French farce

It is Hollywood’s most predictable script. ‘Dazzle foreign investors, force them to spend as much as possible and then drive them out once they’re broke.’ For the third time in a decade, the French are beating a humiliating retreat from Beverly Hills. This time the French national champion in question – Vivendi Universal, a once mighty conglomerate run into the ground by a megalomaniac called Jean-Marie Messier – has taken such a drubbing, it is doubtful that there will ever be a sequel. For the past 12 months, a company that was once the undisputed flagship of French capitalism has been on its knees begging its banks for mercy. France’s largest private-sector employer has escaped bankruptcy thanks only to the embarrassed intervention of the French establishment. An auction of its Hollywood businesses started in earnest this week. By the autumn, Vivendi Universal hopes to be shot of Hollywood once and for all.