Costner, Gere, Demi Moore: Hollywood Icons on Cannes Comeback Trail 

Demi Moore. (Getty Images North America/AFP) 
Demi Moore. (Getty Images North America/AFP) 
TT

Costner, Gere, Demi Moore: Hollywood Icons on Cannes Comeback Trail 

Demi Moore. (Getty Images North America/AFP) 
Demi Moore. (Getty Images North America/AFP) 

This year's Cannes Film Festival hosts a trio of heartthrobs from the back end of the 20th century, making their comeback on the red carpet: Demi Moore, Kevin Costner and Richard Gere.

From "Ghost" to "Pretty Woman" to "Dances with Wolves", they are responsible for some of Generation X's favorite movie moments.

AFP looks at what they've been up to since.

- Demi Moore: ghost girl -

On the Croisette, 61-year-old Moore will be making her unexpected return in slasher-horror "The Substance", competing for the festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or.

It has been a long time since Moore came anywhere near a Cannes red carpet, having appeared mostly in small TV roles and forgettable films since the early 2000s.

In her heyday, Moore was a global star after the weepie "Ghost" co-starring the late Patrick Swayze as a murdered businessman who watches over his grieving ceramicist girlfriend from beyond the grave.

Her baggy, androgynous look in that movie -- the dungarees and boyish crop -- helped define 1990s style, and she had other era-defining hits with steamy dramas "Indecent Proposal" and "Disclosure".

An Annie Leibovitz photoshoot -- showing off her pregnant belly on the cover of Vanity Fair in 1991 -- was a stunning move at the time, since copied by Beyonce, Rihanna and others.

She proved her acting chops in meatier 1990s movies such as blockbuster courtroom drama "A Few Good Men" opposite Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson.

But since the turn of the century, Moore, who has a life-long passion for collecting dolls and bought an entire house to store her 2,000-strong collection, was in the headlines more for her tumultuous love life than her acting.

She formed two Hollywood power couples, first in the 1980s with "Die Hard" star Bruce Willis, father of her three daughters, and then with Ashton Kutcher, the latter union ending acrimoniously in 2013.

- Kevin Costner: forever West -

The soft-spoken 69-year-old is back in Cannes in his favorite genre, the Western, with the epic "Horizon: An American Saga".

Fans are hoping his fourth feature as director -- which is out of competition at Cannes -- will mark a return to form after a series of expensive duds in the 1990s trashed his Oscar-gilded career.

His directorial debut "Dances With Wolves", despite being a three-hour Western, was a global hit and in 1991 won the double Oscar whammy of best picture and director.

As an actor he captured hearts in smash hits "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" (1991) and as Whitney Houston's protector in "The Bodyguard" (1992).

Teaming up with big-gun directors also proved a winning formula, from Oliver Stone's "JFK" (1991) to Clint Eastwood's "A Perfect World" (1993).

But then a string of ultra-expensive and hubristic flops -- especially "Waterworld" (1995) and "The Postman" (1997) made him into something of a laughing stock.

He continued to work in smaller roles, but invested more in music with his nostalgic country band "Kevin Costner & Modern West".

There has been a late resurgence in his 60s, however, thanks to the long-running hit neo-Western series, "Yellowstone".

- Richard Gere: zen charm -

Gere was the world's sexiest man according to People Magazine in 1999, when he was 50.

By then he had charmed audiences with his quiet seduction in "An Officer and a Gentleman" (1982) and, of course, "Pretty Woman" opposite Julia Roberts.

He and supermodel Cindy Crawford were also the ultimate It-couple.

But progressively he gave up glamour for meditation.

Gere had been a Buddhist since he was 25, and increasingly used his fame to speak out, in particular against China's control of Tibet.

He developed a close friendship with the Dalai Lama and gave a fiery speech against China at the 1993 Oscars that got him barred from future ceremonies.

It also cost him movie roles in the 2000s as Hollywood sought to tap the vast Chinese market.

For his Cannes comeback, the 74-year-old has reunited with Paul Schrader -- who directed him in dark cult favorite "American Gigolo" (1980) -- for "Oh, Canada", playing a Vietnam War draft-evader haunted by his past.



Sundance Film Festival Hits Utah, One Last Time

From Hollywood's biggest stars to breakthrough newcomers, the cinema world has descended on Sundance. Valerie MACON / AFP/File
From Hollywood's biggest stars to breakthrough newcomers, the cinema world has descended on Sundance. Valerie MACON / AFP/File
TT

Sundance Film Festival Hits Utah, One Last Time

From Hollywood's biggest stars to breakthrough newcomers, the cinema world has descended on Sundance. Valerie MACON / AFP/File
From Hollywood's biggest stars to breakthrough newcomers, the cinema world has descended on Sundance. Valerie MACON / AFP/File

The first Sundance Film Festival since the death of founder Robert Redford begins in Park City Thursday -- the final time it will be held in the mountains of Utah.

Hollywood A-listers Olivia Wilde, Natalie Portman and Ethan Hawke are expected to walk the red carpet at the snowcapped Rocky Mountain resort, along with a host of lesser-known filmmakers at one of the most important gatherings in the global movie calendar.

Amy Redford, daughter of the "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" star who created the festival in 1978, said this year's get-together would be an emotional experience, just four months after her father's death.

"Very proud," she said, when asked how she felt about her father's legacy.

"He was somebody that created from the field, not from on high," she told AFP.

"He never meant to be the center of focus for this whole organization. The center of focus was always the storytellers."

Line-up

Among the dozens of feature-length films and documentaries on show over the coming days will be "The Invite" directed by and starring Wilde, opposite Seth Rogen and Edward Norton.

The script, co-written by Rashida Jones ("Parks and Recreation"), deals with a couple whose mysterious neighbors come over for dinner.

"Mad Men" stars Jon Hamm and John Slattery reunite in "Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass," where a Midwestern bride-to-be rampages through Hollywood in an effort to even the score after her fiance uses the couple's "free celebrity pass" on his famous crush.

In "The Gallerist" -- starring Oscar winners Natalie Portman and Da'Vine Joy Randolph, along with Jenna Ortega and Sterling K. Brown -- a desperate curator tries to sell a dead body at Art Basel Miami.

Among the most hotly anticipated non-celebrity films premiering at the festival is "The History of Concrete," a sideways look by John Wilson about how to sell a film about building materials.

A strong international lineup includes director Molly Manners debut feature "Extra Geography" from the UK and queer genre film "Leviticus" from Australia.

"Hanging by a Wire" tells the story of the nail-biting race to save schoolboys dangling from a stranded cable car in the Himalayan foothills.

"Hold On to Me" from Cyprus traces the efforts of an 11-year-old tracking down her estranged father, while documentary "Kikuyu Land" from Kenya examines how powerful outside forces use local corruption to dispossess a people.

All of them will offer something special, Amy Redford said.

"I think the look on the faces of people that premiere their films and realize they're looking out into an audience who understand what they were trying to say...it always just is kind of a stunning experience," she said.

Moving on

The festival moves next year to Boulder, Colorado, having outgrown its current host city.

For festival programmer John Nein, who has been at every edition since 1996, leaving Park City will be bittersweet.

"It's a special place," he told AFP.

"It's a place that has been so tied to how the festival works in terms of people coming to this place. It's not particularly convenient. It's really cold."

"But in a weird way, that's what brings people here and it's what creates the audience that we have here. So I feel like that's part of what made it special."

Festival director Eugene Hernandez said the Sundance Institute will continue to have roots in Utah, even as the festival moves to Colorado.

But this year's program will be one to remember.

"There's going to be a lot of laughter, there will probably also be some tears, there will be joy, there will be connection, there will be community," he said.

"I think those are all aspects that make a festival."


Brooklyn Beckham Accuses David and Victoria of Putting Branding Before Family and Sabotaging Wedding

03 September 2019, United Kingdom, London: David Beckham (L), Victoria Beckham and Brooklyn Beckham arrive at the GQ Men of the Year Awards 2019 in association with Hugo Boss at the Tate Modern. (dpa)
03 September 2019, United Kingdom, London: David Beckham (L), Victoria Beckham and Brooklyn Beckham arrive at the GQ Men of the Year Awards 2019 in association with Hugo Boss at the Tate Modern. (dpa)
TT

Brooklyn Beckham Accuses David and Victoria of Putting Branding Before Family and Sabotaging Wedding

03 September 2019, United Kingdom, London: David Beckham (L), Victoria Beckham and Brooklyn Beckham arrive at the GQ Men of the Year Awards 2019 in association with Hugo Boss at the Tate Modern. (dpa)
03 September 2019, United Kingdom, London: David Beckham (L), Victoria Beckham and Brooklyn Beckham arrive at the GQ Men of the Year Awards 2019 in association with Hugo Boss at the Tate Modern. (dpa)

A Beckham family falling-out has spilled further into public view in a series of social media posts from Brooklyn Beckham alleging that his parents David and Victoria Beckham have tried to sabotage his marriage and have always prioritized public branding over their family relationships.

“For my entire life, my parents have controlled narratives in the press about our family. The performative social media posts, family events and inauthentic relationships have been a fixture of the life I was born into,” Brooklyn Beckham wrote in several pages of text posted via Instagram stories.

At 26, he's the eldest of the four children of the retired English football superstar and former Spice Girl-turned-fashion designer and has worked as a model and photographer, even aspiring to be a chef. He married American actor Nicola Peltz, daughter of activist investor Nelson Peltz, in 2022.

“Recently, I have seen with my own eyes the lengths that they’ll go through to place countless lies in the media, mostly at the expense of innocent people, to preserve their own facade. But I believe the truth always comes out,” the posts said.

The posts make public a barely veiled feud that had been brewing in anonymously sourced stories in tabloids for months. Younger brother Cruz Beckham said on Instagram in December that Brooklyn had blocked family members on social media.

“I do not want to reconcile with my family.” Brooklyn Beckham wrote. “I’m not being controlled, I’m standing up for myself for the first time in my life.”

Unlike his three younger siblings, Brooklyn Beckham did not appear in his mother's recent Netflix docuseries, “Victoria Beckham,” and did not show up at the October premiere as he and Peltz had for the London premiere in 2023 of the one centered on his father, called just “Beckham."

Many of the grievances described in the Instagram stories stem from the Peltz-Beckham wedding in Florida. He accused his mother of bailing at the last minute on designing Peltz's wedding dress, and said she “hijacked” the first dance he was supposed to have with his wife to music performed by Marc Anthony.

“She danced very inappropriately on me in front of everyone,” Brooklyn Beckham wrote. “I’ve never felt more uncomfortable or humiliated in my entire life.”

Without giving specifics he also wrote that before the wedding his parents “repeatedly pressured and attempted to bribe me into signing away the rights to my name.”

David and Victoria Beckham did not have an immediate public response to the posts, and messages to representatives from The Associated Press were not immediately answered.

In a Tuesday appearance on CNBC, David Beckham, who is at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, did not directly address his son's statements, but said that children make mistakes on social media and should be allowed to.

“That’s what I try to teach my kids. But you know, you have to sometimes let them make those mistakes as well,” he said.

Married since 1999, David and Victoria Beckham have three other children, 23-year-old Romeo, 20-year-old Cruz and 14-year-old Harper.


‘Snow White’ and ‘War of the Worlds’ Lead Razzie Nominations

Cast member Rachel Zegler attends a premiere for the film "Snow White", in Los Angeles, California, US, March 15, 2025. (Reuters)
Cast member Rachel Zegler attends a premiere for the film "Snow White", in Los Angeles, California, US, March 15, 2025. (Reuters)
TT

‘Snow White’ and ‘War of the Worlds’ Lead Razzie Nominations

Cast member Rachel Zegler attends a premiere for the film "Snow White", in Los Angeles, California, US, March 15, 2025. (Reuters)
Cast member Rachel Zegler attends a premiere for the film "Snow White", in Los Angeles, California, US, March 15, 2025. (Reuters)

With Oscar nominations a day away, Hollywood’s annual reckoning with its film failures took shape on ​Wednesday as Disney’s live-action “Snow White” and the remake “War of the Worlds” tied for six nods for the Golden Raspberry Awards.

Popularly known as the Razzies, the awards are an annual Oscar spoof that spotlights what voters deem Hollywood’s worst performances. The 46th ‌Golden Raspberry ‌Awards are set for ‌March 14, ⁠the ​day ‌before the Oscar awards.

Disney’s "Snow White," a 2025 remake of the 1937 animated classic, scored a worst picture nod along with nominations for worst remake, director and screenplay. The fantasy film stars Rachel Zegler as Snow White ⁠and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, and its seven ‌computer-generated dwarf characters were ‍also cited for both ‍worst supporting actors and screen combo.

Tying with “Snow ‍White,” the 2025 science fiction film "War of the Worlds," starring rapper Ice Cube and actor Eva Longoria, based on H. G. Wells' 1898 ​novel, also scored six nominations, including worst picture, actors, remake, director, screenplay and screen ⁠combo.

Other nominees include the psychological thriller “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” science fiction film “Star Trek: Section 31,” and the action-adventure Netflix film “The Electric State,” starring “Stranger Things” lead Millie Bobby Brown.

More than 1,100 Razzie members from across the United States and about two dozen other countries vote on the awards, according to the Razzie website. Voters are members of the Golden Raspberry Foundation ‌that consists of film critics and movie experts.