After a confrontation on February 22, Maïwenn explains why she spat in the face of Edwy Plenel, the co-founder of Mediapart.
In an interview with the Sunday newspaper, relayed by Le Monde, Maïwenn finally reveals why she attacked Edwy Plenel in a Parisian restaurant earlier this year. The reason: Mediapart published its “hearing” against the judicial police in the Luc Besson case. The latter, father of his daughter, is accused of rape by actress Sand Van Roy.
“I do not blame Mediapart for the investigations they carried out concerning Luc Besson. I blame them for what they did to me,” said the director.
Indeed, at the end of 2018, Maiwenn meets a journalist from Mediapart on this subject but refuses to speak, claiming to no longer frequent Luc Besson “Since twenty years”. However, in 2021, Mediapart publishes an article containing excerpts from his hearing before the police, dating from June 2020. Maïwenn returns to this shocking discovery.
It is a cataclysm. I felt a moral rape. If nothing justifies attacking a journalist, nothing justifies violating a woman’s privacy.
For the filmmaker, Edwy Plenel would use the Metoo movement “as a shield” in this case. The latter, in fact, filed a complaint against her on March 7, recounting that during a dinner in a restaurant with a lawyer, a woman had rushed towards him to grab him violently by the hair “throwing his head back and sketching a spit on his face”.
Jean-Claude Lother / KWAI / CANAL+
Edwy Plenel
Maïwenn Le Besco, by her full name, was then identified by the restaurant staff, before leaving the premises in a hurry. Since then, an investigation has been ongoing. The director, however, has never denied the facts, having publicly acknowledged them in May in the Daily program on TMC. But she refused until then to explain herself.
Regarding the case Luc Besson, the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed the dismissal order in favor of the director on May 24th. A decision from the Court of Cassation is now expected for June 21.