Gerard Depardieu faces assault complaint

Paris - French actor Gerard Depardieu is facing a legal complaint for assault and battery after getting into an altercation with a car driver in Paris, an official at the prosecutor's office said on Thursday.

Depardieu is one of France's best known actors internationally with more than 100 films under his belt, including the Asterix series, but has increasingly made headlines for the wrong reasons.

"There was a confrontation and the driver filed a complaint," the official said, adding that the incident had taken place on Wednesday in central Paris.

A police source said Depardieu's scooter and the car collided, triggering the altercation. The driver alleges the 63-year-old had hit him.

Urinating in the aisle

The actor's agent was not immediately available for comment.

Depardieu last year outraged fellow passengers by urinating in the aisle of an Air France flight as it prepared to take off, forcing the plane to turn back to its parking spot.

A passenger on the flight said Depardieu, the star of movies such as Jean de Florette and Green Card, appeared to be drunk and insisted he be allowed to use the bathroom during takeoff, when passengers must remain seated.

Fellow actor Edouard Baer, who was travelling with the film star on the flight to Dublin, said Depardieu had tried to urinate in a water bottle when denied access to the toilet by a hostess.