It’s crazier than a box of frogs in the realm of Russophile French movie stars.
Long-ago screen sex kitten Brigitte Bardot threatened today to join fellow Gallic film star Gerard Depardieu in Russian exile because French President Francois Hollande has ignored her pleas to spare the lives of two sick elephants.
Bardot, 78, issued a press release saying that because the French “powers that be have the cowardice and impudence to kill the two elephants … I’ve decided to seek Russian nationality in order to flee this country, which is nothing but an animal cemetery.”
Bardot’s threat to bolt for Russia came a day after Russian president Vladimir Putin granted citizenship to Depardieu, who has been feuding publicly with France’s Socialist government over its plans to impose a 75 percent tax on incomes over $1.3 million.
The ailing elephants, named Baby and Nepal, both 42 years old, are retired from France’s Pinder Circus. Since 1999, they’ve lived quietly at a zoo in the city of Lyon.
Last month, Baby and Nepal were found to be suffering with tuberculosis, which can be transmitted from elephants to humans.
Local officials ordered them put down, saying they posed too great a threat to public health.
But the circus director backed a campaign to save their lives, and wants Baby and Nepal returned to his care.
An online petition linked off the Pinder Circus Web site demands that President Francois Hollande spare their lives. The petition has more than 78,000 names. Princess Stephanie and Princess Caroline of Monaco have also taken up the cause.
Bardot, a veteran animal rights campaigner, appealed to Hollande’s government for help. But she complained in her press release that her entreaties were treated by the Socialist leadership as “dead letters.”
Though Bardot’s feud with Hollande has nothing to do with taxes, she defended her fellow movie star Depardieu last month when Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called him “pathetic.”
Bardot said the Depardieu was the “victim of extremely unfair persecution” by government officials.
Some French people are having a good laugh over the screen performers’ sudden Russophilia.
France’s top Twitter hashtag today is #JeDemandeLaNationalitéRusse, which translates to “I demand Russian citizenship.”
“If France authorizes a tax on Nutella, I demand Russian citizenship,” one Tweeter wrote.
“I’m always stubbing my toe on the edges of the furniture. I demand Russian citizenship,” said another.
bsanderson@nypost.com