An unidentified staffer may have become the unlikely star of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival — but not for a good reason.
Earlier this month, celebrities from all around the globe attended the prestigious event, and a few — mostly non-white women — had visibly uncomfortable interactions with what appears to be same female security guard.
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Footage on social media has shown Destiny’s Child alum Kelly Rowland, South Korean pop star Yoona and Dominican actor Massiel Taveras having heated altercations with the staffer, who has appeared to invade their personal space or put her hands on them.
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The latest clip making the rounds on social media was shared by Sawa Pontyjska, a Ukrainian model and Miss Europe 2023. In the footage from May 21, the same security person can be seen wrapping her arms around Pontyjska at the top of the red carpet’s stairs and appearing to pull her inside the venue. In the clip, Pontyjska attempts to retreat back down the steps but is blocked by other festival staff members.
Although colleagues of the guard reportedly told the Daily Mail that she was “just doing her job,” the staffer has drawn backlash online. Many social media users have called for her to be fired, with several arguing that she seemed to be targeting women of color.
Rowland implied that the incident seemed to be racially driven while speaking to The Associated Press last week.
“The woman knows what happened. I know what happened,” Rowland told AP on the red carpet after the incident. “And I have a boundary, and I stand by those boundaries. And that is it.”
She added: “There were other women that attended that carpet who did not quite look like me and they didn’t get scolded or pushed off or told to get off.”
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Cannes is notorious for having a strict red carpet protocol, including not allowing selfies. It also used to have a pretty rigid high heels-only policy for women, but it was reportedly relaxed after a minor backlash at the 2015 event. Despite these rules, it seems as if plenty of celebrities have gotten away with breaking them. Julia Roberts and Kristen Stewart both walked the carpet barefoot, and Jennifer Lawerence paired her red gown with flip-flops in 2023, according to Vogue.
HuffPost has reached out to the Cannes Film Festival for comment on the incidents with Pontyjska, Yoona, Taveras and Rowland but did not receive an immediate response.