French Actor Gerard Depardieu Faces New Sexual Assault Complaint

A set designer has filed a complaint against French screen legend Gerard Depardieu for an alleged sexual assault during a 2021 film shoot, her lawyer told AFP Sunday.

Depardieu, 75, has been charged with rape in another case and has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by more than a dozen women. He denies the allegations.

The complainant's lawyer Carine Durrieu-Diebolt confirmed that she had forwarded this new complaint to the Paris public prosecutor's office on Friday, alleging sexual assault, harassment and abuse.

The Paris public prosecutor's office was unable to confirm that the complaint had been lodged, and Depardieu's lawyers did not comment.

The survivor, 53, told the online newspaper Mediapart that Depardieu made several vulgar remarks on September 10, 2021, then later "brutally grabbed her" and "kneaded her waist and stomach up to her breasts". 

The incidents were interrupted by a bodyguard on the film set of "Les volets verts" in Paris, the report said.

According to Mediapart, another woman accused Depardieu of twice touching "her breasts and buttocks" on the same set in August 2021.

Repeated allegations against Depardieu have become a culture-war front line in France, dividing the world of cinema and pitting feminist groups against the actor's defenders.

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