The Tamesis
One particularly bizarre conspiracy theory holds that famous female celebrities, including musicians, athletes and politicians, are secretly transgender. A French art dealer was found guilty in a Paris court on Monday of online harassment for falsely claiming that French first lady Brigitte Macron was born a boy named Jean-Michel Trogneux, after her brother.
Her daughter, attorney Tiphaine Auzière, told the court that discomfort over public perceptions of her gender had led to “a deterioration in her health” and “a deterioration in her quality of life,” according to the New York Times. guardian. Macron is also suing right-wing American podcaster Candace Owens in a U.S. court for spreading the comments, accusing her of defamation.
Related articles
Bertrand Scholler, co-founder of the 55 Bellechasse gallery in Paris, was identified as one of the main defendants because of his large following on social media. He has more than 108,000 followers on X, and on Tuesday he announced that he would be closing the account for six months following a court order. He was reportedly sentenced to six months probation new york timesIt states that the court fined each defendant 600 euros (approximately US$700) and ordered them to provide compensation totaling 10,000 euros (approximately US$12,000).
Also among the main defendants are Delphine Jégousse, a medium and author also known as Amandine Roy, who was also given a six-month suspended sentence, and the novelist Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, who was given an eight-month suspended sentence. All three must undergo online harassment awareness training and be banned from using X for six months.
Some of those convicted have also characterized her relationship with her husband, French President Emmanuel Macron, as pedophile. He was 15 when they met; she was his drama teacher and was 39 at the time. She insists their relationship remains within the confines of the law. She later divorced her husband and married Macron in 2007.
Scoler did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on the court’s findings.
He founded the gallery in 2013 in collaboration with Hans Mautner and opened branches in Miami in 2016 and Basel, Switzerland in 2019. The gallery’s current status is unclear; the website is still operational, but its last listed exhibition closed in June 2022. The most recently listed art fair is Art Market Budapest, starting in 2020; the gallery has previously participated in fairs such as Art Russia Moscow, Photo Fever Paris, Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair, Seattle Art Fair, Hampton Art Market, and London Photo Fair.
Scholler also co-founded Frame, a mini-Basel satellite show that launched in 2018 and last took place in 2020. In 2018, 55 Bellechasse exhibited paintings by heavy metal band Metallica bassist Jason Newsted at Frame.
“I am not dead,” Shorer wrote in his final post on X. “I will be back, God willing.”
