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NewsDay
25 Oct 06
Cousteau's Widow Opposes Condo Project
By Associated Press
HILO, Hawaii -- The widow of legendary oceanographer Jacques Cousteau
has spoken out against a 1,500-unit condominium development on the Big
Island that her stepson, Jean-Michael Cousteau, is helping build as a
consultant.
The 434-acre project, Sea Mountain at Punaluu, would be the biggest single
development ever undertaken on the east side of the island. It will mostly
consist of condominiums but will also include a hotel and a resort.
Francine Cousteau, Jacques Cousteau's second wife and president of a group
called the Cousteau Society, said she opposes the venture. "It has been
brought to our attention that many are under the impression that Jean-Michel
Cousteau has the support of The Cousteau Society in his endeavors," Francine
Cousteau said in a statement. "We are extremely concerned about the potential
environmental implications of the Sea Mountain resort."
The project has drawn vehement opposition from environmental groups who
say it will harm threatened and endangered species like the hawksbill
turtle. They also say it would ruin the cultural and aesthetic qualities
of the area.
Jean-Michel Cousteau has vowed to make the project environmentally and
culturally sensitive. His nonprofit organization, the Ocean Futures Society,
has been involved in about a dozen similar projects in places such as
Fiji and the Cayman Islands.
The Ocean Futures Society has said it will hold educational programs and
build a cultural center as part of the development. Cousteau said his
society would take its name off the project if it is not done in an environmentally
conscious manner.
Jean-Michel Cousteau, 68, split from the Cousteau Society in 1992 while
his father was still alive. The younger Cousteau had been executive vice
president of the organization for 20 years.
The divergence of how to carry on the Cousteau legacy continued to widen
in 1996, when Jacques Cousteau successfully sued his son over the use
of the family name on the eco-resort in Fiji.
The lawsuit prohibited Jean-Michel from using the family name on the resort
without attaching his first name just as prominently.
Jacques Cousteau died the following year, but the feud continued.
More recently, the Ocean Futures Society and the Cousteau Society locked
horns over who owned the Calypso, Jacques Cousteau's ocean-exploration
vessel.
Jean-Michel Cousteau was in the Amazon jungle filming for his nature TV
show and could not be reached for comment.
Jim Miller, one of Jean-Michel Cousteau's colleagues at the Ocean Futures
Society, defended Cousteau's sincerity and devotion to the environment.
"Jean-Michel's positive work speaks for itself," Miller said. "I don't
think any informed person would question his credentials."
TMZ.com
20 Sep 06
Cousteau Family Clash Over Croc Hunter
by TMZ Staff
A very public clash of opinions has broken out between Jean-Michel Cousteau
and his nephew Philippe over the late naturalist Steve Irwin -- and it's
just the latest face-off in the continuing conflict amongst the scions
of the life aquatic's first family.
One source who knows the family tells TMZ that Jean-Michel's remarks yesterday,
when he slammed the beloved Irwin for his "very misleading" methods on
the same day of his public memorial service, may have been an attempt
on the part of Jean-Michel to steal PR thunder from his nephew and is
not out of character for Jean-Michel. (Philippe was Irwin's partner on
the fateful sea voyage that cost him his life.)
Other sources say that the seemingly insensitive remarks are the result
of "cultural differences" and that Jean-Michel may not have realized how
inflammatory his words might be.
Jean-Michel, who is the eldest son of sea-explorer legend Jacques Cousteau,
told reporters that he thought Irwin, in his "Crocodile Hunter" shows
and beyond, would "interfere with nature, jump on animals, grab them...It
appeals to a lot of people, but I think it's very misleading. You don't
touch nature, you just look at it. And that's why I'm still alive." (Jean-Michel
also said that he found the death "unfortunate" and said he had "a lot
of respect" for Irwin.)
But not a fortnight ago, Philippe paid sincere homage to his producing
partner and friend on "Larry King Live," saying he was amazed at "how
dedicated Steve was and how much he really loved being out there...and
also how much the people around him cared for him."
Reps for Jean-Michel, Philippe, the Irwin family, and Discovery Channel
did not comment on the spat, but this latest disagreement certainly isn't
the first time various factions in the Cousteau family have sparred.
In 2001, Francine Cousteau, Jacques' second (and much younger) wife, took
legal action to block Philippe, his sister Alexandra, and his mother Jan
from using the name Cousteau Foundation, which was named after Philippe's
father, also named Philippe, because it might confuse people who thought
it was the Cousteau Society, which she administered.
(The elder Philippe died in a seaplane crash in 1979.) Philippe's relationship
with his grandfather wasn't exactly the stuff of Hallmark cards, either.
He told a scuba diving publication in 2003 that he saw Jacques, who died
in 1997, only a few times a year, and added, "Unfortunately, he was not
really a father figure to me."
Jean-Michel, for his part, battled with his own father over a resort in
Fiji that bore the Cousteau name; Jacques spent his later years trying
to prevent his son from exploiting the Cousteau name for tourist profit.
CDNN
4 Mar 03
The Cousteau Wars
by CHARLES FLOWERS
MIAMI, Florida (4 Mar 2003) -- Curious, the tracks left by a person of
substance: a body of work, memories etched in the minds of those who knew
him. Perhaps a family. Or two.
So it is with Jacques Cousteau, the irrepressible ''manfish'' who fought
to save the planet, but left his personal affairs in such a mess they
were still being sorted out last week in a Miami courtroom almost six
years after his death.
Two families -- his first wife's grandchildren, and his second wife who
was his longtime mistress, claimed rights to the fabled Cousteau name.
The first family is that of Philippe Cousteau, the younger of Jacques'
two sons by his first marriage. Philippe's 1979 death by plane crash left
a widow, Jan, a daughter and an unborn son. This son, also named Philippe,
is now 23. His sister Alexandra is 26.
They are water babies of the first order. Jacques taught Alexandra scuba
diving at age 7. Her father started her swim lessons at 10 months. They
share their grandparents' and father's love of the sea, along with the
passionate need to protect the ''water planet'' Jacques first named long
ago.
The challenge facing Philippe and Alexandra, who with their mother, have
formed the Philippe Cousteau Foundation at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic
Institution in Vero Beach: How to be Cousteaus without overly claiming
to be.
Under the terms of what lawyers called a ''delicate compromise'' reached
last week, they can use the name -- just not too much. Neither side can
discuss the terms of the compromise. The fractures of the Cousteau family
are apparent in its nonprofit organizations. The oldest: The Cousteau
Society, formed in 1973. At its peak in 1990, the Society had more than
250,000 members in the United States. Annual donations of $8 million supported
expeditions and research projects. Now this group, shrunken to half its
former size, and most of the Cousteau fortune, is in the hands of Jacques'
widow, Francine, a former airline stewardess. She was scandalously young
-- more than three decades younger than Jacques -- when the Captain began
his long affair with her before Simone, his first wife and grandmother
to Philippe and Alexandra, died in 1990. Although never visible in the
Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau series, Simone played a key role in
the operation at sea, Jan says, acting as ''mother, healer, nurse and
psychiatrist'' to the all-male crew. For 40 years, her nickname was La
Bergre, the shepherdess. After Simone's death, Jacques, then 80, was free
to marry Francine, who already had given birth to two of Jacques' children.
This new family eventually inherited most of the Cousteau estate -- hundreds
of films, images, control over the Cousteau Society and even the fabled
ship Calypso. Before his death in June 1997, Jacques Cousteau logged more
miles on the Calypso and other ships than can be counted. His last mission,
a voyage around the world, was not just a re-discovery. It was a way of
life. ''He was a . . . fantastic showman,'' says Jan Cousteau. ''Cecil
B. DeMille had nothing on Jeek'' -- the nickname used by family and friends.
Alexandra recalls him as ''magical, tender, funny and so brilliant that
he was able to make even the dullest topics come to life.'' Philippe found
his French grandfather more distant. The two visited only a few times
a year. ''Unfortunately, he was not really a father figure for me,'' Philippe
says. ``But we had some interesting talks. Once he told me he thought
that electricity would someday be used as a form of currency instead of
cash.'' A civil lawsuit filed two years ago by the Cousteau Society, which
Francine Cousteau now directs, sought to deny Jan, Philippe and Alexandra
''their basic right to family,'' according to their lawyer, Rich Robol
of Columbus, Ohio. Joel Hirschhorn, Francine's $600-an-hour Miami attorney,
countered that Jacques' final will and testament gave Francine control
over the Cousteau name, and that www.cousteaufoundation.org, the Philippe
Cousteau Foundation's website, confused people. LEGAL FEES Robol and Ned
McLeod said they represented Jan and her children pro bono. In the past
two years, Hirschhorn said, the Cousteau Society, which the late Philippe
Cousteau helped found, paid ''hundreds of thousands of dollars'' in legal
fees to defend Francine's exclusive use of the name, and to exclude Alexandra
from efforts to restore the Calypso, an effort she initiated.
A second family feud over the use of the Cousteau name reached the courts
years ago. Jacques' last years were marked by battles with his son Jean-Michel
over use of the Cousteau name for the resort Jean-Michel runs in Fiji.
The son settled, but remained bitter. ''Just because my stepmother bears
my father's name, she can't wave a magic wand and make herself a Cousteau,''
Jean-Michel told a Boston Globe reporter in 1998. After Francine took
over as president of the Cousteau Society in 1997, Jean-Michel parted
company. With the help of other Cousteau Society refugees, he formed his
own environmental organization, oceanfutures.com. Oceanfutures' biggest
project has been the $20 million translocation of a famous killer whale
named Keiko, also known as Willy -- as in Free Willy. Jean-Michel Cousteau
still lives in Fiji. Although the parties are friendly, his group is not
listed as an ally of the foundation named for his brother. Nor is the
Philippe Cousteau Foundation linked to his. FAMILY TRADITION For Philippe's
children, the joy of growing up Cousteau was shrouded in sorrow by an
accident that took their father's life. Alexandra traveled with her parents
on expeditions, joining her mother Jan as she worked with the support
crew for expeditions that Philippe led. In 1979, Philippe was testing
a repair on his seaplane when Jan received terrible news. ''It was two
days before they found the plane,'' Jan Cousteau recalls. After Philippe's
death, Jan kept his memory alive, asking her growing children, ``What
would Papa think about that? What would Papa do?'' In eighth grade, Philippe
wrote an essay on ethics that referenced his father. Today, the educational
video produced by the Philippe Cousteau Foundation, Journey Through the
Everglades, is carrying on that family tradition. The video has been seen
by 25,000 Florida high school students and distributed to more than 20
Florida school districts. Designed to be FCAT-compatible, it is also the
pilot for future feature projects involving the Cousteaus of Vero Beach.
''I think in many ways, Philippe was the spirit of a father who was there
every day,'' Jan says. ``And that was a very strong spirit. That is a
very strong spirit.' Jacques and even Philippe Cousteau were born into
a black-and-white world where underwater images of living whales had never
been seen. Now, breaching humpback whales are digitized into commercials
for insurance companies, and Blue Planet and IMAX movies show underwater
life with staggering intimacy. Jan is nonplussed. ''Philippe and Alexandra
are young,'' Jan says proudly. ''They're intelligent and creative. And
I have no doubt they'll move ahead in this field. ''Jeek was a hero to
a lot of people back in the 1970s. . . . Maybe Alexandra and Philippe
will be somebody's hero.''
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