Disgraced French actor Gérard Depardieu joins the likes of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump as celebrities who have had their waxworks removed from the famous French museum, while his daughter defends him - denouncing an "unprecedented manhunt".
ADVERTISEMENTThe wax statue of French actor Gérard Depardieu has been removed from the Grévin Museum in Paris.
The museum stated that the decision to remove the statue from the "Wax Hall of Fame of Celebrities" was taken "in response to negative reactions from visitors, as well as on our social networks.”
Gérard Depardieu inaugurated his wax double in 1981 at the museum, which displays 250 statues of historical and contemporary figures.
Depardieu has been under investigation for rape since 2020, accusations that he denies.
The recent broadcast of a report on the actor in the "Complément d'enquête" programme on the channel France 2 sent shockwaves through the media.
In the footage, the 74-year-old actor makes a series of misogynistic and insulting remarks about women.
Other statues that have been removed at the Musée Grévin include Vladimir Putin’s, removed in March 2022, a few days after Russia invaded Ukraine; Donald Trump’s waxwork, canned after he lost the US presidential election to Joe Biden - a custom, as former leaders, both French and foreign, disappear from showrooms after their electoral setbacks; and Depardieu’s wax neighbour, the French comedian Pierre Palmade, who was charged this year with "manslaughter and unintentional injury" - a decision made out of respect for the family of the victims.
“An unprecedented manhunt”?
Gérard Depardieu could also lose his Légion d'honneur – one of the highest French orders of merit, both military and civil - as the French Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, announced last week that disciplinary proceedings had been initiated against Depardieu in the Order of the Legion of Honour.
He has recently been struck off the Ordre national du Québec, Canada’s equivalent honour, which he was awarded in 1981, and stripped of his title of honorary citizen of the municipality of Estaimpuis (Belgium).
Actress Julie Depardieu, his daughter, has defended her father on CNews, denouncing an "unprecedented manhunt" against a man "who has a freedom of speech" in a world where "nobody dares to speak any more".
"I am surprised by the violence of the rejection of this man who has been idolised all his life", she said, adding that her father had left France and would not be spending Christmas with his family.
