The stars were out for the opening festival at the Cannes film festival, and they sure were gorgeous. The first film to open the 12 day film festival on the Riveria is Blindness. The film by Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles is based on a 1955 novel in which an entire city goes blind after an epidemic. Julianne Moore plays one of the few people who is unaffected and retains her sight. She tries to hide it from the rest of the city as society breaks down from the effects of the change. Blindness also stars Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover, and Gael García Bernal.

The 9 person jury at Cannes includes Natalie Portman and is headed by Sean Penn. Penn didn’t miss a chance to rip on US President George Bush while talking to the press at the event. It’s likely that he was asked directly about it, and he is quoted by Reuters as saying “When somebody operates without a brain and without a heart, they kill hundreds of thousands of people around the world.” I dislike Bush as much as the next person, but there are much better ways of phrasing that. It’s lame to personally attack someone in such a blunt way when you can state more compelling reasons for disliking the guy. Bush definitely has a heart and a brain, he just choses when to use them. When it involves money, they’re easily switched off and immune to suffering, death and general havok-wrecking. Reuters notes that Penn then smoked a cigarette “in defiance of French anti-smoking laws.” You would think he would be afraid of setting that ridiculous hair on fire.

Shown at the opening ceremony at Cannes are Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria (who’s still looking pregnant to me), Rachida Brakni, Aishwarya Rai, Gillian Anderson, Sean Penn (the hair!), Julianne Moore, Gael García Bernal, Mischa Barton, Danny Glover, and Bar Rafaeli.

Leonardo DiCaprio was spotted out at dinner with a fair trade diamond dealer, and since we can assume he’s no longer doing research for a role he must be planning on getting engaged to his on-again girlfriend, Bar Refaeli, right?

Now that Leonardo DiCaprio’s romance with model Bar Refaeli, 22, is back on, he’s shopping for diamonds. Leo, 33, had dinner with a diamond dealer who specializes in fair-trade gems at Madeo restaurant in West Hollywood on January 17, according to a witness. “Ever since starring in Blood Diamond, Leo has become sort of an expert on the industry,” his pal explains.

[From In Touch, print edition, February 11, 2008]

DiCaprio is also considered an expert on environmental issues, and has been invited by the Green Party of Scotland to speak before their Parliament. They are anxiously awaiting a response.

DiCaprio was among the stars in the audience at the friendly Democratic debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in Hollywood on Thursday. Other stars in attendance were Diane Keaton, Rob Reiner and Stevie Wonder.

I don’t see DiCaprio getting engaged at this point, especially considering how low-key he’s been in his relationship with Refaeli. We’ll have to wait it out and see what happens.

Leonardo DiCaprio is shown in the header image at Cannes on 5/19/07. Bar Refaeli is shown modeling lingerie on 10/18/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

Break ups and possible divorces are abound this month. Most of which can’t quite be confirmed. Those crafty celebs just love their air of mystery. Leonardo DiCaprio and Bar Refaeli are the latest to take a trip to spiltsville.

“LEONARDO DiCaprio is looking for a new model - he’s split with his post-Gisele Bundchen babe, Bar Refaeli. On Friday night at Sweet Paradise on Orchard Street, DiCaprio was with Josh Hartnett checking out the arm candy at the after-party for the new skateboarding film “Nothing But the Truth.” And, in an odd twist, Refaeli’s new squeeze is surfer Kelly Slater, who dated Bundchen after she and the “Titanic” star broke up.”

[Page Six]

Currently, Leo is said to be wooing Daya Fernandez. Daya is an actress hopeful who worked as an assistant to Tom Cruise during filming for “Vanilla Sky.” While he may be out kicking it with notorious horn-dog Josh Harnett, Bar is not sitting at home sobbing into her Ben and Jerry’s. She has been out partying and looking carefree without Leo by her side. Star Magazine reports that when her friends asked about Leo’s absence she replied with an airy, “Don’t worry about it.’ The two have been rumored to have broken up several times. Perhaps this is just another “break” for the two.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Leonardo DiCaprio is shown out with a crepe in Paris on 10/21/07. Thanks to Splash News.

In case you were wondering if Leonardo DiCaprio and Israeli model Bar Rafaeli were still together after a rumored breakup and reconciliation, we may have our answer. Everyone’s favorite rebound eye candy, surfer Kelly Slater, got into a scuffle with photographers in Israel while out with Rafaeli. The scene sounds eerily similar to a fight in March between Leonardo DiCaprio’s bodyguards and Israeli paparazzi, who were trying to get photos of the famous couple at the West Wall.

Ironically, Slater was in Israel as part of the group “Surfing for Peace,” which promotes peace between Israelis and Palestinians through surfing:

Police detained eight-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater early Saturday after a scuffle with photographers who were trying to take pictures of him with an Israeli supermodel, police said.

Israeli photographers were waiting outside as the American surfer and model Bar Rafaeli left a hotel in the Tel Aviv suburb of Herzliya before dawn Saturday, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

Slater pushed the cameramen in an effort to prevent them from taking pictures, a photographer at the scene told Channel Two TV.

“A brawl broke out and Slater was taken for questioning and later released,” Rosenfeld said.

It was not the first time foreign guests of Rafaeli have scuffled with journalists. Earlier this year, Rafaeli and her then-boyfriend, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, created a media storm when he visited her in Israel…

Slater, who is of Syrian descent, was visiting Israel for the first time as part of efforts by the group “Surfing for Peace” to promote reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians through the sport.

[From Yahoo! Sports via ONTD]

35 year-old Kelly Slater has consoled many hot famous women after high-profile breakups with celebrities, including Pamela Anderson, Cameron Diaz, and DiCaprio’s other ex, Gisele Bundchen. Slater is “the most successful professional surfer in the the history of the sport,” according to Wikipedia. If anyone can bring peace to the Middle East while boning Leonardo DiCaprio’s model ex, it’s Slater. He’s not going to let a little scuffle with photographers keep him from his important mission.

Bar Rafaeli was widely quoted a couple of weeks ago saying she wasn’t about to serve in the Israeli army, as is compulsory for 18 year-old men and unmarried women in the country, and that she doesn’t regret it. She supposedly said “I am not sorry for not serving in the army, because I profited in a big way… Why is it good to die for one’s country? Isn’t it better to live in New York?”

Rafaeli denies making those statements and is suing Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth for reporting those quotes. Her lawyer says the paper slandered Rafaeli and encouraged a “public lynching” of her.

Kelly Slater is shown at the premiere of Surfs Up on 6/2/07 thanks to PRPhotos. Bar Rafaeli is shown on 10/17/07 on the catwalk for Selmark Lingerie Spring-Summer 2008, thanks to Splash News.

Heterosexuality worldwide got a real boost when Ana Beatriz Barros, Veronica Varekova, Bar Refaeli, and Marisa Miller all showed up for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue 2007 Launch party. Such Mega hotness in one room caused several beta males in the general area to dissolve into sad little puddles of wish fufillment.

Hollywood Tuna had the pictorial scoop …. I do not have the thousand words that these pictures equal. Have at it boys:

Leonardo DiCaprio has been linked with 21-year-old Israeli model Bar Rafaeli since April of last year.

They were rumored to be having trouble when he was seen arguing with someone over the phone at an after party for the premiere of his film Blood Diamonds in London on January 21st. Rafaeli was not there and Leo was in a bad mood when photographers tried to get pictures of him leaving a club afterwards. Friends claimed DiCaprio finds Rafaeli “clingy” and that they had hit a rough patch.

DiCaprio sparked more rumors of trouble in his relationship when he said that hot British TV presenter Cat Deely was “lovely” and that “This country [England] churns out some of the loveliest women in the world.”

Now Rafaeli is rumored to have said goodbye to DiCaprio because she’s fed up with his partying and busy schedule:

The stunning Israeli model is said to have brought an end to their six-month relationship because she was unable to cope with the Titanic star’s hectic work schedule and constant partying.

A friend of the model tells News Of The World, “Bar is a professional model so she has to be healthy and look great every day, so there is no way that she could keep up with that kind of decadent lifestyle.

“When they were apart she worried about what he was up to and in the end decided it would be easier and less painful just to say enough is enough.”

DiCaprio has recently been in London celebrating his recent Best Actor Oscar nomination for Blood Diamond.

A member of his entourage adds, “Leo was gutted when Bar told him it was over. But he is at the top of his game at the moment and there’s no danger of his changing his ways any time soon.”

[via Gossip Rocks]

I would like to see DiCaprio get married and start a family. He was with Gisele for years, and although he has a penchant for models and going out, it seems like he’s capable of a long term relationship and commitment.

Guys at the top of of their game like DiCaprio seem like they’re ready to get married at about 35/36. DiCaprio is 32, so he has a few more years left in him before he settles down. I’m not saying marriage is for everyone, just that DiCaprio seems like the type who would take to it nicely, kind of like Ben Affleck after all his tough times.

Of course UrbanDK would say that DiCaprio got dumped because he’s looking like a porkchop lately, but he’s still a babe to me.