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

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



Iran Court Sentences Filmmaker Panahi to Five Years

Director Jafar Panahi poses on the red carpet after the screening of the film "Un simple accident" (It Was Just an Accident) in competition at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 20, 2025. (Reuters)
Director Jafar Panahi poses on the red carpet after the screening of the film "Un simple accident" (It Was Just an Accident) in competition at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 20, 2025. (Reuters)
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Iran Court Sentences Filmmaker Panahi to Five Years

Director Jafar Panahi poses on the red carpet after the screening of the film "Un simple accident" (It Was Just an Accident) in competition at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 20, 2025. (Reuters)
Director Jafar Panahi poses on the red carpet after the screening of the film "Un simple accident" (It Was Just an Accident) in competition at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 20, 2025. (Reuters)

An Iranian court has sentenced renowned filmmaker Jafar Panahi in absentia to over five years in prison, Iranian media said quoting his lawyer, although the latest charges remain unclear.

"The Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced my client to five years and one month in prison and ordered the confiscation of all his movable and immovable property," the ISNA news agency reported, citing his lawyer Mostafa Nili on Tuesday.

"The court also imposed a two-year ban on social media activity and a two-year travel ban," he added.

The ISNA report did not specify the charges.

Nili said he discovered the conviction after Panahi told him last week that his bank accounts had been frozen, prompting the lawyer to visit the sentence enforcement office of the Culture and Media Prosecutor's Office.

The lawyer said Panahi had returned to Iran during the war with Israel and the United States which broke out on February 28.

It remains unclear if Panahi has remained in Iran.

Panahi currently has three pending cases, Nili said, adding that his client had not been notified of the hearing date in the latest case.

In June, an Iranian court rejected Panahi's appeal against a one-year sentence in one of the cases, which was handed down in December on charges of "propaganda" against Iran.

Panahi, 66, won the top prize at last year's Cannes film festival for "It Was Just an Accident", a film in which five ex-inmates contemplate whether to exact revenge on a man they believe to be their former jailer.

He has won a host of prizes at European film festivals since showcasing his debut film "The White Balloon" in Cannes in 1995, which won an award for best first feature.

In 2010, Panahi was banned from making movies for 20 years, and from leaving the country, after supporting mass anti-government protests a year earlier and making a series of films that critiqued the state of modern Iran.

Convicted of "propaganda against the system", he was sentenced to six years in jail but served only two months behind bars before being released on bail.

A year later, he dispatched a documentary with the title "This is Not a Film" to the Cannes festival on a flash drive stashed in a cake.

His 2015 movie "Taxi" featured him acting as a taxi driver and was shot entirely in a car.

In 2022, he was arrested in connection with protests by a group of filmmakers but was released nearly seven months later.

Iranian filmmakers, prominent media figures and celebrities are closely monitored in Iran and their work reviewed for content deemed critical of the regime.


Susan Saint James, Emmy-Winning Actor of ‘McMillan & Wife’ and ‘Kate & Allie,’ Dies at 80

Susan Saint James attends the SNL50: The Anniversary Special in New York on Feb. 16, 2025. (AP)
Susan Saint James attends the SNL50: The Anniversary Special in New York on Feb. 16, 2025. (AP)
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Susan Saint James, Emmy-Winning Actor of ‘McMillan & Wife’ and ‘Kate & Allie,’ Dies at 80

Susan Saint James attends the SNL50: The Anniversary Special in New York on Feb. 16, 2025. (AP)
Susan Saint James attends the SNL50: The Anniversary Special in New York on Feb. 16, 2025. (AP)

Susan Saint James, who co-starred with Rock Hudson in the 1970s TV crime series “McMillan & Wife” and later co-starred with Jane Curtin in the sitcom “Kate & Allie” in the 1980s, has died. She was 80.

People magazine, citing a representative for the actor, said Saint James died Monday. She had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

“She never met a stranger," her family said in a statement to People. "Every person she met became the most important person in the room at that moment, from a fellow board member to the clerk at the shoe store, who usually walked away knowing her entire life story."

Born Susan Jane Miller on Aug. 14, 1946, in Los Angeles, she was raised in the northern Illinois city of Rockford, where her father had transferred for work. She began modeling as a teenager in Paris.

At 20, she moved back to Los Angeles and landed a seven-year contract with Universal Studios. She made her television debut in the 1966 movie “Fame is the Name of the Game” with Tony Franciosa.

She got another break when it became a series called “The Name of the Game” in 1968, with rotating lead characters played by Franciosa, Gene Barry and Robert Stack. Saint James provided the show continuity in her role as Peggy Maxwell, a research assistant who worked for all three men. She won an Emmy Award for the part in 1969.

Before “The Name of the Game,” Saint James had a recurring role in the crime-caper series “It Takes a Thief” starring Robert Wagner. Her other early TV credits included “Ironside," “McCloud” and “Alias Smith and Jones.” In 1980, she guest-starred in an episode of “M(asterisk)A(asterisk)S(asterisk)H.”

Saint James, known for her unique, throaty voice, had a supporting role in the 1968 movie “Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows” starring Rosalind Russell and Stella Stevens.

She earned her biggest fame as Sally McMillan, the plucky wife of Hudson’s San Francisco police commissioner Stewart McMillan, in the hit series “McMillan & Wife” from 1971-76. She received three Emmy nominations for the role.

Saint James left the NBC show before its sixth and final season because of a contract dispute, with her character killed off in a plane crash. Saint James then turned to feature films.

She played opposite Peter Fonda in “Outlaw Blues” in 1977. She co-starred with George Hamilton in the 1979 vampire spoof “Love at First Bite” and joined Jessica Lange and Curtin in the 1980 comedy heist “How to Beat the High Cost of Living.” She co-starred in the 1981 romantic comedy “Carbon Copy,” in which Denzel Washington made his movie debut.

After middling success on the big screen, Saint James reunited with Curtin in the CBS sitcom “Kate & Allie,” which ran from 1984-89 and earned Saint James two Emmy nominations as the free-spirited Kate to Curtin’s straight-laced Allie.

While guest-hosting “Saturday Night Live” in 1981, Saint James met Dick Ebersol, the show’s then-executive producer and the future chairman of NBC Sports. They married barely six weeks after meeting and had three sons, Charlie, Willie and Teddy.

Teddy died at age 14 in a 2004 private plane crash that also killed the pilot and flight attendant; Ebersol and Charlie survived with serious injuries.

Saint James filed for divorce from Ebersol in 2002, but they reconciled later that year. “We had a second chance,” she told People magazine in 2002. “I’m amazingly happier, so that’s a good sign.”

In his 2022 memoir “From Saturday Night to Sunday Night,” Ebersol called Saint James “the greatest partner I’ve ever had by far.”

She retired when “Kate & Allie” ended, choosing to focus on raising her younger children in Litchfield, Connecticut, while Ebersol took the executive job at NBC Sports.

Saint James made occasional guest appearances after that, including as the mother of her real-life look-alike niece Christa Miller on “The Drew Carey Show,” as well as “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Suits.” In 1999, she starred in a production of “The Miracle Worker” in Torrington, Connecticut.

In 1998, Saint James, her sister, Mercedes Dewey, and a friend founded Seedling and Pip, a baby gift basket business with a focus on books based in Litchfield, Connecticut.

She was a longtime supporter of Special Olympics, volunteering and serving on its board of directors.

Besides her husband, she is survived by daughter Sunshine and son Harmony from her second marriage to makeup artist Tom Lucas, with whom she remained friends; sons Charlie and Willie with Ebersol; and Miller, whose first TV role was on “Kate & Allie.” Saint James’ first marriage to Richard Neubert ended in divorce.


Dutch Broadcaster Pulls Out of Eurovision Over Israel ‘Sensitivities’

The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 logo is displayed on a screen at the end of the dress rehearsal for the second semi-final, Basel, Switzerland, May 14, 2025. (AFP)
The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 logo is displayed on a screen at the end of the dress rehearsal for the second semi-final, Basel, Switzerland, May 14, 2025. (AFP)
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Dutch Broadcaster Pulls Out of Eurovision Over Israel ‘Sensitivities’

The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 logo is displayed on a screen at the end of the dress rehearsal for the second semi-final, Basel, Switzerland, May 14, 2025. (AFP)
The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 logo is displayed on a screen at the end of the dress rehearsal for the second semi-final, Basel, Switzerland, May 14, 2025. (AFP)

The Netherlands will not participate in next year's Eurovision Song Contest, its broadcaster NPO said Tuesday, citing "sensitivities" over Israel's participation.

"We have known for some time that Israel's participation elicits various reactions in society and causes discussion and division... therefore, after consultation with the Board of Broadcasters, the NPO has decided to forgo participation in 2027," Jurre Bosman, NPO's media director, said in a statement.

Jet de Ranitz, NPO's executive chairman, acknowledged this would disappoint many Dutch Eurovision fans and stressed that the contest would still be aired on the public channels.

However, he said: "We must conclude that it is currently too early to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2027."

"Due to the sensitivities surrounding the themes currently at play, we have decided to take a step back for the time being," added De Ranitz.

The contest has recently been hit by a wave of boycotts over Israel's participation, in protest at the country's deadly offensive in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas attacks in 2023.

Earlier this month, the Czech public broadcaster also pulled out, but cited spending cuts as the reason.

Ireland has already announced it will not be taking part, while the head of the Spanish public broadcaster has come out in favor of a boycott.