With actors on strike, a pigeon swoops in to steal the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival

With actors still out on strike, one daring bird decided to crash one of the biggest film festivals of the year to give photographers something to snap. A pigeon has become an unexpected star at the Venice Film Festival, as it landed on the opening red carpet and started to strut its stuff.

The festival will be seeing a huge drop off in A-list stars this year given the current situation in Hollywood, and though there were some celebs to pap, the star of the show was this pigeon who boldly took to the carpet like a pro. The image has been shared all over social media platforms like Twitter, with many praising the photographer who paid the bird its well-deserved attention.

Whether or not any actors could attend the festival this year given the current SAG-AFTRA strike, which prohibits them from promoting any work done with studios under the AMPTP, was in question when the strike was initially announced. The festival, celebrating its 80th year, will see certain stars walk the red carpet, but only those who have worked on indie projects that have been in no way related to the AMPTP. Adam Driver, George Clooney, and more A-listers will be in attendance having been granted an interim waiver from SAG-AFTRA which allows them to market their indie projects, but others will unfortunately have to stay away.

Zendaya’s latest, Challengers, was meant to serve as the opening movie though the actress will now have to steer well clear of the event. Similarly, other Hollywood-produced movies such as Poor Things starring Emma Stone and Maestro starring Bradley Cooper will also have to go ahead without their leading actors in attendance. The festival director, Alberto Barbera, was ready to rethink the entire festival this year, telling Variety, “I had closed the lineup, so you can imagine with what spirit I faced the following week. I was ready to throw it all up in the air and rethink everything!”

Luckily, the SAG-AFTRA granted special dispensation to independent films not produced under the AMPTP, such as Driver’s film Ferrari in which he plays the titular character, Enzo Ferrari. Along with Ferrari, the festival will also feature director Ava DuVernay’s Origin as well as Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla. Despite not having their leading actors in attendance, some major companies, such as Netflix, will still be launching their films at the event, so it isn’t a total loss.