Divorces are hardly news in the cinema world. But when Star Alain Delon and his svelte wife Nathalie came to a final parting last week on the grounds of "serious mutual insult," a great many people found the event worthy of special note as the latest and inevitable in stallment in one of those long-running scandals that Paris so cherishes. Last week Nathalie was in Rome making a new movie, and Alain was before the cameras in Paris. For months, however, both have been the cause of a cause celebre that has everything — sex, politics, murder and decadence.
The plot of the scandal is triangular, and the third party was handsome, mus cular Stevan ("the Bull") Markovic, a 31-year-old Serb who worked for Alain as a combination valet, bodyguard and friend. When Delon and Nathalie sallied forth to Parisian boites and discotheques, surrounded by their band of hangers-on, Markovic was always at their side. Wherever Alain went, in fact, Stevan was sure to go. He lived with them in their plush town house at 22 Avenue de Messine, traveled with them to their luxurious beach home at St.-Tropez. A skilled wrestler, he was equally quick with his fists; these talents were sometimes useful to Alain, who had picked up a wide underworld acquaintance of pals during his earlier days as a young street brawler, a rifleman in Indo-China and a merchant sailor. For Stevan, it was an amusing existence, but it came to an abrupt end last fall. In early October, a ragpicker found his sackcloth-swathed corpse in a garbage dump at Elancourt, near Versailles.
Almost immediately, the police investigations began to assume an importance far beyond that normally accorded to a simple killing. No fewer than seven inspectors were assigned to the case, a mark of genuine concern, and the Interior Minister was reported to be in regular contact with investigators. Soon some of the story began to get out. Markovic had proved exceptionally able at turning up pretty young girls for his friends; moreover, he produced photographic records of their activities from his private albums even when such mementos were not requested. Properly businesslike, he kept detailed records of the transactions—and there were rumors that those lists included the names of several Gaullist Deputies, the wife of a former Cabinet minister, high-ranking civil servants and wealthy industrialists.