Hotel by Sharon, Paris and Mariah in Antalya

It takes half an hour to cross the pool (by gondola, naturally). The spa has a room full of real snow. The bathrooms have gold-plated mirrors on the FLOOR. As Sharon, Paris and Mariah open Europe's most shameless temple of excess, can anyone afford to stay there?
Sharon Stone strides confidently onto the stage a few feet in front of me, and you can hear an appreciative murmur pass through the well-heeled crowd. Dressed in Roberto Cavalli couture, the 51-year-old star looks thinner than ever and with not a blonde hair out of place.
She is here in Antalya, Turkey, for the launch of what's being billed as the grandest and most expensive hotel in Europe - the Mardan Palace.
As the normally articulate actress begins her hosting duties, she stumbles over a word on the teleprompter. Champagne costs £25 a glass, toilets are remote-controlled, guests select linen and pillow firmness from a 'pillow menu' alongside each bed and the private beach has been created from 9,000 tons of the silkiest white sand imported from Egypt.
The hotel itself - where suites cost up to £11,500 a night - is a temple to bling, fitted out with 2,500 tons of gold, 500,000 crystals and 23,000 square metres of Italian marble.
The pool is a full five acres of sparkling blue water, across which guests can take gondola rides that take 30 minutes.
In the middle of the pool sits a sunken aquarium with 2,400 fish, so you can literally 'swim with the fishes' (including sharks) - albeit on the other side of a thick wall of glass.
Meanwhile, the waterside Italian restaurant (one of 11 on site) is stocked with Hermés crockery worth £1.35million. In a room full of the international press, I find the singer Seal, Italian actress Monica Bellucci, Gere, Stone and Tom Jones. Not exactly natural bedfellows, if you'll excuse the phrase...

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