L'Affaire Derri

Suddenly, it seemed, Michel Polnareff's bare backside was staring at all of Paris. Or, rather, all of Paris was staring at it. The sight was scarcely avoidable. It appeared on 6,000 posters that the pop singer-composer had had plastered across the city's walls to promote his "Polnarevolution" show at the Olympia music hall. The posters showed the 28-year-old cheri of the Paris entertainment world in sunglasses, a woman's floppy hat, and a lacy shirt raised undemurely to reveal his derriere.

Half of Paris looked and laughed; the other half sputtered with indignation. Actress Micheline Presle was mildly amused: "Eh bien, he has a very pretty little rear end. It's almost dishonest competition." Similarly sympathetic was Actress Catherine Deneuve, who allowed that she was "weary of naked women. Let's have some nude men, s'il vous plait." Among those outraged by the spectacle was Henri Lariviere, a professional poster plasterer. In a rearguard action, as it were, he partially covered some of the posters with white rectangular patches that the French television network uses as a warning against material that is "not for minors."

Haled into court on charges of "exhibiting indecent images in public," Polnareff appeared fully clothed--wearing tight, cream satin pants with a matching bolero, a curly wig and his inevitable sunglasses. His exchanges with Judge Emile Taillandier produced some of the liveliest courtroom dialogue since Irma La Douce. Samples:

Judge: So you wanted to score a publicity hit and shock the bon bourgeois?

Polnareff: Not at all. It was simply a practical joke. I just wanted to make people laugh. There's too much moroseness [a word used by former Premier Jacques Chaban-Delmas to describe the current atmosphere in France] in this country.

Judge: In sum, you're out to provide a remedy for everything that has gone wrong in France.

Polnareff: Pourquoi pas? The image of my country shouldn't be limited to the fountains of Versailles and Camembert cheese.

Judge: Do you take yourself for a historical monument?

Polnareff: France's glories are not only past ones.

Judge: Your poster was indecent.

Polnareff: I didn't think so.

Judge: That's because you can't see yourself.

Pleading for acquittal, PolnarefFs lawyer, Gilles Dreyfus, argued that decency was not definable. "Decency varies from one era to another, from one place to another," he said. "A bare-bosomed woman on the beach at St. Tropez is not shocking or indecent in 1972. But she would be even today in front of Notre Dame cathedral." After taking two weeks to consider his verdict, Judge Taillandier last week had the tail-end word. He fined Polnareff $12,000 ($2 a poster), his record company, which had paid for the posters, $12,000, and his pressagent, who had conceived the stunt, $6,000. All together it was a $30,000 kick in the cul.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.