Cannes Diary: 15/05/2010

Douglas offers old excuses

When a fellow member of the press stood up at the press conference of Oliver Stone's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and congratulated the Hollywood actor Michael Douglas for looking good at 65, the actor visibly winced, admitting some minutes later that the film offers weren't as abundant as they had been some years ago.

"The parts get limited as you get older. There are certainly less studio parts unless you are willing to play a villain." Some time later, he did acknowledge that his illustrious actor father, Kirk Douglas, did give him a helping hand in to film when he was younger.

Mirren makes it a family affair

Helen Mirren has had a long-held ambition fulfilled in being cast to work with her husband, Taylor Hackford, on the film about a legal brothel in Nevada, Love Ranch, which they were both promoting in Cannes. They originally met during the filming of White Nights, in 1985, and have not worked together since, until now. Mirren admitted to turning up to all her husband's films, and handing out sweets to the crew: "Obviously I did want to work with Taylor again. On every film he does, I go to the set, I hand out candy to the crew. But we hadn't worked together since the 1980s and it was always a question in my mind – will we work together again?"

Blige eager to play diva

Ealing Studios is making a film about the life and times of the blues diva Nina Simone, which is to star the R&B diva Mary J Blige. The film will focus on the singer's relationship with her assistant, Clifton Henderson, who will be played by David Oyelowo.