Jacques Perrin, ‘Cinema Paradiso’ Star, Dies at 80

The BBC are set to sign This Morning chef Gino D’Acampo for the 20th anniversary of its hit show, Strictly Come Dancing, which will take place later this year. 43 year old Italian chef Gino has become a firm favourite on Britain’s TV screens, with his hilarious sense of humour – and brilliant cooking skills – earning him legions of fans. Not only has he been a chef on This Morning for 13 years, he also won I’m A Celebrity...

Cannes Film Festival almost 35 years ago, I was still green and naïve enough to ask long-time Cannes attendees why the famed French fest held such a powerful place in the pecking order of international film gatherings. The late Richard Corliss, Time magazine’s peerless and beloved film critic, answered warmly and succinctly, with his own more worldly query: “Would you rather be in Germany in the winter or the South of France in the spring?”Corliss had a point, but in the decades since I’ve tucked my own couple of dozen Cannes fests under my belt, I’ve compiled my own list of reasons why Cannes remains the one film festival that people who’ve never been to a film festival have heard about and wish they could go to, and know that if a film has scored there, it must be worth their time.

Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s Julia Child documentary JULIA is to be given a linear TV showing on CNN later this month.

Graziano Di Prima celebrated his birthday with Strictly friends on tour as he turned 28.The Strictly Come Dancing star was joined by his co-stars including Neil Jones and Kai Widdrington as he celebrated his 28th year, as well as show dance pro Diane Buswell, 33, who celebrated her birthday the previous day, as the cast continued on their professionals tour of the UK.The dance star, who recently opened up to OK! about his upcoming wedding to fiancée Giada Lini, looked thrilled as his professional co-stars sang him happy birthday on the show’s tour bus. He later grinned as he was presented with a Liverpool football t-shirt with his name printed on the back, putting it on and showing it off for the cameras.

Manori Ravindran International EditorA new documentary about “The Power of the Dog” director Jane Campion has been picked up for sales by WestEnd Films and Cinephil.Directed by César Award-winning “Since Otar Left…” helmer Julie Bertuccelli, “Jane Campion, The Cinema Woman” is screening as part of the Cannes Classics line-up.The New Zealand director was the first woman to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes, for “The Piano,” and this year won the best director Oscar for her Netflix western “The Power of the Dog.”  Bertuccelli’s documentary on the 68-year-old filmmaker, which spans 40 years, is described as “the portrait [Campion] deserves, in a film that is unapologetically subjective and offbeat, very much mirroring [Campion’s] own trailblazing journey in cinema and life.” The film is produced by Academy Award nominee Estelle Fialon (“The Gatekeepers,” “Flickering Ghosts of Loves Gone By”), and crew members include editors Laure Gardette (“Capernaum,” “Polisse”) and Svetlana Vaynblat (“Flickering Ghosts of Loves Gone By”), as well as César Award-winning sound editor and mixer Olivier Goinard (“Adolescentes,” “Le Chant du Loup”).“Jane Campion, The Cinema Woman” is produced by Les Films du Poisson, which had three films in Cannes in 2021. The outfit recently produced the French remake of Hagai Levi’s “In Treatment,” with showrunners Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, which became French broadcaster ARTE’s most watched broadcast with more than 60 million viewers.Bertuccelli said of her documentary: “Jane is the director for whom I have the most admiration and with whom I feel a genuine connection.

Kim Cattrall squeezes Patricia Field in a big hug while arriving at Variety’s 2022 Power Of Women held at The Glasshouse on Thursday (May 5) in New York City.

Michael Appler On Wednesday evening in New York City, Colin Firth and the cast of HBO’s “The Staircase” celebrated its premiere at the Museum of Modern Art.Created by Antonio Campos with showrunner Maggie Cohn, “The Staircase” marks HBO’s turn at the true crime story of Kathleen Peterson, who was found dead at the bottom of her staircase in 2001. The story of what followed and came before — her husband Michael Peterson’s indictment and trial, unearthed secrets, treatment by prosecutors and twisting family drama — was first the subject of a 2004 documentary miniseries, then republished and given new episodes by Netflix, and now fictionalized in HBO’s limited series led by Firth and Toni Collette. “I think about Truman Capote and ‘In Cold Blood,’ which was itself a first of its kind,” Parker Posey, who plays the prosecuting attorney Freda Black in the series, told Variety at the premiere.

Primetime Emmy winner Tobias Menzies has boarded the Nicole Holofcener directed and written feature Beth & Don opposite Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterLouis Partridge has joined the cast of the upcoming Apple psychological thriller series “Disclaimer,” Variety has learned exclusively.Partridge joins previously announced series leads Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline and cast members Sacha Baron Cohen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Hoyeon.Based on the novel of the same name by Renee Knight, “Disclaimer” will star Blanchett as Catherine Ravenscroft, a successful and respected television documentary journalist whose work has been built on revealing the concealed transgressions of long-respected institutions. When an intriguing novel written by a widower (Kline) appears on her bedside table, she is horrified to realize she is a key character in a story that she had hoped was long buried in the past.

Regine, who claimed to have invented the term “discotheque” as she ran a nightclub empire that stretched from Paris to Los Angeles, has died. She passed on Sunday at age 92, according to her granddaughter. No cause was given.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentCinecittà CEO Nicola Maccanico, who is a former Warner Bros. and Sky Italia senior exec, is implementing a major upgrade and expansion of the iconic Rome studios where he recently installed Europe’s largest LED Wall on the lot near the large Studio 5 that was once Federico Fellini’s second home.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAs they celebrate being held as a physical event, Italy’s upcoming 67th David di Donatello Awards epitomize the ongoing shift in generations and genres that is underway in Cinema Italiano. Leading the pack this year are seasoned auteur Paolo Sorrentino’s most personal film “The Hand of God” and young helmer Gabriele Mainetti’s second feature, the elegant effects-laden historical fantasy “Freaks Out,” which is set in 1943 Rome and involves four “freaks” working in a circus when the Eternal City is bombed by Allied Forces.

EXCLUSIVE: Peter Webber (Girl With A Pearl Earring) is set to direct The Pianist, Valkyrie and Indiana Jones 5 star Thomas Kretschmann in WWII movie The Prominents.

EXCLUSIVE: Monty Python star John Cleese and Gomorrah actor Fortunato Cerlino have been confirmed to us as among supporting cast for Roman Polanski’s new movie The Palace, which is in production in Switzerland.

LOS ANGELES -- Kris Jenner became emotional while recalling a volatile 2016 argument she heard about between her son Rob Kardashian and his then-girlfriend Blac Chyna that traumatized him.Jenner testified for the second day from the witness stand in a Los Angeles courtroom on Friday that she believed Chyna attempted to murder her son. At the time, she said she was told that Chyna pointed a gun at Kardashian’s head, tried to strangle him with a phone cord and hit him with a metal pole while intoxicated.“It was complete chaos.

Luke Evans spent the day at the hospital on Thursday.

Jacques Perrin, the French actor best known for starring in Giuseppe Tornatore’s Oscar-winning film “Cinema Paradiso,” has died. He was 80 years old.“The family has the immense sadness of informing you of the death of filmmaker Jacques Perrin, who died on Thursday, April 21 in Paris.