ALISON BOSHOFF: Has the Taylor Swift curse struck again? Superstar's ex Joe Alwyn appears to be out of the cosy club run by Oscar-winning director Yorgos Lanthimos
Has Joe Alwyn paid a higher price than we thought for the end of his romance with Taylor Swift?
The British actor, who dated superstar singer Swift from 2016 to 2023, appears to be out of the cosy club run by Oscar-winning director Yorgos Lanthimos now that he and Taylor have split up.
Lanthimos, the man behind The Favourite and Poor Things, was in Cannes promoting his new film Kinds Of Kindness, which stars his muse, A-lister Emma Stone, plus others including Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe and Alwyn.
On Friday evening last week, Stone and Alwyn and the rest of the cast walked the famed red carpet at the Palais. But he and Stone — who is Taylor Swift’s best friend — kept their distance.
Afterwards, there was a small party for cast, crew, and Searchlight bigwigs at the Carlton Hotel, attended by everyone keen to raise a glass to the new movie.
Bad blood? Plemons, Lanthimos, Stone, Dafoe and Alwyn
Joe Alwyn (pictured) dated superstar singer Swift from 2016 to 2023
Everyone except Joe, that is. Instead, he popped up for a late night drink and a dance at the Charles Finch filmmakers dinner in Antibes, which was also attended by Barbie director Greta Gerwig.
The following day there was a rather awkward photocall and press conference in which a giggly Stone was super tight with Lanthimos — and Alwyn was left looking glum on the sidelines.
It’s a shame, since Stone and Alywn have known each other since meeting on the set of The Favourite in 2017.
It has since been announced that Stone is doing another movie with Lanthimos, called Bugonia. There is no role for Alwyn.
Kinds Of Kindness earned good reviews in Cannes but some are uneasy about the drug rape of Stone’s character by Alwyn’s character, and about the sheer number of unconscious, naked women in the picture. There is also a scene in which Stone cuts off some of her fingers, which wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
Speaking in Cannes, Alwyn, 33, said of the film: ‘You have to try not to unpack it all too much. You have to trust him [Lanthimos].
‘It is bizarre and strange and bonkers and special, but one of the reasons I love his films is because you feel it first, before you try to understand it all.’
Fans have speculated that some tracks on Swift’s new album, The Tortured Poets Department, reflects bitterness over their break-up last year.
Prince Albert of Monaco is very proud of his Irish heritage, thanks to his late mother, actress Grace Kelly, whose grandad was born in County Mayo. His Serene Highness wore a shamrock tie and lapel pin for the documentary Quintessentially Irish and also claimed that Guinness was ‘the family drink’.
He said of his mother: ‘She had a passion for everything of Irish culture. She would go out of her way and take time to explain these things to us. What she would be very proud of is setting up the Princess Grace Irish Library. It’s a wonderful way to celebrate my mother’s legacy.’
Prince Albert, whose wife Charlene also has Irish ancestry, added: ‘Our treasure is a first edition of Ulysses. That’s a copy I’d like to finish some day... Bit tough to get through in one go, so maybe when I have more time...’
The film, which also stars Pierce Brosnan, Jeremy Irons and Usain Bolt, had a special screening in the Palace in Monaco this week.
Last year, everyone was talking about Messi, the Border Collie in Anatomy Of A Fall. This year, another pooch, Cosmos (played by rescue dog Kodi), takes centre stage in a Swiss film about a dog going on trial for his life after biting three people.
Writer Laetitia Dosch conceived Dog On Trial as an allegory about how society treats women as well as a commentary on animal rights. She says: ‘A woman has to behave a certain way that society wants to see and that’s not in my nature. That’s what is happening with this dog — he bites because he protects his food like a wolf would do.’
Writer Laetitia Dosch poses with rescue dog Kodi who plays Cosmos in Dog On Trial
You might think that Pretty Woman — the sex-worker-snags-millionaire romance from 1990, when sexual politics were so very different — is just about the last story Hollywood would want to revisit.
But Anora, starring rising actress Mikey Madison, does just that (albeit with a different tone and outcome) and is winning rave reviews for Madison’s gritty, sassy performance in the title role.
The 25-year-old American actress played Charles Manson acolyte Sadie Atkins in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, and was memorably dispatched by Leonardo di Caprio with a flame-thrower.
This new role was written specifically for her by director Sean Baker. Anora, or Ani, is a young woman of Uzbek descent who meets a young, handsome and very rich Russian in a lapdancing club in Manhattan where she works. Romance blossoms and they marry in Vegas — but her new husband is a delusional cokehead who heads for the hills once his parents find out and send in their goons to sort out the mess.
Madison says she can’t really relate to Ani, but adds: ‘I can’t say that I’ve ever played a character that feels close to me as a person.’
Anora, starring rising actress Mikey Madison (pictured), is winning rave reviews for Madison’s gritty, sassy performance in the title role
The cast of Andrea Arnold’s drama Bird let loose with a line dance — to the strains of Cotton Eye Joe — on the beach after the film’s premiere, echoing what happens at the end of the movie.
Arnold is renowned for her use of music both on film sets and in her finished pictures, and her brother served as DJ at the small but lively party.
The following day one of the stars, Barry Keoghan, revealed that all the actors had been sent a Spotify playlist by Arnold, but he’d been unable to listen to it because he didn’t have the app. He added that he thought he was ‘a bad dancer’, which comes as news to those of us spellbound by his naked performance at the end of Saltburn.
The cast of Andrea Arnold’s drama Bird. From left to right: Jason Buda, Nykiya Adams, Andrea Arnold, Franz Rogowski and Barry Keoghan
Demi Moore’s pointy-shouldered Schiaparelli dress, worn to the premiere of The Substance, was so spectacular (and spectacularly asymmetrical) that organisers had to leave the seat to the left of her free during the screening of the film, so she wouldn’t stab anyone.
Demi Moore wears a pointy-shouldered Schiaparelli dress to the premiere of The Substance
AFTER ‘Dearth In Venice’ — the label given to last summer’s film festival, which was short on stars thanks to the Hollywood actors’ strike — comes cheese-paring on Cannes’ legendary La Croisette.
With the global film marketplace down 20 per cent from pre-pandemic levels, and no sign of a bounceback, the spend-spend-spend ethos seems to be a thing of the past.
Last year, in Cannes, the struggling Warner Bros studio threw a lavish party at the Hotel du Cap with lobster rolls, rivers of champagne, boss David Zaslav (sporting a cream suit) — and Scarlett Johansson. At a time of lay-offs, it all felt a bit Marie Antoinette. This year, everyone is insisting that parties be ‘very small’ — even the Warner Bros do for Mad Max: Furiosa, which was held on the beach and co-hosted by Dior. One shocked guest reported that they were handed cubed carrots and celery sticks as a nibble at that wingding. Meanwhile, Sony’s lavish party at the Hotel Martinez last week had wonderful sushi, but wine rather than champagne.
Salma Hayek and Francois-Henri Pinault attend the 2024 Kering Women In Motion Awards
And the Vanity Fair bash on Wednesday was held on the beach, rather than — as was the case in the past — the Hotel du Cap.
The one exception was Kering’s Women In Motion party, which is paid for by the luxury fashion group and so managed to avoid the chilly headwinds. Some 250 guests dined under the stars at Place de la Castre, hosted by Francois-Henri Pinault, the boss of Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga . . . and husband of film star Salma Hayek.