Belgian pie-thrower, scourge of celebrities, dies at 80

Belgian comedian Noel Godin, who made a name throwing custard pies at celebrities from French film legend Jean-Luc Godard to tech titan Bill Gates, has died at the age of 80, his partner told AFP Monday.

Nicknamed "the Glooper" for his cries of "Gloop! Gloop!" after each strike, Godin spent more than three decades lobbing pies at rich and famous targets he felt needed bringing down a notch.

He died on Sunday morning, his partner Sylvie Broodthaers told AFP.

Describing himself as an "anarcho-confectioner," Godin began his campaign with a pie in the face of author Marguerite Duras in 1969.

His high-profile targets went on to include the future French president Nicolas Sarkozy in 1997 -- although in that case he had an accomplice lob the actual pie for fear of being recognised.

Godin's pie-throwing movement hit global headlines the following year after a successful hit on Microsoft boss Gates -- inspiring successors including the Taart movement in The Netherlands, the Biotic Baking Brigade in the United States or the "Entartistes" in Canada.

But he once told AFP he systematically refused contract pie attacks, even when offered "a lot of money" to target A-listers Sharon Stone and Catherine Deneuve at the Cannes Film Festival.

"We're not mercenaries," he said in a 2021 interview, describing himself as pursuing "a burlesque form of pacifism."

"An aggressive pacifism, obviously, but we only bruise our victims' egos," he said.

A 2002 hit on the French presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Chevenement -- with a pineapple-flavoured missile at the Paris book fair -- would lead custard-pie throwing to be ruled a criminal offence.

Convicted and fined after the Chevenement strike, Godin's case went all the way to France's top court, where he lost his final appeal -- with more than 1,000 supporters throwing a raucous fundraising party to cover his legal costs.

Godin's target of choice over the years was the flamboyant French philosopher Bernard Henri-Levy, hit no fewer than eight times between 1985 and 2015, not counting copycat attacks by others around the world.

"To be honest, when he is no longer around, I'll be at a loss," Godin quipped to AFP.