Last year, the biggest story at the Venice Film Festival was the blink-and-you-miss-it visit by actress Florence Pugh, and the beef with director Olivia Wilde which lay behind it.

And this year, the biggest star attending is going to ‘pull a Pugh’ by attending Venice so briefly that he won’t even stay the night.

Two-time Oscar nominee Adam Driver, 39, has agreed to show up to promote the movie Ferrari, in which he stars.

However there is such nervousness about being seen to ‘break’ the actors and writers strikes that – even though the film has earned an exemption – he won’t be hanging around.

Driver will be flying from Paris to Venice on a private jet in the morning of Thursday 31st, going up the red carpet in the late afternoon, and flying back again to the Hotel Bristol in Paris that same day.

It’s not yet clear whether he will do any promotional interviews or a press conference before the red carpet. Sources say that he is thinking of making some kind of strike-supporting speech at some point, but details are scarce.

Sources also say that Driver is planning to wear a t-shirt in support of the strikes under his tuxedo.

Co-star Penelope Cruz is now thinking hard about her own outfit options as a result. She is a long-term ambassador of the fashion brand Chanel. 

Nobody in Hollywood wants to be seen doing the wrong thing by the strikers and the whole film and TV industry has ground to a complete stop. 

The writers union, the WGA, went on strike on May 2nd, and were followed by SAG-AFTRA, the actors union, on July 14th.

Ferrari actors (and writers) can attend with out breaking the strikes as the film has been given an exemption because it was made by an independent, Neon, not a studio.

The stars of the film Priscilla, about Priscilla Presley’s life, can also attend without breaking the strike as it was made in Canada.

Earlier this week it was confirmed that Priscilla has a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement which would allow cast including Jacob Elordi – who plays Elvis – to come. It’s not clear whether he will though.

Priscilla Presley, on whose 1985 memoir it is based, is expected to attend. She is an actress, herself, having appeared in Dallas and the Naked Gun films.

Most other stars have no option but to stay away. Bradley Cooper, who wrote, produced stars in and directed Maestro, about the conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, will not be in Venice to see possibly the defining film of his career premiere. It is by Netflix, who are a struck company.

A festival spokesman confirmed last month that he would not attend in solidarity with the strike by the actors union SAG-AFTRA.

The film Challengers, a tennis and three-somes drama starring Zendaya and Josh O’Connor, of The Crown, was going to open the festival but that dropped after the actor’s came on strike in July.

The prestige film Poor Things, an adaptation of a Frankenstein-esque gothic tale starring Emma Stone, will premiere at the festival but star Emma Stone and the rest of the cast will not be there.

Ferrari is a film by renowned director Michael Man and examines three months in the life of Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the car company. He has money trouble, is grieving his son who died, and has a child with his mistress – which is discovered by his wife.

Last year Florence Pugh skipped the press conference and photo call before the premiere of Don’t Worry Darling, in which she starred alongside Harry Styles. It was reported that she and director Olivia Wilde had fallen out during the making of the film, after Styles and Wilde started a love affair.

Pugh was friends with Wilde’s estranged partner Jason Sudeikis via her former relationship with actor Zach Braff. In addition she felt that the marketing of the show, and the focus on her explicit love scenes with Styles, was exploitative and may have blamed director Wilde for it.

She said in a magazine interview: ‘When it’s reduced to your sex scenes, or to watch the most famous man in the world go down on someone, it’s not why we do it. It’s not why I’m in this industry.

‘Obviously, the nature of hiring the most famous pop star in the world, you’re going to have conversations like that. That’s just not what I’m going to be discussing because [this movie is] bigger and better than that. And the people who made it are bigger and better than that.’

On the red carpet she and Wilde steered completely clear of each other, arriving at different times and not exchanging any pleasantries. Pugh left directly after the film was screened and did not attend a cast dinner or party. She was at the time making the film Dune 2 in Budapest.

Shocking moment angry driver attacks traffic warden with wooden pole as the pair brawl on the street in east London after officer took photos of the man’s van

• The fight, caught on film in London, left the traffic warden with a broken finger 

By Tom Cotterill

Updated: 06:30 EDT, 23 August 2023

NASCAR driver Noah Gragson requests Legacy Motor Club release after being suspended indefinitely for liking meme mocking George Floyd

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• The 25-year-old is now calling to be released by LMC after issuing an apology
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By Oliver Salt For Dailymail.Com

Published: 13:52 EDT, 10 August 2023 | Updated: 14:33 EDT, 10 August 2023

By Ted Thornhill, Mailonline Travel Editor

Published: 07:18 EDT, 10 August 2023 | Updated: 08:23 EDT, 10 August 2023

Rioting broke out in a Paris suburb tonight after a policeman was accused of executing a teenage driver in cold blood after telling him: ‘I’m going to lodge a bullet in your head’.

The alleged killing was videoed in Nanterre, to the west of the French capital, earlier today after the youth – who is from an Algerian background – was said to have broken traffic rules.

The victim was soon identified as Nael, 17, while the officer was arrested and placed in custody.

As youths began to pour on the streets, setting fire to dustbins and buildings, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin appealed for calm.

He told the National Assembly in Paris that the images posted on social media were ‘extremely shocking and worrying,’ and urged people to ‘respect the grief of the family and the presumption of innocence of the police’.

Angry scenes played out in Paris this evening as youths confronted police, with videos shared on social media showing pushing and shoving between young men and officers wearing riot gear.

One clip appeared to show a young woman shouting ‘I hate France’ as an officer mutters ‘return to Africa’.

Seven people have so far been arrested after protesting this evening, authorities said.

Two other people were in the vehicle with Nael at the time of the shooting. A first passenger fled, while the second, also a minor, was arrested and taken into custody.

Nanterre mayor Patrick Jarry said he was ‘shocked’ by the video images and passed his ‘sincere condolences to the boy’s mother’.

‘He hopes that the investigations opened (…) will make it possible to shed light as quickly as possible on the exact circumstances of this tragedy,’ his office said.

The 17-year-old was in the Paris suburb of Nanterre earlier today when police shot him dead after he broke road rules and failed to stop, prosecutors said.

Emergency services tried to resuscitate him at the scene but he died shortly afterwards.

The officer accused of firing on the driver has been detained on homicide charges, the Nanterre prosecutors’ office said.

An authenticated  video circulating on social media shows two police officers trying to stop the vehicle and one pointing his weapon at the driver through the window 

He shouts ‘I’m going to lodge a bullet in your head’ before firing at point blank range when as the driver steers away.

The car moved for 10 yards, before crashing to a halt, with shocked passers-by looking on.

The IGPN national police inspectorate has opened an investigation into possible intentional killing by a person holding a position of public authority.

A separate probe is being carried out by regional police into the driver’s failure to halt and alleged attempt to kill a person holding a position of public authority

Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said the action of the officer ‘raises questions’, while claiming that the officer may have ‘felt threatened.’

The family’s lawyer Yassine Bouzrou told the same channel that while all parties needed to wait for the result of the investigation the images ‘clearly showed a policeman killing a young man in cold blood.’

‘This is a long way from any kind of legitimate defence’ he said, adding the family had filed a complaint, accusing police of ‘lying’ by initially claiming the car had tried to run down the officers.

‘It’s so sad, he was so young,’ said Samia Bough, 62, the teenager’s former neighbour, who came to lay a bouquet of yellow roses at the scene.

In 2022, a record 13 deaths were recorded after refusals to stop for traffic controls. Five police officers have been charged in these cases.

Authorities and police unions blame the 2022 figures on more dangerous driving behaviour, but researchers also point to a 2017 law modifying the conditions of the use of their weapon by the police.

Two weeks ago, a 19-year-old was killed by a police officer he had injured in the legs with his car in the western town of Angouleme.

The left reacted with anger, saying police had no right to kill people simply because they refused to stop.

‘Yes, a refusal to stop is against the law. But death is not one of the sanctions provided for by the penal code,’ tweeted the coordinator of the hard left France Unbowed (LFI) party, Manuel Bompard.

‘A refusal to stop does not provide a licence to kill,’ said Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure.

Instant karma! Road rage pedophile hurls n-words at another driver and rams victim’s car before losing control of his Jeep and crashing it: Cops arrest him for assault with a deadly weapon

• Tracy Robert Blackwell, 61, a convicted sex offender, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon in connection to the viral incident
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• Blackwell then crashed his vehicle into a wall after hitting the victim’s car 

By Andrea Cavallier For Dailymail.Com

Published: 21:45 EDT, 23 May 2023 | Updated: 01:25 EDT, 24 May 2023

These hero brothers dramatically saved the life of a terrified trucker who had been clinging to the cab of his stricken petrol tanker for over six hours in a raging crocodile-infested river.

Brave chopper pilot Taru Carr-Hartley, 22, and kid brother and crewman Roan, 20, who are both wildlife conservation fliers, pulled off this amazing rescue worthy of Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise.

The trucker was crossing a causeway over the River Galana in the Tsavo East National Park in Kenya when it was suddenly hit by a flash flood after heavy rains 30 miles upstream.

The driver’s fully laden tanker was washed off the crossing and to the driver’s horror was then rolled over onto its side trapping him in the cab with no chance of being reached.

He managed to open the cab window at 10am and climb out and rescuers on the riverbank hoped the floods would subside so they could reach the driver but the water level continued to rise.

Six-and-a-half hours later when all seemed lost a desperate call was put into the world renowned Sheldrick Wildlife Trust asking if they had a helicopter available for a last-gasp rescue effort.

The game park’s aerial unit which normally uses choppers to protect and rescue elephants and rhinos was despatched immediately with the Trust owners two ranger sons Taru and Roan crewing it.

A Sheldrick Wildlife Trust spokesman said: ‘When they reached the River Galana causeway the boys could immediately spot the breached truck completely dwarfed by a very angry river.

‘As they flew closer they were relieved to see the driver still hanging on but the water had pushed the tanker onto its side smashing the windscreen and engulfing the cabin and time was running out.

‘It was only a matter of time before the river totally engulfed the entire vehicle and onlookers were watching helplessly from the shore horrified but unable to help due to the swirling current.

‘It was impossible to get to them from the bank and Taru and Roan were the drivers only chance and Taru slowly guided the chopper down to within six inches of the truck.

‘Roan put his harness on and stepped out and onto the truck and grabbed the driver’s hand and guided him into the helicopter and then got back in himself – a textbook rescue!

‘It was a high stakes rescue mission that ended with the best possible outcome’ the Trust said.

The overjoyed trucker was set down on higher ground where land based rescuers were waiting and the hero brothers took off again and returned to base in the national park.

A short while later it was reported that the petrol tanker was swept further downstream into deeper water which would have seen the stranded driver almost certainly lose his life.

It was not the first time Roan has been hailed a hero as in December 2022 a 4-year-old goat herder had lost contact with his brother and disappered in the remote African wilderness.

Fixed wing pilot Roan went up looking for him in the national park along with 70 local villager but the boys tracks were washed away by rain and trackers had to find them again.

Six days later they picked up the missing boys tracks eleven miles from the village deep in hyena territory and again Roan took off and several hours later he spotted the boy.

He used his aircraft to guide the villagers to the starving boy who had survived six days and nights in the wild full of predators suffering only a multitude of painful mosquito bites.

The villagers renamed the boy Roan after his saviour and presented the pilot with a goat.

The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust was founded by conservationist Dame Daphne Sheldrick in 1977 in memory of husband David and covers over 2 million acres of Kenyan wilderness.

It is the world’s most successful orphan elephant and rhino rescue, rehabilitation and reintergration projects in the world and is now run by Daphne’s CEO daughter Angela.

She married Robert Carr-Hartley and they both run the SWT ably helped by their two daredevil and dashing sons Taru and Roan who are both experienced fixed wing and helicopter pilots.

They are also hands-on rangers working in the bush to conserve and rescue the wildlife and the land.

A family friend said: ‘From the moment they were born they were real life Mowgli’s and despite their youth there is not very much they don’t know about the African wildlife.

‘They are as at home in the air as they are in the bush doing what they can for Kenya’s animals and this amazing chopper rescue is something they will just take in their stride.

‘Just another day at work in a very beautiful office for that pair’ she said.

One person commented on the You Tube video: ‘What incredible flying and to get that close to the tanker in those flying conditions was just remarkable – both very very brave’.

Another said: ‘Absolutely amazing.God bless you all.The men operating that helicopter must have nerves of steel.Good job guys and thank you so much. It was that truckers lucky day’.

Trust founder Daphne Sheldrick who was born in Kenya but had British roots was made an MBE by the Queen in 1989 then a Dame in 2006 for her life of untiring conservation work.

Her daughter Angela – the mother of Taru and Roan – took over as CEO of the Trust in 2001 and sadly her mother Daphne passed away in 2018 at the ripe old age of 83.

Taru and Roan’s father Robert Carr-Hartley as well as running the Trust with his wife is a top helicopter pilot and award winning photographer who was a consultant on blockbusting films Out of Africa and Lion King.