“No culture, no future” on the stomach, “give us back art, Jean” on the back: Corinne Masiero, alias Captain Marleau on television, sparked controversy last weekend during the 46th ceremony of Caesars.
Coming on the stage of the Olympia in a bloody donkey skin costume, she undressed entirely, the better to curb government policy.
The Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot replied this week by regretting an evening "not useful to French cinema".
A nod to history, it was also during a 46th ceremony - the Oscars this time - that nudity had burst into the high mass of American cinema.
This Tuesday April 2, 1974, the evening ended at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.
A little earlier, the All-Hollywood applauded François Truffaut, the darling of the French 7th art, rewarded for his "American Night"
in the category of best foreign film.
Behind his desk as master of ceremonies, David Niven, the Phileas Fogg of the “Around the world in 80 days”, announces the arrival of “a huge contributor to the entertainment industry”.
Liz Taylor will present the statuette for the best film of the year.
The purple-eyed super star waits behind the curtain, sealed envelope in hand.
Her beautiful yellow dress will wait.
An intruder, naked as a worm, suddenly appears on the scene.
Trot behind David Niven, give the audience a hippy V for victory, then evaporate under the hilarious bronca of the audience.
David Niven, who observes the olibrius out of the corner of his eye, does not usurp his reputation as Mr. Phlegm in a tuxedo.
The British actor has another: his repartee.
He puts the laughers on his side: "Isn't it fascinating to think that the only laugh this man will ever get, is by stripping off his clothes and showing his little shortcomings?"
Hollywood is a well-established world.
As in the parade, Henry Mancini, known for having signed, among other things, the musical theme of “The Pink Panther”, launches his orchestra.
The curtain rises.
Elizabeth Taylor enters in majesty.
His dismay is obvious, but the actress takes over.
As she opens the envelope and announces the big winner (“The Scam”, by George Roy Hill), she laughs: “It's hard to go after that!
"
"People shouldn't be ashamed of being naked in public"
Icon Andy Warhol theorized about the celebrity quarter of an hour.
Fifteen seconds were enough for Robert Opel to reach it… even if the mustachioed Adam is no ordinary person in the underground world of Los Angeles.
In 1966, he co-wrote the speeches of Ronald Reagan, the Republican candidate for governor of California.
He was 26 years old, still called Oppel.
He removed a p from his name, a filial delicacy so as not to cause more embarrassment to his parents, wise conservatives from Pittsburgh.
Were they watching television when their offspring fooled the vigilantes of the Chandler Pavilion and then walked naked in front of all of America?
After an abortive start to his career in comedy clubs, Robert chose another path: provocation.
The bisexual activist, freelance writer and occasional photographer for gay magazine and tabloid Hollywood Star has already made his mark.
A few months before the Oscars, he took off his shirt, pants and briefs in the middle of the Los Angeles City Council meeting.
His own way of protesting against the ban on nudism on the beaches, decreed by Reagan.
It also happens to him to turn away Uncle Sam, fly wide open.
Or to appear dressed as "Mr. Penis", decked out with a phallus on a human scale.
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Midnight approaches, this April 2, 1974. Robert was not embarked at the station.
On the contrary, it's red carpet.
Photographers and reporters await him in the “winner's row”, where the evening winners parade, next to the huge golden statuette of the Oscars.
In a jumpsuit that looks like an overalls, he justifies his exit: "It's one of the things you only do once".
Then to an LA Times reporter who insisted, “You can see it as an educational act.
People shouldn't be ashamed of being naked in public.
Plus, it's a hell of a way to launch a career!
"
Two shots in the night
And the fashion for "streaking"
!
Three weeks later, in London, during an England-France rugby match, an Australian accountant crosses the Twickenham lawn.
The photo of the policeman wearing his “bobby” helmet on his penis, will go around the world.
A few months later, another zig snorts, buttocks up, in a cricket match in Great Britain.
The exhibitionism epidemic during live event broadcasts will not stop, with its highs ... more than its lows.
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Corinne Masiero's sparkle divides
If Robert Opel gained notoriety, he lost his teaching job.
To earn a living, he appears in a handful of films, gets naked for a party in honor of dancer Rudolf Nureyev ... and devotes himself body and soul to his libertarian crusade.
His often outrageous activism so tense the Los Angeles police, the LAPD, that it moved in 1978 to San Francisco, the new El Dorado of the homosexual community.
There he opened Fey-Way Studios, the country's first gay gallery, exhibiting as a pioneer two future celebrities of erotic art photography: Robert Mapplethorpe and Tom of Finland.
On July 8, 1979, two robbers burst into his gallery.
Anthony, his ex-boyfriend, and Camille, with whom he plans to marry, are tied up.
Robert, him, is embarked a little further.
He is heard swearing that he is not hiding drugs or money.
Two shots are fired.
The bullet he receives in the head is fatal to him.
He was not yet 40 years old.