French film director Roger Vadim, who discovered Brigitte Bardot and was linked to some of the world's most beautiful women, has died of cancer. He was aged 72.
Born in Paris to Russian-French parents, Vadim made a sensational debut as a director in 1956 with the then outrageous And God Created Woman, which launched the career of Bardot, his teenage wife.
Vadim made several other films with Bardot, including Don Juan and Please Not Now, each time shocking the establishment but drawing millions of viewers worldwide.
His four subsequent wives included Jane Fonda, whom he featured, often unclothed, in the science-fiction spoof Barbarella, and Danish starlet Annette Stroyberg.
Geri Halliwell, facing a lawsuit with her former band mates in the Spice Girls from an Italian scooter maker, told a British court yesterday that quitting the group was "like leaving a marriage".
Aprilia SpA is suing the band for nearly £1.5 million, claiming a sponsorship deal was thrown into chaos by Halliwell's departure in 1998 to pursue a solo career.
Yves Saint-Laurent opened a new museum in Paris yesterday housing the elite designer's most important creations since the founding of his fashion house in 1962. The museum includes 5,000 haute-couture and preta-porter pieces, 2,000 pairs of shoes and between 10,000 and 15,000 accessories.