Two Claim Joe Dassin’s Sons — and Other Pieces from Paris

Two Claim Joe Dassin’s Sons

The French Jewish singer Joe Dassin died a few months ago, but the “Dassin affair” continues to stir the gossip columns and the hearts of fans of sentimental sensation.

The reference is to the struggle for the right to have custody of Dassin’s children, two-year-old Jonathan and one-year-old Julien. The legal battle is between the Dassin family, headed by the late singer’s mother, Béatrice Lautner (wife of director Gilles Dassin), and Christine Dassin, the beautiful blonde wife who was in the process of divorcing him when he died.

And it is Christine who brings old — familiar — arguments into the painful debate.

“My husband’s parents never loved me, because of the difference in religion and property,” she says. “They always treated me as a gentile, not a Jew. When the children were born, we had them circumcised according to the Jewish religion. But when I separated from Joe, I had them baptized according to the laws of Christianity...”

According to her, they are trying to create the impression that she wants custody of the children only to preserve her right to the singer’s inheritance. But Dassin’s mother says that if Christine had temporarily given up the children, the financial issue would not have arisen at all. She protests against the “ancient connection” between Jews and money that emerges from Christine’s words, and points out that Joe’s two sisters are married to non-Jews.

The Dassin family questions Christine’s ability to act as a mother, since for the past two years it was Joe’s mother who cared for the children most of the time. When the couple separated, shortly before Dassin’s death, a judge denied Christine the right to care for her children, and she was accused, among other things, of calling them “dirty Jews.”

The affair has also become entangled with an attempt by detectives hired by the Dassin family to frame Christine for trafficking in narcotic drugs, although she herself admits that she was indeed addicted to cocaine a few years ago, but has since overcome the addiction.

In any case, the court has now temporarily placed the children in her care, and an agitated public opinion supports the mother’s struggle for her right to have custody of her children. Christine Dassin’s unpleasant arguments reverberate strongly in the headlines of the scandal sheets.

Incidentally, Christine is represented by the lawyer Biaggi, who represented Yitzhak Rabin in his suit against “L’Express.”

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Goodbye, Decency

Is “borrowing” a subject from a writer’s story and building a novel on it an act considered “plagiarism,” that is, “literary theft”?

This is the question the court will have to answer in a case whose leading figure is none other than Françoise Sagan, the “terrible child” of French literature, who continued writing after “Bonjour Tristesse.” Sagan does not dispute the facts:

About a year ago she was asked to write a screenplay based on one of the stories of the writer Jean Huguéron — “The Old Woman.” The film was not made, but these days Sagan’s new book, “The Dog Lying Down,” has appeared, based on the screenplay she wrote, that is — on Huguéron’s story. Sagan asked Huguéron’s permission to use the subject of his story, but he refused. Nevertheless, the writer wrote a preface to her book in which she thanks Huguéron for the “unwilling contribution” he made to it. The outraged Huguéron filed a lawsuit, while Sagan continues to admit that she “borrowed” the subject — so what?

The answer, as noted, has been submitted for the courts to decide.

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Spies at the Toy Fair

The huge toy fair held in Paris was not, as one might have expected, a colorful event and a carnival for young children. Color was indeed evident in the sophisticated models of toys of the present and the future, but children were absent, as was anyone who was not a recognized “industry professional” in the children’s toy business.

And indeed, the stringent security measures proved their worth. The commercial attaché of the South Korean embassy in Paris was caught “red-handed” photographing a new-model French toy bus. French manufacturers have recently complained that their exclusive designs are being copied by manufacturers in the Far East, who then flood the market with cheap imitation products.

The security staff contented themselves with confiscating the unsuccessful spy’s roll of film. “After all, you can’t bring someone before the State Security Court just because he photographed a toy bus,” they explained.

The Jewish Couple’s Tenant Is... a Neo-Nazi Leader

A terrible thing happened to a respectable bourgeois couple, who are also good Jews. Mr. and Mrs. H. rented out their apartment in a “good” district of Paris to a tenant named Jean-Marie Le Pen. The tenant turned out to be the leader of the far-right National Front party. But as if that were not enough, the horrified landlords discovered that Mr. Le Pen did not intend to live in the apartment himself, but had made it the operational headquarters of his movement in preparation for the French presidential election.

Since then, the house has been in an uproar. Activists prepare leaflets and play military music, and the H. couple have already received a threatening letter from a Jewish organization accusing them of collaborating with a neo-Nazi organization. With the tenants’ support, the naïve landlords are now trying to get rid of the uninvited guests, who for their part refuse to leave the Jewish couple’s apartment.

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Rika Zarai’s Car

The Israeli singer living in France, Rika Zarai, is currently at the center of a rather piquant lawsuit. Rika is suing the makers of the German luxury car “Berlin.” She complains about the numerous repairs she has had to make to the transmission system since buying the vehicle. Rika estimates the compensation due to her, including damages, related expenses, and losses to her concert tours, at an amount equivalent to one million shekels.

Rika bought her “Berlin,” a model used by the pope and heads of state, from actor Yul Brynner in 1975. It was manufactured in 1972, and the amount she paid is equivalent today to 400,000 shekels. Since then she has had to repair and replace the troublesome part five times in succession.

In its statement of defense, the German company says that Rika Zarai drives “nervously” and that “this is a luxury car, but not a racing car.” According to the company, Rika did not observe the required running-in period after each repair, but immediately after the repairs made journeys across Europe.

Be that as it may, the manufacturers are prepared to settle for a lower amount. Rika herself still drives a large “Berlin” — but one made in France.

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Libération’s Transformation

Libération, the lively Parisian left-wing newspaper, is undoubtedly a phenomenon. It is, for example, the only newspaper in the world whose employees, from the cleaning woman to the editor-in-chief, all receive exactly the same salary. Libération has never printed commercial advertising, and yet in Paris alone it sells some 50,000 copies — more than the highly regarded Communist L’Humanité. Its distinctive qualities are fresh, sometimes playful writing, dynamic editing, and daring subjects. All this has won it admirers who are not at all close to the political views it expresses.

But these days, more than a dozen years after it was founded as a “commune” during the events of May 1968, on the initiative and with the participation of Jean-Paul Sartre, Libération too is undergoing the crisis of “institutionalization.” Most of its editors now want a more “orderly” newspaper, with a clear division of responsibilities, decent salaries, and perhaps advertising as well.

These changes, too, are being carried out in an unconventional way. Libération has closed “for renovations.” After printing a “souvenir issue” for the “good and idealistic” days, it is set to adopt a “temporary” format, until it becomes a “completely new” newspaper in the autumn.

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Babies Instead of Cars

Another study, statistical and official, points to a most intriguing phenomenon in French society: since 1975 the birth rate has been steadily rising despite the “alarms,” and it is highest among women aged 25 to 35. Apparently this is to “make up” for what the birth-control pill “uses up” at a younger age.

The economic crisis has turned the French toward the bedroom and raising children, while, by contrast, they are abandoning the roads: car sales are steadily declining, and some of the biggest factories — such as Renault — have run into considerable difficulties.

The Sexiest Man

The sexiest man, in the opinion of the women of France, is actor Alain Delon, who passed the age of 40 some time ago; next in the ranking is none other than 60-year-old Yves Montand, long may he live.

This is the finding of a study conducted by a well-known French pair of sexologists and now published in a book. Delon was ranked for his “beauty” and his “sexuality.” Montand for his “wisdom, sensitivity, and simplicity.” In third place come Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Louis Trintignant, and Maurice Ronet, all tied.

When Delon was asked to name the woman of his dreams, he gave a surprising answer: Ava Gardner. But of course he is thinking of her image as reflected in her early films. “I always looked for someone like her, but never found her; and when I met her in Spain, when she was older, she was beautiful — but no longer as in my dreams.”

He found Mireille Darc, with whom he has lived for more than 13 years.