{"product_id":"the-bettencourt-affair-isbn-9781101984499","title":"The Bettencourt Affair","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn NPR Best Book of 2017\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHeiress to the nearly forty-billion-dollar L’Oréal fortune, Liliane Bettencourt was the world’s richest woman and the fourteenth wealthiest person. But her gilded life took a dark yet fascinating turn in the past decade. At ninety-four, she was embroiled in what has been called the Bettencourt Affair, a scandal that dominated the headlines in France. Why? It’s a tangled web of hidden secrets, divided loyalties, frayed relationships, and fractured families, set in the most romantic city—and involving the most glamorous industry—in the world.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Bettencourt Affair started as a family drama but quickly became a massive scandal, uncovering L’Oréal’s shadowy corporate history and buried World War II secrets. From the Right Bank mansions to the Left Bank artist havens; and from the Bettencourts’ servant quarters to the office of President Nicolas Sarkozy; all of Paris was shaken by the blockbuster case, the shocking reversals, and the surprising final victim.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt all began when Liliane met François-Marie Banier, an artist and photographer who was, in his youth, the toast of Paris and a protégé of Salvador Dalí. Over the next two decades, Banier was given hundreds of millions of dollars in gifts, cash, and insurance policies by Liliane. What, exactly, was their relationship? It wasn’t clear, least of all to Liliane’s daughter and only child, Françoise, who became suspicious of Banier’s motives and filed a lawsuit against him. But Banier has a far different story to tell...\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Bettencourt Affair\u003c\/i\u003e is part courtroom drama; part upstairs-downstairs tale; and part characterdriven story of a complex, fascinating family and the intruder who nearly tore it apart.“A Buffet for Scandal Aficionados...[Sancton] is an excellent straight-up reporter, and he has dug deeply into the many, many elements that complicate this story.”\u003cb\u003e—Janet Maslin, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Juicy...the very picture of \u003ci\u003eun grand scandale \u003c\/i\u003eabout the world’s richest woman.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Liliane Bettencourt, the L’Oréal heiress worth billions, became infatuated with a man 25 years her junior (a former Dalí protégé and an apparent social climber), giving him lavish gifts and even moving to adopt him. The story has all the trappings of a juicy affair, including graft and hidden Nazi sympathies.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Joumana Khatib, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review \u003c\/i\u003ePaperback Row\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] riveting page-turner chronicling this sweeping Tolstoyan saga...In gripping but unsensational prose, [Sancton] brings the debacle alive in its many dimensions, recreating not merely the lurid courtroom drama, but capturing ‘the ineffable sadness at its heart.’”\u003cb\u003e—NPR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An intensely reported account of power, politics, persuasion and the dark family secrets of the ultra-wealthy.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eNew York Daily News\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“the book that has emerged from [Sancton’s] reporting on the case is surely the definitive account...riveting.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Money, glamour, and scandal are often the key ingredients of a great story—especially when they’re true.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eReal Simple\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A juicy chronicle of France's richest scandal...A well-researched, crisply written, and entertaining story of family, greed, wealth, and the complex relations among them.”\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Kirkus Reviews\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Although this tale seems destined for HBO or Hollywood, to bill this a mere 'family drama' belies the staggering depth with which Sancton portrays his subjects, whose motivations, desires, and downfalls are 'so difficult to judge according to a moral code based on right and wrong, black and white, good and evil.' A natural for book clubs, which will drain a French cellar’s worth of wine while appreciating Sancton’s meticulous research and discussing this unbelievable cast of characters.”\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Booklist\u003c\/i\u003e (\u003ci\u003es\u003c\/i\u003etarred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This true story of the elderly billionaire, the artist to whom she gave a fortune, and the family that claims it’s all been a big con, is proof that truth is stranger—or at least makes better poolside reading.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eTown \u0026amp; Country\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“There is no comparable work on the Bettencourt scandal, only interviews and articles, making this highly recommended and pleasurable read a mix of luring tabloid fare and professionally researched courtroom and political drama.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The story of this convoluted war of wills (pun intended), told with skill by former Time Paris bureau chief Tom Sancton in The Bettencourt Affair, features a cast of characters pulled straight from a Tolstoy novel.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A longtime reporter on a foreign desk, Tom Sancton knows Paris and has done his homework...\u003ci\u003eThe Bettencourt Affair \u003c\/i\u003eis a devilishly engaging immersion into a world few of us can imagine.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This book has it all! Money, class, art, greed, intrigue, seduction, betrayal, and politics. It reads like a novel—a racy and intense thriller—but it's all true. With amazing reporting and wonderful writing, Tom Sancton brings alive the drama of the richest woman in the world, the powerful minister she married, their intellectual daughter, and the audacious artist who may have siphoned off a fortune. Their battles shook France and will fascinate readers.”\u003cb\u003e—Walter Isaacson, author of \u003ci\u003eSteve Jobs\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Bettencourt Affair\u003c\/i\u003e reveals the far-reaching tentacles of a sensational family squabble over the $40-billion L'Oréal fortune. The aging cosmetics heiress gave hundreds of millions of dollars to her protégé, who was then charged with criminal manipulation by the woman's embittered daughter and convicted at a trial that also entangled French President Nicholas Sarkozy, a labor minister and others. It's an eye-popping, page-turning read.”\u003cb\u003e—John Berendt, author of \u003ci\u003eMidnight in the Garden of Good and Evil\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe City of Falling Angels\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“A riveting, dishy account of one of France’s wealthiest families, whose Olympian grasp reaches scandalously deep into the French political world and the government itself. No one who reads this intimate tale of materialism and dangerous liaisons—peppered with political stars and so steeped in paranoia that even a butler makes surreptitious recordings to defend himself—will ever again associate the French upper classes with discretion and understatement.”\u003cb\u003e—Anne-Marie O’Connor, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Lady in Gold\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eTom Sancton \u003c\/b\u003ewas a longtime Paris bureau chief for \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e magazine, where he wrote more than fifty cover stories. He first broke the Bettencourt affair for many American readers with his feature piece in \u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e in 2010. Sancton coauthored the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e (and international) bestseller \u003ci\u003eDeath of a Princess\u003c\/i\u003e, a probing investigation of the murky circumstances behind Princess Diana’s death. He has also written for \u003ci\u003eFortune\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eReader’s Digest, Newsweek, \u003c\/i\u003eand other leading magazines. A Rhodes scholar who studied at Harvard and Oxford, he is currently a research professor at Tulane University in New Orleans, where he spends part of the year. In 2014, the French government named Tom Sancton a Chevalier (knight) in the Order of Arts and Letters.Chapter 1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Founder\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Charles Schueller never expected to be a soldier. Six months      earlier, the young man had been a cook in his native Alsace,      France's easternmost province. Now he was huddled with 15,000      Garde nationale volunteers in the town of Belfort, trying to      defend its heavily fortified citadel against the far larger German      force that had besieged them. More accustomed to wielding a frying      pan than a rifle, Schueller, like his comrades in the ill-equipped      and untrained band, mainly tried to survive until hoped-for      reinforcements could arrive. Meanwhile, the Germans pummeled the      citadel with their Krupp six-pound field guns, the long-range,      rapid-firing weapons that had been decimating French troops ever      since the Franco-German war broke out in July 1870.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The conflict had been triggered by a trivial diplomatic incident      about which Charles Schueller, the twenty-two-year-old son of a      shoemaker, understood nothing. What he did understand was that la      patrie was being invaded by the Germans and his beloved Alsace was      on the front lines. Like most German-speaking Alsatians, Schueller      was a fervent French patriot who would rather die than live under      German occupation. The Belfort volunteers-les mobiles-held out      until February 18, 1871, three weeks after officials in Paris had      capitulated and signed an armistice. Their commander, Col. Pierre      Denfert-Rochereau, was thereafter hailed as \"the Lion of Belfort\"      for leading the heroic resistance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Franco-German war had far-reaching consequences. Germany was      unified under Prussian leadership. The French Second Empire      collapsed when the dyspeptic Emperor Napoleon III, unwisely      venturing onto the battlefield, was captured and imprisoned. Most      important for Charles Schueller, the triumphant Germans annexed      Alsace and Lorraine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Schueller moved to Paris in 1871 in order to remain French. He      knew no one in the capital, but soon met and wed AmŽlie Denisot,      daughter of a toolmaker from Burgundy, who worked as a domestic      servant for a baker. Shortly after their marriage, they bought a      pastry shop on the rue du Cherche-Midi. It was there, on March 20,      1881, at nine a.m., that AmŽlie gave birth to Eugne Schueller in      a back room. Eugne was lucky: He was the only one of their five      children who survived.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e It was an inauspicious beginning for a man who was destined to      build one of the world's great fortunes. \"Life was very rude and      very hard for us,\" he wrote in a biographical rŽsumŽ, \"and it's in      this atmosphere of effort and work that I was raised, under the      example of my hardworking parents.\" Before he went to school each      day, he would rise early to help prepare the pastries, an      apprenticeship that pointed to a future in the family business.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But the collapse of the Panama Canal Company in 1891 wiped out the      couple's savings and forced them to move to the cheaper suburb of      Levallois-Perret, where they bought another pastry shop. That      turned out to be a big break for Eugne: His parents supplied      bread to the nearby Collge Sainte-Croix de Neuilly, an elite      private school, which agreed to admit the boy as a student.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Eugne earned top grades in all his classes before moving on to      the LycŽe Condorcet in Paris, another elite school. There again,      he excelled in his studies. After taking his BaccalaurŽat      degree-roughly equivalent to two years of college-he entered the      Institute of Applied Chemistry, where, as he said with typical      immodesty, \"I succeeded brilliantly and finished first in my      class.\" Following his graduation in 1904, he took a position as a      laboratory assistant to Professor Victor Auger at the Sorbonne.      That seemed to map out a respectable but hardly lucrative career      as a university researcher.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But then something happened that would change his life. The owner      of a large barbershop visited Auger seeking help in developing a      synthetic hair dye. At the time hair dyes were not widely used by      Frenchwomen, largely because most of the lead-based concoctions      that existed were toxic and irritated the scalp. The products were      held in such ill repute that the Baroness de Staffe, a sort of      nineteenth-century French Miss Manners, wrote in 1893 that their      use \"damages the brain and the eyesight.\" Schueller agreed to      become the barber's technical adviser, working three hours each      evening for 50 francs a month-a modest sum equal to about $260      today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Even then the ambitious young man chafed at the idea of working      under someone elseÕs orders. He soon cut ties with the barber and      struck out on his own. Starting with a capital of 800      francs-roughly $4,000 in todayÕs money-he began experimenting with      hair dyes in a rented space near the Tuileries Gardens, a vast      park laid out in the mid-seventeenth century by the landscape      architect AndrŽ Le N™tre, who also created the matchless      perspectives surrounding the Ch‰teau de Versailles. A photo from      this period shows Schueller sitting next to some kind of      mechanical contraption, looking studious with an open book in his      hand, dressed stiffly in a black suit and bow tie, his dark wavy      hair swept back from his high forehead, and sporting a black      mustache. What doesnÕt show in the black-and-white photo is the      intensity of SchuellerÕs blue eyes, one of his most striking and      defining features.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e His first efforts were disappointing, and his attempts to sell his      products to hairdressers got nowhere. \"It was a very difficult      time,\" he wrote. \"I lived alone, cooked my own meals, and slept in      a little camp bed in my laboratory, and when I think back on these      days, I wonder how I got through it.\" But he persisted, continuing      his experiments, changing formulas, even trying the dyes out on      his own hair. \"Finally, I had the good fortune, which I think I      deserved, to obtain a product of excellent quality that allowed me      at last to launch my company.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In 1909, he founded the SociŽtŽ franaise de teintures      inoffensives pour cheveux-the French Company of Inoffensive Hair      Dyes-a mouthful that he soon changed to L'OrŽal. The new corporate      name was a homonym for the brand of Schueller's first product,      \"AurŽale,\" based on a popular hairstyle of the period and playing      on the word aurŽole, or halo. He could not know it then, but his      little business would in time become the world's largest cosmetics      firm and generate the enormous fortune that his yet-unborn      daughter would one day inherit.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Things moved quickly after that. The same year as he founded      L'OrŽal, Schueller married a young piano teacher named Louise      Madeleine Berthe Doncieux, better known as \"Betsy.\" The couple      moved to a larger apartment on the rue du Louvre, near the      celebrated museum, where Schueller also set up his laboratory, his      office, and his first store. An influx of capital from a new      partner and the hiring of a full-time salesman-a former      hairdresser for the Imperial Russian court-allowed Schueller to      expand his activities. He created a hair-dyeing school, recruited      representatives to market the product outside of Paris, launched a      promotional magazine, and commissioned a well-known artist, Raoul      Vion, to create his first poster: It depicted a blond woman whose      hair took the sweeping form of a comet, the first graphic image of      a brand whose reputation spread quickly around the country.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Schueller was an obsessive worker and a restless thinker. As if      running his company was not enough to occupy his mind, he was      forever probing new ideas about the organization of industry, the      economy, and politics. In his early days, he dabbled with      Socialist ideas under the influence of his friend Jacques Sadoul,      an ex-schoolmate from the Collge Saint-Croix and a future member      of the French Communist Party. Around 1910, he became a Freemason,      briefly immersing himself in the secret cult of intellectual      humanism before leaving it three years later. (He would later      become a visceral opponent of Freemasonry-along with Jews and      republicanism.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Schueller's philosophical ruminations, like his business      activities, were rudely interrupted on August 1, 1914, by the      onset of the First World War. Like his Alsatian father before him,      Schueller was determined to fight for his country but, at the      mature age of thirty-three, he was assigned auxiliary status. He      volunteered for active duty in the army, but was only offered a      post as a chemist in an armaments factory. He continued to demand      a combat role and finally succeeded in joining the 31st Artillery      Regiment of Le Mans. Sent to the front as a liaison officer, he      distinguished himself at Verdun, l'Aisne, and other major battles.      Schueller's wartime service won him five citations for valor, the      LŽgion d'honneur, and the Croix de guerre, France's highest      military decoration. One citation described him as a \"peerless      liaison officer\" remarkable for his \"vigor,\" his \"boldness,\" and      his \"contempt for danger.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e During Schueller's four-year absence from the helm of L'OrŽal, his      wife, Betsy, had run the company so capably that he found his      business \"flourishing\" upon his return from the army in 1919. Her      performance could have led Schueller to give her a more active      role in the business. But he was a product of his times who      considered a woman's place to be in the home, not on the shop      floor or the corner office. (In France at that time, women were      legally treated as minors who had no vote and only limited      property rights.) So Betsy returned to her piano, her homemaking,      and, before long, her childrearing: On October 21, 1922, she gave      birth to the couple's only child, Liliane Henriette Charlotte      Schueller, future heiress to one of France's greatest fortunes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Meanwhile, the 1920s were roaring. In France, as in America, it      was the Jazz Age, and womenÕs styles were changing from the staid      prewar fashions: Hemlines were higher, dresses more clinging, and,      thanks largely to the influence of Coco Chanel, women started      wearing their hair shorter. That was good news for Eugne      Schueller: Shorter hair was easier to dye, and the emancipated      spirit of the times freed women to change their color, something      that in an earlier era was frowned on by respectable ladies. As      the stock markets rose feverishly around the world, LÕOrŽalÕs      business boomed. Its products were now exported to Italy, England,      Holland, even crossing the Atlantic to the United States and      Brazil. By 1921, the company had permanent offices in London and      New York, in addition to the Paris headquarters at 14 rue Royale,      near the Madeleine church.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Emboldened by the success of his core business, Schueller began      seeking opportunities in areas apart from L'OrŽal. Shortly after      his return from the war, a manufacturer of hair combs sought his      advice on a way to increase production of celluloid. Thanks to      what Schueller called his \"opportune invention\" to speed the      manufacturing process, the celluloid company increased production      tenfold and Schueller became a partner. After engineering a merger      with a plastics firm in 1925, he became the director of the new      SociŽtŽ industrielle des matires plastiques. Two years later,      following a falling-out with his partners, he negotiated his      departure in exchange for their shares in an American company, the      Valstar Corporation, a manufacturer of paint and varnish.      Schueller thus found himself the director and largest shareholder      of Valentine, Valstar's French subsidiary. Around the same time,      working with the Lumire brothers, the legendary cinema pioneers,      Schueller created a Lyon-based firm called Plavic Film, which      manufactured film for movie and still cameras.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Not all of Schueller's adventures succeeded as well as L'OrŽal.      Invited by the new Soviet government to set up a plastics factory      near Moscow, Schueller made several trips to Russia between 1926      and 1928, but the experience was a disaster: The promised factory      site was far from the capital, the workers' unions interfered with      production, and in 1932 the government took over the company. The      experience left Schueller, despite his earlier Socialist leanings,      with a profound distrust of unions and anything smacking of      Bolshevism.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In 1928 he agreed to take over a failing soap manufacturer called      Monsavon. But the French soap market was saturated with      competitors at the time and Schueller found it almost impossible      to sell his product. At one point, he was spending 300,000 francs      (worth about $1.5 million today) a month out of his own pocket and      even had to mortgage his properties to keep the company afloat.      Working with the fledgling Publicis advertising agency, created in      1926 by Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, Schueller launched a massive      publicity campaign, based on radio spots, posters, and newspaper      and magazine ads.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In a pitch aimed especially at the rural population, Schueller      added milk to the soap formula and circulated posters showing      mother cows washing their calves with Monsavon and mooing: \"There      is nothing better than milk.\" Another sales tactic was to persuade      the French that they were dirty and did not wash enough. Schueller      instructed his sales force to \"tell people that they're      disgusting, they don't smell good and they're not beautiful.\" The      image of the unwashed French multitudes apparently had some basis      in fact. In his 1869 travel book, Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain      complained that the people of Marseille, a soap-making center,      \"never . . . wash with their soap themselves.\" A report by the      Rockefeller Foundation, which sent a mission to France to fight a      tuberculosis epidemic after World War I, lamented \"the      indifference of public opinion on questions of hygiene.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The results of Schueller's campaign were impressive: By 1939      Monsavon was on the verge of becoming the biggest soap company in      France. Schueller was way ahead of his time in his use of      advertising, particularly radio ads, to sell his products. He      hired composers and singers to create catchy jingles, created      simulated conversations vaunting the merits of his products, and      staged spectacular events like hanging a 10,000-square-meter      canvas on the faade of a Parisian building, hawking L'OrŽal's      O'Cap hair lotion. Jingles for the company's Dop shampoo and Ambre      Solaire suntan lotion became classics in the promotional genre. In      1933, Schueller created a slick monthly magazine called Votre      BeautŽ, which he ran in his typical hands-on fashion, approving      the layouts, editing the articles, and even writing some of them      himself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Even as his affairs prospered, Eugne Schueller could hardly be      reassured by the turbulence that swept over Europe in the 1930s      against the backdrop of the Great Depression. In Germany, HitlerÕs      Nazi Party came to power in 1933, reorganized the economy along      authoritarian lines, and launched a massive remilitarization. In      Italy, Mussolini, in power since 1922, consolidated his Fascist      dictatorship and invaded Ethiopia. In the Soviet Union, a      totalitarian Communist regime pursued its ruthless program of      nationalization, collectivism, and central economic planning. In      Spain, Franco crushed the Republicans in a three-year civil war      and imposed his four-and-a-half-decade dictatorship. And in      France, the Third Republic, the parliamentary regime that had      followed the fall of Napoleon III in 1871, teetered on the verge      of collapse.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e President Paul Doumer was assassinated by a pro-Fascist Russian in      1932. Two years later, on February 6, 1934, violent clashes      between police and far-right rioters on the Place de la Concorde      left some 30 dead and 2,000 wounded. In a country rocked by      strikes, militant syndicalism, unemployment, and political      instability-the revolving-door governments of the Third Republic      lasted an average of six months-the leftist Front populaire under      Socialist LŽon Blum won a parliamentary majority in 1936 and      proceeded to carry out a number of sweeping reforms. Among them:      the five-day workweek, graduated wage hikes, nationalization of      the railroads and the Banque de France, and the introduction of      two-week paid vacations for all workers.","brand":"Dutton","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303429361893,"sku":"NP9781101984499","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781101984499.jpg?v=1767738347","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-bettencourt-affair-isbn-9781101984499","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}