Incredible but true! On November 14, 2024, his 71st birthday, Patrick Sébastien celebrates his 50th career. It was in fact on November 14, 1974, when he was only 21 years old, that he set foot on a stage for the first time. Such an anniversary is worth celebrating and the ex-host, fired from France 2 in 2019, is celebrating it with the publication of a new book, The Carnival of the Ambitious which is released on October 31, 2024 by XO editions. In this work, he paints unfiltered portraits of personalities he has encountered over a half-century career. He notably evokes the beginnings of Albert Dupontel, Jean Dujardin and Céline Dion, as well as his first meeting with Jeff Panacloc, artists whom he helped and who have today become essential.
“I am best placed to analyze their ambition“: Patrick Sébastien recounts the beginnings of Albert Dupontel, Jean Dujardin and Jeff Panacloc
Interviewed exclusively by Tele-LeisurePatrick Sébastien explains: “I am in the best position to analyze their ambition, since I knew them when they were nothing and watched them grow.“In addition to the actors, singers and comedians he helped in their beginnings, the host also paints a portrait of the five Presidents of the Republic he met, from François Mitterrand to Emmanuel Macron – “It is still the supreme ambition to become President of the Republic“, he justifies – but also of personalities that he himself describes as sulphurous. From Silvio Berlusconi to Bernard Tapie, via Dieudonné, Michel Sardou or Serge Gainsbourg, Patrick Sébastien recounts his memories with each of them them. “Please note, I am not exonerating them of anything, I am simply giving an opinion on these characters that I also know, but without asserting anythinghe explains to us. I'm not defending them, I'm trying to be honest. In the book, I say: 'When you cover people in mud, you no longer see their true faces.' My thing is to try to show the guy's true face, then everyone can make up their own mind.“
Patrick Sébastien denounces the brutality of the world of TV
Willingly politically incorrect – and he accepts it – Patrick Sébastien also returns in his book to the brutal ousting of Jacques Martin from television, writing: “The public service leaders did not fire him. They killed him”. Asked about this subject by Tele-Leisurethe ex-presenter confirms: “I wrote it because the very evening of the announcement, he had a stroke because of it and died some time later. The word may be strong, but it is a reality. They didn't stab him or shoot him, but the decision they made killed him, indeed. So it's manslaughter, they didn't do it to kill him, but the fact is that it had that consequence.“And Patrick Sébastien goes further, explaining that Jacques Martin is not the only one to have suffered from the brutality that sometimes occurs in the world of TV.”He's not the only one that TV killed! There are presenters who have committed suicide, there are people who have fallen from very high places“, he asserts. And Patrick Sébastien concludes: “Look at the state Loana is in today!“
