Gérard Depardieu in police custody over
latest sexual assault allegations
French actor Gérard Depardieu is in police custody as investigators probe two separate allegations of sexual assault by two women who worked with the controversial actor on film sets in 2014 and 2021, according to French media reports.
Depardieu, 75, has faced sexual assault allegations from more than a dozen women since 2018, blighting his reputation as one of France’s most well-known actors. Depardieu starred in The Man in the Iron Mask, The Life of Pi and Green Card, and was nominated for an Oscar for his leading role in 1991’s Cyrano de Bergerac.
French broadcaster BFMTV was the first to report on Depardieu’s detention by police. He was summoned to a Paris police station on Monday morning to answer questions related to a sexual assault investigation, the broadcaster learned from a law enforcement source. Agence France-Presse later reported the same, also citing a police source.
Investigators are reportedly looking into allegations that Depardieu groped a set decorator while filming Les Volets Verts in 2021 and groped and made obscene remarks toward a production assistant in 2014 on the set of The Magician and the Siamese.
The set decorator, a 53-year-old woman, filed her complaint against Depardieu on Feb. 23, BFMTV reported at the time. She claims that she was walking down a hallway past Depardieu, who was sitting down, when the actor grabbed her with his legs in a vice-like grip and refused to let her go. He then touched her without consent and made sexual remarks. Another person on set had to extract the woman from Depardieu’s legs.
On Jan. 9, the production assistant filed her sexual assault complaint, alleging that Depardieu groped her at his mansion in Paris before filming for The Magician and the Siamese began. The woman, 24 at the time, said Depardieu groped her again and made sexual propositions on the first day of filming, according to French newspaper Le Courrier de l’Ouest.
Depardieu has not yet made a public statement on the allegations but he has previously denied other claims of sexual assault. In a 2023 open letter, Depardieu wrote: “Never, ever have I abused a woman.”
These latest accusations come after a wave of similar allegations were made against Depardieu starting in 2018, when then-22-year-old French actor Charlotte Arnould accused the Cyrano de Bergerac star of raping her. The case was initially dismissed, but Arnould refiled her complaint and Depardieu was charged with rape in 2020. The case is still ongoing.
A stream of women came forward after Arnould filed her complaint. In 2019, former actor Emmanuelle Debever claimed that Depardieu groped her when they were alone in a carriage on the set of the 1983 movie Danton. Debever died by suicide last year at age 60, the same day that a TV documentary about Depardieu’s sexual assault allegations aired.
In December 2023, Depardieu faced a second official complaint of sexual assault, this time by actor Hélène Darras, who claimed Depardieu groped her on the set of the 2007 film Disco. The case was dropped in January by French prosecutors because it did not fall within the statute of limitations.
The Quebec government stripped Depardieu of his Order of Quebec award, also in December 2023, after the actor made “shocking” comments in a documentary released that month. Depardieu was filmed making obscene sexual remarks and gestures while film crews covered his visit to North Korea in 2018. He is the first person to have an Order of Quebec removed.
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Ex-Wisconsin Univ. ‘porn prof’ still making $90K salary
despite being banned for filming sex videos
A University of Wisconsin professor is still raking in more than $90,000 a year, despite being demoted over X-rated “vegan cooking” videos he and his wife make with high-profile porn stars.
Joe Gow was fired last year from his role as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, but allowed to stay on as a communications professor. His annual income dropped from $263,000 to approximately $92,000.
And despite other educations making bank from adult videos, Gow says his XXX career isn’t paying the bills — calling it a hobby.
Gow, 64, is currently not allowed to set foot on campus and The Post has confirmed he is still on paid leave.
He will face a hearing later this year to decide whether he can return to the classroom. In the meantime, he is collecting his professor salary — and still pumping out X-rated content at a rapid clip.
Last month the interim chancellor, Gow’s replacement, filed three charges against him, accusing him of unethical conduct, failing to cooperate with an investigation and using the school’s computers to produce pornographic materials.
The charges are connected to two racy e-books Gow and his wife wrote under pseudonyms: “Monogamy with Benefits: How Porn Enriches Our Relationship” and “Married with Benefits — Our Real-Life Adult Industry Adventures.”
Gow insists the videos and the books never mentioned UW-La Crosse or his role at the university.
He believes the Regents Board violated his free speech rights when it fired him as chancellor, and that being relieved of his teaching duties will further harm his career.
“They want to fire me as a tenured faculty member,” Gow told The Post.
“But what I do with my wife — on my own time and using my own equipment — is none of their business.”
Gow is married to former UW-La Crosse professor Carmen Wilson. Known online as the “Sexy Happy Couple,” they promote themselves as a “sex-positive couple promoting free expression.”
While many of their videos are one-on-one sessions, they often make threesome or group videos with porn stars.
Gow insists the content is as ethical as possible. “Nobody is cheating on anybody,” he says. “This is us enjoying our sex life openly and honestly.
“We are in love, and we have fun together. People don’t understand it, and it makes them uncomfortable; that’s why they want me gone.”
But his removal has divided the student body and the city of La Crosse, sparking a debate over whether a porn actor — who once paid a veteran porn star thousands of dollars to speak to students on campus — is fit to teach young adults.
Some students say Gow is a good teacher who shouldn’t be judged for his porn movies. “Sex work is real work,” student Hannah Hogan wrote on an online petition. “Let the man live.”
But in a letter to the editor of the La Crosse Tribune, resident Liza Gilbert said Gow is unfit to mold the malleable minds of college students.
“The porn industry would not exist without sex trafficking,” Gilbert wrote. “Gow is perpetuating and profiting from an industry that victimizes both women and men, many of them minors.”
Gow will face a hearing later this year. He says he has not hired an attorney and intends to represent himself.
“The burden of proof is on them to prove that I did something wrong,” he says, “and I don’t know how they’re going to do that.”
Mark Pitsch, a spokesperson for the UW system, did not return The Post’s requests for comment.
Gow acknowledges his sex work isn’t lucrative, but is more of a “hobby” to enhance his marriage. His porn work has not come close to replenishing the lost income from his demotion.
But Gow insists he is proud of his on-camera sex adventures.
“I love what we’ve created,” he says. “This has brought my wife and I a lot of openness. It has enhanced our relationship. Why would I feel shame about that?”
Spoken like a true godless university professor with a very wonky moral compass.
Sin is progressive! His videos will get worse over time.
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