Cate Blanchett said the #MeToo movement “got killed very quickly” in Hollywood, speaking Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival.
In a wide-ranging staged conversation, Blanchett lamented that the tide of #MeToo has been turned in Hollywood, where she has been outspoken about gender equality.
“It got killed very quickly, which I think is interesting,” said Blanchett.
“There are a lot of people with platforms who are able to speak up with relative safety and say this has happened to me,” Blanchett said. “And the so-called average woman on the street, person on the street, is saying MeToo. Why does that get shut down?”
In 2018, when she was president of the jury in Cannes, Blanchett took part in a red-carpet protest. She and 81 other women appeared on the steps of the Palais des Festivals, symbolically representing the number of female director who were selected for Cannes’ competition lineup. Over the same period, 1,866 male directors had been selected.
“I’m still on film sets and I do the headcount every day. There’s 10 women and there’s 75 men every morning,” Blanchett said.
“I love men, but what happens is the jokes become the same,’ she said. “You just have to brace yourself slightly, and I’m used to that, but it just gets boring for everybody when you walk into a homogeneous workplace.” (JapanToday)
Hollywood star John Travolta was given a surprise lifetime achievement award at the Cannes Film Festival Friday as he premiered the first movie he has ever directed.
The man who became an icon overnight with “Saturday Night Fever” was visibly moved as he accepted the honorary Palme d’Or before the screening of “Propeller One-Way Night Coach”, which is based on a book about his first experience in an airliner.
“I just can’t believe it. This is beyond the Oscar, really,” he said as he accepted the tribute.
The festival has been laying on the love for Hollywood legends this year despite the big studios staying away, with honorary Palmes for Barbra Streisand and Peter Jackson as well as a gala screening for Vin Diesel and the stars of “The Fast and the Furious” franchise to mark its 25th anniversary.
Travolta — who has never won an Oscar — revived his flagging career with his iconic turn as hitman Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction”, which won the festival’s Palme d’Or top prize in 1994.
Many critics hailed it as his greatest performance, one that has since gone down in cinema history.
“My favorite movies in the history of my life have always been the winners of the Palme d’Or,” Travolta said.
Cannes had kept the award under wraps until the actor walked on stage for the premiere wearing a black suit and a white beret.
The 72-year-old said he had been hugely surprised to have his directorial debut, which stars his daughter Ella Bleu as an air hostess, accepted at the world’s most prestigious film festival.
When Cannes director Thierry Fremaux told him in November that “it would be the first film ever accepted that early I cried like a baby,” he said.
“I had no expectation my film would be accepted,” he added.
“Propeller One-Way Night Coach” is a one-hour self-financed autobiographical tale about Travolta’s flight as an eight-year-old with his actress mother from New York to Los Angeles in 1962.
“This is the blueprint of my life,” said the actor, a lifelong aeroplane nut, who narrates the story. What you’ll see in the movie is completely my perspective on what I witnessed people go through.
“Everyone that was in the movie is sitting in the audience right there, my family,” he added.
Travolta was bitten by the acting bug early.
Born in New Jersey to the an Irish mother and an Italian-American father who ran a tyre store, he left school at 16 to try his hand at acting and dancing.
Two years later he landed his first big stage role in the Broadway musical “Grease”.
He was nominated for an Oscar in 1978 for playing disco-dancing champion Tony Manero in the low-budget “Saturday Night Fever” and was launched into the Hollywood stratosphere by his role in the movie version of “Grease” the same year.
The rights to “Propeller One-Way Night Coach” have been bought by Apple, Travolta said.
Asked if he would direct again, he said he had watched all sorts of directors as an actor.
“I really believe that I can navigate around all of that, and anything I would choose to do, but I really feel I have to have passion about the material to do again what I’ve done here,” he said. (JapanToday)
After two weeks trailing “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” the Michael Jackson biopic “Michael” reclaimed the No. 1 spot at the North American box office with $26.1 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The Lionsgate movie is in rarefied territory, having brought in $703.9 million worldwide and counting. It still has a way to go to surpass the current reigning champion of musical biopics: “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The Queen movie grossed over $910.8 million worldwide.
There were also several newcomers in the mix this weekend, including the relationship horror movie “Obsession,” the Guy Ritchie action pic “In the Grey” and the revenge saga “Is God Is,” but the holdovers continued to draw the largest crowds. The power dynamics are poised to shift when “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” hits theaters next weekend.
Disney and 20th Century Studios’ “The Devil Wears Prada 2” took second place in its third weekend with $18 million, bringing its domestic total to $175.9 million and worldwide earnings to $546.2 million.
“Obsession” topped the newcomers, exceeding expectations with an estimated $16.1 million from 2,615 theaters. YouTube breakout Curry Barker wrote and directed the thriller in which a hopeless romantic gets more than he bargained for when his crush returns his affections. The film received positive reviews from both critics (94% on Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences (A- CinemaScore). Perhaps more notable is that Barker made the film for $750,000. Focus Features acquired it out of the Toronto International Film Festival last fall for around $15 million.
Lisa Bunnell, president of domestic distribution for Focus Features, attributed some of “Obsession’s” success to audiences craving fresh, original voices at the movies. It’s also getting an infusion by word-of-mouth, with younger audiences making plans to go back with friends. Horror movies don’t often get CinemaScores in the A- range, but “Obsession” is in good company with another recent hit: “Weapons.”
“I’m expecting a really strong holdover,” Bunnell said.
Fourth place at the box office this weekend went to “Mortal Kombat II,” which fell 65% in its second weekend to $13.4 million in domestic ticket sales. Globally, it has made $101.2 million from 80 markets.
Amazon MGM Studios had three movies in the top 10, including “The Sheep Detectives” in fifth place, “Project Hail Mary” in seventh place and “Is God Is” rounding out the top 10.
“The Sheep Detectives” enjoyed a slim 33% drop from its first weekend, taking in an additional $10.2 million and bringing its running total to $30.5 million. “Project Hail Mary,” which is now available to rent or buy at home, brought in another $3.4 million in its ninth weekend in theaters. “Is God Is,” Aleshea Harris’s adaptation of her Obie-winning play about twin sisters ( Kara Young and Mallori Johnson ) on a quest to find and kill their abusive father made $2.2 million in its first weekend in theaters. It has a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Meanwhile, the action caper “In the Grey,” released by Black Bear, made $3 million from 2,018 locations. Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal and Eiza González star in the film about a team of elite operatives on an impossible mission. It currently carries a 44% on Rotten Tomatoes and a B CinemaScore.
There were also several high-profile re-releases in theaters this weekend, including “Top Gun” which made $3.1 million, and “Shrek” which earned $1.3 million.
Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends for Comscore, noted that “Prada,” “Michael” and “Top Gun” all making the top 10 show “nostalgia is on full display.”
“What’s old is new again and audiences clearly love it,” he said. (JapanToday)
Bulgaria won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time on Saturday in a final overshadowed by five countries’ boycott over Gaza, claiming a dramatic victory despite another big public vote for Israel that again secured it second place.
The garish and usually good-natured competition involving pop acts from countries across Europe and beyond, now in its 70th year, was plunged into crisis by a dispute over Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, a response to the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.
The public broadcasters of heavyweights Spain, the Netherlands and Ireland, as well as Iceland and Slovenia, chose not to take part in protest at Israel’s participation.
Israel has alleged a global smear campaign against it. Its performance at the final was not, however, marred by any obvious protests, unlike Tuesday’s semifinal.
“This is unbelievable. I don’t even know what’s going on right now,” Bulgaria’s entrant Dara told a press conference after winning with her thumping, crowd-pleasing dance track “Bangaranga” that avoided politics altogether.
The song touches on themes of empowerment and surrendering to the night. It also left many puzzled as to its meaning.
“Bangaranga is a feeling that everybody gets in themselves. It’s the moment that you choose to be in love and not fear,” Dara said when asked to explain the song in the “green room” where artists await the results.
“This is a special energy … Once you feel (at) one with nature and your universe, you feel the harmony that you can be whatever you want to be and that everything is possible,” she said. (JapanToday)
The UK’s economy saw surprise growth in March, despite the month seeing the first impact of the Iran war.
The economy grew by 0.3%, confounding analysts’ forecasts of a small contraction, although the effects of the conflict are expected to hit growth later this year.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said there were signs that consumers and businesses brought forward spending in March due to fears over future price rises brought about by the war.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the growth figures showed the government had “the right economic plan”, but warned a Labour leadership contest risked “plunging the country into chaos”.
Economic growth in the first three months of the year was 0.6%, the ONS said, led by a rebound in areas such as retailing and construction.
The quarterly growth is the fastest for a year, and is also the highest of all the G7 countries to have reported data so far. Last month, the IMF warned that the UK would be the hardest hit from the war of the world’s advanced economies.
The ONS said there had been signs of so-called front-loading in March, with some businesses it surveyed “cited activity being bought forward in anticipation of increases in costs because of conflict in Iran”.
One such area was car sales and leasing. The ONS said retailers had reported that motorists were stocking up on fuel as prices rose sharply.
Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, said some drivers may have been given a “nudge” to buy an electric vehicle (EV) in March because of rising fuel prices.
Yael Selfin, KPMG’s chief economist, said the impact of the Iran war was likely to be more pronounced in the second quarter of the year.
“Households are under renewed pressure as energy and petrol prices climb. Food costs are also expected to rise, with disruptions to fertilisers and other essential inputs,” she said.
“These increases are likely to weigh on disposable incomes, dampening demand and posing a significant challenge to economic activity over the coming months.”
Siblings Kennady and Boston Mace run a play centre in Chelmsford, Essex. They have noticed how families are having to cut down on spending.
“We’ve got our own children so we appreciate how expensive a day out can be,” Boston said.
“Everything’s going up… we’ve got a limit on what we can charge so the profit margin is getting smaller and smaller.”
Kennady added that where families used to use the centre as an all-inclusive venue, there are more visitors paying for activities but not food – “which is understandable … money’s a lot tighter”.
Boston said the centre has endured the Covid pandemic, a fire, a flood and a theft, but “this seems [to be] the most difficult period we’ve had” in their 13 years in business.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the BBC the economy “is growing strongly” and that she would set out more support for families and businesses affected by the war next week.
But in a reference to the current speculation about the prime minister’s position, Reeves said: “We shouldn’t put [economic stability] at risk by plunging the country into chaos at a time when there is conflict in the world but also at a time when our plan to grow the economy is starting to bear fruit.”
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said the “chaos surrounding the Labour leadership is destabilising Britain’s economy”.
“This week, borrowing costs hit their highest level in 30 years as Labour leadership contenders competed to promise even more spending, borrowing and fantasy economics.”
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said the latest growth figure was “already in the rear-view mirror” because of the war.
“Instead of tackling the cost of living, the government is consumed by infighting.” (BBC)
WhatsApp has introduced private chats with its AI chatbot which not even the tech company will be able to read in a new “incognito” mode.
It means neither the user nor the AI’s responses will be monitored if the feature is activated, and past conversations will disappear from the chat for the user.
Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, said he felt people wanted to have private conversations with AI on sensitive subjects including health, relationships and finances and didn’t want them to be accessible.
But a cyber security expert has told the BBC this could lead to a lack of accountability for WhatsApp if things go wrong, as they would have no access to chat history.
WhatsApp is owned by Meta, which also owns Instagram, Facebook and Messenger.
When Meta AI was added to WhatsApp last year, it was criticised by some users angry at not being able to turn it off.
But in May 2025, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg said Meta AI had reached a billion users across its apps.
“We’ve heard from a lot of people that they feel some discomfort about sharing [personal] information with the company, yet they want the answers,” Cathcart said of the latest announcement.
Currently most AI companies do store some data from chatbot use, and outside of businesses who pay premiums for enterprise accounts, that data can also be used to train future models of the product.
Zuckerberg described it as the “first major AI product where there is no log of your conversations stored on servers”.
The technology behind WhatsApp’s incognito mode is not the same as the end-to-end encryption the platform uses to protect other messages, but it is “the equivalent,” Cathcart added.
Prof Alan Woodward, a cyber security expert at Surrey University, said there was a low risk of compromising WhatsApp’s existing security by introducing a second system.
However there are concerns about how incognito mode could hide AI malfunction or abuse.
A number of AI companies, including OpenAI and Google, have been the subject of wrongful death lawsuits.
Woodward said there was a risk of a lack of accountability for the AI’s responses.
“Personally I think what you ask an AI should remain private as some people ask it very personal matters – but you are placing a great deal of trust in the AI not to lead users astray,” he told the BBC. (BBC)
Manchester City kept the pressure on Arsenal at the top of the Premier League with a 3-0 win over Brentford, while Liverpool were booed off after a 1-1 draw against struggling Chelsea on Saturday.
With three games of the season left for both title contenders, City closed to within two points of the Gunners, who face a tricky trip to relegation-threatened West Ham on Sunday.
After a dramatic 3-3 draw at Everton on Monday, Pep Guardiola’s men could not afford another slip up if they were to retain hope of a seventh title in nine years.
A resolute Brentford, still in the running for European football themselves next season, held out until the hour mark when the in-form Jeremy Doku curled into the top corner.
Erling Haaland backheeled in a second to move four goals clear of Brentford’s Igor Thiago in the battle for the Golden Boot.
Haaland then turned provider for Omar Marmoush to score what could be a vital third in stoppage time.
“We will see, it is not in our hands,” said Guardiola. “We will do our job and wait.”
City cut the goal difference gap on Arsenal to one and now must hope the Hammers cause an upset in a huge clash at both ends of the table at the London Stadium.
Arsenal face already-relegated Burnley and Crystal Palace, days before the play in the Conference League final, in their final two games. (JapanToday)
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have been holding talks in the Chinese capital, Beijing, with a raft of meetings and events taking place on Thursday and Friday.
The US leader was greeted with a gun salute, cheering children and a tour of the stunning 15th Century Temple of Heaven.
Trump is also joined in Beijing by tech bosses, including Tesla’s Elon Musk and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and Trump’s son Eric.
On Thursday evening, a lavish banuquet at the Great Hall of the People was held in honour of the occasion.
BBC reporters were able to see the banquet menu, with the main course including lobster in tomato soup, Beijing roast duck and pan-fried pork bun.
Dessert options included trumpet shell-shaped pastry and tiramisu.
In a banquet speech, President Xi called it a “historic visit”, adding “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” and “Make America great again” can go hand in hand.
China-US relations are the most important bilateral relations in the world, Xi says.
Their relations concern the well-being of the two countries of 1.7 billion population, and the interests of over 8 billion people in the world, he added.
Trump spoke, saying he received a “magnificent welcome like no other”.
He then invited Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to visit the White House on 24 September.
Among those spotted at Thurday’s banquet were Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Apple CEO Tim Cook, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Eric and Lara Trump.
Musk was accompanied by his son X Æ A-12.
Trump landed in Beijing on Wednesday evening, where he was greeted by youths waving American and Chinese flags as he walked the red carpet with Vice President of China Han Zheng.
On Thursday, Trump was welcomed at an arrival ceremony with Xi at China’s Great Hall of the People.
After shaking hands, Trump and Xi walked the red carpet and inspected Chinese troops who lined up in impeccably neat rows.
Dozens of children also lined up along the red carpet and waved mini flags and bouquets.
Joining Trump on his trip to China are some of the US’s top business leaders, including Tim Cook of Apple, Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, and Larry Fink of BlackRock.
Jensen Huang, the boss of Nvidia, a company which has been central to the US-China technology rivalry, was reportedly a last-minute addition. (BBC)
Tottenham Hotspur took a small and potentially crucial step towards retaining its Premier League status after drawing at home with Leeds United 1-1 on Monday.
Spurs, just above the drop zone, moved two points clear of relegation rival West Ham.
Tottenham went ahead in the 50th minute with a lovely strike by Mathys Tels.
However, Tels’ foul on Ethan Ampadu with 15 minutes left led to a Leeds penalty that Dominic Calvert-Lewin converted with aplomb.
Spurs takes on Chelsea away and Everton at home in their last two games, while West Ham is away at Newcastle before facing Leeds at home on the final day of the season.
One of the two will join the already relegated Burnley and Wolves in next season’s Championship.
Spurs came into the game on a high after two consecutive victories but though they dominated the first half in terms of possession and shots on goal they didn’t break the deadlock until five minutes into the second half.
Pedro Porro’s corner kick was cleared to an unmarked Tels, who coolly struck into the far corner of the net from 20 meters out. It was the center forward’s first goal since Jan. 7.
Tels, however, turned villain 24 minutes later when his high foot was adjudged to have made contact with Ethan Ampadu’s head inside the box.
The referee pointed to the spot and Calvert-Lewin, who was denied a first-half penalty after a video review, confidently dispatched the spot kick.
Both sides suffered through an edgy last few moments and a remarkable 15 minutes of added time but there were no more goals and Spurs, for whom goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky was outstanding. They will content themselves that their destiny remains in their hands.
“We played a good game but there was big pressure,” Tottenham coach Roberto De Zerbi said. “We didn’t play calmly. We wanted to win immediately without passes. When you are fighting for relegation you can’t play every game calmly.
“Leeds played a good game and we hope they play like that against West Ham in the next game.”
Spurs have taken eight out of a possible 12 points since De Zerbi’s debut defeat at Sunderland on April 12.
“We deserve to stay up,” he said. “We will fight until the end. . . . Even if we had won today it wouldn’t have been finished yet.”
Hull will play Southampton or Middlesbrough in the Championship playoff final after second half goals from Mo Belloumi and Joe Gelhardt gave it a 2-0 win over Millwall in London.
Belloumi’s 64th-minute strike with his left foot broke the deadlock in the second game of the two-leg affair and Gelhardt made sure with a low shot that squirmed past the Millwall goalkeeper.
The win means Hull have one match to secure a place in the Premier League for the first time since it was relegated in 2017. (JapanToday)
French President Emmanuel Macron urged investment in Africa on Monday as he co-hosted an economic summit in Kenya, after defending European involvement on the continent.
The European leader, speaking at the University of Nairobi, said Africa “needs investment to become more sovereign”, replacing aid with economic opportunities.
Speaking in French, Macron said that previously European chiefs would lecture African leaders on what they needed, but, “this is no longer what Africa needs or wants to hear”.
“That’s just as well, because we, too, no longer have the means, if we’re being honest,” he said.
Ahead of the summit, in an interview with the magazines Jeune Afrique and The Africa Report, the French leader said he first strongly condemned colonialism when he came to power in 2017.
In contrast, the United States and China were locked in a trade standoff, with no respect for the rules, he added.
On critical minerals and rare earths, China, he said, “operates according to a predatory logic: it does the processing at home” and creates “dependencies with the rest of the world”.
Macron, leading the two-day summit aimed at renewing France’s engagement with Africa after years of strained ties with its former colonies, said Europe was instead promoting “a strategy of autonomy” for both continents.
Central to transforming Africa’s fortunes should be an overhaul of international finance, to set up a system of financial guarantees to bring in private investment, he added. (Channels)
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