A scooter drives by the Palais des Festivals at the 71st international film festival, Cannes, southern France, on May 7, 2018. The Cannes Film Festival, canceled altogether last year by the pandemic, is postponing this yearโs edition from May to July in hopes of having an in-person festival. Cannes organizers announced Wednesday that this yearโs Cannes will now take place July 6-17, about two months after its typical period. (Photo by Arthur Mola/Invision/AP, File)
By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --
The Cannes Film Festival, canceled altogether last year by the pandemic, is postponing this year's edition from May to July in hopes of having an in-person festival.
Cannes organizers announced Wednesday that this year's festival will now take place July 6-17, about two months after its typical period. The French Riviera festival, which had run for nearly 75 years with few interruptions, is currently hoping the coronavirus recedes enough by summertime.
Cannes last year first looked at a postponement its 73rd festival to June or July before ultimately canceling altogether. The festival still went ahead with a selection announcement to celebrate the films it had planned to include in its prestigious lineup.
This year, organizers are intent on having a festival, one way or another. No details were announced Wednesday on what shape a 2021 edition might take.
Rapper A$AP Rocky arrives at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
A$AP Rocky's longtime friend and collaborator testified at his Los Angeles trial Friday that the hip-hop star fired a starter pistol that he carried as a prop during a scuffle with a former friend on a Hollywood street in 2021.
The testimony from the man who goes by A$AP Twelvyy is essential to Rocky's defense against two felony charges of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and a potential sentence of up to 24 years in prison with a conviction.
"He walked around with a prop, like a starter pistol," Twelvyy said, looking at the jury. "I seen it on several occasions."
And his testimony suggested the accuser, their mutual friend who goes by A$AP Relli, knew the pistol wasn't real when Rocky first pulled it out.
"He told him to shoot that fake-ass gun," Twelvyy said under questioning from the defense.
All three men and a fourth who was at the scene, A$AP Illz, were members of the A$AP Mob, a crew of musicians and other creators that formed at a New York high school nearly 20 years ago.
But just one of them, Rocky, became a major mainstream success starting in the early 2010s with a pair of No. 1 albums. He has since been nominated for three Grammys, but has become known as much for his dealings in fashion as his music, and for his relationship with singing superstar Rihanna, with whom he has two toddler sons.
She was not in court Friday. She made an appearance in the audience Thursday afternoon after an absence of several days.
Twelvyy, a rapper whose legal name is Jamel Phillips, has acted as an on-stage hype man for Rocky and has appeared in his music videos. He testified that Rocky had reason to fear for his life in the 2021 fight, since both of them were stabbed in a brawl at a New York club in... Read More