After his 1993 marriage to Arielle Dombasle -- an actress-turned-singer known for her techno versions of Handel and other classics -- the couple were compared by a friend to Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
BHL's money and connections form the basis of a second barrage of attacks. Though he claims to be uninterested in money, he runs several property companies and, according to the critics, close friendships with media magnates such as Francois Pinault and Jean-Luc Lagardere are used to promote his own interests.
BHL has yet to react to the attacks, but friends have leapt to his defense. "They're accusing him of being rich. But since when has it been a crime to be rich?" said Jean-Paul Enthoven, editorial chief at the Grasset publishing house.
For Enthoven the campaign against his friend is ideologically-motivated, with most of the critics coming from the anti-capitalist left: in their eyes BHL has betrayed the cause by his refusal to rush to condemn the US and his uncompromising views on radical Islam.
As for BHL himself, he was "amused, curious and interested" by the attacks, Enthoven said. Taking it philosophically, in other words.
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