{"id":11668,"date":"2014-05-24T01:01:04","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T17:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=11668"},"modified":"2014-05-24T00:09:41","modified_gmt":"2014-05-23T16:09:41","slug":"from-jolie-to-hayek-stars-use-cannes-film-festival-for-causes-after-signs-gain-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/05\/24\/from-jolie-to-hayek-stars-use-cannes-film-festival-for-causes-after-signs-gain-attention\/","title":{"rendered":"From Jolie to Hayek, stars use Cannes Film Festival for causes after signs gain attention"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Arthur<\/a>
Arthur R. \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CANNES, France\u2014When Salma Hayek walked the Cannes Film Festival red carpet holding up the sign \u201cBring Back Our Girls,\u201d the cast of \u201cThe Expendables\u201d followed suit the next night\u2014even if some of them didn\u2019t know what the slogan was about.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI remember Victor (Ortiz) was like, \u2018What were those signs?\u2019 and I had to fill him in,\u201d\u2018 actor Kellan Lutz of his co-star.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ortiz, Hayek and others helped spread the message, a plea for the return of nearly 300 girls kidnapped in Nigeria by the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, by using one of the most famous media events in the world. The \u201cBring Back Our Girls\u201d campaign has become a hashtag on Twitter and championed by luminaries including U.S. first lady Michelle Obama.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, it wasn\u2019t the only social message at Cannes this year. The actors and director of the Turkish film \u201cWinter Sleep\u201d held up signs reading \u201cSoma,\u201d referring to the recent Turkish mining tragedy that killed 301 miners.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an interview with The Associated Press this week, Angelina Jolie, known for her activism, worried that stars promoting the \u201cBring Back Our Girls\u201d campaign could backfire.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to not turn the Boko Haram into superstars that get more attention for doing something so horrible,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to go after them, arrest and they need to face justice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause at the end of the day, the bigger picture is this kind of horror happens around the world. Women are facing this kind of abuse, so are men and boys. And the answer cannot be simply one situation and that will solve it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would beg the media, for all of us, to not treat things one at a time,\u201d she added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other stars were supportive of using the Cannes stage to promote something more serious than films.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great place. Wherever you can let people know that\u2019s wrong, you can\u2019t do that,\u201d said actor Chris Tucker.<\/span><\/p>\n

Actor Viggo Mortensen, who held up a flag of his soccer team at his Cannes photo call for the movie \u201cJauja,\u201d had no problem with other celebrities doing the same for something weightier.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have no problem speaking out when it seems appropriate or called for\u2014I\u2019ve done it before,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hayek held up the sign as she walked the red carpet for her animated film \u201cThe Prophet.\u201d She said it was not out of character.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was always involved in women\u2019s rights before I was a celebrity,\u201d she said. \u201cBut of course (the premiere) was a good opportunity to use it to continue to put pressure on the governments so that they bring back our girls.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lutz said the \u201cExpendables\u201d cast were handed the signs before they walked the carpet but he was already supportive of the campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo do it on one of the most watched locations and spots where people in the films are just walking up, and it\u2019s just such an iconic location … it impacts so much,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

AP Writers Michael Cidoni Lennox, Cristina Jaleru and Nicki Finlay contributed to this report.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CANNES, France\u2014When Salma Hayek walked the Cannes Film Festival red carpet holding up the sign \u201cBring Back Our Girls,\u201d the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":11669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hollywood","mauthors-nekesa-mumbi-moody","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}