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☆ The Cannes Film Festival
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The Cannes Film Festival began this week with Maïwenn’s “Jeanne du Barry,” starring Johnny Depp as Louis XV, and ends on May 27 with a new Pixar film, “Elemental.” In between, there will be many screenings, many awkward standing ovations, many awards bestowed. Wes Anderson also has a new one, “Asteroid City,” about a junior stargazing convention. It features many members of the Andersonian repertory — Jason Schwartzman, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody and others. In “Firebrand,” from the Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz, Alicia Vikander plays Catherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII, who’s played by Jude Law. Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose film “Shoplifters” won the Palme d’Or in 2018, has a new film, “Monster.” It stars Sakura Ando from “Shoplifters,” and the composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died last month, did the score.

☆ Analysis: Investment banking faultlines trigger European job shake-up
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Sinead Cruise | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Applications for financial services roles globally rose by 67% in the first quarter of 2023 against the same period last year, according to eFinancialCareers. Britain has already said it will scrap a cap on bank bonuses under plans to attract global financial sector talent. Worries about possible contagion triggered by the frailty of the U.S. regional banking system have also put some bank staff on a quest for more secure employment, sources say. Duncan Finlayson, managing director of the FinTech & Financial Services practice at Raines International, said some wanted meetings with chief financial officers to better understand the financial health of prospective employers. "Without a doubt some of the more established financial services platforms are under more heavy scrutiny," he said.

☆ A Vigilant Steve McQueen, a Misguided Maïwenn and Other Cannes Scenes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Manohla Dargis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Presumably Johnny Depp, a heat-seeking target for the armies of paparazzi amassed here, helps explain the movie’s presence. The king is played by a powdered and bewigged Depp, who looks suitably indolent, though perhaps because he’s underused. The king is mainly there to look gaga at Jeanne, which he does a great deal, though it’s a tough call whether Louis lavishes as much attention on Jeanne as Maïwenn does. Among all the close-ups of Jeanne giggling, Maïwenn folds in some palace intrigue and the briefest nod at the terror to come. There’s some comfort that “Jeanne” isn’t contending for the Palme d’Or, which would be an embarrassment, but is being presented out of competition.

☆ How top execs get a bigger tax break on retirement savings than the rest of us
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

It’s a very real possibility, thanks to some generous tax-advantaged retirement savings options available to them — but not to rank-and-file employees. At Disney, where median employee pay is $54,256, CFO Christine Mary McCarthy had amassed nearly $44 million in a nonqualified plan. If annuitized, that balance might generate $3 million a month in retirement, IPS estimated. Narrowing the retirement divideMany Americans face critical shortfalls in savings as they near retirement. By contrast, the median 401(k) balance at Vanguard, a major provider of such plans, was just $33,472,” the IPS report notes.

☆ How to protect your investments in the debt ceiling standoff
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

But even if that’s the case, between now and then bond investors should expect volatility. Bond investors are all about pricing in the risk that they may not be paid back on debt they buy — either on time or at all. But the lack of a deal to raise lawmakers’ self-imposed debt ceiling so close to the X-date is introducing unwanted risk into each investor’s calculus. “We’ve already seen some pricing stress around short-term bills, Treasury bills, and a little bit of change in the… sovereign credit default swap spreads,” said Gary Gensler, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, at an event on Monday. Right now, yields on one-month T bills are well above the yields for 10-year and 30-year Treasury bonds.

☆ Johnny Depp emotional after 7 minute standing ovation at Cannes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Lisa Respers France | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Johnny Depp was teary eyed after his film’s warm welcome at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday. Video shared on social media by Variety shows a visibly moved Depp during a seven minute ovation for his film, “Jeanne du Barry,” in which he stars as the former King of France Louis XV. It was the actor’s first film project since a defamation trial with his ex-wife Amber Heard last summer. A jury found them both liable for defamation in their lawsuits against each other, but awarded significantly more damages to Depp. “The film is a success, and Johnny Depp [as Louis XV] is magnificent in it.”

☆ Johnny Depp on Cannes comeback: I didn't go anywhere
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] The 76th Cannes Film Festival - Photocall for the film "Jeanne du Barry " Out of competition - Cannes, France, May 17, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo FuentesCANNES, May 17 (Reuters) - Johnny Depp pushed back at suggestions he was making a comeback with the Cannes Film Festival's opening movie "Jeanne du Barry" following a high-profile defamation trial a year ago, though he admitted people had "stopped calling" at the time. "I keep wondering about the word comeback, because I didn't go anywhere," Depp said after arriving 45 minutes later than scheduled at the news conference for the film on Wednesday. "Jeanne du Barry," in which Depp plays King Louis XV, received a seven-minute standing ovation at the luxurious Grand Theatre Lumiere, where it premiered on Tuesday evening. No, not at all, I don't feel boycotted because I don't think about it, I don't think about Hollywood," he said.

[1/2] The 76th Cannes Film Festival - Opening ceremony and screening of the film "Jeanne du Barry" Out of competition - Red Carpet arrivals - Cannes, France, May 16, 2023. Gong Li poses. REUTERS/Gonzalo... Read moreCANNES, May 17 (Reuters) - Gong Li, one of China's best actors, told Reuters on Wednesday that Michelle Yeoh's recent success at the Oscars and Golden Globes was particularly encouraging for Asian actors. "Since the beginning of the epidemic to now, in fact, the film industry has not been so vibrant, not like it was before, so her award is also an encouragement," Gong said. "Well, congratulations to her, because I also take it as an encouragement to fellow Asian actors to enter the world."

☆ Johnny Depp marks celebrity comeback with Cannes opening film
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] The 76th Cannes Film Festival - Opening ceremony and screening of the film "Jeanne du Barry" Out of competition - Red Carpet arrivals - Cannes, France, May 16, 2023. Johnny Depp poses. REUTERS/Yara... Read moreCANNES, May 16 (Reuters) - Johnny Depp seemed back in full celebrity mode on Tuesday, signing autographs and taking pictures with fans before the premiere of the Cannes Film Festival's opening film "Jeanne du Barry," which marks the actor's first major role since his high-profile defamation trial. "There are hundreds of film festivals all around the world, but there's only one Cannes," Douglas told the crowd. "Even the casting - some would say stunt casting - of Johnny Depp as the king offers a few early thrills and then mostly yawns," wrote The Hollywood Reporter.

☆ Cannes Film Festival 2023 kicks off with 'all killer, no filler' line-up
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"We have 'Indiana Jones,' we've got Martin Scorsese's new film with Leonardo DiCaprio. Festival director Thierry Fremaux pushed back against criticism that Depp was a controversial choice for an opening-night film, telling Variety magazine the actor had not been banned from working. Other jury members include Brie Larson of "Captain Marvel" and Julia Ducournau, one of two women to win the Palme d'Or. Out of competition, Harrison Ford will return as adventurous archaeologist Indiana Jones, 15 years since the last film in the franchise, in the world premiere of "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" on Thursday. Festival organizers are concerned the unrest seen during the pension reform protests could also make its way to the festival, said Roxborough.

☆ US employees are more satisfied than ever, new survey finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

But a new survey released by The Conference Board on Thursday found that US employees’ job satisfaction overall is the highest it has ever been since the survey began in 1987. Just over 62% of survey respondents indicated overall satisfaction with their jobs, a 2.1 percentage point increase over the prior year’s survey and a 5 percentage point jump over that recorded in 2020. … Across the majority of 26 factors surveyed, employees with hybrid work arrangements report the greatest job satisfaction compared to fully remote or fully on-premises workers,” Board researchers said in their analysis. Survey respondents who had recently changed jobs also were more likely to say they were satisfied. “Overall job satisfaction is 3.6 percentage points higher among those who have found a new job since the pandemic began, compared to those who have not,” Conference Board researchers wrote.

☆ When is Cannes Film Festival 2023 and what can we expect?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/6] The 75th Cannes Film Festival - The Palme d'Or Award - Cannes, France, May 17, 2022. Below are some facts about the Cannes Film Festival and this year's contenders. WHAT IS THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL AND WHY IS IT CELEBRATED? Cannes is the world's biggest film festival, first conceived in 1939 as an alternative to the then-fascist-influenced Venice Film Festival. Other awards include the Grand Prix, jury prize, best director, best actor, best actress, best screenplay and best short film.

☆ Smart money moves for new grads
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Know what your means areFigure out how much money you bring in, how much you spend and how much you save. Don’t count on money you don’t have yetYou’ve heard you’ll be paid a bonus. But until it does, don’t spend it in advance because you have no control over when it will come or how much you’ll get. Clements recommends having just two credit cards: One with a low credit limit (e.g., $1,000 to $2,000) that you use as your “walking around” card for purchases. Plus it helps your credit score because you will never charge too high a percentage of your total credit limit.

☆ Dark Shadows, Dark Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Alida Becker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The title of Tara Ison’s AT THE HOUR BETWEEN DOG AND WOLF (Ig Publishing, 296 pp., paperback, $17.95) comes from a French expression for twilight. Sure enough, her novel sends us to the dusk that borders the familiar and the wild, the known and the unknown. It’s where our beliefs and suspicions can cast dark shadows over our lives. But Marie-Jeanne is actually Danielle Marton, a Jewish child smuggled out of Paris by her recently widowed mother. And Berthe and Claude are actually her grandparents’ former maid and butler.

While a debt default doesn't mean all payments would stop, it could unleash economic and fiscal chaos around the world:Financial marketsAmericans' investments would take a direct hit. That's on top of the increased costs Americans are already facing from the Fed's rate hikes. That's because their costs of borrowing money will also rise, which limits the amount of money they can lend out. The economyA debt default could trigger an economic downturn, which would prompt a spike in unemployment. But if the impasse dragged on for six weeks, then more than 7 million jobs would be lost and the unemployment rate would soar above 8%.

☆ Where to get the best returns on your savings when rates are high
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The average bank savings rate as of April 26 was a paltry 0.24%, according to Bankrate. At some of the biggest banks, savings rates are as low as 0.01%. For the rest of your emergency fund and other savings, you can get a healthy return just by opening an online high-yield savings account at an FDIC insured online bank. As with most bank rates, high-yield rates are variable so can change at any point. Don’t chase yieldAs attractive as many savings rates are today, they are no substitute for the long-term returns you can earn in a diversified investment portfolio of stocks, bonds and other assets.

☆ Your mortgage and home loans: What to do now that the Fed just raised rates for the 10th time
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

The 30-year fixed rate mortgage has run north of 6% all year. As to where mortgage rates go next, look to inflation. If inflation keeps dropping, then mortgage rates are expected to drift lower too. The average home equity loan rate was running at 7.94% as of April 26, well above the 6.4% recorded in mid-April last year. If you are close to buying a home or refinancing one, it may be a good idea to lock in the lowest fixed rate available to you.

☆ What every consumer should know about bank failures
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Let’s be frank: If you have a US bank account, hearing about bank failures in the past couple of months hasn’t felt great. Here’s what you need to know to keep things in perspective despite the recent closures of First Republic, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. How do I know my money is safe? How can I know if my bank will fail? The FDIC will issue information within a day or so of taking over a failed bank to let the bank’s customers know what steps if any they need to take and when.

☆ What the First Republic takeover means for customers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —First Republic Bank was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Monday, with most of its assets sold to JPMorgan Chase. Chase is assuming all deposits of First Republic customers. First Republic customers’ deposits will continue to be FDIC-insured. First Republic customers will have many of the same banking conveniences that they had before the bank was taken over. Direct deposits like paychecks and Social Security benefits will continue as usual,” the FDIC said on its resource page for First Republic customers.

☆ Opinion | The Dramatic, Comic, Tragic, True-Life Story Behind the Death of DVD.com
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Pamela Paul | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Or I can allow for serendipity — movies appear in my mailbox that I barely remember adding in the first place. During the service’s glory days, you could easily sort movies by country of origin and display them in chronological order. This was well before streaming led the company to spin off DVD.com like a discarded training bra, a source of shame to what had become an entertainment behemoth. There is a cost to clinging to products and services as they shuffle off into obsolescence. It mutters out movie dialogue reluctantly, barely exceeding the swooshing sounds of the elliptical treads.

☆ Schools Are Ditching Homework, Deadlines in Favor of ‘Equitable Grading’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Sara Randazzo | Photographs Miranda Alam For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Las Vegas high-school English teacher Laura Jeanne Penrod initially thought the grading changes at her school district made sense. Under the overhaul, students are given more chances to prove they have mastered a subject without being held to arbitrary deadlines, in recognition of challenges some children have outside school. Soon after the system was introduced, however, Ms. Penrod said her 11th-grade honors students realized the new rules minimized the importance of homework to their final grades, leading many to forgo the brainstorming and rough drafts required ahead of writing a persuasive essay. Some didn’t turn in the essay at all, knowing they could redo it later.

☆ Low employee engagement? Managers can help turn it around with this one habit
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Gallup’s Quarterly Workforce Indicator surveys consistently show that managers are a linchpin to employee engagement, retention, productivity and trust in leadership. As it turns out, effective training for managers is not a thing at many workplaces. “I would say 99% of employers don’t provide effective training — and I’m not exaggerating there,” said Ashley Herd, a former human resources executive who founded @ManagerMethod. In fact, how managers speak with employees — and how often — can go a long way to building employees’ trust and commitment, according to Gallup. Have that person then lead an internal training for managers and another one for employees about how to work with their managers.

☆ The Janes 1960s underground abortion network
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Sandee Lamotte | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +28 min

The group was officially created in 1969 as the “Abortion Counseling Service of Women’s Liberation.”But after running ads in an underground newspaper: “Pregnant? “It wasn’t just abortion,” Barron explained. “Vacuum aspiration was much easier to do, and I think it’s less difficult for the woman,” Scott said. We had to keep the service running.”Laura Kaplan volunteered for the Janes, later immortalizing the group in her book, "The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service." Each Jane was charged with 11 counts of abortion and conspiracy to commit abortion, with a possible sentence of up to 110 years in prison.

☆ Senate legislation would cap insulin at $35 per month for people with private insurance
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

In this photo illustration, insulin pens manufactured by the Novo Nordisk company are displayed on March 14, 2023 in Miami, Florida. Bipartisan Senate legislation introduced Friday would cap the price of insulin at $35 per month for people with private insurance. Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, which became law last year, capped the price of insulin at $35 a month for seniors on Medicare. More than 2 million patients with diabetes who take insulin are privately insured, according to the Health and Human Services Department. In March, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi announced they would slash prices of their most widely used insulin products in response to growing public pressure to address rising costs.

☆ The $787.5 million settlement Fox has to pay is a big nut. But Fox's net cost for that will be much less.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Here’s why:Settlement payments are tax deductible if the company pays out of pocket. The corporate income tax is also about dollars and cents, not about judging behavior that led to the business expense in the first place. “Our income tax measures income, not probity,” said business tax expert Steven Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. In addition, “Fox also may deduct their settlement payments for state and local income tax purposes,” Rosenthal noted. If Fox pays for an insurance policy that it expects will reimburse it for its settlement costs, then it may not deduct the cost of the settlement payment.

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