Cate Blanchett led female stars in an unprecedented red-carpet protest at the Cannes Film Festival last night to demand equal pay and an end to sexual harassment.

Salma Hayek and Kristen Stewart were also among 82 actresses, female producers and directors who marched arm in arm to demand equality and “a safe workplace” seven months after the fall of Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood mogul accused of rape and sexual harassment.

The protest highlighted that only 82 films directed by women have been selected for the festival’s prestigious Palme d’Or competition in its 71-year history, compared with 1,645 directed by men.

Blanchett, who is presiding the jury this year awarding the coveted Palme d’Or award, one of the film industry’s highest honours, said: “We demand that our workplaces are diverse and equitable so they can best reflect the world in which we live.”

Cate Blanchett – Credit: Dominique Charriau /Wireimage
Cate Blanchett made a speech demanding workplace equality Credit: Dominique Charriau /Wireimage
More
She said female stars were calling for “a world that allows all of us, in front and behind the camera, to thrive shoulder to shoulder with our male colleagues.”

Jane Campion is the only female director to have won the Palme d’Or, for her 1993 film, “The Piano”.

The march up the red-carpeted steps came before an unprecedented move by the festival to sign “strong commitments” on parity and diversity on Monday.

Thierry Frémaux, the festival director, said he supported the march as a way for women “to affirm their presence”.

82 actresses, female producers and directors who marched arm in arm to demand equality – Credit: Dominique Charriau/WireImage
82 actresses, female producers and directors who marched arm in arm to demand equality Credit: Dominique Charriau/WireImage
More
Just hours earlier, Marlène Schiappa, France’s minister for gender equality, revealed that several women attending the event had called a special helpline for women to report sexual harassment at the festival.

“A female responder who took one of the calls escorted an Anglo-Saxon woman to a police station to file a complaint on Friday night,” Ms Schiappa said. The term ‘Anglo-Saxon’ is used in French to mean someone from an English-speaking country. Neither the complainant nor the alleged attacker have been identified.

The line was set up for the first time this year following four alleged attacks at the festival in previous years by Weinstein.

US-Mexican actress Salma Hayek Pinault (C), and Algerian actress Sofia Boutella (2ndR) walk the red carpet in protest of the lack of female filmmakers – Credit: ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP
Salma Hayek was among the women at the red carpet protest Credit: ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP
More
The #MeToo movement has thrown the spotlight on harassment and 40,000 flyers were handed out at this year’s festival reminding guests that sexual harassment can be punished in France by three years in prison and a £40,000 fine.

Cannes has also come under scrutiny over the small number of female directors selected for its competition.

Mr Frémaux insisted that the festival chooses films solely for their quality, but he has promised to make selection committees gender-balanced.

After the march, the festival screened Eva Husson’s “Girls of the Sun,” which tells the story of Kurdish women fighters.

Husson, a French director, is one of only three women whose films are among the 21 selected for the competition this year. The others are Nadine Labaki’s “Capernaum” and Alice Rohrwacher’s “Happy as Lazzaro”, which are to premiere next week.c

Source: Cate Blanchett leads 82-woman Cannes red carpet ‘#metoo’ protest

One person was killed in a knife attack in Paris on Saturday and the assailant was shot dead by police, a police source said.

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb confirmed there had been an attack in Paris and said there were victims, without giving any details. The attacker had been overpowered by police, he said.

The Paris prefecture had earlier said a person had carried out a knife attack in the second arrondissement – or district – of the French capital. Paris’ opera and landmark retail stores are located in that area.

The police source said some seven people had been injured. BFM TV said two were in a critical condition.

A judicial source said authorities were looking into whether the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office should be handling the case.

France has been on high alert as a series of attacks commissioned or inspired by Islamic State have hit the country over the past three years in which dozens of people have been killed.

Source: Knife attack reported in Paris, slasher shot by police

The ex-speaker of the New York state Assembly Sheldon Silver was found guilty on Friday of selling his office for $4 million in kickbacks — affirming a 2015 conviction on the same charges that had been overturned on appeal.

A jury of seven women and five men found Silver, 74, guilty of all seven counts against him, including two counts of honest services mail fraud and money laundering.

He faces as much as 130 years in prison when sentenced on July 13.

Silver showed no emotion as the jury read the verdict to the judge.

“Obviously I am disappointed,” the Lower East Side Democrat said outside of court, adding that he will appeal the verdict.

The verdict is a crushing blow to Silver, who was once one of the three most powerful men in New York along with the governor and Senate majority leader.

In 2015 he was sentenced to 12 years in prison, which his lawyers argued was a death sentence for the septuagenarian, who was fighting prostate cancer at the time.

Silver was saved from prison after a federal appeals court ruled that errors in the judge’s jury instructions warranted a new trial.

The jury overseeing the retrial reached their verdict after slightly more than one day of deliberation following a week-and-a-half-long trial that included 26 witnesses and dozens of exhibits.
One jury said “yes” between tears when asked if the jury convicted because the government had a strong case. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I feel very, very sorry.”

Silver was convicted of two schemes that earned him a whopping $4 million in kickbacks over a decade, plus $1 million in profits on the illegal gains.

The first scheme involved favors for a prominent cancer doctor who sent him lucrative referrals of cancer patients looking to sue asbestos companies. The second scheme involved two real estate companies that sent their tax business to a lawyer who then shared his fees with Silver.

Witnesses in the first scheme included the cancer doctor, Robert Taub, who testified that he sent Silver his valuable mesothelioma patients because he wanted the powerful politician to start supporting his research into the rare form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.

Silver gave Taub $500,000 in taxpayer money to support his research, as well as help finding jobs for Taub’s adult children.

Prosecutors argued that Silver knew what he was doing was wrong because when Taub called him in 2014 to tell him the feds were poking around, Silver responded: “Did you tell them anything.”

“‘Did you tell them anything?’ That’s what Silver cared about — making sure Dr. Taub, his golden goose, kept his mouth shut,” prosecutor Tatiana Martins said on closing arguments.

SEE ALSO
‘Incensed’ developers were too scared to call out Silver for shady real estate deals
‘Incensed’ developers were too scared to call out Silver for shady real estate deals
“Sheldon Silver had abused his office for profit and he knew it,” she said.

Witnesses in the real estate scheme included Silver’s childhood friend Jay Arthur Goldberg, who testified that he split fees he received from two real estate developers with the powerful politician because Silver sent them his way.

Goldberg, who grew up with Silver on the Lower East Side, said his childhood pal assured him their arrangement was aboveboard.

“I said, ‘Is this all right, Shelly?’” Goldberg told the jury.

“Of course,” he said Silver responded. “I’m a lawyer.”

The companies, the Witkoff Group and Glenwood Management, also lobbied Silver over their business interests, including legislation.

Steven Witkoff, founder of real estate firm the Witkoff Group, testified that he didn’t know of Silver’s “unseemly” arrangement with Goldberg until 2015 when Goldberg broke the news to him.

An executive of Glenwood testified that his firm also didn’t know Silver was getting a cut of fees they paid Goldberg until 2011, when a lobbyist pal of Silver’s broke the news.

That prompted Glenwood to demand Silver sign what prosecutors dubbed a “secret side letter” memorializing their arrangement.

“While he was negotiating the rent laws, Sheldon Silver was secretly on retainer to that developer,” prosecutor Martins told the jury.

“Even if there was no other evidence in the real estate scheme — this secret retainer alone tells you that Sheldon Silver is guilty.”

Source: Ex-NY state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver found guilty of all charges

Friends and former parishioners shaken by the death of a New York minister found tied up inside his home are demanding that those behind the shocking act step out of the shadows and turn themselves in to the police, who are on the hunt for potential suspects.

The Rev. Canon Paul Wancura, an 87-year-old from Shelter Island, was pronounced dead Monday after being found “seriously injured” in his home in an affluent neighborhood on March 19, the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island said. Wancura, who had been hospitalized over the last month, succumbed to his injuries and police are offering a $10,000 reward for information on the case.

“I call it evil personified,” one of Wancura’s friends and parishioners, Kevin Lockerbie, told CBS 2. “And if this person has any conscience at all, he ought to turn himself in.”

The death has stunned residents of Shelter Island, a popular summer destination for New Yorkers on the eastern end of Long Island that is quiet and sparsely populated in colder months. Homes on the island, accessible only by ferry, routinely sell for millions of dollars, with one waterfront estate being listed Tuesday for $25 million. Among those who have owned homes there are the comedian Louis C.K,. and reported celebrity sightings over the years have included Sean Connery, Harrison Ford, John F. Kennedy Jr., Bill and Hillary Clinton and Kelly Ripa.

“Shelter Island is an extremely safe area, that’s one of the reasons that this is so shocking,” acting Suffolk County Police Commissioner Stuart Cameron told reporters in March, the day after Wancura was found. “But again, we don’t believe this is a random attack and we don’t believe it is affecting the safety of the other residents of Shelter Island.”

The diocese said Wancura was a longtime priest and former archdeacon of Suffolk County. The Rev. Charles McCarron of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church on Shelter Island found Wancura with his hands bound and lying between a bed and a wall, according to the Shelter Island Reporter, after he had failed to show up for Sunday services at a church in Central Islip.

shelter island wancura
Wancura’s home on Shelter Island, a popular summer destination — only accessible by ferry — on the eastern tip of New York’s Long Island. (Google Maps)
Wancura was then airlifted to a local hospital and had one of his hands amputated, but eventually died from infections, McCarron said.

Wancura apparently lived alone in the home — which sits near the end of a one-lane road on one of the island’s many peninsulas — after his wife died nearly two decades ago.

“Nothing like this happens in winter. This is the off-season. There’s not a lot of people around,” Zach Renault, a year-round resident, told Newsday. “It’s a small town and everybody knows each other.”

McCarron also told the newspaper that Wancura was in “bad shape” when he found him and was suffering from dehydration.

It’s not clear how long Wancura had been tied up. Suffolk County police, who are offering a $10,000 reward for information on the case, told Fox News on Wednesday that they have “no further details at this time” regarding a potential motive or the crime scene.

The case was initially being looked at by police as a home invasion and burglary, but has since evolved, after Wancura’s death, to become a homicide investigation.

Shelter Island Police Chief Jim Read did tell the Shelter Island Reporter though that officers are looking into whether the crime is connected to another burglary in the neighborhood that was reported on March 4 after homeowners returned from being away to find their property broken into.

In a bid to quell unease in the community in March, Town Supervisor Gary J. Gerth said the crime involving Wancura “isn’t indicative of a crime wave in town.”

According to Newsday, he also delivered a warning that the estimated 2,400 residents there in the off-season are ready to protect each other.

“We have hunters, fishermen. People have ways to defend themselves,” Gerth was quoted as saying.

The newspaper said in 2016 there were 28 crimes throughout the year reported to police on Shelter Island: one case of aggravated assault and 27 property crimes. The last huge crime there was in 1998, it added, when a carpenter was convicted of murder after blasting his neighbor and best friend in the stomach with a 12-gauge shotgun.

Lockerbie told Newsday that Wancura worked as an Army counterintelligence officer during the Korean War and studied theology when he returned home to the U.S. He was said to have met his wife at a Shelter Island church and moved into her family’s home there.

Wancura was described by McCarron as a stylish dresser and a former president of the Silver Beach Association, in the neighborhood where he resided. McCarron told the Shelter Island Reporter that the minister appreciated simple things in life, such as walks with a cigar or his wife’s Irish soda bread.

Wancura’s funeral arrangements were still being sorted out Wednesday; he is expected to be buried alongside his wife at the Caroline Church of Brookhaven.

“People are anxious over what happened,” McCarron told the Shelter Island Reporter. “A service here will let us come together.”

Source: Shocking killing of minister on secluded New York island called ‘evil personified’ | Fox News

Kanye West is scrambling to do damage control following his controversial interview with TMZ — in which he claimed slavery was a “choice” for black people.

“We are programmed to always talk and fight race issues,” West tweeted on Tuesday night.

“We need to update our conversation,” he said, noting how he “knew” the TMZ interview “would be awesome.”

“The reason why I brought up the 400 years point is because we can’t be mentally imprisoned for another 400 years. We need free thought now. Even the statement was an example of free thought…It was just an idea.”

The rapper went on to claim that he was “once again” being “attacked for presenting new ideas.”

“In school we need to learn how magic [sic] Johnson built his business not always about the past. Matter fact I’ve never even heard of a high school class that presents future ideas,” West said. “When the media masses and scholars talk about what started today. Here’s a title … the overground hell road.”

During his TMZ interview, West had been talking about his recent support of President Trump when the topic of slavery and freedom came up.

“When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years?! That sounds like a choice,” West said. “Like, you were there for 400 years and it’s all of you all? Like, we’re mentally in prison. Like, slavery goes too direct to the idea of blacks. So prison is something that unites us as one race, blacks and whites being one race. We’re the human race.”

SEE ALSO
Kanye West reveals he became addicted to opioids after liposuction
Kanye West reveals he became addicted to opioids after liposuction
The comments caused an uproar on social media, with countless people — of all races — blasting West for his views.

“Kanye got people believing slavery was a choice,” wrote one Twitter user. “Our ancestors were insulted, sold, raped, beaten, etc. all because they chose to be. I don’t usually let celebrity banter get under my skin but he did it.”

Another person said, “He has clearly lost his mind.”

But West didn’t care, and continued to defend his stance Tuesday night.

“To make myself clear. Of course I know that slaves did not get shackled and put on a boat by free will,” he said. “My point is for us to have stayed in that position even though the numbers were on our side means that we were mentally enslaved…They cut out our tongues so we couldn’t communicate to each other. I will not allow my tongue to be cut.”

Referencing a famous quote that’s long been attributed to Harriet Tubman, but is actually a fake, West later added: “I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”

An LA rapper with ties to Snoop Dogg has issued a “Crip alert” for Kanye West — urging local gang members to attack him — for his recent support of President Trump.

The order came over Sunday morning in an Instagram video, according to CBS Los Angeles.

It was filmed by Daz Dillinger, former member of Tha Dogg Pound duo.

“Yo national alert, all the Crips out there, y’all f–k Kanye up,” he said in the since-deleted clip, referring to the infamous street gang.

“Better not ever see you in concert,” the rapper added. “Better not ever see you around the LBC. Better not ever see you around California.”

Mentioning the city where West lives, Dillinger said: “Stay in Calabasas, ya hear me? ‘Cuz we got a Crip alert for Kanye…All the Crips out there — you see him, bang on his ass, f–k his ass up. ”

Dillinger posted other messages aimed at West on Sunday and Monday, but it was his threat involving the Crips that drew the most attention.

SEE ALSO
Kanye West throws more love at Trump
Kanye West throws more love at Trump
“Really? Threatening Kanye because he supports Trump?” wrote one upset IG user. “You are a disgrace & a repulsive loser. Hope he sues your pathetic ass.”

Another person said, “This isn’t the message we should be sending. We don’t wish harm on Kanye…instead if we disagree we should stop promoting/supporting him…delete this clown post.”

In response to the backlash, Dillinger — whose real name is Delmar Drew Arnaud — posted a caption Monday on IG saying: “FREEDOM OF SPEECH FUC KANYE THIS CRIPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP THE REVOLUTION IS ON NOW.”

He had numerous people praise him on his stance toward West, and others ridiculing him.

“What the f–k is going on,” wrote rapper 50 Cent on IG. “Daz Told the crips to f–k Kanye up…Crips Vs Kardashian’s…get the strap.”

Dillinger, 44, has been performing with his cousin, Snoop, since the early 90s — which is when he joined the Dogg Pound. The two collaborated on several songs and are still releasing music today.

Initial reports Sunday and Monday indicated that the beef between Dillinger and West was all over a viral audio clip that Snoop posted on his IG page, purportedly featuring a diss from Yeezy about the legendary lyricist. The post turned out to be a fake.

Source: Rapper urges Crips gang members to ‘f–k Kanye up’ | Page Six