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"Music has always been present in me and around me. I love music, listen to music everyday, can’t live without it," says Lulu Gainsbourg. As the son of legendary French musician Serge Gainsbourg, it's only natural that he'd have a knack for music in his blood. And with From Gainsbourg to Lulu, his debut album, Lulu reimagines the work of his father, accompanied by his talented pool of friends—from Johnny Depp and Scarlett Johansson to Rufus Wainwright and Iggy Pop. "My dad bought me a piano when I was three or four. He used to play me a Disney songs," says Lulu. "The day he passed away, I spent all afternoon on piano then asked my mom to come down and played all the melodies he was playing to me, by ear. Within the next few days, I was having piano lessons." And ever since, Lulu has been exploring his musical affinities, ready to celebrate his father but show his talents as a musiciain himself.

To find his Brigitte Bardot, Joann Sfar, director of Serge Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life, knew he needed a woman who not only looked the part, but was also able to radiate the same effervescent energy possessed by one of cinema’s most alluring icons. If there was any modern-day actor capable of portraying such a ravishing—and quintessentially French—woman, it was 33-year-old model-turned-actor Laetitia Casta.

1960s film icon and tireless (obsessive?) animal rights defender Brigitte Bardot has a new cause: France has declared bullfighting a part of the country's cultural heritage. It's a pretty vague distinction, and it seems as though this isn't even a really official thing (i.e., it's not on any UNESCO lists yet or anything). But that's not stopped Bardot from sending a scathing letter to "the minister of unculture" (obviously the culture minister) Frédéric Mitterrand, saying that "French culture is a culture of enlightenment and has nothing to do with bloody things like bullfighting."

Although there are several films I’m looking forward to seeing at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, nothing’s got me in a lather quite so much as the Serge Gainsbourg biopic, Gainsbourg: Je t’aime…Moi Non Plus. I’m a Gainsbourg fan, obviously, and have long been of the opinion that his life story fairly screams out for cinematic treatment. His childhood in Nazi-occupied Paris, his various amours (with, among others, Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin) and his non pareil recording career are the stuff of legend, but I’m especially partial to some of the reckless, boozy shenanigans he pulled late in his career. When he and Whitney Houston were guests on Michel Drucker’s Saturday evening talk show in 1986, he actually exclaimed to the host “I want to fuck her!” Candid, no?

Fourteen famous women speak out

Apparently still researching for her role in Godard's 1963 treasure, Contempt, aged French actress Brigitte Bardot has spoken out against Muslims—again—citing some jabberwocky about the causal link between faith and the destruction of France. In December of 2006, Bardot wrote now-French President Nicolas Sarkozy to say she was "tired of being led by the nose by this population that is destroying us, destroying our country by imposing its acts."