Guilty Pleasures
By Associated Press
Carnival parades on the French Riviera celebrate pop culture and the Olympics coming to Paris
MENTON, France | As most of Europe moves into the solemn weeks before Easter, the party is just getting started on the French Rivera.
The Mediterranean town of Menton showcased its lush citrus and celebrated the upcoming Olympics in Paris during its Carnival parade on Sunday. Sculptures of athletes assembled from lemons and oranges decorated the streets and rode on giant floats.
Nice, the Rivera’s capital, kicked off its annual Carnival season on Saturday night with a pop culture-themed parade of lights and extravagant floats that featured “Star Wars” character Luke Skywalker as king and Marilyn Monroe, clad in a Superwoman costume, as his queen.
Both festivals on the French Mediterranean coast are derived from a medieval Mardi Gras tradition of staging public spectacles for visiting European nobles. Modern versions of Carnival over the past century have mocked politicians and ridiculed public figures.
But the weekend parades in Nice and Menton avoided divisive politics and grim events, focusing instead on recognizing achievements in film, music, art and sports.
“We wanted to honor the Olympics because Paris is hosting the Games,” Christophe Ghiena, the technical director of Menton’s Lemon Festival, or “Fête du Citron,” said.
The theme of the 90th edition of the Lemon Festival was “From Olympia to Menton.” Ten floats carried giant figures of tennis, rugby and badminton players, a boxer, a swimmer, an equestrian athlete and a surfer called John Lemon down a seaside boardwalk as visitors doubled the town’s population of 33,000.
For each float and the historical scenes lining Menton’s Les Jardins Bioves park, up to 3 tons of fruit were rubber-banded to a mounted wire framework and shaped to reflect the Olympics theme. The Greek goddess of victory, and discus and javelin throwers from the ancient Olympics joined the representations of contemporary athletes.
Nestled between the French southern Alps and the Mediterranean Sea, Menton was once a leading lemon-growing region in Europe but now has only 15 producers. The more than 140 tons of citrus used to build the floats and park displays came from Spain.
“All the lemons we produce locally are not enough to stage the Lemon Festival,” Marine Krenc, an events manager for Menton’s tourism office, said. “Honestly, we prefer that people taste our lemons rather that look at them on display.”
French King Louis XIV enjoyed the juice of Menton’s lemons, drinking its juice and bathing in its essential oils, according to a local legend. In Nice, the mechanical puppets of Luke Skywalker and Marilyn Monroe were crowned with bright lights, cheers and confetti as they took a throne in a central square, accompanied by the “Star Wars” theme song.
In line with this year’s parade theme, the king and queen will oversee their subjects and other pop culture icons in a series of parades until the end of the month, when they will be burned and buried. Barbie, Wednesday of “The Addams Family” and Indiana Jones are some of the other characters to ride on floats.
One politician appeared to have joined the Nice parade crowd on Saturday. It was Donald Trump or so it seemed, until Phillipe Uzan, a visitor from Paris, removed his mask of the former U.S. president.
“He is a character,” Uzan said as confetti fell on his Stars-and-Stripes suit.
Santos sues late-night host Kimmel for tricking him into making videos to ridicule him
NEW YORK | Former U.S. Rep. George Santos alleged in a lawsuit filed Saturday that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel deceived him into making videos on the Cameo app that were used to ridicule the disgraced New York Republican on the show.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. district court for the southern district of New York names Kimmel, ABC and Walt Disney Co. as defendants. A Disney representative listed as a media contact for the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show didn’t immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Santos, who was expelled from the House of Representatives last year after being charged with multiple counts of fraud and stealing from donors, is suing over alleged copyright infringement, fraudulent inducement, breach of contract and unjust enrichment.
Kimmel misrepresented himself to induce Santos to create personalized videos “capitalizing on and ridiculing” his “gregarious personality,” the lawsuit alleges.
Through Cameo, Santos received requests from individuals and businesses seeking personalized video messages. Unbeknownst to Santos, Kimmel submitted at least 14 requests that used phony names and narratives, according to the complaint.
Starting in December the videos were played on a segment, “ Will Santos Say It? “ the suit says.
In one of the clips, Santos offers congratulations to the purported winner of a beef-eating contest, calling the feat of consuming 6 pounds (2.7 kilograms) of loose ground beef in under 30 minutes “amazing and impressive.”
“Frankly, Kimmel’s fake requests were funny, but what he did was clear violation of copyright law,” Robert Fantone, an attorney for Santos, said in an email.
Santos is seeking statutory damages totaling $750,000 for the five videos he created that were played on the show and various social media platforms. He also asks for other damages to be determined at trial.
The ex-lawmaker faces a slew of criminal charges, including allegations that he defrauded campaign donors, lied to Congress about his wealth, received unemployment benefits while employed and used campaign contributions to pay for personal expenses like designer clothing. He also is alleged to have made unauthorized charges on credit cards belonging to some of his donors.
Santos pleaded not guilty to a revised indictment in October.
On Tuesday, Democrat Tom Suozzi won a special election for Santos’ former seat.
Former CBS executive Les Moonves to pay Los Angeles ethics fine for interference in police probe
LOS ANGELES | Former CBS chief executive and president Les Moonves has agreed to pay a $11,250 fine to settle a complaint accusing him of interfering with a police investigation of a sexual assault case, according to documents released Friday by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission.
According to the documents, Moonves acknowledged working closely with then-Capt. Cory Palka of the Los Angeles Police Department in 2017 to obtain information about a sexual assault victim’s confidential police report against him.
Palka, who had provided private security for Moonves between 2008 and 2014 at the Grammy Awards, which CBS produced, notified network officials about the complaint against the executive in November 2017, the documents show.
Through Palka, they say, Moonves obtained an unredacted copy of the police report, which also included personal information such as the home address and phone number of the accuser. Moonves also met with Palka for an hour at a restaurant to discuss the complaint and ways to quash it.
Moonves was accused of three violations of city rules.
An attorney representing him didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Palka retired in 2021 as a commander after nearly 35 years with the LAPD.
Los Angeles’ Government Ethics Ordinance governs the conduct of city employees and forbids them from misusing or disclosing confidential information acquired through their work. The commission will meet next week to discuss the settlement.
Weeks after the #MeToo movement erupted with sex abuse allegations against film mogul Harvey Weinstein in 2017, Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb reported to police in the LAPD’s Hollywood Division that she had been sexually assaulted by Moonves in 1986 and 1988 when they worked together at Lorimar Productions.
Golden-Gottlieb, who went public with her accusations in 2018, died in 2022.
The police interference allegations against Moonves came to light in 2022, when New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a settlement in which CBS and Moonves agreed to pay $30.5 million for keeping shareholders in the dark while executives tried to prevent the sexual assault allegations from becoming public.
Moonves acknowledged having relations with three of his accusers but said they were consensual. He denied attacking anyone, saying in a statement at the time, “Untrue allegations from decades ago are now being made against me.”
The Los Angeles County district attorney declined to file criminal charges against Moonves in 2018, saying the statute of limitations from Golden-Gottlieb’s allegations had expired.
—From AP reports
