“Napoleon Was Half a Woman”

British scientists claim:
“Napoleon was half a woman”

This is an attempt to strike “below the belt” at French national pride, and an instance of historical vengeance on the part of the British — this is how the “sensational” revelation published by the “Napoleon Society,” headquartered in London, is being received in France. According to it, the Emperor Napoleon was not a real man at all, but a being with pronounced feminine characteristics, which grew stronger in him over the years.

The study by Professors James Robinson and Frank Richardson states that, because of a rare glandular disease, Napoleon had smooth skin, narrow shoulders, extremely developed breasts, and tiny genitals. The researchers explain the Corsican’s lust for wars and conquests, as well as his turbulent sexual image, as his personal struggle against the slow but inevitable process of becoming a woman. With his death, the process was completed, and his corpse was that of a woman in every respect.

The final item in the chain: Napoleon’s unfortunate son and heir was in fact born of the Emperor’s brother’s seed.

The outraged French reply with their characteristic nonchalance: “All right, then. It was a woman who gave you a beating at Austerlitz”...

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The price is set by roulette...

The café-theatre, an institution now widespread throughout the world, is celebrating its 20th anniversary these days. Today the name is generously applied to any small theatre or even a mere cabaret. Once the name was precise and unequivocal. 1,800 French theatre and film actors took their first significant steps there. Dozens of playwrights were born within its narrow walls, over a glass of wine or coffee.

In 1960, the Jewish bohemian Boris Vian bought an old bar called “The Smoky Fence,” behind the Sorbonne in the Latin Quarter of Paris, and began presenting innovative, high-quality theatre there with emerging actors and playwrights such as Colette Magny, Bernard Haller, and others. It was the first café-theatre in the world. It still exists today, like its eternally young founder. But today, alongside its two small halls, there is also a small “bistro” for those whose interest in theatre is primarily gastronomic.

Of the hundreds that existed in the 1960s and 1970s, perhaps 15 places in Paris remain today that truly deserve the name café-theatre. And even most of these do not meet the standards set by the Café-Theatre Association, founded in 1977: a hall with fewer than a hundred seats, presenting two performances each evening, each about an hour long, with tickets costing no more than 30 francs.

One place that has hardly lost any of its vitality is “Café de la Gare,” run by Romain Bouteille, on Rue du Temple near the Jewish quarter. It is a direct continuation of the earlier venue he ran in Montparnasse, which was the café-theatre par excellence of the “generation of the May 1968 revolution.” The group that lived there communally produced internationally renowned stars such as Gérard Depardieu, Miou-Miou, Patrick Dewaere, Coluche, and the satirical playwright Sotha — the only one to remain faithful to the genre.

The place’s emblem and “secret” is the way admission is paid. There is no fixed amount; everything is decided by roulette. The zodiac wheel ranges from zero to 30 francs. If your bet succeeds, you get in almost free. If not, it is still no big deal. The place is full every evening, partly because the stars it nurtured remain loyal to it. And tonight you might meet Gérard Depardieu there, spinning the roulette wheel for you, and Miou-Miou serving you biscuits or soup. And if you are not among those mourning the beautiful 1960s, gone and never to return, the odds are still open...

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Miklós preferred to return to Budapest

The Jewish-Hungarian writer-poet Miklós Haraszti has returned these days from exile in alien Paris to Budapest. He preferred to return to fame and persecution rather than freedom and solitude.

Miklós Haraszti was born in Jerusalem in 1945 to parents who were Holocaust refugees. In 1950 his parents, loyal Communists, decided to return to Hungary with their son. But Miklós did not develop in the “desired” direction and became known as one of the “terrible children” of his country’s generation of young intellectuals. He was expelled from university twice for activities that did not conform to the official line. In 1970 he published a poem entitled “Che Guevara’s Mistakes” in an official literary journal. After his second expulsion from university, he worked as a laborer in a tractor factory and published a book, smuggled to the West and published in West Germany, that sharply criticized workers’ conditions in the Eastern Bloc. For this book he “earned” the distinction of being the only writer put on trial in Hungary since 1956, relatively liberal as it was, and was given a suspended prison sentence. In 1977 he was allowed to emigrate to France.

But here, to his disappointment, years of wandering and obscurity awaited him. His writing was entirely focused on the reality of his country. He did not find a place in French intellectual circles, and the Western world remained quite alien and frightening to him. Now he has decided to return to his family in Budapest. To fight from within, and perhaps come to terms...

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Did the KGB murder David Carr?

If the leaks from Western intelligence services that reached Paris these days are to be believed, the defection to the West a few weeks ago of an East German intelligence officer has solved one of the most discussed mysteries of the past year: the death — now, one can say, the murder — of Jewish millionaire David Carr in Paris.

David Carr, one of the key figures in trade between the Soviet Union and the West, was found dead in his apartment on July 7, 1979, a day after returning from a visit to Moscow. An initial examination determined that it was a heart attack. Only an autopsy, conducted at his wife’s request, showed that the cause of death was asphyxiation resulting from a fracture of the neck bone.

The accusation by Carr’s wife that it was the KGB that killed her husband has now apparently been proved. Carr, whose biography also included a period spent in Israel, was involved in the deal to build, with French capital, the giant Cosmos Hotel, intended to house foreign delegations to the Moscow Olympics. During his stay there, he learned that the KGB had installed an extensive listening system in the building and built a basement beneath it containing sophisticated espionage equipment, and that this was why construction had been delayed.

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Thanks to Rika Zarai’s connections

The interview given by Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the French television correspondent, broadcast live last week from the Western Wall to viewers’ homes in France, was arranged through a rather unusual intermediary.

Popular broadcaster Yves Mourousi, whose earlier requests to the Prime Minister’s Office had gone unanswered, sought the help of singer Rika Zarai (pictured). Rika called Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, whom she knows well, and a few days later a positive reply arrived from Begin’s office. Thus it was the rare combination of Rika Zarai’s friendly ties with Rabbi Goren and the rabbi’s influence with the prime minister that brought Israel’s message to French ears.

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[illegible] the expressions of affection between Georges Marchais, leader of the French Communist Party, and Yasser Arafat gave rise to several displays of fondness that could not leave even the most restrained observers unmoved. And so Georges and Yasser stood hand in hand and even embraced in an open and bold display (see photograph). It is no wonder, then, that Marchais spoke so innocently of his host. One sentence from all this caused a certain commotion: “Yasser Arafat is a Palestinian de Gaulle,” he said. His associates wonder whether a revision in the Communists’ attitude toward the founder of the Fifth Republic is in store. Marchais’s wife, Liliane, also had every reason to be pleased. She is returning from Beirut with a truly rare collection of gold watches, [illegible] for the whole family.

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An astrologer assigned to Giscard d’Estaing

The growing interest recently shown by Israeli leaders in the services of astrologers is not unusual in the bustling world of politics, which, it turns out, is full of stars and signs of the zodiac.

It has now emerged that French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing receives a detailed forecast every week from a certain Parisian astrologer and studies it in all seriousness. An election season is approaching here, too.

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The “Maestro’s” request

The elderly pianist Arthur Rubinstein was brought in a wheelchair onto the stage of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées to receive an honorary decoration from the Pasteur Institute and the Weizmann Institute, presented by the President of the European Parliament, Simone Veil, at the traditional gala concert whose proceeds were devoted to cancer research.

Rubinstein stood up to give thanks under his own power.

He had one request for the scientists at the Weizmann Institute: “You must hurry and discover a new energy that will be stronger than oil.”