Thirty years ago, maverick punk conceptualist Malcolm McLaren released his 1994 album Paris. McLaren’s former lover, artistic collaborator and co-producer Eugenia Melian has reflected in a juicy recent blog post about the record’s tortured genesis. Paris was meant to feature collaborations with iconic Parisian women like Jeanne Moreau, Juliette Greco, Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Hardy. Melian has wild anecdotes about how difficult and volatile these divas were, and it’s miraculous Paris came out at all! Most challenging was Moreau: “When we sat down with Jeanne Moreau in her living room it was me who was star-struck, even though I had already exchanged a few phone calls with her directly. Sitting on the sofa in front of me was the legend, the spunky odd beauty with the raspy smoky voice whom Orson Welles had called the "best actress in the world.” Jeanne and Malcolm chatted amicably, her English was impeccable. Malcolm was writing a song called “Paris Paris” for her. Then she asked us who else was on the album. When she heard that we had approached Greco, “Oh, that lesbian?” Jeanne said, but when Malcolm told her that we were also approaching Françoise Hardy and Catherine Deneuve, her face became stony and hard. She lit another cigarette and blew the smoke out slowly saying: “It’s either ME, or them,” and the meeting ended there. Jeanne practically pushed us to her door … au revoir. Mortified, her agent Tony Krantz who I had become friends with, invented an excuse that Jeanne was not available, and her agenda was full. Much later, in November when we had nearly finished the recordings, I tried again, pitching to her Malcolm’s idea of me conducting a 15-minute interview with her in French, that we could use in the album. Jeanne replied “NON, too busy.” Only later did we find out that she was in rehab … In January 1994 Tony Krantz contacted me to say that Jeanne was now free and really wanted to be on the album. It was too late. The team was already back in London working on the mixes. What a shame.” Read full post here. Portrait of Moreau by Helmut Newton.