Salma Hayek & Arnold Schwarzenegger shine spotlight on #BringBackOurGirls campaign at Cannes

Actress Salma Hayek and Hollywood hardmen Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone turned the spotlight on the plight of the kidnapped Nigerian schoolchildren at the Cannes International Film Festival this weekend (17-18May14), by holding up signs demanding action to "bring back our girls".

Last month (Apr14), more than 250 teenagers were snatched from a school in northern Nigeria by members of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, and a host of public figures have since backed an online campaign calling for international help in finding the abducted girls and freeing them before the religious extremists can sell the youths into slavery.

Hayek took the Twitter.com campaign to Cannes on Saturday (17May14) as she attended the premiere of her new animated film The Prophet, and she made sure all eyes were on her as she brandished a sign with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls while she posed for the cameras.

Hayek didn't appear to have run her political stunt by festival organizers prior to Saturday's event as Marie-Pierre Hauville, director of communications for Cannes, branded her actions "most unusual", but that didn't stop the cast of Stallone's The Expendables 3 from following in the actress' footsteps as they hit the red carpet at the French bash on Sunday (18May14).

Stallone and Schwarzenegger were joined by their movie co-stars Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Jason Statham and Wesley Snipes, as they each held up similar signs to draw attention to the headline-grabbing kidnapping.

Other famous faces who have also spoken out in support of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign include First Lady Michelle Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Anne Hathaway and Angelina Jolie.