Congratulations to Sarah Jessica Parker and the cast and crew of “Sex and the City” the movie which grossed nearly $56 million this past weekend. An incredible tally.

We are very happy for them, but we also think its funny and appropriate that blog Goss Hollywood put together a little photo montage showing how the actress looks just like a horse.

And who doesn’t love horsies?

Sharon Stone at the Cannes Film Festival last week said:

“I’m not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else. I’ve been concerned about how we should deal with the Olympics, because they are not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who is a good friend of mine. And then all this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and I thought, is that karma – when you’re not nice that the bad things happen to you?”

Later, the actress insinuated that the deadly earthquake that killed as many as 80,000 people in China was bad karma because of China’s policies in Tibet.

Several Chinese cinemas have now pledged to not screen her movies and the Internet (behind the Great Chinese Firewall) has exploded with angry comments against Stone.

China says more than 67,000 people have been confirmed dead in the May 12 earthquake that devastated a mountainous corner of southwestern Sichuan province and more than 20,000 are still missing.

Some websites have even posted slideshows of Stone, usually topless and sometimes in affectionate poses with a male friend, accompanied by captions , one read: “Shut up, shameless woman”.

Sean Penn, the jury head awarded the Palme d’Or prize for this year’s Cannes Film Festival to French film “The Class” about life in a tough Parisian school.  The film directed by Laurent Cantet uses real students and teachers in chronicling a year in their lives.  It is a film based on an autobiographical novel by young teacher Francois Begaudeau - and was praised by Penn as “an amazing, amazing film.”  In accepting the award, Cantet said that he aimed to make a film that was “a reflection of French society - multiple, many-faceted, [and] complex.  Sometimes also with friction that the film does not try to cover up.”

“Hunger” a portrayal of the last six week of Irish Republican Army hunger striker Bobby Sands took the Camera d’Or prize for best first feature film. 

Benecio Del Toro won best Actor for his portrayal of Ernesto “Che” Guevara in the Steven Soderbergh biopic entitled simply “Che” - “I’d like to dedicate this to the man himself, Che Guevara” said Del Toro in accepting the award.

Brazilian star Sandra Corveloni won best Actress for playing a pregnant mother of four in Sao Paolo in the film “Line of Passage.”

Clint Eastwood (who also directed “Changeling” starring Angelina Jolie) and Catherine Deneuve won lifetime achievement awards at the French festival’s closing ceremony.

Sean Penn praised the quality of films in this year’s festival stating: 

“There was a field of such powerful, emotional, moving movies and performances, there were so many times that we thought it just can’t get better.”

Italian mafia movie “Gomorrah,” set in Naples and based on a novel by Roberto Saviana, took the Grand Prix runner-up prize.

The third place jury prize went to “Il Divo,” Paolo Sorrentino’s portrait of the country’s former prime minister, Giulio Andreotto.

61st Cannes Film Festival

Palme d’Or - The Class

Grand Prix - Gomorrah

Special prizes - Clint Eastwood and Catherine Deneuve

Best director - Nuri Bilge Ceylan for Three Monkeys

Jury prize - Il Divo directed by Paolo Sorrentino

Best actor - Benicio del Toro (above) in Che

Best actress - Sandra Corveloni in Line of Passage

Best screenplay - Lorna’s Silence by Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne

Camera d’Or - Hunger

Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” is a 268 minute (if you aren’t a math expert that’s 4 hours and 28 minutes long) historical opus celebrating the life of one of the most interesting men to have lived in the 20th century  - Ernesto “Che” Guevara.  The Argentinia born Guevarra was a medical doctor who happened to meet up with the Castro brothers (Raul and Fidel) in Mexico as they planned to overtthrow the Cuban regime of Fulgencio Bautista in the late 1950’s.

Guevara joined up with the Castros and a handful of other Cuban revolutionaries and embarked on a boat called the Granma towards Cuba’s eastern coast.  From there, in the jungles the revolutionary movement grew and Guevarra, a doctor turned revolutionary became instrumental in the revolutionary success. 

Guevara was unhappy as a beurocrat running various Cuban government agencies under the early rule of Fidel Castro and thirsted to continue the revolutionary process in countries like the Congo and in Bolivia.  It is in Bolivia where Guevara was finally killed.  And from that moment the legend of Che has grown and become an inspiration to others who aim for revolution in thought and action.

The fact that Soderbergh was brave enough to undertake the challenge of putting this film together is credit enough for him.  Benecio Del Toro as ‘Che’ is ideal casting of the Argentine turned Cuban revolutionary martyr.  The Puerto Rican born Del Toro looks and embodies the feel of Guevarra well.  And Soderbergh (who previously won the Palmes D’Or in Cannes for “sex, lies and videotape” as well as an Oscar for “Traffic” and “Erin Brokovich”) is back to making serious movies after wasting time and energy with the Oceans 11 movies.

 Soderbergh was gravitated to Guevara because:

“He had one of the most fascinating lives of the last century.  I’m compelled by the fact he twice gave up everything to put his life on the line for someone else. He even gave up his family. That was fascinating to me.”

 The $60 million budgeted film is currently the talkin of Cannes because of the running length and the inability to find a distributor brave enough to take it on.  There is talk from financing sales company Wild Bunch that the film will be distributed in 2 parts.  The first being called “The Argentine” and the second “Guerilla.”  The length is one draw-back as are the conditions that Soderbergh is reportedly mandating.  At the critics screening, there was an intermission between the two parts and critics were given sandwhiches and KitKats to help keep them happy and awake.

The first part shows Guevara and Castro sailing to Cuba in 1956 and the second begins in 1966 seven years after the guerrilla victory on New Years Eve 1959.

The first part is unanimously being called the more interesting of the two and the second is seen as anti-climactic by Cannes audiences as it shows Guevara’s demise in Bolivia.  In other words, the best moments of Che’s life were leading up to the victory and his untimely execution in Part 2 is a downer.  No wonder Soderbergh wants people to see the entire film in one go - because otherwise a separate release of 2 movies would have people ignoring his second part after they got their fill in part 1.

Here’s a brief clip of the film: