Depardieu a no-show at Rome trial over paparazzi melee

A trial in which French actor Gerard Depardieu is accused of attacking “the king of the paparazzi” last year in Rome will continue, after both sides failed to reach a deal, a judge said Wednesday.

The star of Green Card, The Last Metro and Danton did not appear in a Rome court Wednesday, but photographer Rino Barillari took the stand to accuse the 76-year-old actor of hitting him after an interaction on May 21, 2024, in the capital. 

Barillari, 80, told a judge he was about ten metres away from Depardieu and his partner, Magda Vavrusova, who were seated outside Harry’s Bar on Rome’s swanky Via Veneto, when he began to snap photos. 

Vavrusova, he testified, got up from her chair and “came towards me aggressively, a real demon”. 

“She tried to take my camera and scratch me,” Barillari said. Depardieu then approached and “hit me two or three times, I don’t remember anymore, on the back of the head”, causing him to fall to the ground.

Vavrusova was also absent from court Wednesday. 

Depardieu has been accused of many misdemeanours, including rape. Photo: Shutterstock.com

Known as the “King of the Paparazzi”, Barillari has enjoyed a long career snapping photos of celebrities, including Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni and Gina Lollobrigida.

Depardieu has claimed he slipped and fell on Barillari as he moved to defend Vavrusova, while the couple’s lawyer Delphine Meillet has said the photographer pushed Vavrusova violently and touched her chest with his arm. 

“It still hurts. He was extremely violent,” Vavrusova told police last year when filing a complaint, according to Meillet. 

Depardieu, who has dominated French cinema for half a century, has faced multiple scandals in recent years.

A Paris court handed him an 18-month suspended sentence in May after convicting him of sexually assaulting two women on a film set in 2021. He has appealed. 

The court also ordered that Depardieu register as a sex offender.

More recently, a French investigating judge ordered him in September to stand trial on charges of raping actor Charlotte Arnould in 2018. 

He has denied those charges and is appealing.