Brigitte Bardot Foundation warns about souvenir scams

The charity set up by French actress Brigitte Bardot following her death has warned of “scam” merchandise aimed at funding her work.

The Brigitte Bardot Foundation said it was aware of “vulgar fabrications” in the online ad and claimed proceeds would be donated to animal welfare charities.

It threatened legal action against anyone involved in “these allegedly illegal fundraising activities” and said: “Everyone is asked to respect the memory of the deceased.”

Bardot died last Sunday at the age of 91. After revolutionizing French cinema in the 1950s and becoming a symbol of sexual liberation, she retired from acting to devote her life to animals.

But the actress-turned-activist later sparked controversy with a series of comments about Muslims, gays and the #MeToo movement. She was fined five times for inciting racial hatred.

Her death prompted mourning in France, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying the country was mourning a “legend of this century”.

“Her films, her voice, her dazzling glory, her initials, her sadness, her generous passion for animals, the face she became of Marianne, Brigitte Bardot embodied a life of freedom,” he said.

But now, online scammers are capitalizing on her iconic image in a “vulgar and despicable attempt to exploit her legacy,” the Brigitte Bardot Foundation said.

It warned that “photographs replicating her image, artificial intelligence-assisted montages and sales offers in various media were circulated on the Internet and social networks, including “in cases of fabrication.”

“These are shoddy, illegal offers and sales and purported fundraisers that have never been endorsed by the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, which cannot condone these scams,” the company wrote in a statement on Saturday.

Bardot, who starred in nearly 50 films including “God Created Woman” and “Contempt,” set fashion trends with her tousled blonde hair and bold eyeliner before becoming the model for France’s incarnation of Marianne.

In 1973, at the age of 39, she retired from the entertainment industry and declared: “I gave my youth and beauty to men, and I gave my wisdom and experience to animals.” Thirteen years later, Bardot established her Animal Rights Foundation.

Her funeral will be held on Wednesday in Saint-Tropez, southern France, where she lived for decades, in a cemetery overlooking her home and the Mediterranean Sea.

The Brigitte Bardot Foundation told AFP the private funeral will be “no frills” and “no fuss” in keeping with her spirit.