Mon dieu Depardieu! Actor pees on plane

The burly French film actor Gerard Depardieu is looking a bit more red-faced than normal after it emerged that he was so desperate for a pee on a flight out of Paris that he was forced to do it in the middle of the plane in front of dozens of passengers.

On his way to Dublin to complete filming for the fourth Asterix and Obelix film (no prizes for guessing which Gaul he plays), Depardieu apparently became desperate for the toilet just before the plane was due to take off on Tuesday evening.

An eye-witness told Europe 1 that the 62-year-old got out of his seat and started insisting, "I want to pee, I want to pee". But the air hostess, following plane regulations, responded: "I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait fifteen minutes until we are in the air. The toilets are closed at the moment."

Another passenger then offered him a mini Evian bottle to pee into. "But the bottle was simply too small," the passenger told Europe 1. "So it's true, it began to spill over."

"He was embarrassed, he wanted to help clean up," added the passenger. One eye-witness said that he was clearly drunk, but Depardieu, apologising for the incident, retorted that he was "completely sober" and that only a little spilt over.

A CityJet spokesman confirmed that Depardieu "has actually urinated in the plane", and although the plane had to be grounded for a further two hours for cleaning, it seems the airline saw the funny side of things.

"As you can see from the information, we are in the process of mopping the floor of one of our planes this morning," the company tweeted yesterday. "We would also like to remind our passengers that all our aircraft are fully equipped with toilets." ·