French radion station Europe 1 (via The Verge) is reporting that French authorities are investigating a rape allegation against director Luc Besson following an incident Thursday night at the Cannes Film Festival.
According to the complaint, the actress says that she met Besson on Thursday evening at the Bristol hotel in Paris as the Cannes Film Festival was wrapping up. She describes how she was given a cup of tea and blacked out after drinking it, and awoke realizing that she had been raped. She says that the director left a wad of money for her before departing. The actress also noted that she had previously been in an intimate relationship with Besson for two years, one that she felt pressured into for “professional reasons.”
That is a lot of levels of fucked up. Not only do you give your ex-girlfriend a cup of Bill Cosby Earl Grey, you leave cash on the nightstand to really drive home the point that you think she’s a whore. And on top of that you basically Harvey Weinsteined her into dating you in the first place.
Besson’s lawyer issued a statement to Agence France-Presse.
“Luc Besson categorically denies these fantasist accusations,” the film-maker’s lawyer Thierry Marembert told AFP. “(The complainant) is someone he knows, towards whom he has never behaved inappropriately.”
It seems like he may have acted inappropriately, considering she’s accusing him of rape. That’s pretty inappropriate. The cash on the dresser is inappropriate all by itself, without all the other horrible things in this story, to be honest.