Fans and Family Bid Tearful Farewell to ‘French Icon’ Jane Birkin 

Jane Birkin's daughters French-British actress Lou Doillon (R) and French-British actress Charlotte Gainsbourg (L) arrive to attend the funeral ceremony for late British-French singer and actress Jane Birkin at the Saint-Roch church in Paris on July 24, 2023. (AFP)
Jane Birkin's daughters French-British actress Lou Doillon (R) and French-British actress Charlotte Gainsbourg (L) arrive to attend the funeral ceremony for late British-French singer and actress Jane Birkin at the Saint-Roch church in Paris on July 24, 2023. (AFP)
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Fans and Family Bid Tearful Farewell to ‘French Icon’ Jane Birkin 

Jane Birkin's daughters French-British actress Lou Doillon (R) and French-British actress Charlotte Gainsbourg (L) arrive to attend the funeral ceremony for late British-French singer and actress Jane Birkin at the Saint-Roch church in Paris on July 24, 2023. (AFP)
Jane Birkin's daughters French-British actress Lou Doillon (R) and French-British actress Charlotte Gainsbourg (L) arrive to attend the funeral ceremony for late British-French singer and actress Jane Birkin at the Saint-Roch church in Paris on July 24, 2023. (AFP)

Hundreds of fans joined film legends and family members to bid farewell to British-born actress and singer Jane Birkin at her funeral in Paris on Monday.

Film star Catherine Deneuve, singer Vanessa Paradis and first Lady Brigitte Macron were among the mourners in the Saint-Roch church.

Outside, tearful fans waving banners marked with "Jane Forever" and "Thank you Jane Birkin" watched the ceremony on a giant screen on the corner of Rue des Pyramides and Rue Saint-Honore.

Birkin's songs, including "La Javanaise", played through speakers across the French capital's first arrondissement.

"I already feel the vacuum she is leaving. This is my mother, our mother," Birkin's daughter, the actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg, told mourners in the church.

"Mother, thank you for not being ordinary and reasonable," her other daughter, the actress and singer Lou Doillon, said during the ceremony.

Other mourners included singers Alain Souchon, Etienne Daho, who composed her last album, and Matthieu Chedid.

President Emmanuel Macron declared Birkin "a French icon" after she her death was announced on July 16 at the age of 76.

Overseas, she was best known overseas for her sensual 1969 hit “Je t’aime ... moi non plus”, performed with Serge Gainsbourg.

In France, where she had lived since the late 1960s, she became a well-known and much-loved figure for her songs, roles in dozens of films and the stance she took on a range of issues including women's rights.



Naomi Campbell Barred from Being Charity Trustee in England and Wales

British model Naomi Campbell cries after being awarded the 'Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres' (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) title at the French Ministry for Culture in Paris on September 26, 2024. (Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP)
British model Naomi Campbell cries after being awarded the 'Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres' (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) title at the French Ministry for Culture in Paris on September 26, 2024. (Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP)
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Naomi Campbell Barred from Being Charity Trustee in England and Wales

British model Naomi Campbell cries after being awarded the 'Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres' (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) title at the French Ministry for Culture in Paris on September 26, 2024. (Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP)
British model Naomi Campbell cries after being awarded the 'Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres' (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) title at the French Ministry for Culture in Paris on September 26, 2024. (Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP)

British supermodel Naomi Campbell has been barred from being a charity trustee in England and Wales for five years after the poverty charity she founded nearly two decades ago was deemed Thursday to have been “poorly governed” with “inadequate financial management.”
Following a three-year investigation into the financial activities of “Fashion for Relief,” the Charity Commission, which registers and regulates charities in England and Wales, said it had found “multiple instances of misconduct and/or mismanagement,” and that only 8.5% of the charity’s overall expenditure went on charitable grants in a six-year period from 2016.
For example, it said that thousands of pounds worth of charity funds were used to pay for a luxury hotel stay in Cannes, France, for Campbell as well as spa treatments, room service and even cigarettes. The regulator sought explanations from the trustees but said no evidence was provided to back up their explanation that hotel costs were typically covered by a donor to the charity, therefore not costing the charity, said The Associated Press.
Campbell, 54, said she was “extremely concerned” by the findings of the regulator and that an investigation on her part was underway.
“I was not in control of my charity, I put the control in the hands of a legal employer,” she said in response to a question from the AP after being named a knight in France’s Order of Arts and Letters at the country's culture ministry for her contribution to French culture. "We are investigating to find out what and how, and everything I do and every penny I ever raised goes to charity.”
The commission, which registers and regulates charities in England and Wales, also found that fellow trustee Bianka Hellmich received around 290,000 pounds ($385,000) of unauthorized funds for consultancy services, which was in breach of the charity's constitution. She has been disqualified as a trustee for nine years. The other trustee, Veronica Chou, was barred for four years.
“Trustees are legally required to make decisions that are in their charity’s best interests and to comply with their legal duties and responsibilities,” said Tim Hopkins, deputy director for specialist investigations and standards. “Our inquiry has found that the trustees of this charity failed to do so, which has resulted in our action to disqualify them.”
The charity, which was founded in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, was dissolved and removed from the register of charities earlier this year. On its website, which is still active, the charity said that it presented fashion initiatives and projects in New York, London, Cannes, Moscow, Mumbai and Dar es Salaam, raising more than $15 million for good causes around the world.
The charity had been set up with the aim of uniting the fashion industry to relieve poverty and advance health and education, by making grants to other organizations and giving resources towards global disasters.
The commission said that around 344,000 pounds ($460,000) has been recovered and that a further 98,000 pounds of charitable funds have been protected. These funds were used to make donations to two other charities and settle outstanding liabilities.  
“I am pleased that the inquiry has seen donations made to other charities which this charity has previously supported,” said the regulator's Hopkins.