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Chirac And The Da Vinici Code

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in The Politics Of Film

Looks like Jacques is trying to garner some personal favors from Hollywood…

According to The Da Vinci Code’s Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, a meet and greet with French president Jacques Chirac last year turned into something quite different. About a year ago, the pair was in Paris trying to get permits to film in the Louvre. While there, they were invited to meet with Chirac, an encounter that they figured would be “a five-minute thing, like a trip to the Oval Office - a photo and a handshake.” (Yeah, a lot of the things I do remind me of my trips to the Oval Office, too.) Instead, the photo and handshake turned into an hour over coffee, during which time Chirac reportedly lobbied to get his daughter’s best friend (”an actress of some renown in France”) cast in the film - as the female lead, no less. In addition, he suggested that Jean Reno needed to be paid more for his work as “relentless French detective Bezu Fache.”

Ha, what a story.

Even more here, here and here.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 30th, 2005 and is filed under The Politics Of Film. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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