Pictured: Winona Ryder, Sean Penn and wife Robin Wright Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks & Marisa Tomei.

Emile Hirsch, Casey Affleck (why does he look homeless?), James Franco, Diego Luna & Sean Penn.

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I love that they’re back together!  (Even if they don’t look exactly happy…)

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In the upcoming drama Milk (out in December), James Franco kisses Sean Penn.

Penn plays Harvey Milk, the country’s first openly gay elected official, a San Francisco city supervisor who was assassinated in 1978. Franco plays Scott Smith, one of his boyfriends.

“It wasn’t twelve hours, but it certainly felt like it,” Franco tells September’s GQ of the lip-lock. “The first kiss of the movie was out on Haight Street, with, like, 200 people watching, outside.

“It was a crane shot — I’m sure in the end it will be a really cool shot, but it starts close and then it takes maybe a minute,” he says. “That’s a long time on film with everybody watching and, like, a fake mustache getting in your mouth.”

Referring to Penn’s character in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Franco jokes the kiss “was long enough that you couldn’t help thinking, ‘Oh, my God, I’m kissing Spicoli.’”

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Sean Penn has urged actors not to vote for a deal proposed by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).

The deal on working conditions and pay is aimed at avoiding a potential strike this summer.

But Penn believes the terms are unfair and has sent an email to his fellow 44,000 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) members.

SAG has its own proposal, which it argues is stronger than that negotiated by smaller union AFTRA.

In the email, the 21 Grams actor said: “AFTRA’s deal not only falls short of fair compensation and protection for actors but just as significantly reflects corporate appeasement that will have an irreversible negative effect on the integrity of the show and the films we perform in.

“They’re trying to buy us out, bully us down and, in so doing, they will destroy the very purpose of our work.”

AFTRA’s proposal is similar to the deal that ended the writer’s strike earlier in the year.

Bosses of both unions have made competing appeals to their members to seek better conditions from studios.

SAG leaders say that defeating the AFTRA deal could help them get a better settlement for all actors under the larger SAG contract.

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WENN

Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn fueled speculation their marriage has been saved by dining out together in Los Angeles on Friday night.

The couple was spotted enjoying a romantic meal at restaurant Madeo.

The actors, who split in December after 11 years of marriage, previously reunited at an Eddie Vedder concert in San Francisco, California in April.

Penn even took to the stage at the gig to dedicate a song to his wife, who was celebrating her 42nd birthday.

Wright Penn dismissed her divorce case against the actor days before the Vedder concert.

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WENN

Sean Penn has refuted reports he will be biased towards friend Clint Eastwood’s film entry for the Palme D’Or award at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival.

The Hollywood star is the 2008 jury president, and has come under fire from internet bloggers who believe he will use his powerful position to ensure Eastwood’s film Changeling will come out on top.

Actor-turned-director Eastwood is competing for the prestigious Palme D’Or award at this month’s festival for the 1920s thriller – which stars Angelina Jolie, Amy Ryan and John Malkovich.

Rumors of Penn’s alleged favoritism towards Eastwood stem from their time spent filming 2003’s Mystic River – which won Penn an Academy Award for Best Actor in 2004. But Penn has angrily refuted the accusations, insisting the winning film will stand triumphant on its own merits – and not because the director has pals on the judging panel.

He says, “It is an emotional impossibility for people on this jury to favor films by friends of ours. But we will not be biased against, either. If Clint Eastwood has done a film worth awarding, we’re going to f**k-well award it. It is not going to serve anyone to be a friend, or not to be a friend, or any member of the jury.”

Penn adds, “This won’t be a competition. Between us we will come to a consensus that some films that deserve it will get a leg-up and be shared with a wider audience.”

The Palme D’Or judging panel will be headed up by Sean Penn, Natalie Portman and former Harry Potter director Alfonso Cuaron.

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WENN