They can take away our unicorn lattes, but the moment they come for our selfies, millennials are not going to be happy. Cannes, the most selfie-friendly red carpet of them all, is stopping the practice on ground of it being, well, annoying, reports Vanity Fair. Thierry Fremaux, who heads up festival, called red carpet selfies “ridiculous and grotesque,” and declared that they degrade the prestige of Cannes.
Celebs gliding around the Cannes red carpet in their fashion finest are often stopped by fans to pose for a selfie. Sometimes the celebs are willing, other times they may politely decline, but a hallmark of Cannes is that fans are able to stand close to the action (as opposed to the Oscars, where fans are relegated to bleachers). Fans in close proximity and an expectation of couture on the carpet means that selfies are going to happen. It’s an inevitability, but a harmless one.
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Granted, on a logistical level, we can see how this would cause a traffic jam. But if there’s space and time, and a celeb is down to be memorialized, why not allow them to make silly faces with a fan? Vanity Fair notes that selfies may even be potentially less time-consuming than autographs; they’re certainly easier on an actor’s wrist. Selfies: a perfect solution to Sharpie markers that run out of ink and carpal tunnel syndrome.
Still, Fremaux has spoken, and selfies are now against the rules. Vanity Fair also points out that celebs are being asked to respect the new prohibition and abstain from surreptitiously taking a selfie, either of themselves, each other, or with fans. Few things in the world as as wholesome as candid celebrity selfies, so we admit to being bummed about this. Guess we’ll have to keep refreshing our favorite celeb Instagram feeds in the meantime.