THE FOOD WAS NICE, THE GROOMING GANGS NOT SO MUCH:

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Cannes Lets Hollywood Elite Show Their True Selves.

The festival allowed Oscar winner Javier Bardem to rage against the dying of the Israeli state without fear of a single pushback. That’s exactly what he’s done this week, in lie of promoting his new projects or breaking down his craft.

That would be interesting. He’s a brilliant actor with considerable range. Instead, Bardem trotted out the false “genocide” card against Israel.

It doesn’t help that film journalists tee up the stars to get political, hoping they share their left-leaning views and get them more clicks. Bardem was only too happy to oblige. The star, promoting his new film, “The Beloved,” claimed the industry blacklist against pro-Palestinian actors won’t stand for long.

As if it ever truly started.

“The fear does exist, granted, but one has to do things even if you feel a bit scared or afraid …You have to be able to look at yourself in the mirror, look at yourself in the eyes and that was my case. My mother taught me to be the way I am. There is no plan B. This entails consequences, which I am fully ready to shoulder.”

Bardem’s personal sacrifice? He’s the star of “The Beloved,” headlines the new Apple TV+ reboot of “Cape Fear,” will appear in “Dune 3” this winter among his current and future project.

Some blacklist. James Woods would like a word with Bardem.

Bardem wasn’t finished, though. He also blased President Donald Trump for flexing his “toxic masculinity.” That’s the kind of bold, subversive commentary that could get him in trouble, career wise.

He might start getting too many job offers all at once.

Meanwhile the Hollywood Reporter’s headline writer has a “Somebody Set Up Us The Bomb” moment: Hollywood Ghosts the Croisette, Queer Cinema Owns It and AI Crashes the Party: Five Takeaways From Cannes 2026.

Including this bit of fun, also involving Bardem:

The biggest drama at Cannes 2026 was off-screen and involved a growing civil war between French film industry professionals and the country’s top studio, Canal+.

On the eve of the festival, some 600 French film professionals, including Juliette Binoche, Adèle Haenel and Swann Arlaud, signed an open letter protesting Vincent Bolloré, the right-wing media mogul who is the leading shareholder in Canal+. The letter didn’t mince words, calling Bolloré’s expanding French media empire — he is already a leading force in film and TV production and, through Canal+, is planning a takeover of UGC, the country’s third-largest theatrical exhibitor — a “fascist takeover of the collective imagination.”

The anti-Bolloré petition gained momentum after Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada, speaking in Cannes, said he would blacklist the signatories. Thousands put their names to the open letter, including international stars like Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo, Yorgos Lanthimos and Ken Loach.

By the end of the festival, there were more than 3,500 names on the petition. France’s biggest trade union representing entertainment workers has said it will file a lawsuit against Canal+ for Saada’s blacklisting threat. The audiences at Cannes screenings made their feelings clear by loudly booing the Canal+ and Studiocanal logos whenever they appeared on the big screen.

With French elections next year and the far-right National Rally party expected to challenge for the presidency, this particular French film drama is nowhere near its climax.

Most conservative actors in Hollywood stay in the closet until they’ve got very well-established careers because they know that if they openly support politicians with an (R) after their names, they’ll be, to slightly paraphrase the title of Roger Simon’s autobiography, blacklisting themselves in the industry. Why are Bolloré and Saada obligated to hire celebrities who openly hate their guts?

THREE ‘FACTOVACY’ GROUPS YOU SHOULD KNOW: What is “factovacy” you ask? It’s what I hope becomes common conversational currency describing highly credible non-profit groups that provide advocacy on behalf of fact- and data-driven analyses.

Check out my latest Substack column describing three such groups — Just Facts, Open the Books and Truth-In-Accounting — that are blazing new trails in equipping citizens to hold government accountable.

SPENCER PRATT: L.A. ‘Doesn’t Have A Homeless Problem, We Have A Drug Problem.’

Pratt’s plan calls for ending taxpayer-funded distribution of drug paraphernalia, enforcing drug laws without exception, and making use of California’s new expanded civil commitment/conservatorship framework (SB 43) to move homeless addicts into mandatory rehab facilities.

He’s also calling for an end to the pipeline of state and federal resources going to “manage” the homeless population, and ring them in from other states, which he calls “profiteering on the misery of these drug addicts.”

In addition to that, he calls for a crackdown on crime and drug cartels. “Bring in the DEA,” he said. “There’s a new sheriff in town.”

“Some of these folks do need to go to prison,” Pratt said. “The violent offenders, animal abusers, and sex offenders will do time, but many of them simply need to be given a chance to recover. But they only have a chance if we confront their addiction, not just dump them in an apartment and give them a box of needles.”

Yes.

UPDATE (From Ed):

As Adam Carolla noted last year, “San Francisco’s done this and LA’s done this; once you essentially look the other way for homeless or junkies or illegals or criminals or whatever that is, and you shine a spotlight on taxpayers with over-regulation and over-permitting, trying to manage every grain of your life versus illegals go do whatever you want or homeless, go shoot up wherever you want, or sleep wherever you want then you’ve lost it. LA’s there, San Francisco’s there. Look if you’re not a taxpayer, and you don’t have a checking account, whatever city you’re in they’re not going to be nearly as interested in you, as they are in the people who have a checking account and pay can be compliant. The people who are compliant are paying them. So, it’s like, okay, who do you make money on?”

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA…:

…but it’s vital to ask how an apologist for Islamic terrorism like Hasan Piker got to be part of the American nomenklatura.

AS I TELL PEOPLE THINKING ABOUT MOVING TO TEXAS, KEEP YOUR A/C REPAIRMAN ON SPEED DIAL:

HOW IT STARTED:

Washington becomes sanctuary state, joining Oregon, California.

—The Oregonian, May 23, 2019.

Why ‘defund the police’ has become the rallying cry at Seattle protests.

—Seattle NPR affiliate KUOW, June 5th, 2020.

How It’s Going:

A wall, huh? How about a really nice big one at the border, as well?

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Aurora Avenue neighbors revolt, blocking off street access after yet another shooting.

One week ago, bullets blasted through the wall of a Greenwood neighborhood home and passed within inches of a window where a six-week-old baby boy was sleeping in his bassinet.

Saturday morning, roughly 40 shell casings were on the pavement near Aurora Avenue N. and N. 98th Street in Seattle after another shootout near the Burgermaster.

By daylight, the neighbors had had enough.

Residents along Seattle’s North Aurora corridor stopped waiting on City Hall. They hauled in large industrial steel planters and blocked off three residential side streets at N. 97th, 98th, and 102nd Streets near where they meet Aurora Avenue N. Neighbors said a representative from the mayor’s office and the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) came out to push back. They were waved off.

“We’re honestly not thinking long term right now,” one neighbor said, asking not to be identified out of fear of retribution from pimps and dealers operating along the Aurora Avenue corridor.

“We’re sick of this,” he added, citing a lack of action from city leaders. “We’re going to close the streets.”

Hard to think longterm when the bullets are flying.

BREAKING: Plant food good for plant life.

Exit quote: “This oft-neglected climate resurgence reveals that the biosphere is its own self-regulating flywheel. A massive global expansion of leaf cover is already visible from space. Official computer models consistently fail to mention it.”

Now why would they not do that?

NEVER BEND THE KNEE:

DON’T GET WORKED UP ABOUT “LEAKED” DETAILS FROM ANY TRUMP NEGOTIATION: