May 19--They're calling it Shoegate. According to various reports several women were turned away from the official, dress-up world premiere screening of Todd Haynes' "Carol" Sunday. Reason: They wore flats, not heels.
In a related incident, the director of the acclaimed new Amy Winehouse documentary, Asif Kapadia, shared on Twitter that his wife was initially refused entry to the "Amy" premiere for the same footwear-related reason.
"Very disappointing" was the response of actress Emily Blunt, asked Tuesday at a press conference for her new film "Sicario," also in the festival.
Should women be subjected to the high-heels dress code rule in 2015, one journalist asked her? "No," she said, bluntly but with a smile. She added later as the press conference ended that she found reports of Shoegate "appalling."
At the same press conference director Denis Villeneuve cracked that he and Blunt's male "Sicario" co-stars, Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin, would protest by wearing heels to their own formal premiere Tuesday. This led to perhaps the funniest moment of Cannes 2015 so far: del Toro and Brolin pantomiming the wobbly difficulty they'd have in heels on a red carpet premiere at the world's dressiest film festival.
When a film premieres at Cannes, often there is more than one premiere screening. The early one, for the press, requires no formal wear. The official evening premieres are a different story, requiring tuxedos for men and dresses with heels for the women.
Festival spokeswoman Christine Aime said Tuesday that overzealous festival staffers erred in denying entrance to the women in question. She noted the festival regulations contain "no specific mention about the height of the women's heels as well as for men's."
After the "Sicario" press conference Blunt acknowledged that she'd be dressed to the nines, including high heels, for her film's Tuesday evening official premiere.
The protocol controversies at this year's festival have yet to abate. Festival director Thierry Fremaux spoke prior to the start of the festival about the "ridiculous and grotesque" practice of premiere attendees taking selfies on the red carpet. The festival, however, stopped short of outright banning the practice.
Though flats apparently are permitted after all, we'll see if any other women challenge the blister-inflicting high-heels tradition this week as the premieres continue.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
