| | | | | | What's news: Meryl Streep snags the rare aware that has eluded her, revisiting Cannes for the first time in 35 years. Demi Moore is all over the Croisette. Ben Platt reveals the psychedelic influence behind his new album celebrating queer love. Disney dominates ratings thanks to a record-breaking NCAA broadcast. C-SPAN gets a new CEO. Tim Roth will play Henry Kissinger. — Julian Sancton
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Greta Gerwig Presides Over a Seamless Cannes Kickoff ►THR's crack team is in Cannes for the 77th edition of the world's greatest film festival. Read our day 2 digital daily here.
—“This is holy to me. Art is sacred, and films are sacred.”
The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival is officially underway in the South of France as A-listers and auteurs converged at the Palais’ Grand Theatre Lumiere on Tuesday for a typically glamorous opening ceremony. Rain clouds were not the only threat hanging over the proceedings: From a possible strike and a fresh #MeToo discussion in France to the ongoing conflict in Gaza, festival officials have faced many questions in the days and hours leading up to Tuesday night. But it did not impact what was an emotional and mostly seamless program with an emphasis on the power of cinema thanks to Cannes jury president Greta Gerwig, Meryl Streep and Call My Agent star Camille Cottin, who hosted the opening ceremony. The story.
—Deftly handled. At the lively press conference preceding the opening ceremony, it didn’t take long before the assembled stars were pelted with questions about various fraught political issues swirling around this year’s edition of the fest. Jury president Gerwig avoided the mine field with grace, shifting the focus back to film: “The very act of watching cinema and engaging with it seriously is part of the discussion of what's difficult [in the world]." The story.
—About time! Meryl Streep, the most celebrated screen actress of her time, added another prize to her collection — one of the few that she hadn’t received already — when she was presented with an honorary Palme d’Or during the opening ceremony of the 77th Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday night. Streep’s only prior visit to the Croisette was 35 years ago when she accompanied the film A Cry in the Dark to the fest. Her performance was, naturally, recognized by the jury with the best actress prize. The story. |
Willem Dafoe Knows “the A to Z of Cannes Emotions” ► Yes he Cannes! By contrast with Streep, Dafoe might as well be an honorary Cannes resident, given how many times he’s graced the Croisette. He returns this month with Yorgos Lanthimos’ much buzzed-about Kinds of Kindness, a surrealist fable set in the present day, and speaks with THR's Patrick Brzeski about his relentlessly inspired approach to his craft and why he wore an orange Speedo to "amuse" Lanthimos. The story.
PLUS: In other Dafoe news, Apple landed Mount Everest drama Tenzing, starring the actor and Tom Hiddleston. The titular role — of Edmund Hillary’s Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay — has yet to be cast. The story.
—Can ‘Furiosa’ Keep Warner Bros.’ Festival Hot Streak Alive? Ahead of the world premiere of George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga in Cannes, all eyes will be on Warner Bros. to see if the studio will again demonstrate its talent for using Europe’s A-list festivals to catapult its most challenging blockbusters to commercial success and critical acclaim. From Dune to Joker, the studio has been uniquely successful at launching its most artistically challenging blockbusters at A-list European fests. Scott Roxborough has the analysis.
—Give me (Demi) Moore. Don’t be surprised if you see Demi Moore on the Croisette — like, a lot. The veteran actress is set to make a mark at the Cannes Film Festival this year with a film in competition — Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance opposite Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid — and a packed schedule to match. The story.
—“I was never aware of any complaints of harassment.” Megalopolis executive co-producer Darren Demetre denied claims published this week that director Francis Ford Coppola tried to kiss female extras while on set for the film, which premieres at Cannes. Demetre spoke with THR after reports in The Guardian alleged that Coppola demonstrated “old school” behavior around women while on set of his Megalopolis passion project. The story. |
‘Vanderpump Rules’ Reunion Revisits Scandoval ►“She’s a fucking coward.” The Vanderpump Rules reunion kicked off Tuesday night with the first part of what promises to be a fiery three-part special. When the cast gathered one year after Scandoval, former partners Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval finally sat in the same semi-circle and addressed each other’s presence for the first time since last season’s reunion. As recent cover star Andy Cohen sat down with Sandoval, Madix, Tom Schwartz, Katie Maloney, Lala Kent, Scheana Shay and husband Brock Davies, and James Kennedy, the reunion host dove right into some of the lingering legal issues for this now-fractured group — including a revenge porn lawsuit filed by their former costar Rachel Leviss. The story.
—Disney dominates. New data from Nielsen shows that Disney grabs the biggest share of TV viewing among all media companies in the United States — and has for the past six months. That’s thanks in large part to ESPN’s airing of the most watched single telecast in April — the record-breaking NCAA women’s basketball championship game, which clocked in at 18.87 million viewers. YouTube comes a close second. The story.
—C-SPAN Gets Feist-y. The reliably sober chronicler of D.C. deliberations has found its new CEO, and it is a familiar face to the world of TV news. Sam Feist, the longtime Washington D.C. bureau chief of CNN, has been selected to be the cable-funded non-profit’s next chief executive. Feist has led CNN’s D.C. bureau since 2011, and started at the cable channel in 1990. The story. |
Amazon Upfront: An A-List Gauntlet Is Thrown ►Elle Woods (complete with chihuahua) leads an All-Star lineup. Reese Witherspoon hosted the Amazon upfront, in character as her pink-clad Legally Blonde character, raising the bar for such presentations with A-list assistance from Alicia Keys, Jake Gyllenhaal, Alan Ritchson, Will Ferrell, and Octavia Spencer. After the traditional film and TV portions had wrapped, Roger Federer received maybe the biggest applause of the morning. His retirement documentary, Twelve Final Days, bows on the streamer in June. The story. More from Amazon:
• A Legally Blonde prequel series is a go.
• Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Tomb Raider Series scores a pickup.
• A Road House sequel with Jake Gyllenhaal is in the works.
—“Huge Business Opportunity.” Telemundo’s upfront, held inside The Shed’s eight-story glass-encased McCourt space, focused on its recent ratings wins over arch-rival TelevisaUnivision, with some not so subtle jabs at its competitor. Saturday Night Live star Marcello Hernandez opened the event with a routine about growing up Latino: “The only American people that we had in Miami when I was little were the accident attorneys on TV that were trying to get us as clients.” The story. |
The Most Controversial Eurovision Ever ►A contest that organizers “might be in a hurry to forget.” THR’s Lily Ford offers a savvy postgame analysis on the chaotic competition, in which the winner — Switzerland — seemed to be an afterthought. The focus remained on the divisiveness of this year’s edition, in which the popularity of the Israeli contestant, Eden Golan, prompted threats of a boycott, and reports of unrest and backstage misconduct were rampant. The story.
—Of love and mushrooms. Ben Platt’s new album, Honeymind, was inspired by hike in the woods, with assistance from chocolate mushrooms. The Emmy, Tony and Grammy winner talks toTHR’s Music Man Mesfin Fekadu about singing proudly about queer love, how he wished he had an album like this as a teen, wanting to play Paul Simon in a biopic and losing out on a role for Lena Dunham’s Girls years ago. The story. |
Cannes Review: “The Second Act” ►“It doesn’t get more meta than this.” Jordan Mintzer reviews Cannes opener The Second Act, starring Lea Seydoux and Louis Garrel, a movie-within-a-movie about making movies. “Like Truffaut, [director Quentin Dupieux] lampoons the infallible egos of some of France’s most famous actors, revealing the sparks that fly when those egos come crashing together on set.” The review.
In other news...
— Baby Reindeer, The Curse, Shogun among inaugural Gotham TV awards nominees
—Bruce Springsteen concert documentary coming to Disney+, Hulu
—Tim Roth to play Henry Kissinger in political satire Kissinger Takes Paris
—Ryan Murphy selling Richard Neutra house in Bel-Air, formerly owned by Tom Ford and Ellen DeGeneres, for $33.9M
—ABC reveals the next Golden Bachelorette
—Nobel-winning short story master Alice Munro dies at 92
What else we're reading...
—Emily Shugerman explains how the Miss USA Pageant become such a hot mess. [The Daily Beast]
—Angie Harmon opens iup about the "unfathomable pain" of losing her dog after he was shot by an Instacart driver.[People]
—Abbey Stone reveals the real-life diet of Tracker star Justin Hartley, who will wake up at 3 a.m. to work out. [GQ]
—Steve Rose has an in-depth account of Francis Ford Coppola's 40-year battle to make Megalopolis. [The Guardian]
—Alissa Wilkinson examines the power of Planet of the Apes. [NYT]
Today's birthdays:
David Krumholz (45), Jamie-Lynn Sigler (43), Chazz Palminteri(72), Grant Heslov (60), David Charvet (51), Ahmet Zappa (50), Alexandra Breckenridge (42), Brenda Baake (60), Jack Mulhern (30) |
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