Zidane caught up in call girl trial

The names of a number of France's biggest stars, among them Alain Delon, Gerard Depardieu and Zinedine Zidane (pictured), are likely to crop up in the trial of a Swiss-based madame, Maria Antoniatta Dos Reis Furtado, a 37-year-old former stripper and model who has been accused of drug offences, blackmail, extortion and incitement to prostitution. The reason is that she is said to have supplied a number of escort girls to the set of Asterix at the Olympic Games, which featured all of the above as well as the German Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher.

None of the stars is directly involved in the case: the film's co-director, Thomas Langman, the 36-year-old son of top French director Claude Berri, insists that when he asked Maria Antoniatta, known as Maite, to bring the girls to the film set, he was the sole customer.

Langmann appears to have brought the embarrassing trial on himself. When Maite contacted him claiming that the payment for the call-girls fell short by €37,690, she sent him text messages threatening to go public on his use of prostitutes if he failed to pay up. Investigators decided this was tantamount to blackmail. Langmann subsequently complained that Maite stole his company credit card and used it to pay bills of up to €31,400.

Frightened by the adverse publicity, and no doubt fearing the wrath of Depardieu et al, Langmann tried to withdraw his complaint at the last minute and so stop the trial. But the judge insisted it go ahead.

Asterix at the Olympic Games - the most expensive French-language film ever made at almost €80m - was less successful than its two predecessors. Despite its stellar cast, it was panned by most critics, with Le Monde describing it as a "vacuous gigantic stewpot".