Deals roar at Lions

Cannes fest could throw shade on Sun Valley

THE annual Cannes Lions ad festival and conference kicked off this weekend, bringing a host of bankers and media business folks to the Cote d’Azur — and perhaps pre-empting the dealmaking at Allen & Co’s July 4 mogul get-together in Sun Valley, Idaho.

As the traditional media business moves to mobile, both advertising and data companies are in high demand for sit-downs.

Aryeh Bourkoff, the LionTree banker who recently brokered a deal between Michael Kassan’s boutique consultancy MediaLink to Cannes Lions owner Ascential Events, will be there for the first time in awhile, as M&A is the topic du jour.

Also expected is Jahm Najafi, chief executive of the private equity firm Najafi Companies, whose investments have included Coinstar and Paula Deen licensing.

Other private equity players are still deciding on whether they can come because they’re in the midst of deals back home.

Separately, Time Warner’s top brass, including CEO Jeff Bewkes, will be having their final Cannes supper on Wednesday, before finalization of the firm’s acquisition by the penny-pinchers at AT&T.

Viacom, which last year was in its death throes under Philippe Dauman, is once again hosting its Thursday-night dance party for advertisers at the Chateau la Napoule now that it’s under less desperate circumstances.

Times jabs

Last week’s Mirror Awards honoring media journalism, held at Cipriani 42nd Street, turned nasty, with The Nation media columnist Eric Alterman throwing some tough punches at the New York Times.

Alterman picked up an award for his piece on “false equivalency” at the Gray Lady. False equivalence is a term for putting two sides on equal footing when perhaps only one side is guilty of something egregious.

With both New York Times Publisher Ar- thur Sulzberger Jr. and Executive Editor Dean Baquet in the audience, Alterman said the paper was very important to him, but then began the body blows.

“I’m not going to go nearly as far as I’d like to for the sake of time and the sake of comity. There is a cancer at the heart of the New York Times’ political coverage, and that’s the cancer of false equivalence. It’s a very dangerous thing.

“I don’t think we’d have a psychopath as president today if the New York Times took the question more seriously. On the one hand, Donald Trump did this, but on the other hand, someone’s fingernails are dirty.”

Baquet got up to accept an award and quipped: “I’d like to start by congratulating Eric,” before defending the Times’ political coverage. The Mirror Awards are run by the Newhouse School at Syracuse University.

Wine & ’zine

Former “America’s Next Top Model” judge Nigel Barker (pictured) thinks he may have been a wine smuggler.

Barker, who just signed on to be the US face of New Zealand’s Invivo Wines, tells On the Money he traveled a lot for the show, and always took an interest in wine wherever he went.

On one trip, he visited New Zealand and connected with the owners of the company, asking them to send him their sauvignon blanc. Some got through, some didn’t, he says. Invivo also has British comic Graham Norton touting the fun booze brand in the UK. Barker says that wine was on the table since he was 14. “I grew up drinking wine. Wherever I’ve gone I’m always seeking it out, and with ‘ANTM,’ we got to travel all over the world.” One of the show’s producers brought him a New Zealand wine and connected him to the winemakers. “You couldn’t get it here until now, so for the past six years both [co-founders] Tim Lightbourne and Robert Cameron have been sending me wine, smuggling it to me in the US.” Barker says he eventually would like to make his own wine.

Dress sneakers

Forget leather loafers and wingtips. Men are spending more on sneakers these days, according to department store Neiman Marcus, which disclosed on an earnings call last week that sneakers account for more than 50 percent of its men’s shoe business. “Sneakers have become a significant category for us and a very tangible reminder that what our customers want and wear is changing,” CEO Karen Katz said on the call, reports The Post’s Lisa Fickenscher. But Neiman’s isn’t selling Air Jordans or Adidas’ Stan Smith tennis shoes. Men are snapping up $790 Guccis with embroidered velvet and $795 faux-python leather high-tops from Balenciaga. Neiman’s average sneaker sale is $360, Katz said.