Depardieu 'Stone-Cold Sober' When He Peed On Dublin Flight

French actor Gerard Depardieu has apologized for a humiliating incident on board a Dublin-bound plane at a Paris airport last week, in which he urinated on the floor of the aircraft.

The movie star shocked fellow passengers by pissing into an overflowing bottle as the plane taxied to the runway.

The flight was delayed for two hours as Cityjet staff cleaned up the airplane, and Depardieu was kicked off the plane and told to get another flight.

The incident came to light when a female passenger rang French radio to express her shock and disgust.

She claimed that Depardieu appeared drunk, and that as the plane made its way to the runway he asked to use the lavatory.

The air hostess asked him to stay in his seat, pointing out that everyone was safely secured, and the toilets were locked.

But Depardieu said he could not wait for fifteen minutes until the flight was in the air.

"Je veux pisser! Je veux pisser," he shouted, which means "I need to pee! I need to pee!"

Fellow French actor, Eduoard Baer, was with Mr Depardieu on the flight, and he passed him an empty Evian water bottle.

"He couldn't wait, so I found this solution," Baer told Europe 1 radio. "I had a little Evian bottle with me, only it was too small so it overflowed He wanted to clear it up, but the hostess wouldn't let him.

"It was naturally very embarrassing and humiliating for him."

Mr Baer insisted the incident was down to health problems.

"No one is flattered to have a dodgy prostate and be obliged to urinate. But the [hostess] panicked and said the plane must stay on the tarmac."

Mr Baer insists that Depardieu was "stone cold sober" at the time.

Cityjet confirmed the incident by joking about it on their Twitter page.

"As you may have seen on the news, we are busy mopping the floor of one of our planes this morning..." they said, before adding, "We'd also like to remind all passengers that our planes are fully equipped with toilet facilities..."

Depardieu is one of France's best known and most-respected actors appearing in more than 150 movies.

He won a Cesar, the French equivalent of an Oscar, for his performance in 1990's Cyrano de Bergerac, a role for which he also received an Academy Award nomination.

His best known English speaking role was in the movie "Green Card".

He was flying to Ireland to film his latest movie Asterix and Obelix: God Save Britannia.

Filming began on the €50m film on Tuesday last, and is due to continue for four weeks.

More than 300 cast and crew are involved in the production at several locations including the Burren, Co. Clare, Listoke Gardens in Co. Lough and in Wicklow.

Depardieu made it to Ireland on a later flight that evening, but the embarrassing incident has been making headlines around the world ever since.