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| Gérard Depardieu thrown off plane after urinating in cabin |
So the corpulent star of Cyrano de Bergerac, Jean de Florette and Green Card decides to take matters into his own hands. It is understood the movie star got out of his seat and tried to relieve himself into an empty bottle at the back of the plane but also peed on the floor.
While the scene may have brought the house down in French cinema theatres, the real-life incident failed to raise a laugh on Tuesday from irate passengers of the Dublin-based City Jet airline; they were told Mr Depardieu's antics meant the plane would be grounded for two hours while staff cleaned the carpet.
The French star, who was travelling with two companions, was thrown off the flight with his luggage and told to book another one.
An outraged female passenger told France's Europe 1 radio: "Mr Depardieu got up, calling out 'I need to piss, I need to piss'" as the plane was heading to the runway.
The air hostess replied: 'I am sorry, you'll have to wait 15 minutes until we are in the air, everyone is strapped in, the lavatories are shut, I can do nothing for you.'
"He said: 'No, I cannot wait.' He got up, and did it on the ground. The hostess was shocked, but nothing was said – everything was done courteously."
"Mr Depardieu sat down again, and we went back to the plane parking space."
The passengers said she was "outraged" by an actor who "thinks he is not like others, that he has to abide by their rules. He could've waited a couple of minutes."
City Jet confirmed that an incident took place but declined to name the individual involved.
On Twitter, CityJet chose to see the funny side of the incident.
"As you may have seen on the news, we are busy mopping the floor of one of our planes this morning...," read a first message.
A second read: "We'd also like to remind all passengers that our planes are fully equipped with toilet facilities..."
Mr Depardieu's agent said he declined to comment on the incident.
This is by no means the famously tempestuous food and wine-loving star's first brush with controversy.
In 2005, he smoked on a Jonathan Ross chat show on BBC ONE, and branded his fellow countrymen a bunch of "cretins". Later that year he knocked out a paparazzo with a headbutt after he photographed him with a female companion.
Last year, he called a female TV journalist a "slut" after she asked a question about his deceased son, Guillaume, then dubbed his fellow French male actors "narcissistic" and "self-satisfied". A real actor, he said was one who "has vomit on him, who stinks, who has just crapped a bit out of fear."
