Inside downfall of Cannes Film Festival as A-list actors left furious by influx of reality stars
CANNES Film Festival was once the Mediterranean jewel in Hollywood’s crown, with elite, A-List stars desperate to get an invite to the coveted red carpet premieres.
But my insiders who headed over to the film festival told me it now resembles something you might find for sale on Temu: cheap, tacky and lacking any real substance.
“Cannes has become a circus,” my disgruntled film insider told me from the Marriott Hotel, where actors like Kevin Costner and Zoe Saldana were staying for the 77th festival.
“You look in one direction and it’s Ekin-Su from Love Island, turn the other way and you see Molly-Mae.
“It’s not that these celebs aren’t welcome in Cannes, it’s just the Film Festival has lost that Hollywood appeal. Everywhere you turn there is an influencer taking photos.
“Nothing is exclusive in Cannes any more, it’s a free-for-all.”
The festival was once world renowned for its carefully curated programme of films which made the careers of directors, with Sean Baker picking up the top prize, the Palme d’Or, this year for his film Anora.
Tickets used to be like gold-dust too, with only the specially invited able to walk alongside — albeit behind a rope — with the creme de la creme of the acting world.
But amid the sea of influencers and supermodels who flocked to the annual AmFar Gala, including Bella Hadid, Helena Christensen and Heidi Klum, those on the inside said the event has lost its exclusive charm.
Director Shaunak Sen, whose film All That Breathes won the coveted Golden Eye Award in 2022, said people had forgotten what Cannes was supposed to be about.
He added: “I have no grudge or issue at all towards anybody going there, whether it be content creators or influencers.”
“The main thing is to try to not displace attention from the central core of the festival, which is cinema.
“The makers of cinema need to be respected.”
‘The party was chaos, not class’
Away from the red carpet events and on to the once near-impossible to access parties, like those held by fashion houses such as Dior or brands including Nespresso and Magnum.
Unsurprisingly, every Tom, Dick and Harry was there.
Our Cannes insider said: “Campari was chaos not class.
“They hosted what was billed as an exclusive party in a beach suite but they ended up giving out hundreds of wrist bands.
“People were barging around on Boulevard de la Croisette (the main drag) and jostling to get in. There’s no glamour when someone’s
“There’s no glamour when someone’s got a selfie stick out.”
The hotels favoured by the rich and famous, including the five-star hotels the Marriott and the Martinez, are also now hotbeds for the fame hungry.
Our insider adds: “Kevin [Costner] was in tears after the premiere of his film Horizon.
It meant so much to him and it was beautiful to see.
“But afterwards when he tried to get into the Marriott he had to dodge around influencers posing for silly photographs in the entrance hall.
“Before there would be awe at the sight of Hollywood stars like him.
“Now ‘guests’ are more interested in how many likes they get.
“It’s truly depressing that Cannes has come to this.”
I’ll definitely be swerving it next year.
R1 Wordplay
COLDPLAY added some extra shine to their song Magic after Chris Martin brought out Sabrina Carpenter to perform it with him at Radio 1’s Big Weekend.
The pair had a love in on stage in Luton, with Chris telling her: “Your lyrics are amazing, you’re amazing.”
Sabrina replied: “I love Coldplay. What is this?”
A pretty decent gig, that’s what it was.
As we revealed last week, Sabrina’s boyfriend, Saltburn star Barry Keoghan was at the show and I spotted him proudly watching her from the side of the stage.
Chris also put a special touch on the gig just for Luton footie fans, who feared the band would perform their 2000 hit Yellow – the colour of bitter rivals Watford.
Instead they performed . . . Orange, Luton’s shirt colour, which included the lyrics: “It’s hard to be a football fan here in Luton town.
“Sometimes you do the best you can, still you find you’re going down.
“We didn’t win all our matches, we didn’t win the cup. But when you get knocked down in Luton, you always get back up.
“So you can come in singing Yellow, that’s all right with me, I prefer a warmer colour spelt o-r-a-n-g-e.”
Sabrina also endeared herself to the Luton crowd in her bright orange dress.
DUA’S ON THE SLIDE
DUA LIPA has told how her dancers give it so much welly on stage she’s been sent flying after slipping in their pools of sweat.
It’s enough to make me gag.
Dua told radio station Siriux XM: “I’ve fallen over quite a few times.
“I fell over on my tour once in Barcelona, once in Milan on the same spot, it was just the hottest week in Europe. Some of my dancers were sweating a little bit extra.
“I slipped on a little sweat puddle and we kind of had to change the choreography so I don’t get a puddle of sweat where I’m about to start dancing.”
Hopefully she cracks out some cans of deodorant for her next gig in Berlin on June 5.
YOU could see a very familiar face in the I’m A Celebrity jungle later this year.
Lily Allen has admitted she would love to head to Australia with Ant & Dec for a Bushtucker Trial.
Chatting about the show with Miquita Oliver on their podcast, Miquita said: “In times of my career being in the doldrum dead-out like nothingville I’ve been asked to do I’m a Celeb.
“I got that call, every year for six. And I always said no for reasons of self-worth.”
Lily replied: “Don’t knock it. I like I’m A Celebrity. I’d go on I’m A Celebrity.”
But Miquita told her: “I don’t want to be on TV that badly. I don’t want to put myself through all that torturous s**t?”
Lily replied: “Don’t want to eat a kangaroo ball?”
Come on Miquita, it can’t be that bad.
BOYZLIFE JOIN FOOTIE CLUB
MOVE over Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell, there are some new celebrity football club owners in town.
Boyzone duo Shane Lynch and Keith Duffy and Westlife pal Brian McFadden have snapped up . . . Chorley FC.
And they are hoping to turn around the fortunes of the non-league Lancashire club by getting some of their celebrity mates to watch games.
But unlike big names David Beckham and Paul Rudd, who have been spotted watching Ryan’s Wrexham, Chorley fans will be getting names who are a little more down to earth.
In an exclusive chat, Keith joked: “We’ll have Dean Gaffney and Dane Bowers, all the big A-listers.
“Our friends are the people we worked with growing up. We’re not into the celebrity friends thing.”
On the chances it will provide, Keith continued: “I went from selling vegetables and potatoes at the side of the road, a waiter, a barman, I worked all sorts of jobs.
“Then to get the opportunities Boyzone gave me to travel around the world on private jets and stay in five-star hotels and get to meet my heroes, it was life-changing.
“If we have any ability to bring what we’ve learned through our success to a football club and to lend our support and weight to try to bring some media attention and put that fire in the players of the team, to make them feel like they’re working to achieve something, it’s very exciting.”
Away from their footballing ambitions, Brian and Keith are busy touring as Boyzlife – a duo with 21 No1 singles between them.
They will head on the road next January, with tickets on sale now, and they have promised to perform all the hits.
Brian admitted: “There was a long time when we had that attitude like, ‘I’m sick of singing that song’.
“I detest singing Mandy, but when we sing Mandy, the fans love it.
“We took it out of the set for a little bit and the fans went bananas and were on social media like, ‘We were waiting for it all night!’.”
LOREEN IS GOING IT ALONE
EUROVISION star Loreen has followed in Sam Ryder’s footsteps and ditched her record label to become an independent artist.
I’ve learned the Swedish singer, who won the contest for a second time with Tattoo last year, has split from Universal Records for the release of her latest single Forever.
And she reckons it was a sign from the universe which led to her to going it alone.
In an exclusive interview, she said: “Whenever I decide things, it just turns out really bad so, hey, it just happened. It happened really fast and was very beautiful.
“The people I have around me now are so amazing.
“You know when you find your people and they have the same tempo as you, or the same way of seeing the world as you? Things just flow very beautifully.
“So it wasn’t like, ‘I want that record label’, I didn’t decide anything, it honestly just happened.
“It feels natural, it feels like home’. That’s how you know you’re in the right place.”
I told last year how Sam had split from Parlophone.
He went on to have No2 single You’re Christmas To Me.
Hopefully Loreen’s fortunes follow suit.
MELANIE Blatt is eyeing up a third shot at a solo career but her All Saints bandmate Nicole Appleton said she’d be up for getting the group back for one big show at Glastonbury.
“If people are hungry enough for it, then definitely,” Nicole told me in an exclusive chat.
Though she added: “I’m very different to when I was 20, and you just don’t have the same sort of sexiness.
“Singing Booty Calls sometimes makes me feel a little bit different now.”
Nicki’s so slick
IT’S lucky Nicki Minaj got her bags back from the coppers in Amsterdam – because she went through nine outfit changes when she finally hit the stage in Birmingham.
After her Manchester show got cancelled while she was helping police with their inquiries, the American singer went all out to impress, even switching up her wigs six times.
She opened with I’m The Best before playing hits Harijuko and Save Me, before handing a fan in the crowd $1,000 dollarsfor rapping the entire verse of Bang Bang.
Oddly, Nicki also revealed she has a close pal of Diana Princess of Wales – and asked fans to have a moment of silence on behalf of her “dear friend”.
Insiders told me Nicki had promised to put on a big show to make up for the Manchester debacle and she certainly gave it her all – with a two-hour set.
When she finally manages to reschedule her concert in Manchester, I am sure it’ll be one to remember.