Kristen Stewart is as quirky, unusual, and cool as ever at the Nouvelle Vagues film festival in Biarritz

Dear Gossips,

Today marks the 50^th anniversary of Toronto’s CN Tower, one of the city’s most distinguishing landmarks, if not THE most distinguishing landmark. And certainly a pretty familiar sight in Canada overall, although some people from other parts of Canada might argue that they don’t know her because, well, people who aren’t from Toronto like to hate on Toronto – and I get that, since I lived in Vancouver for so long and consider that city home too.

Also in Toronto it’s Pride Weekend with festivities happening across the city to celebrate the 2SLGBTQ+ community and reinforce the truth that love is love is love is love. So, in the spirit of love, today’s site open is dedicated to our site manager, Emily, who has been with us so long I can’t remember a time when she wasn’t one of the essential pillars of this blog.

One of Emily’s faves is Kristen Stewart, who is at the Nouvelle Vagues film festival in Biarritz. KStew has been embraced by the French film industry, making history over a decade ago (!) as the first American woman to win the prestigious César Award for her performance in Clouds of Sils Maria. But it’s also fitting for KStew to be at Nouvelle Vagues because it’s a platform for emerging filmmakers, new voices in cinema, and she herself is now a director, having just expanded her repertoire to include work behind the camera. And, also, even though she is now in her 30s, she remains youthful – and I’m not talking here about appearance but in spirit. There is never not a sense of discovery about KStew, there’s a youthful rebellious energy to her that has remained, even though she’s obviously a pop culture veteran. As she gets older, and has now moved beyond the Twilight times, when she was awkwardly growing into her celebrity, she has seemed more and more comfortable in her fame lane, perhaps because she’s figured out how to balance her notoriety with her artistry, while never losing her curiosity.

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Kristen has become more and more outspoken about how she wants to contribute to cinema, what stories she wants to tell, and whose stories she wants to amplify. And she is engaging with the creatives and the tastemakers and the fans on her terms. It’s fun to see her having fun at the festival, still as quirky and unusual and cool as ever, but also approachable and accessible. Which is what Emily always knew…wayyyy back when KStew was in Vancouver making the Twilight movies, on a night when they took a photo together, and she told me even though she might not remember that she would never not love her.

For our Emily…

HAPPY PRIDE!

And from Emily - here's the photo!