Alert – Damian Lewis’ reaction to ‘ranting’ autograph hunters in Cannes – after Denzel Washington’s heated exchange at the film festival

Denzel Washington may have become embroiled in a heated exchange with a photographer at Cannes earlier this week, but Homeland star Damian Lewis appears better at keeping his cool.

When the actor, 54, arrived at Nice Airport on his return from Cannes Film Festival, he and his girlfriend, rock star Alison Mosshart, were accosted by a group of autograph hunters.

‘One woman simply wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer,’ a witness told the Daily Mail’s Richard Eden.

They added: ‘She quickly became extremely vexed, ranting about how they had ‘made’ him and how he was ungrateful.

‘She was shouting and finger-jabbing and had people rushing to restrain her.’

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Denzel Washington became embroiled in a heated exchange with a photographer at Cannes when he at Nice airport with his rock star girlfriend Alison Mosshart

Yet unlike Denzel, Eton-educated Lewis ‘could not have been cooler’, the source said.

‘He was calm, even polite, and simply let her vent while quietly clarifying that he couldn’t agree with anything she was saying.’

Earlier this month Damian put on a cosy display with his girlfriend Alison at the Moët Hennessy Dom Pérignon Revelations party at London’s Tate Modern.

The actor and the rocker, 46, looked as loved-up than ever as they posed for snaps inside the starry venue.

Damian and Alison have been dating for two years, after they were first spotted together in the summer of 2022.

Romance blossomed a year after Damian’s wife of 14 years, actress Helen, tragically passed away in April 2021 aged 52 after a secret battle with breast cancer.

Shortly after Helen’s death, Damian wrote a heartbreaking tribute to his late wife in The Times where he revealed she wanted him to find love again – joking his children said their mother ‘wanted daddy to have lots of girlfriends’.

Last month, Damian poignantly opened up on how he handles grief after Helen’s passing.

Denzel Washington lashed out at an overzealous photographer while attending the red carpet premiere of his movie Highest 2 Lowest at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday 

Damian’s first wife Peaky Blinders actress Helen McCrory died from breast cancer in April 2021 aged just 52, having kept her diagnosis a secret (pictured with Damian in 2020) 

Damian has two teenage children – Manon, 18, (R) and Gulliver, 16 (L) – with Helen 

The Homeland actor said: ‘There’s a well-known psychological state in grief, or post any sort of trauma, which is called the manic defence.’

He continued: ‘I have the manic defence in a very pronounced way, which is that you affirm life.

‘So in amongst the inevitable days of being in a heap on the floor bawling your eyes out, there is your manic defence, which is like, ‘Come on, live life, move forward, and reaffirm life’. 

Damian, who has two teenage children – Manon, 18, and Gulliver, 16 – with Helen, added: ‘Life is there for the taking, to be lived.

‘Especially when you have two children – making sure they have a sense that everything is not over.’