French filmmaker Maiwenn fined for journalist assault

Pallade Veneta - French filmmaker Maiwenn fined for journalist assault

French filmmaker Maiwenn fined for journalist assault / Photo: Patricia DE MELO MOREIRA - AFP/File

IN French filmmaker Maiwenn, who last year made Johnny Depp's comeback film about King Louis XV, was convicted and fined on Tuesday for assaulting a journalist.

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Maiwenn, who no longer uses her surname Le Besco, said she was enraged over an article on news site Mediapart about her ex-husband, director Luc Besson ("The Fifth Element"), who faced a rape investigation that was later dropped.

Last February, she spotted Mediapart boss Edwy Plenel in a restaurant, grabbed him by the hair and spat in his face.

On Tuesday, a Paris court fined her 400 euros ($430) over the assault, and ordered her to pay damages of 1,500 euros ($1,600) to Mediapart and a symbolic one euro ($1) to Plenel.

The incident added to the controversy around the release of her film "Jeanne du Barry" at the Cannes Film Festival in May, which marked the return of Johnny Depp after assault allegations by his ex-wife Amber Heard made him a pariah in Hollywood.

"I am not sorry and I regret nothing," Maiwenn said outside the court on Tuesday.

She said Mediapart had caused a "tsunami" in her life by publishing details of a police interview she gave as part of the investigation into Besson, who is also the father of her child.

"Mediapart knew very well that I did not want to express myself on this subject," she said. "I'm the victim."

Plenel told the court he had been "stunned" by the attack.

"A person I didn't know from Adam pulled my hair and spat in my face," he said, adding that it was "the first time in my professional career that I was physically attacked".

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Pallade Veneta - French filmmaker Maiwenn fined for journalist assault