Rino Barillari, nicknamed the “king of the paparazzi”, accused the French actor Gerard Depardieu to physically attack him on Tuesday on Via Veneto, in the heart of Rome, but the star claimed that he only “got between the paparazzo and his partner.”
The events occurred at Harry’s Bar, one of the most fashionable places on Via Veneto, around 2:00 p.m. (12:00 GMT).
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“I saw him in via Veneto with a woman. I approached him to take some photos,” stated the 79-year-old photographer, quoted by the Roman newspaper Il Messaggero.
According to his story, first it was the woman accompanying the actor Gérard Depardieu, who is his partner, Magda Vavrusova, who tried to block him, and then it was Depardieu who intervened and punched him three times in the face.
At night, the actor Gerard Depardieu and his partner gave their version of the events through a statement from their lawyer, Delphine Meillet.
“Rino Barillari, known both for his photos and his aggressive methods, violently pushed Gérard Depardieu’s partner,” he said.
“The photographer pushed me, touching my bust and chest with his arm (…) It still hurts, it was extremely violent,” the woman told the Roman police before whom she filed a complaint for violence, according to her lawyer.
“Given the violence of the situation, Gerard Depardieuwho stood between the paparazzo and his partner, fell and slipped against him,” the lawyer added.
“The famous actor and his partner got into the vehicle and the photographer persisted despite what happened and continued taking multiple photographs,” he added.
The partner of actor Gérard Depardieu is in the Umberto I hospital in Rome, added the lawyer.
“This is not the first altercation for this photographer, who claims to have had 170 stays in medical emergencies for fighting with celebrities who refused to be photographed,” he added.
The photographer, contacted by telephone in the afternoon by AFP, was not in a position to respond and said: ““I can’t talk, I’m in the hospital.”
According to Il Messaggero, which managed to question him before his hospitalization, Barillari also filed a lawsuit.
“I’m going to the hospital now, but then I will take care of him: I will file a complaint against him with the police,” he told the newspaper.
“When I photographed them at their table, of course secretly, I didn’t imagine how this would end,” he said.
“Mamma mia, how fat he is! He punched me three times in the face,” said the photographer.
Barillari, who began his career very young, had his golden era at La Dolce Vita in Rome, when he photographed celebrities such as Liz Taylor, Ingrid Bergman, Brigitte Bardot, Ava Gardner, Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida and Marcello Mastroianni.
At 75 years old, Gerard Depardieuan icon of French cinema, is going through bad times, as he will be tried in October in Paris for sexual assaults against two women during filming in 2021. He has also been accused since 2020 of rapes and sexual assaults against a young actress, Charlotte Arnould.
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Several other lawsuits have been filed against the movie star, Gérard Depardieu, who denies the facts of which he is accused.
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