Things to watch this weekend in the Southeastern Conference:
No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 14 Clemson, noon ET, Atlanta (ABC).
The Bulldogs get a big opening test after failing to make the College Football Playoff in their bid for a third straight national title. Georgia, a nearly two-touchdown favorite, carries a school-record regular season winning streak of 39 games into Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Quarterback Carson Beck leads coach Kirby Smart's Bulldogs after ranking third in FBS with 3,941 passing yards last season. He should have plenty of help from standout returnees and transfers, including ex-Florida running back Trevor Etienne.
A defense that has stayed among the nation's best in recent seasons must replace three starters in the secondary but returns All-America safety Malaki Starks and other stars The Bulldogs face Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik, who has a deep group of receivers.
The last time they met, then-No. 5 Georgia won 10-3 over third-ranked Clemson in Charlotte, North Carolina, three years ago. The Tigers managed just two rushing yards and allowed seven sacks.
There are notable games: Oklahoma and No. 4 Texas making their entries into the league with seeming mismatches. The Sooners host Temple on Friday and Texas entertains Colorado State a day later. Plus Kalen DeBoer makes his Alabama debut against Western Kentucky.
And there are big games: No. 20 Texas A&M and new coach Mike Elko host No. 7 Notre Dame on Saturday and the next day No. 13 LSU faces No. 23 Southern California in Las Vegas in a matchup of teams replacing the top two NFL draft picks at quarterback. The Trojans lost No. 1 pick Caleb Williams, the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner. LSU must replace No. 2 pick and last year's Heisman winner, Jayden Daniels.
LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier stuck around for three years before finally getting his shot as the full-time starter. His starting debut was an overwhelming success: 395 passing yards and three touchdowns to earn MVP honors in a bowl win over Wisconsin.
Florida is relying heavily on QB Graham Mertz i n hoping for a turnaround, starting against Miami. Texas A&M has a healthy Conner Weigman and hopes he can stay that way.
The SEC has four of the preseason top six teams in the AP poll: No. 1 Georgia, No. 4 Texas, No. 5 Alabama and No. 6 Mississippi. The league posted a 45-11 record against nonconference opponents last season but was a more modest 5-4 in bowl games. The Bulldogs were the preseason pick to win the league, followed by Texas and Alabama.
The game isn't the main story for Alabama vs. Western Kentucky. It the first look since 2006 at a coach not named Nick Saban manning the Crimson Tide sidelines. The 49-year-old DeBoer has embraced the challenge of replacing a coach who added seven national championships to the SEC stockpile, six at Alabama and one at LSU. DeBoer led Washington to the national championship game last season.
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Georgia-Clemson highlights three Top 25 matchups in SEC's opening weekend
FILE - LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier (13) during an NCAA football game, Sept. 16, 2023, in Starkville, Miss. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt, File)
Georgia-Clemson highlights three Top 25 matchups in SEC's opening weekend
PARIS (AP) — For powerful men in France’s film industry, this was a week of reckoning. Gérard Depardieu — the country’s most famous male actor — was convicted of sexual assault. Two days later, the Cannes Film Festival barred another actor accused of rape from walking the red carpet.
Together, the decisions sent a message that France had long resisted: that artistic brilliance may no longer shield those who abuse their power.
For decades, Depardieu was revered as French cinema’s “sacred monster” — a towering talent whose gluttony, volatility and magnetism became part of his myth. With more than 250 films to his name, many believed he would remain untouchable even after more than 20 women accused him of sexual misconduct.
Now, that myth has cracked.
The verdict has revived a broader question France has ducked since the dawn of #MeToo: Can a country that celebrates seduction and irreverence finally hold its male icons to account?
France has long lived its own #MeToo contradiction. That talent, charm, or intellect forgives misconduct. That the art excuses the artist. This is the land that gave the world Brigitte Bardot’s pout and Catherine Deneuve’s poise — and then watched both recoil when the movement came knocking. Deneuve has defended “the right" to seduce, while Bardot has dismissed feminism outright: “I like men.”
But the ground is shifting — fast.
Depardieu was handed an 18-month suspended sentence Tuesday for groping two women on a 2021 film set. He denies the charges and is appealing.
“It’s the end of impunity of artists with a capital A,” Carine Durrieu Diebolt, a lawyer for one of the two women who won their case against Depardieu, told The Associated Press. The verdict represented “a bookend for putting actors on a pedestal because they were talented,” she added.
Two days later, the prestigious Cannes Film Festival barred actor Théo Navarro-Mussy — accused of rape by three former partners — from attending the premiere of a film he stars in, even though the file was dropped for lack of evidence. The women are launching a civil complaint.
Navarro-Mussy denies wrongdoing. His lawyer said that she’s unaware of any ongoing proceedings against him.
What stunned wasn’t just the decision, but who made it. Cannes director Thierry Frémaux had long been seen as emblematic of the old guard. He defended Roman Polanski for years and continued to screen his films despite the director’s 1977 guilty plea in the U.S. for sex with a 13-year-old. In 2018, when asked why Cannes still included Polanski, Frémaux said: “These are complicated matters.”
Frémaux opened 2023's festival with a film starring Johnny Depp, despite the actor’s highly public legal battle with ex-wife Amber Heard over allegations of domestic abuse, in which he was never criminally charged. When asked about the backlash, Frémaux replied: “I only have one rule: it’s the freedom of thinking, and the freedom of speech and acting within a legal framework.”
This week, the rules changed.
“The Cannes decision is of course linked to the Depardieu verdict,” said Céline Piques of Osez le féminisme (“Dare Feminism!”), a group that campaigns against sexual violence. “(They’ve) realized which way the wind is blowing. Frémaux is trying to right the wrongs.”
Not everyone welcomed the verdict — or what followed — as a cultural turning point.
Fanny Ardant, one of French cinema’s grandes dames and a longtime friend of Depardieu, sat on his side in court. She is now directing him in a film in Portugal, despite the conviction.
“Fanny Ardant? She completely missed the point,” said Piques. “She downplayed the violence, normalized it. That’s rape culture, plain and simple.”
Juliette Binoche, Cannes jury president and one of France’s most respected actors, struck a note of restraint: “He’s not a monster. He’s a man — one who has, apparently, been desacralized.”
Her caution captured something deeper: a country caught between the urge to change and the instinct to protect its giants.
In 2024, more than 22,000 rapes were reported in France. Fewer than 3% led to convictions. “The Depardieu verdict shows there’s progress,” said lawyer Anne-Sophie Laguens, who works with victims of sexual assault. “But for most women, the barriers to justice remain enormous.”
When Bertrand Cantat — front man of Noir Désir and once one of France’s bestselling rock singers — launched a 2018 comeback tour, he had served just four years in prison for killing his partner, actor Marie Trintignant, during a violent assault.
Despite public outrage, he returned to the stage and performed.
“That would be unthinkable today,” said Piques. “The public mood has changed. What we tolerate has changed.”
One breakthrough came not from a film set, but an Avignon courtroom. The conviction of 51 men for drugging and raping Gisele Pelicot — a case long ignored despite her pleas — marked a turning point. For years, shame was hers. Now, it belongs to the perpetrators.
“It proved rapists aren’t just strangers in alleys,” said Piques. “They’re husbands. Colleagues. Respected men.”
That shift in shame is now rippling through the cultural world — once seen as a bastion of male privilege. Recently. director Christophe Ruggia was convicted of abusing actor Adèle Haenel when she was a minor, though he is appealing; and actor-director Nicolas Bedos, was sentenced for sexual assault.
Slowly but surely, yes. The system that long protected men like Depardieu is not yet dismantled, but it is shifting.
As one of the actor’s accusers said through tears after the ruling: “I’m very, very much satisfied with the decision. That’s a victory for me, really. And a big progress, a step forward. I feel justice was made.”
FILE - French actor Gerard Depardieu, left, and Belgian actress Cecile de France pose during a photo call for the film "Quand J'etais Chanteur," at the 59th International film festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 26, 2006. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)
