An erotic French novel will be published in English in the coming weeks after a failed legal attempt by actress Scarlett Johansson to stop it being translated. The First thing You See is, according to writer Grégoire Delacourt, a “declaration of love” to the Lost in Translation star, but the actress has waged war on the novel since its release in France last year.
The novel revolves around a mechanic in a small village, who is loosely based on the actor Ryan Gosling. His days of oil changes and full services come to standstill when the actress Scarlett Johansson turns up at his home, and the pair begin a steamy romance. But it is later revealed that the woman is not actually the actress, rather an imposter who bears an uncanny resemblance to her.
Following its debut in France in 2013, Johansson (30) took legal action against the book, claiming it violated her rights to privacy and was a “fraudulent and illicit use of her name, fame, and image” for commercial gain.
The English-language cover of the novel [W&N]
Her legal team claimed Delacourt’s novel, La première chose qu'on regarde, made defamatory suggestions about the actress’ personal life, due to passages that describe two affairs the imposter carried out, and that the novel alludes to Johansson being a sex object. A the time, Johansson was seeking damages of €50,000 and an injunction to ban its adaptation for the cinema screen or for English-speaking readers.
Despite the French publishers' response that the novel was not about the actress, but a double, the courts sided with the Hollywood star, awarding her damages of €2,500, as well as a further €2,500 in legal costs. But the injunction request was denied by the court, meaning the go ahead was given to translate the novel into other languages, provided the four lines about the character's infidelity are cut from the text.
Publisher Weidenfeld & Nicholson is releasing the English version in both hardback and ebook formats on September 10th. The publishers are billing the novel as “a tender love story about two fragile souls trying to love each other.”
