Witness most of Take That; Liam Neeson playing Zeus on the set of Clash of the Titans; the actor Michael Sheen and Sebastian Faulkss, who is oh-so-much-morethan The Girl at the Lion D'Or.
Terence Longdon, the suave leading man of dozens of low-budget British features, remembers the grumbling and kerfuffle on the set of Clash By Night when Peter Sallis - cast, incidentally, as a pyromaniac kiddie-fiddler - turned up on the first day of shooting in an unnaturally white rollneck jumper.
This year's festival sees headliners Arcade Fire, Metallica and Kasabian clash with Skrillex, MGMT and Disclosure – and that's just the most obvious set of clashes.
The incident escalated into a set of clashes between the police, army, rebel soldiers and urban youth, with over 100 people killed in 2006 and over 150,000 displaced.
Yes, it will put someone in the Oval Office next January and fill Congress with the usual set of clashing deadheads, but in any past sense of the word, an election?
Feliciano Lopez, the 19th seed, was also the beneficiary of a retirement in the fifth set of his clash with Ivan Dodig.
The second seed had a helping hand from opponent Victor Hanescu, who retired in the third set of their clash on Court Philippe Chatrier when trailing 6-4 6-4 2-3.
The 20-year-old Australian downed tools early in the second set of the clash on Court Two, where he also was given a ticking off for swearing and rowed with British umpire James Keothavong over a change of socks.
Maria Sharapova is tied at two-all in the first against Kristina Mladenovic, John Isner takes a 6-1 opening set from Evgeny Donskoy, Su-Wei Hsieh beats Tatjana Maria with the loss of just the one game and Lukas Rosol is a break down in the final set of his clash with Reister.
But his gauzy, fuzzy appearances were not really about the rough and tumble of one set of ideas clashing with another.
There is a certain irony to the fact that the New York Giants and the New England Patriots -- two teams that, together with their fans, may be the perfect distillation of East Coast aggression -- are set to clash in Indianapolis, a city so singularly approachable and unpretentious that it goes by "Indy" lest it seem to be putting on airs.
