Who will be the next personality to withdraw and regret their signing? This Sunday, December 31, 2023, Pierre Richard in turn resigned himself to publicly regretting the signature he placed on the platform in support of Gérard Depardieu, and published on December 25 in the columns of Figaro. On the initiative of Yannis Ezziadi, an actor with far-right ideologies who collaborates with Élisabeth Lévy for her magazine Talker, this forum has caused a lot of ink to flow and many celebrities have dissociated themselves from it one after the other. The actor Pierre Richard, a familiar face of French cinema, who collaborated with Gérard Depardieu in numerous films, had proudly signed it in the name of the presumption of innocence. This Sunday, December 31, 2023, the 89-year-old actor takes a step back.
“I agreed to sign this column solely in the name of the presumption of innocence to which every citizen is entitled, including Gérard Depardieu. Unfortunately, this text does not reflect the support I have for all victims of sexual assault . He measures neither the intensity of their pain nor the path of suffering to make it known. Furthermore, I signed without knowing the ideological movement in which the pen of the petition evolves, a movement light years from my commitments. IF I could have hurt certain people, I am sincerely sorry, even upset“ wrote Pierre Richard in a press release published this Sunday around 4 p.m.
Chronology of a shipwreck
The fallout from the petition on Pierre Richard was devastating since Laurent Boyet, president of the association The butterflies, decided to strip him of his role as godfather, upon learning that he had signed this column. Nadine Trintignant, mother of Marie Trintignant, also apologized to the people she may have shocked by signing this platform, while Carole Bouquet and Charles Berling only moved away from this platform because of the political ideologies of its creator, which they publicly disapproved. Yvan Attal and Gérard Darmon also expressed their discomfort after signing it, while Victoria Abril, who remains silent, faces serious collateral chargesand has had to sue his ex-colleague Lucie Lucas for public defamation.