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The 54-year-old star presenter of M6 will be tried from Wednesday in Paris. The accusations against him began in September 2023, with the publication by Mediapart of testimonies from three former partners denouncing “humiliations, threats, verbal violence and, for two of them, physical”. Accusations at the antipodes of his character on the small screen, clumsy and warm. In response, he says he has “a clear conscience”.
Dirty jokes
The man who often describes himself as “sensitive”, especially when talking about his deceased mother, makes a lot of bawdy jokes on air and was criticized for sexist remarks by the Belgian Higher Audiovisual Council in 2017. He has also appeared naked in several shows, under the guise of humor. From his first appearances in “Recherche appartement ou maison” in 2006 on M6, where he has spent his entire media career, Stéphane Plaza has created a great closeness with the candidates and the public.
This son of a florist from the Paris region, who did not get his baccalaureate, is amused by his clumsiness. “Pierre Richard, in ‘La Chèvre’, it’s me,” he confided to Le Monde in May 2023. But this workaholic, who started in a cousin’s real estate agency at 17, has a more explosive career than the accountant in Francis Veber’s comedy.
Spotted at a real estate fair
The production company Réservoir Prod spotted him at a real estate fair in 2005 to present a new show, “Recherche appartement ou maison”. It was an immediate success. Other concepts followed: “Maison à vendre” (2007), “Chasseurs d’appart” (2015), currently broadcast or rebroadcast on M6 and other channels of the group, W9 and Téva.
At the same time, in 2015, Stéphane Plaza created a network of real estate agencies in his name, in association with the two founders of the Laforêt channel and M6, which owns 51% of the shares. Stéphane Plaza Immobilier now has some 660 franchises in France. He has also launched a magazine (“Bienvenue chez vous”, published by Prisma), comic strips in which he is the hero, acted in the theater and in television fiction.
Control
“You absolutely must not be fooled by the appearance of the clumsy media Zébulon,” stressed Valérie de Senneville, a journalist at Les Échos, in 2022 after meeting him. Stéphane Plaza “is above all a businessman who is in extreme control,” she confided in a podcast of the economic daily. “I took a real risk, I have my name on the agencies, it’s my face that is on the brochures,” the host had told the journalist.
Nothing is left to chance, then. If the host appears on screen with disheveled hair, he comes to interviews with his makeup artist, noted the journalist from Les Échos and Le Monde. Relaxed on air, the host also maintains an apparent closeness with his fans on Instagram, where he has spoken about his alcohol problems. But he never talks about his private life, which has cast doubt on his sexual orientation.
Away
The host has not published any photos of his friends from M6 or the Grosses têtes of RTL (owned by M6) for several months, including Laurent Ruquier, Karine Le Marchand or “Jeanfi” Janssens, and the latter have not responded to AFP’s requests, just like M6, RTL and Réservoir Prod. The channel, with which he is contracted until 2028, has also refused to indicate whether the filming of his shows is continuing.
As the criminal trial approaches, no other personality is publicly defending Stéphane Plaza, as Karine Le Marchand, the presenter of “L’amour est dans le pré”, did when the scandal broke. From now on, the host is retreating into silence. “Devastated” by the proceedings against him, he is “not in the mood” for interviews, his lawyer Hélène Plumet explained to AFP.
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