French actress files complaint over Hollande liaison rumor



PARIS (Reuters) - A French actress has filed a complaint with the Paris prosecutor for breach of privacy over Internet rumors alleging she has a relationship with President Francois Hollande, the prosecutor's office said on Thursday.

A spokesperson for the prosecutor's office told Reuters that actress Julie Gayet had filed a complaint against "persons unknown", a common formulation under French law, on March 18 over rumors circulating on Twitter and blog sites for some weeks.

A lawyer for Gayet did not immediately respond to phone calls and Hollande's office declined to comment.

Hollande and first lady Valerie Trierweiler are unmarried but have been in a relationship for several years. They met when she was working as a journalist for a French magazine.

Their relationship came under media scrutiny during Hollande's campaign for the May presidential election and in the months afterwards as Trierweiler became an active tweeter and maintained a literary review column in Paris Match magazine.

Gayet, 40, has dozens of film credits to her name including a minor role in the 1993 Franco-Polish drama "Three Colors: Blue" and a leading role in "Select Hotel", for which she won two awards for her depiction of a young drug addict.

(Reporting by Chine Labe; Writing by Catherine Bremer; editing by Mark John and Michael Roddy)

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