There were rumours that actress and L'Oreal ambassador Aishwarya Rai may have held back Sonam Kapoor from walking the Cannes red carpet. But sources close to the former beauty queen say she didn't even know that Sonam was to visit the French film festival.

"She (Aishwarya) did not even know that Sonam was going to be at Cannes because she was there for just two days (May 13-14) where her days were packed with back-to-back interactions with the international media, fashion shoots for various European fashion magazines and other business meetings besides attending all the events at the festival, " a source close to Aishwarya told.

"Anyone can go to the Cannes Film Festival as a visitor and that is how many in the film fraternity and normal public go from across the world."

Confusion ensued when L'Oreal issued a list of those ambassadors that were to represent the brand at the French festival and Sonam's name was missing from it. This, despite a formal announcement made by the company officials on Sonam's presence at the Cannes at a press conference in Mumbai on May 10.

Sonam, who was earlier set to leave for Cannes Monday and was excited to rub shoulders with Aishwarya and Hollywood A-listers like Elizabeth Banks and Eva Longoria, finally did not go for the film festival when company officials asked her to stay back.

According to media reports released thereafter, Aishwarya was not very upbeat about the fact that Sonam would share the same stage with her as the face of L'Oreal and asked company officials to deny her the opportunity of being there.

But clarifying their decision of holding back Sonam to go for Cannes, a spokesperson from L'Oreal said in a press release: "We do not want to take part in or encourage any controversy involving our spokespeople.

There were adverse reports in certain sections of media after some comments by Sonam Kapoor, which were presented out of context.

"Following this, in order to avoid further escalation, we have advised Sonam not to go to Cannes as was planned earlier, bearing in mind that there would be more interesting opportunities for future appearances in Europe for her."