Emmanuel Macron blames video games for riots in France

Key French tax credits aimed at the cinema, audiovisual and video game sectors generated $3.2 billion (€2.9 billion) worth of extra spending in France from 2017 to 2021, according to a study released by EY Consulting.

Based on the popular series of PlayStation racing video games and the real-life story of Jann Mardenborough, a teenage gamer who aspires to be an actual race car driver, the action-packed film explores the terrifying journey one young make makes to go from gamer to racer. In real life, Mardenborough participated in the Gran Turismo Academy competition, beating 90,000 other participants to become the tournament's third and youngest champion. He was rewarded with the opportunity to represent Nissan in the Dubai 24-Hour race, and he went on to win numerous Nissan events and make a living as a professional race car driver. Archie Madekwe takes on the role of Mardenborough, following the racer's footsteps through GT Academy and onto the racetrack. Djimon Hounsou plays the role of Jann's father, Steve Mardenborough, alongside Geri Halliwell and Daniel Puig, who portray Jann's mother Lesley and his brother, respectively.Orlando Bloom turns the marketing charm up to 11 as Danny Moore, a motorsport marketing executive based on GT Academy founder Darren Cox.

“EXCLUSIVE: Snow White and the Seven… Politically-Correct Companions?” The studio first denied the images were authentic, then backtracked and said “the photos were from the production but were not official photos,” per The Daily Beast. It was already announced in January 2022 that following criticism from Dinklage and others, the film’s famous “seven dwarfs” would be referred to as “magical creatures” to “avoid reinforcing stereotypes.” But apparently seeing that put into practice in the set images, which featured a stand-in for Zegler’s Snow White for production’s placement and shot planning, riled up Disney’s right-wing fans anew.

Bethenny Frankel has a bone (or two!) to pick with Andy Cohen.

Jane Birkin graced the front pages of most French newspapers on Monday as France mourned the death of the late British actress and singer who enjoyed icon status in the country that she had called home since the late 1960s.

The world has lost a fashion icon today.

Aside from a handful of outliers like The X-Files, a four-time Outstanding Drama Series nominee, the top Emmy drama category had not been very welcoming to genre shows. That changed in a big way with HBO’s fantasy series Game Of Thrones, which became a four-time drama series winner.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer Achievement unlocked: With nods for best drama series, actor (Pedro Pascal) and actress (Bella Ramsey) — HBO’s “The Last of Us” is the first live-action video game adaptation to earn major awards consideration from a top Hollywood awards body, in television or in film. See the full list of nominations. On TV, live-action video game adaptations are practically a brand new phenomenon, starting with “Halo” for Paramount+ and “Resident Evil” for Netflix, both of which debuted in 2022. That landscape is quickly expanding, with shows based on “Twisted Metal” (for Peacock), and “God of War” and “Fallout” (for Amazon Prime Video) all on the immediate horizon. 

Researchers found that this has occurred as a secondary impact of digital game distribution becoming the preferred route for releasing games. As a result, the “classic” games in this study are games released prior to 2010 which was denoted to be the year when digital game distribution “started to take off”.

If you have upcoming birthdays, Amazon Prime Day is the perfect time to get some cheap video games cheap for the gamer in your life.

Callum McLennan Santa Cruz de Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands will set the stage for a conference on European video game policy and virtual environments on July 12-13. The move acknowledges the Islands’ growing status as a hub for digital arts and video games and, alongside economic benefits, a growing recognition of the sector’s cultural influence and its potential for greater integration within a broader creative and cultural ecosystem including film and TV. This year saw a video-game-based feature, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” punch for the first time ever over $1 billion at the global box office, grossing $1.35 billion worldwide, making it the biggest movie hit of 2023. Based on the video game, HBO’s “The Last of Us” became one of the service’s most critically lauded series of the last decade, while breaking HBO Max viewership records in Europe.  

Sir Elton John will hold what he has described as his “final farewell show” in Sweden this weekend as his tour comes to an end. Billed as his retirement from touring, the megastar played his last UK date at Glastonbury festival last month and will bring the tour to an end on Saturday at the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.GamesRadar reported on the use of artificial intelligence tool ElevenLabs for these mods last week, and the response continues to rumble on. Twitter user Robbie92, who drew attention to those actors whose voices have been subject to this software, said that the actors have been “abused by the modding communities” through “AI voice cloning to create and distribute non-consensual deepfake pornographic content.”With the rise of AI voice cloning, voice actors are being abused by the modding communities.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Florian Zeller, the Oscar-winning director and playwright of “The Father” and “The Son,” received the Medal of Honor, France’s highest decoration, at an intimate ceremony in Paris on Wednesday. The event, hosted in the gardens of the French authors and composers guild (SACD), gathered a flurry of talent and luminaries from the worlds of film, TV, theater and literature — reflecting the breadth of Zeller’s body of work. Zeller was appointed Knight of the Legion of Honor by France President Emmanuel Macron. Guests included Isabelle Huppert, Pierre Arditi, Catherine Frot and Elodie Navarre who have starred in Zeller’s plays; Christopher Hampton, with whom he shares a best adapted screenplay Oscar for “The Father;” “Simone” actor Elsa Zylberstein; Mediawan boss Pierre-Antoine Capton, with whom he launched the L.A.-based company Blue Morning Pictures; Victoria Bedos (“La famille Belier”); Orange Studio’s Kristina Zimmermann and Sebastien Cauchon, who distributed both “The Father” and “The Son” in France; French singer Julien Clerc; French director Anne Fontaine and producer Philippe Carcassonne; as well as Zeller’s wife, Marine Delterme, an actor who was recently signed by WME.

Paul McCartney says musicians today are expected to perform much longer concerts than the Beatles did in the 1960s, and he appears to blame Bruce Springsteen for it.  "These days it’s pretty much the main act and there might be a warmup act," McCartney recently told Conan O’Brien on his "Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend" podcast. Sir Paul said "nobody" did long sets during the Beatles' time because there were so many other acts in a show.  "Now, people do three, four hours. I blame Bruce Springsteen.

A short live performance is the key to Paul McCartney’s musical heart.

Paul McCartney has said that he “blames” Bruce Springsteen for increasingly long stage times.The 81-year-old former Beatle was speaking during an episode of Conan O’Brien’s ‘Needs A Friend’ podcast when he reflected on the increasingly extensive sets that artists are expected to play — and said that Springsteen was to blame.According to the bassist, songwriter and singer, it was The Boss who began the trend of performing mammoth sets that go on for hours, which made it impossible to get away with shorter sets. He also explained that The Beatles would often only play for 30 minutes during their ’60s heyday, and this was never an issue with fans.“These days, pretty much there’s the main act and there might be a warm-up act,” he began.

A missed curfew didn’t stop Lana Del Rey‘s music!

Entertainment Tonight this week. “It’s just one of the main subjects of the show is sex — people having sex and people having great sex and people having terrible sex and people having hilarious sex,” she continued.The season’s opening scene showed a montage of the other characters having some intimate moments, including a shot of Nixon and Diaz in a hot tub.Later on, in another clip, Nixon tried a strap-on — even struggling to put it on at first — and talked about “pegging.”The premiere caught some heat from a few, including Meghan McCain, who penned in her Daily Mail column that the show was “woke slop.”Nixon’s character, Hobbes, plays a lawyer who is married to Steve Brady (David Eigenberg), but goes through some changes as she gets older, particularly in her romantic life, later asking him for a divorce on the spinoff.During last season’s finale, Che asks Miranda to come with them to Los Angeles to make a pilot for a TV show.

Lana Del Rey's music!On Saturday, the «Summertime Sadness» singer headlined the 2023 Glastonbury Music Festival and had her set cut short, after arriving 30 minutes late to the stage.The 38-year-old singer was scheduled to take the stage at 10:30 pm, per the festival's website but took the stage 30 minutes later. According to, Lana told the crowd that her hair was the reason for the delay. «I was so f*****g late that I am about to rush this set to death,» she told the crowd.