Marie Christiane Marek, the show's veteran presenter, is being feted by many of the designers she has interviewed over the years at a soiree to be broadcast live on May 22 from aboard the luxury yacht Phocea, docked in Cannes.

The four-masted Phocea, once owned by disgraced French minister Bernard Tapie, has been donated for the evening by its new owner, couture client Mouna Ayoub. The ship's regular weekly rate is $175,000.

What has inspired Ayoub's generosity toward Madame Marek?

The TV reporter says that her relationship with the Lebanese billionaress is purely "professional," but enthusiastically describes Ayoub as a "great friend of fashion."

The event will welcome a host of fashion luminaries, including Jean Paul Gaultier, Roberto Cavalli, Paul Smith, Rochas's Peter O'Brien, and Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana.

Marek is the most powerful and highly regarded television fashion journalist on the European scene. Recent installments of Paris Modes have included in-depth interviews with Karl Lagerfeld and Christian Lacroix.

This week sees a special on Gaultier, a dear friend of Marek's since their early days in fashion.

Looking back on her career, Marek admits that she's never enjoyed "anything backstage after a show, when you're fighting with 20 reporters to get a quote from [someone like] Karl Lagerfeld. I don't like getting hit."

And her most bizarre tęte-ŕ-tęte? "Alexander McQueen. In the East End of London, with a dog that wouldn't stop running around the room, and an attache de presse that treated the designer like a baby. [McQueen] was very 'special,' but very nice and friendly, not at all like he was being interviewed."

Next week's party will see quite a role reversal though: Marek for once will be the one fussed over by a crowd of attentive admirers.