Zut alors! Arty types need to stop standing up for Depardieu

CHRIST Almighty, don’t the arty elites have a great welcome for themselves all the same.

In France a whole bunch of actors and artistic types have come out in support of famous actor Gerard Depardieu who is now, apparently, facing a torrent of abuse on social media after being charged with rape and confronted with other sexual assault claims.

Matters turned even uglier for Depardieu, left, in the past few weeks with the airing of a documentary in which he is heard making explicit sexual comments and crude remarks about a young girl riding a horse.

The attacks on social media were utterly predictable, seeing as how that form of communication is weighed down with blind, ignorant hatred disgorged by dysfunctional weirdos.

So, out they come, Depardieu’s pals and admirers, with a letter to give balance to the conversation – as if that’s not, equally, an interference with due criminal process and the presumption of innocence they claim to be so concerned about.

Carla Bruni, wife of former French president Nicholas Sarkozy, joined other worthies described the attack on Depardieu as a ‘torrent of hate’, as compared, of course, to their equally unimpressive ‘torrent of love’.

In perhaps the most vainglorious statement of all, the proDepardieu letter states: ‘When people attack Gerard Depardieu in this way, they are attacking art.’ To which only one word is possible as an answer – sh***.

All this fuss follows a further intervention the previous week by current French president Emmanuel Macron, who said Depardieu was the victim of a manhunt.

Could he and others not leave it to the courts to decide if Depardieu’s accusers are telling the truth?

And would they do the same for some other man in Nice, Marseille or elsewhere accused of similar offences that he too denies? No prizes for answering that one.