Claudine Longet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section does not cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since August 2006.

Claudine Longet
Background information
Born	January 29, 1942
Origin	Paris, France
Genre(s)	Pop music
Years active	1960s - 1970s
Label(s)	Barnaby, A&M

Claudine Georgette Longet (born January 29, 1942 in Paris), was a popular singer and recording artist in the 1960s and 1970s. She was best known as the ex-wife of singer Andy Williams and later for being convicted for killing skiing star Spider Sabich.

She met Williams while he pulled over to aid her on a Las Vegas road. She was a dancer at the time at the Folies Bergere. They married on Christmas Day 1961 and had three children, Noëlle, Christian and Robert. In 1968, she appeared in The Party with Peter Sellers and sang "Nothing to Lose" by Henry Mancini. Longet recorded a series of five albums for A&M Records between 1966 and 1970 and two albums for Williams's Barnaby label in 1971 and 1972. She also made frequent acting appearances in television series and appeared from time to time on Williams' variety series and specials. Williams called Longet a beautiful, sleek brunette with large doe eyes, "my favorite French singer". She and Williams separated in 1969 but did not divorce until 6 years later.

One song, "Wanderlove" (music and lyrics by Mason Williams), went to #7 on the charts in Singapore and still occasionally gets airplay on Asian radio.

Longet was arrested and charged with the March 21, 1976 shooting death of her lover, Olympic skier Vladimir "Spider" Sabich at his Aspen, Colorado home after he had showered and was preparing to dress. Sabich was a very handsome athlete with no lack of female companionship when he met Longet. As their relationship progressed, Longet and her three children moved in with Sabich, radically altering his bachelor life. There were widespread rumors of discord between the couple before the shooting. Spider had told friends he wanted Claudine out of his house but had taken no real action to evict her because he adored her children. At the sensational trial, Longet claimed the gun discharged accidentally as Sabich was showing her how it worked. Despite the fact that the autopsy found that Sabich was bent over with his back turned to her and Claudine was no closer than 6 feet from him, she stuck to her story that it was a tragic accident. Williams very publicly supported Claudine throughout the trial, even escorting her to and from the courthouse.

The Aspen police made two enormous blunders which turned the tide for Longet. They took a blood sample from her and confiscated her diary without warrants. Longet's blood contained cocaine and her diary showed that her relationship with Sabich had turned bitter. Since the evidence was not obtained legally the prosecution couldn't use it. The gun was also mishandled by non-weapons experts. It was given to a policeman, who wrapped it in a towel and put it in the glove compartment of his unit; for 3 days it was unaccounted for.

Put on the stand, Longet reiterated her innocence and pleaded for mercy because her three young children needed her. The jury acquitted her of felony manslaughter but convicted her of criminal negligence, a misdemeanor and sentenced her to pay a small fine and spend 30 days in jail. As a generous gesture, Judge Lohr allowed Longet to choose the days she served, believing that this arrangement would allow her to spend the most time with her children. Longet chose to work off most of her sentence on weekends. Once the trial was over, she took off for a vacation with her defense attorney Ron Austin. Austin left his wife and children to do so. Longet and Austin later married and remain together residing in Aspen.

Longet has never performed again. After the criminal trial, the Sabich family initiated civil proceedings to sue Longet. The case was eventually settled out of court for a large monetary settlement, with the proviso that Longet never tell or write about her story. They also demanded that Claudine withdraw from public circulation her recording of "Bang Bang, My Baby Shot Me Down."

[edit] Trivia

The incident of criminal negligence in the death of Sabich was the subject of a song written by Mick Jagger which was ultimately cut from the album Emotional Rescue (1980), although copies have surfaced due to piracy over the years. The song, titled simply "Claudine", contains the lyrics "Claudine's back in jail again/She only does it at weekends/Claudine Oh, Claudine/Now only Spider knows for sure/But he ain't talkin' about it any more/Is he, Claudine?/There's blood in the chalet/And blood in the snow/Washed her hands of the whole damn show/The best thing you could do, Claudine/Shot him once right through the head/Shot him twice right through the chest/The judge says it was an accident, Claudine/Accidents will happen (In the best homes)/What about the children, baby?/Poor, poor children/Now I threaten my wife with a gun/I always leave the safety on/I recommend it/Claudine/Now she pistol whipped me once or twice/But she never tried to take my life(What do you think about that)/Claudine/The prettiest girl I ever seen/I saw you on the movie screen/Hope you don't try to make a sacrifice of me/Claudine (Don't get trigger happy with me)/Don't wave a gun at me (Claudine)"

Season 1 Episode 18 of Saturday Night Live featured a skit titled "The Claudine Longet Invitational," which parodied the shooting incident.^[1]

A Season 1 episode of "Gilmore Girls" features Rory's friend, Lane, having bought an eclectic range of CDs. Rory responds, "I *must* listen to anyone named Claudine Longet." They play the CD, and Lorelai, on discovering who they're listening to, says "the chick who shot the skier?...Wow, renaissance woman."