Allen rejects Jewish group's Cannes boycott call

American-Jewish director Woody Allen has said he could see no reason to boycott the Cannes Film Festival after far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen’s shock success at the French polls.

American stars were being urged to boycott the French film festival this year by a Jewish group in the US after the National Front’s frontman won enough votes to go through to the final round of the presidential election, only to be resoundingly beaten by Jacques Chirac.