during the years surrounding World War I. The Carlton's elegant seventh floor formal dining room is named La Belle Otero in her "honor," although there are a couple of less formal restaurants, La Côte and La Brasserie, on the ground floor. Only the last-named can be considered the least bit "affordable," with a €49 lobster and champagne menu offered on Fridays only.