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Rino Barillari, 79, told Italian media he went to Harry's Bar on
Via Veneto when he heard that Depardieu was having lunch there
on Tuesday with friends.
Barillari started taking photos before retreating to the street
outside, after Depardieu's entourage repeatedly asked him to
leave.
The actor's partner, Magda Vavrusova, followed him to
remonstrate, Barillari said, with Depardieu rushing out soon
afterwards and punching him three times, leaving him with a cut
to his head that needed hospital attention.
"I reported Depardieu, a bully (to the police). He can't believe
he can get away with it," Barillari told Il Messaggero
newspaper.
Police said they were looking into the incident.
Barillari's account differs significantly from that of Depardieu
and Vavrusova, who said he had shoved them around.
"The photographer pushed me by touching my torso and chest with
his arm," Vavrusova said in a statement sent by her lawyer
Delphine Meillet, adding she had also reported Barillari to
police.
"Faced with the violence of the situation, Gerard Depardieu, who
intervened between the paparazzi and his partner, fell and
slipped on him," the statement said.
In an interview with la Repubblica newspaper, Depardieu blamed
the incident on Barillari.
"He started pushing, he was also pushing Magda, and ... I
completely lost my balance and fell," he said.
Gianni Riotta, a well-known Italian journalist who witnessed the
altercation disputed Depardieu's version of events.
"That is a bald lie. He pummelled Barillari," Riotta told
Reuters, adding that he had given police a statement describing
how Depardieu had attacked the photographer.
"With surprising agility, I saw Depardieu charge out of the
restaurant towards the photographer and then he punched him,"
adding that the attack left Barillari "bleeding profusely".
Depardieu, one of France's top movie stars, has been at the
centre of a growing number of scandals in recent years,
including numerous allegations of sexual assault, that have
tarnished his legacy.
He is due to go on trial in Paris in October for alleged sexual
assaults against two women during a 2021 film shoot. He has
denied any wrongdoing.
(Reporting by Angelo Amante and Crispian Balmer; Additional
reporting by Dominique Vidalon in Paris; Editing by Bernadette
Baum)
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