Depardieu Faces Rome Judge Over Paparazzi Clash. French actor Gérard Depardieu is expected in court next Tuesday in Rome, accused of assaulting famed paparazzo Rino Barillari during an incident last year at Harry’s Bar.
French cinema icon Gerard Depardieu will appear next week before a judge in Rome accused of assaulting a paparazzi photographer, a lawyer told AFP Thursday.
Rino Barillari, the 80-year-old dubbed the "king of paparazzi", alleges Depardieu punched him three times in the face when he tried to photograph him in May last year at Harry's Bar on the chic Via Veneto.
The French actor, 76, claims he slipped and fell on Barillari on as he moved to defend his partner Magda Vavrusova, who was attempting to stop the photographer snapping pictures of them.
The hearing will take place on Tuesday at 9:30 am (0730 GMT), Barillari's lawyer Pino Ioppolo said.
Depardieu and Vavrusova's lawyer Delphine Meillet said at the time that Barillari had pushed Vavrusova violently and touched her chest with his arm.
"It still hurts. He was extremely violent," she quoted Vavrusova as telling police when she filed a complaint.
She said Depardieu slipped and fell on the photographer while trying to get between him and Vavrusova.
Vavrusova said Barillari was "well known as much for his photos as for his aggressive methods".
During a long career that started young, Barillari has photographed numerous stars including Elizabeth Taylor and Ingrid Bergman in the Italian capital.
Depardieu, who has dominated French cinema for half a century, has faced scandals over recent years.
A Paris court handed him an 18-month suspended sentence last month after convicting him of sexually assaulting two women on a film set in 2021.
The court also ordered that Depardieu register as a sex offender.
With AFP
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