?Woodstock on the Seine?: TV tunes in, mayor turns up, but the stars drop out

If France's chattering classes are to be believed, the most important issue of the moment is not the presidential election campaign, but the sacking of the head of Canal Plus, one of the country's biggest pay-TV networks.

The founder of the channel, Pierre Lescure, was ousted on Tuesday by Jean-Marie Messier, head of the umbrella company Vivendi Universal. The sacking caused huge controversy, not only with employees of Canal Plus but also among French stars of stage, screen and the football field. Many of them, plus 10,000 supporters, were supposed to turn up for a "protest concert" yesterday in a Paris park, but in temperamental sunshine there was barely a tenth of that number by the time the music began.

Among the luminaries listed in Mr Lescure's support in Libération newspaper were Catherine Deneuve (who lived with him for several years), Isabelle Adjani, Gérard Depardieu and Juliette Binoche. Apart from its contribution to the French film industry, Canal Plus also shows a lot of football, and the names of Emmanuel Petit, Nicolas Anelka, Thierry Henry and the rest of the French national team were there as well. "We hope to get Messier to resign as head of the company. He'll never keep to his obligations, and French cinema can't survive without the funding from Canal Plus," said one protester yesterday.

However, Messrs Petit and Anelka were playing for Chelsea and Liverpool respectively yesterday, while Henry was on duty for Arsenal today. Anyone hoping to see someone famous at the concert, held near the Canal Plus building at the André Citroën park in Paris's 15th arrondissement, was likely to have a long wait. The organisers had dropped the names of Deneuve and Binoche, along with Noir Désir, currently one of France's most successful bands. But by halfway through, none of these big names had turned up.

Pierre Lescure was seen as the great defender of the French "cultural exception" which Mr Messier infamously pronounced dead, causing outrage among France's political and cultural elite. The Vivendi chief defended the sacking by pointing out that under Mr Lescure, viewing figures for Canal Plus had dropped 25 per cent in the past two years. When he took the stage yesterday afternoon, the ousted chief was defiant, saying: "Culture has nothing to do with economic outcome."

The Canal Plus band, chosen to open a show dedicated to this cultural singularity, seemed to miss the irony in playing only American songs; the group's performance saw some people leaving after only 20 minutes. The fate of the event was summed up by one young girl, who was heard asking: "Is that music?" To which her mother replied: "Almost."