| Saturday was a day of protests in Cannes, where the annual film festival takes place. A demonstration by about 500 French entertainment industry workers, unhappy with the French government's plans to reform a special fund to help unemployed actors, disrupted the festival for several hours. Although the screening of the main film of the day's competition, Shrek 2, went well, several other screenings were interrupted or cancelled. In one incident, about a hundred troublemakers burst into the Star cinema in an attempt to prevent spectators from attending the screening. The police were forced to forcefully remove the protesters from the hall. As a result, six people were injured - three police officers and three protesters; the windows of the cinema were also broken. Five people were arrested for disturbing public order.
The protest was the largest in history - with organizers backing away from an initial threat to sabotage the festival after being promised a chance to make their case publicly. On Saturday, the protesters managed to attract into their ranks the American documentary director Michael Moore, who shot the film “Fahrenheit 9/11,” and the French leader of the anti-globalization movement, Jose Beauvais. During clashes between demonstrators and police, several journalists were injured, in particular a cameraman for the French state television channel France-3. "News Time"
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