
Cannes Jury Members, L to R: Demi Moore, Isaach de Bankolé, Laura Wandel, Stellan Skarsgård, Chloé Zhao, jury president Park Chan-wook, Tessa Thompson and Diego Céspedes.
Amy Sussman/Getty Images
Cannes Film Festival jury member Demi Moore has spoken out about the importance of being able to express political opinions without pushback.
Asked if she has concerns about political statements being detrimental to the films she’s talking about at the festival Moore said, “I would hope not. I think part of art is about expression, so if we start censoring ourselves then I think we shut down the very core of our creativity which is I think where we can discover truth and answers.”
Moore was speaking at the jury press conference on Day 1 of the Cannes Film Festival, in the wake of 2017 jury president Pedro Almodóvar’s recent comments regarding the state of democracy and free speech in the U.S.
Almodóvar, who is at Cannes this year with his film Bitter Christmas, told the LA Times this week, “People are obviously very frightened. The U.S. is not a democracy right now. Some people say it’s maybe an imperfect democracy, but I really don’t think the U.S. is a democracy right now.”
During the jury press conference, Moore also addressed the issue of AI and its use in Hollywood.
“AI is here, and so to fight it is to, in a sense, to fight something that is a battle that we will lose. So to find ways in which we can work with it, I think, is a more valuable path,” she said. “Are we doing enough to protect ourselves? I don’t know. My inclination would be to say probably not.”
She also noted that there are positive aspects to AI and that it cannot replace human creativity. “There’s beautiful aspects of being able to utilize it,” she said, “but the truth is, there really isn’t anything to fear, because what it can never replace is what true art comes from, which is not the physical. It comes from the soul. It comes from the spirit of each and every one of us sitting here, to each and every one of us that creates every day, and that they can never recreate.”

Cannes Jury Members, L to R: Demi Moore, Isaach de Bankolé, Laura Wandel, Stellan Skarsgård, Chloé Zhao, jury president Park Chan-wook, Tessa Thompson and Diego Céspedes.
Amy Sussman/Getty Images
When asked how she felt when she got the invitation to be on the jury, Moore said, “My first thought is ‘Me?’ I had such a beautiful experience here a few years ago, and one, just to be surrounded by cinema and the love of cinema ,and the joy of diving in and being surrounded by those who share that, just felt like a joy, and who can complain about the beautiful view of this incredible place? I feel tremendously honored and super excited. I feel like a little kid playing a grown up.”
Regarding the issue of speaking out with political opinions, Cannes festival head Thierry Fremeux also spoke out at the opening press conference on Monday, following pushback on Berlin jury president Wim Winders at Berlin earlier this year. Frémeux said, “I would like to pay tribute to Wim Wenders because I think he was subjected to criticisms that weren’t really justified. I understood what he wanted to say, but I think people didn’t want to understand what he was saying,” he said. “He wanted to say that the politics should be on the screen. That’s what we say at Cannes… the festival considers that political questions are primarily those of the artists’ voices and the voices of the artists whose work is being shown.”
Alongside Moore on the jury at Cannes this year are Isaach de Bankolé, Laura Wandel, Stellan Skarsgård, Chloé Zhao, Tessa Thompson and Diego Céspedes, with Park Chan-wook serving as jury president.
Moore was last in Cannes in 2024 with Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance and her first appearance at the fest was in 1997, when she attended in support of then-husband Bruce Willis’ film The Fifth Element.
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Another hockey book adaptation has entered the chat.
Netflix is currently building out its cast for the series adaptation of Hannah Grace’s Icebreaker book that kicks off the Maple Hill series. This in addition to their show The Sticks that is also currently in the works.
For everything we know about Netflix’s Icebreaker book adaptation so far, read on.
When will Netflix’s Icebreaker series adaptation come out?
A release date has not yet been set. The show has begun to assemble its cast.
Who will lead the Icebreaker show at Netflix?
Daisy Jelley (Poser, How To Have Sex) will portray Anastasia “Stassie” Allen, and Connor Simos (Subversion) will portray Nate Hawkins in the college hockey drama series.
Who else is in the cast of Netflix’s Icebreaker adaptation?
Gabriel Tierney (Rivals, Enola Holmes 2), Auliʻi Cravalho (Moana), newcomer and professional athlete Peter Berry, Chaneil Kular (Best of the Best, Sex Education), Devin Craig (Sex Lives of College Girls, Maize) and Aidan Shaw (We Were Liars, Heated Rivalry, Finding Her Edge) have joined the ensemble cast.
Tierney will play Aaron; Cravalho will portray Lola; Berry is Robbie; Kular will play JJ; Craig will portray Henry and Shaw is Russ.
What is Hannah Grace’s Icebreaker book about?
Stassie is a transfer athlete gunning for Olympic gold. Nate is the campus star chasing the NHL. When an accident forces their teams to share one rink, Anastasia Allen and Nate Hawkins collide—and discipline gives way to obsession, because the only thing more dangerous than wanting to win is wanting each other.
Who else is behind Netflix’s Icebreaker series?
Jade Halley Bartlett (Road House, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Miller’s Girl) created and executive produced the series. Amanda Lasher (Gossip Girl, The Bold Type, Togetherness) serves as showrunner, writer and excutive producer. Grace also executive produces along with Alex Cooper, Matt Kaplan and Mina Lefevre for Cooper’s Unwell Productions.
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One of the biggest executive questions about Paramount following its pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery — who will lead streaming — may have been answered.
Cindy Holland is leaving Paramount where she was Chairman of Direct-To-Consumer since the Skydance-Paramount merger having served as an advisor to Skydance CEO David Ellison prior to that. She announced her departure in a company memo, which you can read below.
The move leaves HBO’s Casey Bloys as the likely streaming head of the combined Paramount-WBD.
“Cindy is one of the most exceptional executives in our industry — a force of nature whose impact on Paramount over the past year has been significant,” Paramount CEO David Ellison said. “Under her leadership, P+ reached new heights, Pluto TV underwent its most significant transformation in a decade, and we strengthened our content and sports portfolio – all while the business exceeded the ambitious goals we set. Just as importantly, she built an exceptional team and a strong foundation for the future. Cindy has been a trusted partner to me and so many others, and I couldn’t be more grateful for her leadership, her relentless drive and everything she’s done for our company.”
Here is Holland’s memo:
When I joined David’s team in January 2025, we proceeded to set three goals: i) advise on the Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition, ii) integrate and transform Paramount+ & revive Pluto TV, and iii) build an unparalleled team in this industry. In just over 12 months, I’m proud to say we accomplished all three and it’s been a joy to work closely with all of you.
Together with the Product team, we drove significant strategic and organizational change across DTC — building a new foundation for growth on both services, while investing in greater depth and breadth of programming and delivering strong revenue, profit, and subscriber growth for the division.
As David readies for the next phase of his vision, we’ve discussed my role and the future of the combined businesses. David is optimizing for HBO stability as we move into this next chapter, and I fully support that. I know this team has the leadership and expertise to manage through the transition and the next phase of the company, and to this end today will mark my last day here.
As I reflect on my time here and all that we’ve built together in this short time, what stands out most to me is this team. I have never been more proud of a group of people. What we’ve accomplished together is remarkable — landing quarter after quarter while navigating extraordinary uncertainty and change with resilience, focus and ambition. We grew Paramount+ to an all-time subscriber high, delivered the best retention in the service’s history, and drove double-digit growth in both engagement and revenue. We built an extraordinary content pipeline, greenlighting more than 40 new and returning series and setting all-time records with Landman, the most-watched series in Paramount+ history, and Dutton Ranch, the service’s biggest original series debut ever. We transformed live sports into a powerful streaming growth engine, securing landmark agreements with UFC and Zuffa Boxing and expanding our WNBA and UEFA Champions League rights – with UFC Freedom 250 becoming the largest-ever audience for an exclusive live event on Paramount+ and UFC 329 setting a new platform record for peak concurrent streams for an exclusive live event. And we undertook Pluto TV’s biggest product transformation in a decade, dramatically increasing registered viewing and VOD consumption while delivering strong financial performance across the business. These are extraordinary accomplishments – but what makes me proudest is how we achieved them: together, with an unwavering commitment to our audiences, our creative partners and one another.
I joined Paramount because I believe in these businesses, and because I believe wholeheartedly that the combination of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery serves the best interests of artists and audiences worldwide. I’m looking forward to seeing what you all accomplish together in this next, momentous chapter.
Cindy
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While President Trump was holding a press conference at the White House this morning and extolling the AI-related work of Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, a promo for tomorrow night’s South Park episode dropped. It was less salutary.
Here’s the logline for Episode 6 of Season 29: “Butters is unhappy with the data centers that the billionaires are building in our backyards.”
The clip opens with an X-Pest exterminator guy ringing the doorbell at Butters’ home.
“I understand you’ve got some billionaires in your back yard,” he says.
“Yeah, there’s more of these stupid billionaires every day!” replies Butters.
The first image from the episode (see it above) shows Butters in what appears to be his back yard with the X-Pest exterminator guy, who has strapped on his tank of poison and has his sprayer wand at the ready.
The topic of data centers is a hot one across the country and especially in Hollywood, where unions and workers worry about job displacement and writers and directors express concern over what it might do to their art.
Among the biggest players in the data center land rush is, of course, Oracle CEO and Paramount-WBD deal financier Larry Ellison. South Park airs on Comedy Central, which is owned by Paramount. As in the past, the show’s creators are seemingly not afraid to bite the hand that feeds them.
Mark Ruffalo and others have decried the introduction of “really profoundly scary technology” into Hollywood and how AI might impact media outlets soon to be owned by Ellison and his son David.
“Larry is a classic Oligarch,” wrote Ruffalo. “They are crushing workers and consolidating the wealth of the world for their own power and concentrated dominance.”
Paramount, for its part, responded by accusing Ruffalo of using “antisemitic tropes” in his argument, especially when linking the Ellisons’ studio acquisition to Oracle’s work with the Israeli military.
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