THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: A French court convicted longtime perfume maker Jean-Paul Guerlain of making racist insults on national television and fined him Thursday €6,000 ($8,000).
The 75-year-old Mr. Guerlain, an heir to his family's cosmetics empire, provoked anger among French minorities with the comments in a 2010 interview on France-2 television. He used a French word for black people in a derogatory way as he described how hard he worked to create one of the company's most famed perfumes.
Several anti-racism groups filed legal complaints, and protests were staged in front of the Guerlain store on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris. Some called for a boycott of Guerlain products.
Mr. Guerlain apologized to France's black community during the trial, calling it an "imbecilic" remark. » | Associated Press | Thursday, March 29, 2012
