With season #4 of Mike White‘s The White Lotus having begun lensing in France, THR‘s Nick Porter is reporting that Variety critic Guy Lodge will play himself in a cameo during the show’s Cannes Film Festival lensing.
Kidding!…kidding!…false alarm, joke, please.
What I’m really saying is that if and when White’s HBO series shoots during the forthcoming 2026 festival (5.12 through 5.23), White should not cast Lodge or N.Y. Times correspondent Kyle Buchanan or IndieWire‘s Anne Thompson…none of the usual suspects. White should instead consider one or two outspoken, rebel-spirit journos…perhaps some loner type who, let’s say, rides a rented rumblehog and maybe wears saddle shoes, Kooples shirts and tinted glasses. Someone who vaguely resembles Jeff Goldblum‘s character in Nashville, say.
Or, better yet, White should use the Oscar Expert and Brother Bro….twins Cole and Justin Jaeger. White would probably like to use some kind of youngish, good-looking journos, right?
Porter (no bullshit) is reporting that (a) the HBO series will be set during the Cannes Film Festival (presumably the 79th annual gathering), and that (b) the show will use two hotels as a dramatic base or ground zero. The Airelles Château de la Messardière in Saint-Tropez will portray the White Lotus du Cap, and the historic Hotel Martinez on the Croisette will stand in as the White Lotus Cannes.
