Yesterday, French radio station Europe 1 reported that Paris authorities have started an investigation against French film director Luc Besson, after an actress told them that he had raped her the night before.
According to the complaint, the actress claims she met Besson on Thursday evening at the Bristol hotel in Paris as the Cannes Film Festival was wrapping up. She describes how she had been given a cup of tea along with blacked out after drinking it, and awakened realizing that she was raped. She states that the director left a wad of money for her before departing. The actress also noticed that she’d previously been in an intimate relationship with Besson for a couple of decades, one which she felt pressured into for”professional reasons.”
In a statement to AFP News Service, Besson’s lawyer states that the manager”categorically prohibits these fantasist accusations,” and that the celebrity is”somebody he understands, towards whom he has never behaved inappropriately.”
The director of films such as Fifth Element, Lucy, and most lately, Valerian and also the City of a Thousand Planets, Besson has a history of dating younger actresses: he started dating his next wife, Maïwenn Le Besco in 1991 when she was 15 years old (Besson was 32 at the time), plus they had a daughter a couple of decades later. Le Besco has noted that then 11-year-old celebrity Natalie Portman’s parents demanded changes to the script because of age-inappropriate content, and that their connection, inspired in part Besson’s 1994 film Léon: The Professional.
The accusation against Besson comes on the heels of a wave of complaints from inside Hollywood of sexual misconduct from high-powered directors, actors, and producers, starting with executive Harvey Weinstein last year.
These revelations led to the downfall of actors such as others, Louis CK, and Kevin Spacey.
This incident came just before celebrity Asia Argento described Cannes as Weinstein’s previous”hunting ground,” and stated that there were people still in the audience that could be”held accountable for their conduct against women,” which”we know who you are and we won’t let you get away with it.
