Gerard Depardieu Pees on a Plane (Not in the Bathroom) (UPDATE)

UPDATE, 8/19: Depardieu has apologized, via his flying companion, for peeing on the plane.

Fellow actor Edouard Baer was flying with Depardieu when the incident occurred. In a statement, Baer said that Depardieu has "prostate problems" and he had not been drinking at the time, the BBC reports.

The statement read: "Gerard was upset at this and offered to clean up the mess. He has prostate problems and it was very worrying and humiliating for him. He was also stone-cold sober at the time. This is not the way he usually behaves."

Depardieu was removed from the flight and caught a later plane to Dublin.

Previously, 8/17: The French actor Gerard Depardieu gave the passengers on a CityJet flight from Paris to Dublin quite the show on Tuesday when he reacted to the news he would not be allowed to use a bathroom until after take off by urinating on the plane's carpet in full view of the cabin.

The story broke when an eyewitness went on the French radio station Europe 1 and recounted Depardieu's urinary performance. The witness said that Depardieu begged a stewardess to let him in the bathroom, saying "Je veux pisser" repeatedly.

The stewardess asked the actor to wait fifteen minutes for the plane to reach its cruising altitude. Depardieu, who the witness claimed -- believably -- seemed drunk, declined to do so.

"There and then he did it on the floor..." the witness said. "No one said anything. It all happened with courtesy."

After Depardieu relieved himself, the plane returned to its gate, where a grounds crew reportedly spent two hours cleaning up the mess.

A CityJet spokesman confirmed to Agence France Press that the incident had taken place, but did not say whether Depardieu had been been removed from the plane.

Gerard Depardieu, who runs a vineyard when he isn't acting, has a reputation for drunken antics. In 2009, he literally beat up a car near his home -- smashing the windshield with his fist -- and in 1990 was convicted of drunk driving.

The actor's turn in the role of public urinator is just the latest instance of what seems to be a growing trend: peeing-on-a-plane stories. A drunk skier may have peed on a sleeping 11-year-old last week and, in June, a drunk Jetstar passenger relieved himself in the aisle of a Singapore-bound jet.

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