Did Mitterand slurp down a bird?
The week's news at a glance.
Paris
Friends of the late French president François Mitterand have started a campaign to ban a film about his last days because one scene shows him gorging himself in a disgusting frenzy a week before his death. Filming has not yet begun, but millionaire Pierre Bergé vowed last week to block the movie after reading the script. The screenplay calls for the actor playing Mitterand to scarf down an ortolan, a tiny songbird that used to be revered as a delicacy when eaten whole—bones, beak, and all—but is now protected by French law. He then gobbles plate after plate of oysters. Bergé and other Mitterand friends insist the gluttonous display never happened.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Spain’s deadly high-speed train crashThe Explainer The country experienced its worst rail accident since 2013, with the death toll of 39 ‘not yet final’
-
Can Starmer continue to walk the Trump tightrope?Today's Big Question PM condemns US tariff threat but is less confrontational than some European allies
-
There’s a new serif in town: Trump’s font overhaulIn the Spotlight As the State Department shifts from Calibri to Times New Roman, is this just a ‘typographic dispute’, or the ‘latest battleground’ of a culture war