Cashing in on Code

For a city not usually given to slavish displays of hospitality towards American visitors, Paris has bent over backwards in the past two weeks to accommodate the filming of the literary blockbuster The Da Vinci Code. The Louvre, the Ritz, the Eiffel Tower and St Sulpice Church have all been sealed off for various periods in the past fortnight as director Ron Howard — and a cast that includes Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou — set about the $US100 million ($A133 million) job of committing the thriller to celluloid. The film set is one of the largest Paris has ever seen. [More]