Shannon Elizabeth

Would you pay $1.5 million to go to a few Oscar parties? Or $1.8 million to fly to the moon on Virgin Galactic with Leonardo DiCaprio?  Someone did — and more. That’s what made Harvey Weinstein smile when we spoke after amFAR’s annual Cinema Against AIDS Cannes Film Festival gala got a very special 20th anniversary present Thursday night. Co-hosts Weinstein and Kenneth Cole announced to a roomful of very high rollers that the event, held of the Hotel Du Cap, had raised $25 million, smashing last year’s record total of over $10 million. Before the ultra-high style  party that has been a staple of the Cannes festival for the past two decades, Weinstein had told me if they just made a dollar more than the previous year they would be happy. But these multimillionaires and billionaires obviously came to play this year and really stepped up to the auction that featured numerous stars including jury members Nicole Kidman and Christoph Waltz, along with Jessica Chastain, Jeremy Renner, Rosario Dawson, Heidi Klum, Goldie Hawn, Janet Jackson, Adrien Brody and major fundraiser and auctioneer Sharon Stone. Weinstein said the event — which he, Elizabeth Taylor and Dr. Mathilda Krim started in 1993 — changed up the rules this year and decided to focus primarily on just 10 major items rather than 20, and the crowd responded. The things being auctioned off included original art by the likes ... Read More »

Brian Brooks is a Deadline contributor. Cannes is winding down with the year’s first glimpse of titles that will hit the fall release slates for companies Stateside, with a number likely to factor into the fall awards season. But first off, of course, is summer and Memorial Day weekend. Sony Classics’ Before Midnight and FocusWorld’s We Steal Secrets: The Story Of WikiLeaks will anchor the Specialty alternative to the official onslaught of blockbusters season. Richard Linklater’s Midnight is the third installment which debuted in the ’90s with Before Sunrise, while Oscar-winner Alex Gibney’s expose on WikiLeaks will take the non-fiction spotlight along with Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton As Himself from Laemmle/Zeller Films. Indican Pictures is bowing immigrant feature A Green Story with Shannon Elizabeth, Ed O’Ross and Billy Zane, while Monterey Media will open coming-of-age story, The Lesser Blessed. Before Midnight Director-writer: Richard Linklater Co-writers: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Kim Krizan Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Jennifer Prior, Charlotte Prior Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics SPC’s Michael Barker and Tom Bernard have played pivotal parts in Richard Linklater’s career, having released his first film Slacker at Orion and later Suburbia at SPC. They were also at Sony when Columbia Pictures released the first film that now forms a trio, Before Sunrise. “We’re big fans of these films and of Rick,” said Michael Barker ... Read More »