THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: The recordings that expose the murky world of France's super-rich L'Oréal heiress could have come from the pen of Molière.
The following story could have been written by the 17th-century French playwright Molière. It is the tragi-comic tale of a deaf and confused 87-year-old heiress, surrounded by quarrelling and mutually detesting advisers and favourites who may or may not also be predators. The play could be entitled The Bewildered Billionairess. It's set not in the 17th century, however, but in the very recent past – between 25 May 2009 and 11 May 2010, to be precise.
The location is a mansion in Neuilly-sur-Seine, the wealthiest town in France, just outside Paris. The dialogue could equally come from a film script about the hidden world of greed/sliminess/snobbishness/ hypocrisy/anti-Semitism that sometimes lies below the fine old carpet of the Roman Catholic haute-bourgeoisie in France.
The extracts are, in fact, taken from the transcripts of real conversations secretly recorded by the old woman's former butler. The 100 hours of tapes have created a political scandal in France. They threaten to bring down a senior cabinet minister, Eric Woerth, and could deal a fatal blow to President Nicolas Sarkozy's already limping presidency. The tapes may become the principal exhibit in an explosive trial – which opened last week and then adjourned – and could also decide the future of the world's largest cosmetics company, L'Oréal. Continue reading and comment >>> John Lichfield | Sunday, July 04, 2010
Related articles here and here
