There always seems to be one major celebrity death around Christmas time.
Well here's 2025's.
-----
Brigitte Bardot, French screen legend, dies aged 91
Emmanuel Macron leads tributes to celebrated sex symbol who later embraced animal rights activism and an increasingly controversial political stance
Sun 28 Dec 2025 11.50 GMT
Tributes have been paid to Brigitte Bardot, the French actor and singer who became an international sex symbol before turning her back on the film industry and embracing the cause of animal rights activism, who has died aged 91.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, wrote on social media that Bardot had “embodied a life of freedom” and “universal brilliance”. France was mourning “a legend of the century”, he said.
Jordan Bardella, the president of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party (RN), which Bardot supported, wrote: “Brigitte Bardot was a woman of heart, conviction and character. An ardent patriot, devoted to animals that she protected throughout her life, she embodied a whole French era, but also above all a certain idea of courage and freedom.”
Le Pen, whom Bardot once described as “the Joan of Arc of the 21st century”, wrote on social media that Bardot was “exceptional for her talent, courage, frankness and beauty”. “She was incredibly French,” she said. “Free, indomitable, whole. She will be hugely missed.”
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/d ... ivist-dies

Brigitte Bardot in Jean-Luc Godard’s Le Mépris (Contempt) in 1963. Photograph: Nana Productions/Rex Features