Sean Penn calls U.S.President George Bush "evil" as he arrives in
Cannes to head the jury of the world's most famous film festival.

CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 14, 2008) REUTERS -

U.S. actor-turned-director and screenwriter Sean Penn arrived in
Cannes on Wednesday (May 14) to head the jury of the world's largest film
festival.
    Penn will head an international team of well-known filmmakers and
actresses, including American actress Natalie Portman, and will weigh his
opinion over  22 films in competition for this year's top prize, the Palme
d'Or.
    The festival kicked off Wednesday and promisies a mix of philosophy and
fun, Hollywood blockbusters and arthouse fare.
    At a news conference with the rest of the jury members, Penn stressed
the jury would be looking for movies that would touch their hearts.
    "We have all been involved in films we cared about and we know
that that's what our jobs is, to recognise what touches us here. It's got
nothing to do with, it has absolutely nothing to do with those biases. I don't
think that it is. If you were sitting where we are sitting. You started the
question with the word judge, I don't see us as judging the films, I see us as
responding with enthusiasm when given the opportunity by the film's
quality," Penn said.
    Penn is a well-known guest at the 12-day festival. He was awarded the
Best Actor Prize in 1997 for his role in 'She is so lovely' and in 2001, he
was back for the screening of his film 'The Pledge' that was selected to run
in the competition.
    Although the 47-year-old Academy award-winning actor Penn is
well-respected for his multiple talents, some critics said they doubted the
outspoken Penn makes a good jury president.
    "Sean Penn takes himself very seriously which is a good thing when
it comes to acting, I don't know if it's going to be a good thing or bad thing
when it comes to being a jury president because you have some real clashes of
wills in those jury rooms and i think he really has to be kind of
all-embracing, relaxing. I don't think relaxing is a word I associate with
Sean Penn, he of the million cigarettes," said Kirk Honeycutt who works
for the U.S. movie magazine Hollywood Reporter.
    Living up to his nervous image, and ignoring the festival's rules, Penn
lit up a cigarette during the news conference and offered one to fellow juror
member French actress Jeanne Balibar.
    Apart from awarding the best film with the Palme d'Or, the jury will
also decide on the other key prizes of the festival, including best actor,
best actress, and best director. Jury members agreed it was an intimidating
task.
    "Yes, it is a big pressure, there is all these great films that we
are all in a position to judge and to be in a position of a judge is very
humbling, I don't know, because, I don't know, all these filmmakers are so
incredible and who am I to say something, but I will,"  said U.S. actress
Natalie Portman, who last starred in 'My Blueberry Nights'.
    Penn, who is known for his vocal political activism, also took the
opportunity to lash out at U.S. President George Bush and said politics should
be about helping people.
    "It is almost a wrong phrase - the politics of George Bush. It is
kind of the inane stupidity and for lack of good, the absolute evil of it. And
I think that films are about love and that art is about love and so you have
the insight that the brain actually has a purpose in connecting to the heart
and when somebody operates without a brain and without a heart they kill
hundreds of thousands of people around the world, so it is not something that
is hard to disagree with. I am just, it is a shame that we have to bastardise
the term politics and attributing it to people like that, because politics
again should really be an organisation of helping each other," said Penn.
 
    It was not the first time that Penn criticized the Bush White House. In
recent years, he has visited Iran and placed an advertisement in the
Washington Post attacking the Bush administration on Iraq and the war on
terror.