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.
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.’
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.
