Michael Douglas, who has owned an estate in Valldemossa, Mallorca, for over 30 years, will be recognised this month with the Cannes Film Festival’s honorary Palme d’Or for lifetime achievement and may well drop in on Mallorca around the festival. According to an announcement from the festival today, the 78-year-old Hollywood legend will be subject of an opening ceremony tribute on May 16.
It will mark his return to the Croisette after 10 years — where he first premiered HBO’s Matt Damon co-starrer “Behind the Candelabra.”
The celebrated actor — and son to Hollywood royalty Kirk Douglas — made his Cannes debut in 1979 alongside Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon and director James Bridges for the “The China Syndrome” premiere.
The tribute to Douglas will be also be commemorated with the premiere of previously unreleased documentary, “Michael Douglas, The Prodigal Son” from filmmaker Amine Mesta. Produced by Folamour and soon to be broadcast on Arte, the project will screen at the festival for two day beginning May 14.
Michael Douglas, his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones and the family spend “wonderful months” on the island every summer.
“Having a happy woman by your side makes life happy. I love coming back to Mallorca. I have been coming for more than 30 years and I have learned over time that ‘Happy wife is a happy life’. Catherine is very happy here; more so now that we no longer share the house with my first wife, Diandra. She now feels much more comfortable. She is decorating the house in her own way. That makes me happy, to see her really happy here, in our house and with our friends,” he said in one of his last interviews on the island.