There was some... altercation between singer Kelly Rowland and one of the security members
at Cannes Film festival, when she was going up the stairs. Rowland's version of events
is that she was trying to take her time for pictures on the legendary red carpet stairs,
when she was... rushed up the stairs for no apparent reason.
Well... in fact Rowland's reason is that it's because she looked... dfferent from
other women. Her words. and that's why this kind of photo comparisons,
with Heidi Klum taking all the time she wanted to pose on the
stairs while Rowland was not allowed to, have been spread all over the internet.
but we are getting ahead of ourselves. The question is... who was in the wrong here?
Let's take a look at the video. What we first see is Rowland greeting the public,
she's getting all the pictures and stuff, and she hasn't arrived at the stairs yet.
I know it's a bit hard to spot, but notice that right here you have that
rest or pause in the middle of the stairs, that is where you have
those amazing shots and takes of celebrities at Cannes.
So it's a bit hard to spot but notice that it's way ahead of her.
Rowland starts to go up the stairs and the conflict will happen when she reaches that
middle part, because she assumes that she will be allowed to turn around and greet the
public. You know, for more pictures and whatnot. But when she arrives,
she turns around to face the public and tries to wave...
the lady that you see right next to her extends her arm and tells her something.
We can'nt possibly know what were her words, because she's facing away from us, but it's
safe to assume that she's telling Rowland that she needs to move on, that she cannot stay there.
In fact, the lady is supported by a tall guy who opens up his arms and tries... sort of 'cover'
Rowland at that moment. Take notice of that man's gesture because it will be important later on.
So, that's when Rowland realizes that she needs to keep moving,
so she turns around and touches the lady on the arm. And I want to mention something that
people were claiming on X. That the security lady touched Rowland, and 'pushed' her, and...
well, you know that most people don't like to be touched,
much less pushed... but that simply never happened.
At no point the arm or the hand of the lady touched Rowland's
back, that's why the lady was telling the singer to move on.
There was no body contact from the lady to Rowland.
There WAS body contact from Rowland to the lady, when Rowland extended
her arm in a way of... 'stay away from me'. It's obvious that she was upset,
and also confirmed by about what's going to happen. But it's important to
make the distinction of who touched who, because in this kind of circumstances,
as a member of security you're always one diva outburst away from losing your job.
I'm sure that this is not the security lady's first rodeo, because someone took
a picture from the other side and you can see that... there's no trace of anger or
frustration on her face. She's well aware that this is something that happens all the time,
that celebrities behave like this AND worse, so it's just another day at the races.
Oh... did I say races? oh... no pun intended.
But let's talk about that finger, and what made this picturee so impactful.
You know... the index finger is one of the most powerful illustrator gestures,
in the sense that it's easy to overdo it.
There's a term in body language which is being aggressive,
not in the sense that you're going to harm physically or verbally someone,
but the degree of what your gestures, especially your hands, project.
And extending your index finger at face level is a big no-no in most situations.
It instantly makes you look like a Karen. "Do you know who I am, ma'am? I want to
talk to your manager", and all that sort of stuff.
I'm not saying that you should NEVER use your index finger like this, because every
gesture is a tool that you MIGHT need in any given situation. I'm just telling you that this gesture,
especially at face level, is an open threat. And if you use it in circumstances that don't justify
it... such as this one, then YOU'RE the one who's going to look out of place, if not unhinged.
It's also relevant to see Rowland's facial expression while she was scolding the lady.
She's rising her eyebrows, like a lot. In this case it doesn't have a specific meaning, but it
instead signals that she was feeling very strong emotions. So, in some way her face was reflecting
the same that her body was projecting with the repeated gesture of the extendend index finger.
And it's not only her facial expression, but she was rising her chin a lot,
like this. This is another example of the kind of gestures that can be considered 'aggressive',
in this case talking with your chin high up. That... projects arrogance and hostility. Again,
it's not bad to use this kind of gestures if the circumstances demand it, because they
COULD be necessary in some situations... but I don't think this was one of those.
The combination of both her body language, with the extended index finger,
the repeated gesture pointing at the lady, the raising of the eyebrows and
the chin high up... we can say that all of Rowland's body language was aligned at
that moment. She was fully expressing what she was feeling and she wanted the lady to
know it. There's always the question if it was necessary or this was too much.
That's why it's important to review all possible angles and what happens before and after the
incident, and look for as many examples of similar situations with both the person AND others in the
same situation to see if what's going on is just part of the protocol of the event.
And... that IS about to be relevant in a minute.
There's another great picture which is this one,
seconds later after the altercation, in which Rowland looks visibly upset,
especially with a single brow raised. It's obvious that she didn't like what just happened.
Now, there's a video of her one day later talking about the incident, and it's very
short and helpful to have a better insight about HER side of the story:
(clip boundaries)
So, she talks about boundaries... I don't know exactly what boundaries she's talking about,
I guess that she means she will not allow anyone to treat her like this,
and then the comparison with other women.
It's interesting to see her facial expression when talking about this. It's like she's sad
and... well, not happy about it. I don't want to say that she's putting a 'victim' face, because
there is no such thing as a 'victim' face, but I will let you judge from
her facial expression if you think she's trying to play victim here.
Again, you need to see all the details of the circumstances of what happened to
be able to make that judgement, so let's move on. But first it's important to highlight that
Rowland was comparing her treatment to the treatment of other women. That's important.
That's why I mentioned that it was not only people sharing the comparison with Heidi Klum,
but it was Rowland herself who implied this. And remember that
according to her this was due to how she... looks.
But believe it or not the explanation as to why Klum was 'allowed' to stay
in the Cannes red carpet is surprisingly simple.
Now, another reason that I colud think of... of why she was rushed like this,
is that she was not really rushed but security like this also want to make
sure that you don't trip down the stairs, which will be dangerous enough and also
not surprising, given that you have long and uncomfortable dress and walking in stilettos.
Not hard to remember 2023 when Jason DeRulo, WITHOUT a dress or stilettos,
rolled down the stairs in a rather spectacular and luckily not catastrophic fashion.
Or Jennifer Lawrence who going DOWN the stairs,
she used flip flops. Not glamorous at all, but it's better to be safe than sorry.
There's another video about this, shared by one user on Facebook,
in which we can see a security lady that looks like the one who had the altercation with Rowland,
urging people to go up the stairs as well. You might say that this is a rude attitude, but
at the same time you need to consider the massive amount of logistics that this could require.
There are A LOT of guests coming to these film premieres, so this has to work like a
continuous conveyor belt that never stops. All those guests will most likely arrive by car,
so you have a line of cars out there, and they arrive with an entourage, let's say that there
must not be much room for error, especially if you want the film to start on time.
Now, I see that most people that have an opinion about this, whether is defending
Rowland's anecdote of oppression, or saying that this is just another episode of snowflakes being
snowflakes, most of them on either side are not aware that... Cannes might be a movie festival,
but Cannes' red carpet represents something that is beyond that.
It's not hard to find articles such as this one from the Hollywood reporter to see that Canne's
red carpet stairs are among the Olympics of red carpets, and because of that, it's not only about
the strict rules of how it's organized, but at the same time is a HUGE showcase for fashion brands.
The best analogy I can come up with is the ads at the Super Bowl. Obviously,
people watch the Super Bowl for the sport, right? but the ads, in themselves,
is a special event. And brands spend tens of millions to be there.
So, since ad space is limited, it all boils down to who is willing to pay more to have their 30
seconds or even 1 minute of fame at the Super Bowl advertising spectacle... makes sense, right?
Now, bring that business model to the Cannes film festival. The red carpet stairs is like a
huge billboard that changes every time a celebrity walks through it, but... It's not hard to figure
out that NOT EVERY CELEBRITY is allowed the same time and the same preference. And it's not
a matter of how you look, but a matter of how famous you are, and if you represent a brand.
Going back to Heidi Klum's case, I don't know if this has happened in other years
but she was going as the new face of Loreal Paris. There's even a 10 minute
video released by Vogue, getting ready for that exact same event.
So, if Loreal made sure to create that video and made sure that all
major outlets picked it up, it would make sense thath they would
want extra exposure at the Cannes red carpet stairs... for a price.
So... in the same way that you pay for ad placement in the Super Bowl,
you pay for red carpets stairs time at Cannes. Fair enough.
That's why I told you to be aware of the guy's gesture with open arms, the one who was trying
to 'cover' Rowland. It's obvious that if there is no brand sponsoring you, or if your brand
has not paid the special price... then you just are not allowed to hang out around the
middle of the stairs, and... most important, you cannot be taken pictures right there,
because that's an exclusive perk for the celebrities AND brands with the deep pockets.
That is the exclusivity that those brands are paying for. So that's why
the non-sponsored guests... well, need to move faster down the line.
But... you know how it is. It's not only that an image is worth a thousand words,
but the OPTICS of an image can spread faster than the truth. And most of the time,
what is actually happening is not as interesting or headline-worthy,
like in this case the mechanics of who can and who cannot stay for pictures at
the Cannes red carpet stairs... but those misunderstandings help a lot for publicity.
And in this case, the silver lining is that this made people talk about the movie Marcello Mio,
so... I haven't seen the movie, I don't know if it's good or bad,
but we definitely need to watch more comedies, so there's that.
But I would love to know what do you think about this in the comments. Remember to
download my Free, 100 body language tips in the description of this video. My name
is Jesús Enrique Rosas, I'm the Body Language Guy... much love, and bliss.