Ghastly story; if this happened over here, People magazine would spontaneously combust:
PARIS (AP) - French actress Marie Trintignant died Friday of swelling of the brain, a doctor said. She had been comatose since the weekend, when she was allegedly beaten by her rock star boyfriend. She was 41. Trintignant was hospitalized in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on Sunday after her boyfriend, French rock singer Bertrand Cantat, allegedly beat her at the hotel where she was staying with him, her mother and one of her sons.
She and her mother, director Nadine Trintignant, were finishing two months of filming a television movie Colette, based on the life of famed French writer. Trintignant was flown to Paris on Thursday. Cantat is in police custody in Lithuania and is the prime suspect in her death. The actress, who had four children, was in a coma when she arrived at the hospital and underwent emergency surgery twice to ease pressure on her brain caused by cerebral hemorrhaging.
Cantat, lead singer of France’s most popular rock band, Noir Desir (Black Desire), was immediately detained on “suspicion of causing bodily injury.” Trintignant hailed from one of French cinema’s best-known film families and enjoyed a successful movie and stage career of her own. She appeared in 30 mostly French movies during her career.
