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Noel Godin, who made powerful people nervous around cream pies, dies at 80 For more than 50 years, Noel Godin went after famous and powerful people with cream pies. His targets included politicians, philosophers, filmmakers and, famously, Bill Gates.
August 30, 20265:01 PM ET
Noel Godin, who made powerful people nervous around cream pies, dies at 80
For more than 50 years, Noel Godin went after famous and powerful people with cream pies. His targets included politicians, philosophers, filmmakers and, famously, Bill Gates.
Transcript
JOEL ROSE, HOST:
We're going to take a moment now to remember an artist who worked in an unusual medium. Some people paint. Others make films or sculptures. Noel Godin's medium was cream pies, and his canvas - the human face. Godin died this past week at the age of 80, according to his publisher, Les Editions Noir sur Blanc. Noel Godin was a Belgian anarchist, actor and social commentator, but he was best known for his entartage (ph). That's the French word he coined for his pie-ings (ph). We only attack the wicked, he told the LA Times in 1997 - the great and the wicked. Godin's pies found the faces of film legend Jean-Luc Godard, former French prime minister (ph) Nicolas Sarkozy and Bill Gates. But his favorite target was the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, whom he and his collaborators pied no less than seven times.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking French).
(SOUNDBITE OF PIE SPLATTERING)
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Oh. Oh.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Speaking French).
ROSE: That was the second time in 1988, as seen on France 3.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking French).
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "HOMO CINEMATOGRAPHICUS")
NOEL GODIN: (Speaking French).
ROSE: In an interview for the 1998 documentary "Homo Cinematographicus," Noel Godin opined, quote, "let's make our lives an action film, a burlesque comedy with nothing but highlights. It's up to us."
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