A royal scolding.
Sarah Ferguson ordered an unruly audience looking for “the next party” to be quiet as she delivered her speech at Thursday night’s Cannes Film Festival.
The Duchess of York, 64, was captured scolding the crowd to “stop” multiple times as she thanked Simon de Pury, who had auctioned off a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II for about $516K, at the 77th Cannes Film Festival gala auction.
As Ferguson was introduced on stage, she immediately shushed the rambunctious crowd before telling them, “This was my mother-in-law,” while pointing at the portrait.
“And the entire room, right now, needs to be quiet,” she furiously told the crowd in her $16K Lilith Cocktail Dress on stage at the Hotel du Cap, Eden Roc in Cap d’Antibes, France.
“Quiet! Because the incredible person Simon de Pury has done an amazing job tonight, this is exceptional, and all I want to say to everyone in this room is stop, stop, stop.”
Ferguson, who was previously married to disgraced Prince Andrew, then removed the microphone from her face thrice, saying “stop” to get the crowd’s attention and silence them.
“Did you see I removed the microphone, because all of you are saying ‘I want to go, because where is the next party? What are we meant to be doing next?’” Ferguson told the audience.
“But what I want to say is why are we here? What is the future and why are we not making our planet better for the youth of tomorrow?”
She later apologized to “the youth of tomorrow” for the generations before them that have “completely destroyed” the planet before thanking The Foundation for AIDS Research (amFAR).
amfAR is a non-profit that works to improve the treatment of AIDS and HIV prevention around the world.
Ferguson shares two children with her ex-husband, Prince Andrew, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.
Actress Demi Moore appeared to also scold the audience while introducing Cher on stage at the amfAR Cinema Against AIDS Cannes Gala.
“I’m going to see if this is the moment we’ve all been waiting for,” Moore said in a video shared by Vanity Fair’s Ramin Setoodeh via X, formerly Twitter. “I’m just making sure that you’re really, really with me.”
“Because this incredible woman that I’m about to introduce — she’s a Grammy winner, an Oscar winner, an Emmy winner.”
The “A Few Good Men” actress then paused and appeared to address a heckler.
“Are you an Emmy winner over there in the back of the room?” She asked an attendee in the back of the audience. “I f–king don’t think so.”
The offhand comment received cheers from the crowd as Moore went on with her presentation.
The Cannes Film Festival is one of the most prestigious events in the world of cinema.
It takes place for two weeks in May every year, in the town of Cannes, France.
