Dear Gossips,

Do you feel the need, the need for speed? Cannes does. It was reported this week that ~~Maverick: Legend of the Skies~~ Top Gun: Maverick will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this May. The Croisette? More like the CRUISETTE. Cannes is BIG, it is GLAMOR, it is CELEBRITY, and it is expected to be the most normal the festival has been since 2019, which means big red carpets and lots of celebrities, as we have already been seeing at the awards shows occurring this year. This is not to say the pandemic is actually over, but everyone is certainly acting like it is, which includes a “normal” Cannes to kick off the summer movie season. And this year they will kick it off with none other than the professor emeritus of blockbuster cinema, Tom Cruise.

But wait, there’s more, because Baz Luhrman’s Elvis will also be premiering at the fest. This will bring budding It Boy Austin Butler to the festival—and maybe Kaia Gerber, too?—but also another eminent Hollywood figure, Tom Hanks. I doubt Tom Hanks will stunt on the Croisette like the other Tom, but still, these are huge names and massively anticipated films to include in the fest. Nature is healing and all that, and the difference between last year and this year is the presence of major Hollywood films. Last year’s fest had a strong lineup, including eventual Oscar nominee Drive My Car and some of last year’s highlight films like Titane, A Hero, and The Worst Person in the World. After Yang also premiered there, and Valerie Lemercier’s Aline screened out of competition (still desperately waiting to see that one), but it was light on Hollywood. Matt Damon’s Stillwater was the biggest mainstream Hollywood film at the fest last year.

But we’re going back to big Hollywood stars on big glamorous red carpets in a big way, and if the red carpets for awards shows are anything to go by, the celebs, they missed the red carpets, too. No matter what they may say on the record, the volume of fashion showing up on these carpets speaks to a voracious desire to get back to hard posing in big ass ball gowns and an ever-widening variety of suits and tuxes—Elvis co-stars Kodi Smit-McPhee, if he makes it to Cannes, he is guaranteed to wear something notable. Not to mention that I am already bracing myself for the reemergence of Glen Powell thirst when he steps out for Top Gun.

Cannes, which is always the most glamorous and fashion forward of the celebrity red carpets—especially since the Met Gala has been co-opted by the PEOPLE’s Best Dressed Industrial Complex—should be absolutely wild this year. But will anyone be wilder than Tom Cruise? He probably won’t be clocking anyone’s style radar, but I fully expect him to arrive by speed boat or something similarly over the top. He’s the king of stunting, and Cannes loves a big Hollywood star moment on the red stairs. Maybe he’ll ride a motorcycle up the steps. No, you know what? He’ll parachute directly onto the Croisette. THAT is a Cannes entrance worthy of Maverick.

Live long and gossip,

Sarah

Tom Hanks Gossip

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