Brigitte Lahaie


Brigitte Vanmeerhaeghe, known as Brigitte Lahaie, is a French radio talk show host, mainstream film actress and former pornographic actress. She performed in erotic films from 1976 through 1980 and is a member of the XRCO Hall of Fame.

Early life and background

Brigitte Lucie Jeanine Vanmeerhaeghe was born in Tourcoing, France. She left home for Paris when 18 years old, where she started working as a shoe salesgirl. Soon, she was noticed for her physique and accepted a proposal to pose in the nude for erotic magazines.

Cinema

Porn

She started working in the adult film industry in 1976, one year after the legalization of hardcore pornography in France, as "Brigitte Lahaie" and various others stage names. In her first film she was a body double for some of another actress' scenes.
Lahaie eventually played in more than one hundred erotic films, most of them hardcore, directed by among many others, Claude Mulot, José Bénazéraf,,, and.
She chose to be listed as "Brigitte Lahaie" in most of them, her surname a transfer to French of her Flemish name "vanmeerhaeghe" which means "over the fence," since "la haie" is "the fence" in French.

Horror

While she was still working in the adult-movie industry, Jean Rollin, who had directed her in the porn film Vibrations Sensuelles in 1976, noticed Lahaie's "distinctly different personality," as he later recalled, and thought she had "incredible charisma." He offered her a role in his 1978 mainstream film, Les Raisins de la Mort, the first gore film produced in France, with Marie-Georges Pascal in the leading role. He then made her the protagonist of his next film, Fascination, in 1979.

Mainstream

Lahaie appeared in I as in Icarus, which starred Yves Montand, playing a stripper, in For a Cop's Hide, which starred Alain Delon, in the role of a nurse. She continued to also make softcore and Nazi exploitation movies as well as "video nasties" during this time. In 1987, she played a singer in Michel Denisot's television special "La Plus Belle Nuit du Cinéma", transmitted from the Zénith.
The same year, she recorded and released the single "Caresse tendresse".
According to a 2018 article in Sight & Sound about Jean Rollin, Lahaie plays in his La Nuit des Traquées the woman suffering from amnesia with "devastating effect," while she is credited with "lovely, open, untutored performances" for her work in Les Raisins and Fascination.
Lahaie acted in several other mainstream films, including Henry & June and Calvaire.

Books and radio

Throughout her career, Lahaie published several books, mostly autobiographical, as well as some novels. In the 2000s, she was often featured on the Les Grosses Têtes radio program, broadcast on RTL, while she was also, from 2001, the host of Lahaie, l'Amour et Vous on Radio Monte Carlo, a daily talk show from 14:00 to 16:00 that dealt mostly with love and sex. The show ended in 2016, with the station praising her work on the subject of sexuality as "unique" in terms of success and longevity.

Personal life

Lahaie has two sons, with only the first name, Patrick, of her partner being known. She lives in a country estate, near Paris.
She is a fan of equestrianism, an interest reportedly first inspired when she saw the film White Mane as a teenager. She commentated live on the equestrian events at the 2012 London Olympics for RMC.

Sexual violence and consent

In the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the subsequent Me Too movement, one hundred women in France signed, on 9 January 2018, a public declaration in which they denounced what they claimed was a return to "puritanism" that "actually serves the interests of the enemies of sexual freedom, the religious extremists, the worst reactionaries." Lahaie was a co-signatory of that declaration, along with other celebrities such as Catherine Deneuve, Ingrid Caven, and Catherine Millet. Lahaie went on a TV debate the same evening, where she stated that women could have an orgasm when being raped. A few months later, in May, Lahaie stated, in interviews and on television, that her comment was "taken out of context," that she "does not regret ", and that she never supported non-consensual sex or violence of any kind against women.

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRoleNotes
1970Frissons africainsCredited as Brigitte Deslages
English title: Africa Erotica
1977Jouir jusqu'au délireAnnie
1977Couples en chaleurThe saleswoman
1977Vibrations sexuellesThe psychiatrist
1977Suprêmes jouissancesDorisEnglish title: Exquisite Pleasure
1977Les plaisirs fousClaude
1977Chaleurs intimesAnneerUncredited
1977Sarabande porno
1977Parties finesBaroness SolangeCredited as B. Lahaye
English title: Education of the Baroness
1977EntrecuissesPatricia
1977Cathy, fille soumiseMélanie
1977C'est la fête à mon cul
1977Arrête, tu me déchires
1977La face cachée d'Hitler
1977Je suis une belle salopeMarianneEnglish title: Illusions within Girls
1978Rentre c'est bonThe cousin
1978Bordel SS
1978Inonde mon ventreLiseEnglish title: Night Fever
1978Caresses Infernales
1978Le bijou d'amourGordonna
1978La rabatteuseJocelyne
1978Touchez pas au ziziKaren
1978Je suis à prendreHélèneEnglish title: I'm Yours to Take
1978Les grandes jouisseusesMarianne
1978Étreintes
1978Bouches expertesClaudine
1978Cuisses infernalesJocelyne
1978Chaude et perverse Emilia
1978La mouillette
1978Blondes humides
1978Les raisins de la mortThe blond womanCredited as Brigitte Lahaye
English title: The Grapes of Death
1978Prends-moi de forceBrigitte
1978Tout pour jouirThe make-up girlEnglish title: The Window of Pleasure
1978Excès pornographiquesMarie-Christine
1978Ondées brûlantesBrigitte
1978Langues cochonnesEnglish title: Sex Roulette
1978Festival érotique
1978Viol, la grande peurVeterinary studentCredited as Brigitte Lahaye
1978La clinique des fantasmesMarilyn RichardsEnglish title: Rx for Sex
1978Porno roulette
1978Les chattesEnglish Title: Female Cats
1979La Vitrine du plaisir
1979Le chouchou de l'asileChief warden
1979Couple cherche esclave sexuelBarbaraEnglish title: Serviced with a Smile
1979New Generation
1979Une femme spécialeUncredited
1979Je brûle de partoutLorna
1979Estivantes pour homme seulMélanie
1979Anna cuisses entrouvertes
1979Parties chaudesHélène
1979Photos scandaleJuliette
1979Auto-stoppeuses en chaleurDenise, the girl who escapesCredited as Brigitte Lahaye
1979SoumissionMadam ClarisseCredited as Brigitte Lahaye
English title: The House of Fantasies
1979La grande mouilleA hunterEnglish title: Hot and Horny
1979Sechs Schwedinnen im PensionatGreta
1979Tremblements de chair
1979FascinationEva
1979Pénétrez-moi par le petit trouChristiane
1979Cette malicieuse MartineA client of uncleCredited as Brigitte Bordeaux
1979I comme IcareUrsula Hoffmann, stripperEnglish title: I as in Icarus
1979L'histoire des 3 petits cochons
1980Les petites garcesA swinger
1980Die Nichten der Frau OberstJuliaEnglish title: Come Play with Me 2
1980Pénétrations méditerranéennesBrigitte
1980Gefangene FrauenRita
1980Le retour des veuvesEnglish title: Take Me Down
1980Ta gueule, je t'aime!Ingrid
1980Le journal érotique d'une ThailandaiseClaudineCredited as Brigette Lahaye
English titles: Emanuele 3; Emmanuele 3
1980La Nuit des traquéesElysabethEnglish title: The Night of the Hunted
1980Maîtresse pour coupleBrigitte
1980Sechs Schwedinnen von der TankstelleGretaEnglish title: High Test Girls
1980Le coup du parapluieGirl in the poolUncredited
1980Les enfiléesThe woman on the rotating bed
1980Les petites écolièresThe school director
1980Le segrete esperienze di Luca e FannyCredited as Brigitte van Meerhaegue
1981Enquêtes
1981DivaThe girl who escapesCredited as Brigitte Simonin
1981Parties très spéciales
1981Deux gaminesUncredited role
1981Body-body à Bangkok
1981For a Cop's HideThe nurseCredited as Brigitte Simonin
1981Si ma gueule vous plaît...The stripperCredited as Brigitte Simonin
1981Les paumées du petit matinFemme couple bourgeoisEnglish titles: The Escapees; The Runaways
1982Te marre pas... c'est pour rire!SandraCredited as Brigitte Simonin
1982Nestor Burma, détective de chocYoung girl at the partyUncredited
English title: Nestor Burma, Shock Detective
1982Paul Raymond's EroticaBrigitte
1982N'oublie pas ton père au vestiaireMother of the bratCredited as Brigitte Simonin
1982Julchen und Jettchen,
die verliebten Apothekerstöchter
Jenny
1982Hot Action
1982Electric Blue 5FannyVideo
1983Baisers exotiquesElisabeth
1983Éducation anglaiseHenriette
1984La France interdite
1985Brigade des mœursCredited as Brigitte Simonin
1985Joy et JoanJoyAlternative title: "Joan and Joy"
1986L'exécutriceMartine
1986Suivez mon regardWoman forsakenEnglish title: Follow My Gaze
1986Le couteau sous la gorgeValérie Landis
1987On se calme et on boit
frais à Saint-Tropez
Alexandra
1987Le diable roseNaska / Lolita
1988FacelessNathalieWith Helmut Berger and Telly Savalas
1988Dark Mission: Flowers of EvilMauria
1990Henry & JuneHenry Miller's whoreWith Fred Ward, Uma Thurman, Maria de Medeiros, Richard E. Grant and Kevin Spacey
1995Electric Blue: Sex Model File #4Fanny
1997Les deux orphelines vampiresEnglish title: The Two Orphan Vampires
1998Cornets in Time
2002La fiancée de DraculaShe-wolfEnglish titles: Fiancée of Dracula; Dracula's Fiancée
2004CalvaireMiss VickyEnglish title: The Ordeal
With Laurent Lucas
2009Quelque chose à te direVoice
2013Le bonheurDr Alice

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
1981Antoine et JulieTelevision film
Credited as Brigitte Simonin
1982Les brigades vertesTelevision film
1983Au théâtre ce soirThe phone operatorEpisode: "Je leur laisserai un mot"
1983Le lavaboTelevision mini-series
1987Cinéma 16The prostituteEpisode: "Johnny Monroe"
1989Le triplé gagnantEpisode: "Le dernier rendez-vous du président"

Short films

YearTitleRole
1987Thérèse II La missionThérèse
1993Illusions fatales
1999Les fourches caudines
2000La dame pipi