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| Quelle surprise: Celebs deserting Sarkozy |
| 2005-12-23 |
| France's interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, has discovered that calling people louts and rabble and threatening to "clean them off the streets" has won him few friends in celebrity circles. Mr Sarkozy, whose injudicious use of language was partly blamed for exacerbating the recent urban riots, is now being abandoned by his friends in high places. Worse still, many of them are lining up to publicly put the boot into the man who hopes to be president in 2007. The tennis player turned pop star Yannick Noah, actor and comedian Jamel Debbouze, who starred in Amélie, rapper Joey Starr and film director Luc Besson - of Subway, Nikita, Big Blue and Leon fame - are among those attacking Mr Sarkozy, who has been compared to far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen and Napoleon. "Calling people racaille, I've not heard anything so violent since Le Pen and his hatred of anyone who is different," Besson told the film magazine Premier. In an interview with Paris Match, Noah - recently voted France's most popular personality - declared: "If Sarkozy succeeds [in 2007], then I'm off." Even Debbouze, who had previously expressed qualified support for the minister, condemned him. The comic described the minister as "a bourgeois who arrives, cameras in tow, looks at the little rebels and tells them: 'I'm going to clean you out, you bunch of rabble'." |
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #11 My opinion of Nicolas Sarkozy just increased dramatically. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2005-12-23 16:37 |
| #10 (Yannik Noah) declared: "If Sarkozy succeeds [in 2007], then I'm off." Sounds like Babsy Streisand, or Alec "Stone Henry Hyde" Baldwin... Talk is cheap... Unless you are talking about a Bob Hope-like celeb, even the "most popular" celeb has more people who dislike him or don't care. His threat may actually get ol' "Nasty Nick" some votes! Keep talkin Yannik... |
| Posted by: BigEd 2005-12-23 12:12 |
| #9 Yeah, yeah, the celebs hate him. The people who vote may have a somewhat different opinion. |
| Posted by: mojo 2005-12-23 10:37 |
| #8 The tennis player turned pop star Yannick Noah, actor and comedian Jamel Debbouze, who starred in Amélie, rapper Joey Starr and film director Luc Besson - of Subway, Nikita, Big Blue and Leon fame - are among those attacking Mr Sarkozy, who has been compared to far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen and Napoleon. Wen I think of the above, all I can think of is "louts and rabble" and a dire need for "street cleaning." YOU GO Sarkie! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2005-12-23 10:24 |
| #7 Real impressive list of "celebrities" ya got there. Was French sex symbol Gerard Depardieu too busy stuffing his fat face when the phone call came for a comment? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-12-23 10:20 |
| #6 I thought French Celebrity was an oxymoron! |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2005-12-23 10:01 |
| #5 Quebec. |
| Posted by: Thrineling Throlurt7548 2005-12-23 08:51 |
| #4 So, where do French celebrities threaten to go if their candidates don't win? America? ;) |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2005-12-23 08:47 |
| #3 If you think your celebs are bad wait until you see our celebs whose revenue is at 75% or so, is stolen from the tax-payer through scams like exception culturelle, defence of francophony (1) and subsidies to the movie industry. (1) curiously this movement for protecting minority languages does not apply for say protecting wolof or swahili against French. |
| Posted by: JFM 2005-12-23 08:02 |
| #2 The comic described the minister as "a bourgeois..." Because being a member of the middle class is worse than being a rampaging criminal gang member. No wonder the French dislike America. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-12-23 07:13 |
| #1 Noah is now France's Alec Baldwin, promising to leave. As for Besson, regardless of what a politician does or says, if he starts getting attacked by film directors, then it's a sign that they are doing something right. The bien pensants' self-righteous moral preening is sickening no matter what country. |
| Posted by: Monsieur Moonbat 2005-12-23 03:55 |