This ^ is a photo of Olivier Martinez and Nahla Aubry in Maui yesterday, enjoying the last moments of their Hawaiian holiday. Olivier, Nahla and Halle Berry flew back to LA yesterday, and I’m including some of the photos of their departure from Hawaii at the end of the post. Apparently, upon their arrival at LAX after their relaxing holiday, Olivier turned violent and he attacked a paparazzo. Just FYI: after doing this job for years and spending a lot of time looking through paparazzi photos, I know that there are many paparazzi who simply hang out at LAX, waiting for flights to come in because they’ve gotten tips that certain celebrities will be arriving. I think the paparazzi have to stay in one area (the main entrance) to photograph celebrities. My point is that if you’re a celebrity and you’re arriving at LAX, you know for sure that you will be photographed. Even Meryl Streep gets pap’d at LAX. So, with that in mind, this is what happened:

It was a rough landing in Los Angeles for Olivier Martinez. Halle Berry’s fiancé got into a physical altercation with a paparazzo after arriving at Los Angeles International Airport Monday night from Hawaii with Berry and her daughter, Nahla, E! News has confirmed.

According to eyewitnesses, the trio were making their way out of the terminal when they were swarmed by photographers as they came down an escalator. During the ensuing mayhem, Martinez allegedly assaulted the shutterbug by kicking him in the leg and wrist.

Reportedly, the photographer later grabbed Martinez by the arm to ask to why the 47-year-old actor kicked him, a move that seemed to incense Martinez further. After the actor put Nahla in a waiting SUV, he purportedly stormed back to the photographer and kicked him again.

Berry, who had earlier told the barrage of paparazzi, “Get away, there’s a child,” then grabbed her fiancé and asked him to get in the vehicle.

Airport police and an ambulance subsequently arrived at the scene. E! News has reached out to LAX police for comment.

The incident is a double-take of sorts for Martinez: Last Thanksgiving, he got into fisticuffs with Berry’s estranged baby daddy, Gabriel Aubry, who claimed that Martinez threatened to kill him if Aubry didn’t consent to allowing Berry move to France with Nahla.

Aubry eventually secured a restraining order against Martinez, but not before the dustup left him with a gnarly black eye and a broken rib.

[From E! News]

One argument to make is that Olivier was simply defending his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s daughter from a swarm of paparazzi, that Nahla might have been frightened by the flashes and the men yelling her name, and that it’s gross to think of grown men swarming Halle and her daughter. That argument is totally legit, and it IS gross. There is another argument to make, though – that Olivier is violent, that he has a short fuse, that there were lots of other ways to handle this situation, that LAX is no stranger to high-profile celebrities and they could have easily gotten a security escort. Ugh.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

Ugh. TMZ has yet another pro-Halle story/anti-Gabriel story this morning, based on statements from unnamed LAPD sources. While I don’t doubt that TMZ has many solid sources within the LAPD and the City Attorney’s Office, and while I don’t doubt that money changes hands for much of this information, I still think TMZ is tweaking the information. Like, TMZ is saying that for sure (!!) Gabriel started the fight with Olivier, and while I might be able to believe that, that piece of information is fluffed up to make it sound like Gabriel has “ongoing anger issues” and that Halle and Olivier are super-innocent victims.

The verdict is in as far as cops are concerned … Gabriel Aubry was clearly the instigator of the Thanksgiving Day brawl at Halle Berry’s house

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ … detectives are now clear on what they believe happened — Gabriel committed two batteries on Olivier Martinez before Olivier lifted a finger to defend himself.

As TMZ first reported, as Gabriel deposited Nahla at Halle’s house Olivier walked out and said, “We have to talk.”

Based on interviewing the principles and witnesses, detectives have concluded Gabriel then pushed Olivier (battery #1) and swung at his face, making contact with his shoulder (battery #2).

Cops say at that point, Olivier responded in self defense with 3 quick punches to the face.

What’s more, law enforcement sources tell us they are “concerned” about what they believe are “Gabriel’s ongoing anger issues.”

As one law enforcement source put it, “It seems he’s still having a hard time getting over his break up with Halle.”

But here’s the good news for Gabriel — we’ve learned Halle and Olivier have both told detectives and prosecutors they do not want Gabriel charged with a crime because they do not believe it would be in Nahla’s best interests.

Law enforcement sources tell us the case will be set for an informal hearing at the city attorney’s office. The likely outcome is that Gabriel will agree to take anger management classes, although the hearing officer could decide to just drop the entire matter after hearing both sides.

[From TMZ]

There are several points I truly don’t understand. One, if this was REALLY what went down and the LAPD is super-concerned that Gabriel is a violent menace and that Olivier was merely defending himself, why did Halle’s lawyers negotiate with Gabriel and why did she end up giving in to Gabriel? And if Gabriel was so sure that HE was in the right and that he did nothing wrong, why didn’t he follow through and make sure his side got out in even greater detail? The truth is that all of the parties did something wrong, I think. And I’d also like to see someone (someone official) address the issue of Halle’s boxer-fiancé disrupting Nahla’s handoff. Isn’t it against the set-in-stone rules of “the handoff” for the mother’s lover to interject himself into the drama?

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, WENN and Pacific Coast News.

Halle Berry covers the November issue of In Style, on newsstands Friday. She looks amazing on the cover in a tight red cutout dress, but we wouldn’t expect anything else from her. You can say a lot of other things about Halle, but she usually looks incredible. An inside photo shows Halle in some ridiculous loose leather pants and fishnet gloves. I guess leather jodhpurs are in for that tiny subset of people with too much money and no sense of shame.

In her interview, Halle covers a lot of topics that the press is interested in: her custody battle and bid to move to France with Nahla, her fiance Oliver Martinez, her hair, and aging. (Not that she is actually aging.) I have to say that Halle talks a good game. She makes it sound like she wants to move to France for Nahla’s own good, and so that Nahla doesn’t inherit Halle’s own inflated sense of self. (Not that she actually said that.) It’s all about Nahla not feeling “special” because she’s followed by photographers, and about Nahla not growing up “around the tabloids.” It would have been more accurate to say she doesn’t want Nahla “to grow up around her father.” We have yet to how everything will turn out for Halle, Gabriel and most importantly, Nahla. That case is taking quite a while and I hope that means Halle will have to stay put. Here’s more:

On why she wants to move to France
“It’s the appeal of privacy and a greater sense of safety for Nahla. I don’t want her to grow up around the tabloids. Because we are followed all the time, she is starting to feel like she is somehow special, and of course she is, but I want her to understand that she’s special because of who she is, not because she was born into this celebrity blender.”

On her custody battle
“There is turbulence, bit this too shall pass.”

On her wedding plans:
“I do know it will be very small. I haven’t been to many weddings, but I went to one this weekend with 250 guests. I thought, Wow – so this is a wedding, huh? I’ve never had that, nor have I wanted that. I wasn’t even trying to catch the bouquet!”

On her fiance Olivier Martinez:
“When I first met Olivier, there wasn’t the initial ‘I’m in love!’ It was something that grew more gradually—and it feels more real because of that. [Marriage] is another one of those never-say-never things. I’m a hopeless romantic, and I won’t stop till I get it right!”

“He’s silly, a clown, and very much the life of the party, which is good for someone like me. Danny Downer … been there, done that. Now I like Louie Lightfoot!”

On aging in Hollywood:
“Throughout my career I have been talked out of things I wanted to do, and when I look back I think, I should have followed my instincts. I relied on others to guide me because I thought they knew better. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to trust myself. Don’t stress about your age or fight it. Appreciate the young women who look like you once did, but don’t strive to be like them. You’re moving into a new phase of your life—embrace it. That’s what I hope to do.”

On not being defined by her hairstyle:
“I think I am at my best when my hair is short. It’s easier to take care of and more of who I am. Women are conditioned to think we need long hair. I see that happening with my daughter. She is so in love with her hair right now. She says, ‘Look, Mommy—it’s so long!” As women, we think it defines us, and we learn that at a young age.”

[From InStyle via Celebrity-Gossip and People]

Now we know that Halle is planning a small wedding, and that she considers it “embracing aging” to get subtle work done at the dermatologist. I’m not saying she looks toxy or filled, she doesn’t, but she’s had some minor things done. I would too in her position, but I like to think I would be more honest about it. (Who knows though.) The main thing that bothered me about this interview was how Halle used her daughter as an example of women being “conditioned to think we need long hair.” I only have a little boy, I can’t speak for girls, but he was into boy stuff from a very small age, like cars, trucks and robots. It really seemed ingrained to me and not influenced by society, media, or family at all. He just wasn’t interested in girlie stuff and there was nothing that would have changed that. Of course we need more role models for girls that are not naive Disney princesses waiting for their savior prince, but a preference for long hair doesn’t mean that society is defining it for a child. She’s just a little kid. I went through a phase where I refused to wear anything but dresses. At least Halle doesn’t insist her daughter cut her hair.

Here are photos of Halle out with Olivier Martinez on 10-12, and alone on 10-16. Credit: FameFlynet. Instyle photos credit: Credit: Giampaolo Sgura for InStyle via The YBF

Ben Affleck has recorded a video in honor of Mother’s Day to raise awareness and funds for his charity, The Eastern Congo initiative. You can learn more about Ben’s work in the war torn region in our earlier coverage of his charity, along with on their website. In his video, he enthuses about his own mother, as well as about his wife, Jennifer Garner, whom he calls an “incredible, spectacular, world class mom.” It’s a really nice message along with a great way to promote his humanitarian work. Here’s more, thanks to People:

Well, that beats just another greeting card.

Instead of wishing his wife, Jennifer Garner, a happy Mother’s Day on a piece of paper, Ben Affleck took his message to his Facebook page. (And yes, there’s a shout-out to his mom, too.)

“I want to say Happy Mother’s Day to the moms in my life: my mom Chris and my amazing wife Jennifer, who is an incredible, spectacular, world-class mom,” he says in a video, which advocates for those raising children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, another display of his ardent activism for the African country.

Being a mother is “the hardest job that there is, every single day,” Affleck, 39, adds, also giving a nod to the women he met in the Congo. (He founded the Eastern Congo Initiative nonprofit in 2010.)

And that’s more than a 9-5 job for Garner: In February, the couple welcomed a son, Samuel, who joined big sisters Seraphina, 3, and Violet, 6.

[From People]

That’s really sweet! Did Ben seem a little buzzed/tipsy to anyone else? Maybe he was just so excited to deliver his message, but I would bet he had a couple of beers prior to recording this. Ben shaved off the beard he’s been sporting and he looks much, much better.

In other Mother’s Day video news, Sofia Vergara’s 20 year-old son, Manolo Gonzalez, also made her a video thanking her for raising him as a single mom. He included videos from his childhood which were super cute. Vergara has always been a bombshell in sexy, skimpy clothes. He also thanked her for throwing him awesome birthdays, complete with lots of custom cakes.

Did you guys have a good Mother’s Day with your moms and/or kids? I had the privilege of being with both my son and my mom and it was very special. I love them so much.

Here are photos of Ben, Jennifer and their two daughters, Violet and Seraphina out yesterday, 5-13. I would love to see their baby son! They’re also shown running into Halle Berry and Oliver Martinez, no sh*t, on Saturday in Santa Monica. How funny are these photos?

Photo credit: Fame Flynet

Here are some new photos of Halle Berry at the Jenesse Silver Rose gala last night in Beverly Hills. Halle has been a long-time supporter of the Jenesse Center, which provides support, housing, employment and medical care to victims of domestic violence. Halle began working with the center more than a decade ago, as part of her community service (for that hit-and-run in 1997), but after her community service ended, she stuck with the program and is currently one of their biggest advocates/champions/fundraisers. She’s usually the hostess or the big headliner at their annual gala too – it’s one of her rare red carpet appearances over the past few years. Last night, Halle wore this Dolce & Gabbana dress which is… okay. It looks good on her, and Halle’s body is still INSANE. But I kind of think that a charity gala might need a more conservative look? But that’s probably just me. Halle’s fiancé, Olivier Martinez, was also at the event, but she made him walk separately.

She once donned skin-tight leather to portray the role of Catwoman. And Halle Berry showed her fondness for felines hasn’t dwindled when she attended a charity event this evening. The actress, 45, picked a leopard print dress to walk the red carpet at the Jenesse Silver Rose gala, which was held at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

The frock clung to her curvaceous frame but remained elegant thanks to its knee length and long sleeves. However it also boasted a low cut and lace trimmed neckline which drew attention to Halle’s ample cleavage. Halle teamed the printed dress with simple black peep toe pumps and the only accessory she wore was her engagement ring.

Her fiancé Olivier Martinez was also on hand at the gala tonight, although the pair posed separately. Olivier, 46, sported a black and white buttoned up shirt tucked into smart black trousers. However he dressed the ensemble down with the help of a casual leather jacket.

Halle has long supported the domestic violence charity and was last year honoured for her work with the organisation.

Perhaps her reasoning for posing apart from her beau had something to do with the custody battle she is currently in the middle of with her ex, Gabriel Aubry. Halle is hoping to move herself and daughter Nahla, four, to Paris to live with Olivier.

According to recent reports by TMZ the star’s legal counsel hope to prove that Gabriel’s modelling schedule would mean he has plenty of free time to travel back and forth from the US to Europe to visit Nahla. It is claimed he works sporadically as a model and she thinks he can still maintain a meaningful relationship with his daughter even if it is a long-distance one.

[From The Mail]

At this point, I can barely keep up with all of the stuff that Halle has thrown at Gabriel Aubry. The last I heard, California’s child services had exhaustively investigated all of Halle’s claims that Gabriel was an unfit father, and the state of California basically found that Gabriel was not abusive in any way, and that he had every right to have joint custody of his daughter. Shortly after that, Halle decided that she just HAD to move to France. You know what the biggest surprise is? That Olivier Martinez has stuck through it all. I joke about Halle keeping him chained up in her basement, but really, I think Olivier just has a real high tolerance for drama. Plus, he’s probably a little bit afraid of what Halle will accuse him of if he ever tries to dump her.

She’s wearing her emerald engagement ring too…

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Halle on 3-29-12. “Look at my ring!” credit: FameFlynet, Inc.

As we know, Halle Berry is engaged to French actor Oliver Martinez, and she’s hell bent on moving to France. She’s petitioned the judge in her custody case to approve the move, and according to reports the judge has indicated that no ruling on that issue will be made for at least six to nine months. That’s not deterring Halle at all. She was seen in Paris in mid March checking out schools for Nahla. And according to In Touch, Halle and Oliver are so anxious to make it official they’re planning to marry this summer in a “simple ceremony” in the French countryside.

Halle Berry’s gift to fiance Oliver Martinez? “The wedding of his dreams – in his native France,” says an insider of the twice-divorced star. Guests at the “simple summer ceremony” will include Halle’s mom, Judith, and her daughter, Nahal, who’s “super-excited to choose her flower girl dress.”

[From In Touch, print edition, April 16, 2012]

If I didn’t know any background on this story I would say that sounds sweet. Given what we’ve heard, I hope it isn’t true. Halle may be engaged again, but she did tell Oprah in 2004 that, point blank she will “never marry again.” Then in 2007 she told Oprah that she wanted another baby with then-boyfriend and baby daddy Gabriel Aubry and added that with Gabriel “I feel more married, in a way, than I ever have in two marriages before. He really understands the spiritual connection is so much more important than the paper and the pomp and circumstance and the ceremony.” We all know how that turned out. Well something changed for Halle with this new guy and she may be eating her words. Or not. We’ll see.

Here’s a photo chronology of Halle’s leg brace/boot. She was wearing it on 3-14-12 while grocery shopping in L.A. She wasn’t wearing it in Paris on 3-19 and in these latest engagement ring photos, from 3-29 she’s still not wearing it. So I guess we can assume her broken foot is healed.

The last we heard about Halle Berry’s custody battle, her ex Gabriel Aubry was triumphant in court and maintained custody of their daughter. A temporary order requiring supervised visits for Aubry was lifted, after Halle’s earlier attempts to request a move to Paris were denied. (After which Halle fired her lawyer and replaced him with one that was both pushier and easier to influence.) Reports claim that the judge has stated that “absolutely no ruling [on Halle's request to relocate to Paris] will be made for at least 6-9 months, and that will be after the psychologists, Nahla’s court appointed lawyer and the custody evaluator submit their reports.” Despite repeated setbacks in her court battle to strip her ex of visitation rights and/or move out of the country, Halle hasn’t given up hope. She was photographed in Paris yesterday with her fiance, Oliver Martinez, visiting a school, presumably for Nahla. She knew there were paparazzi around her. Multiple agencies have these photos. She did this on purpose as a message to Gabriel. Here’s more, from TMZ, which has had so many stories from Halle’s camp that you can assume she called them up and told them what to run:

Halle Berry is banking on her custody judge giving her the green light to move to Paris with 4-year-old Nahla — because we got pics of her checking out preschools in Paris.

TMZ broke the story … Halle wants to move to France with her fiance Olivier Martinez and Nahla to escape the paparazzi that dogs her in the states. She also feels unsafe in the U.S. because of ongoing stalker issues and fears for Nahla’s safety.

Baby daddy Gabriel Aubry is fighting the move, claiming it’s bad for Nahla to sever meaningful contact with him.

The judge has yet to rule on the move.

[From TMZ]

TMZ “forgot” to add that the judge’s ruling may not happen until 2013, although Halle is probably counting on it by the time school starts this fall. I just hope that the judge in this custody case is clued in to some of these stories that are in the press. Halle is pushing this so hard that it’s going to snap back at her. She better be careful or that tell all that Gabriel keeps threatening just might happen.

Here’s Halle in Paris without her foot cast yesterday. She lost it just in time to ride on Oliver’s motorcycle, since she was sporting it in these other paparazzi photos taken in LA on 3-14. Photo credit: WENN.com and FameFlynet

I forget where we came down on the alleged Halle Berry-Olivier Martinez engagement. Us Weekly reported that Halle and Olivier were engaged back in January, and other outlets followed suit. Halle seemed to be flashing an engagement ring – an emerald – ever since the holidays. However, someone denied something, somewhere, and I think after the first flurry of reports, the speculation kind of died down. But now Olivier is resuscitating it! Olivier was in Miami to open a restaurant he invested in – Villa Azur – and he ended up confirming the engagement. Interesting. Very interesting.

As Us Weekly exclusively reported in January, Halle Berry got engaged to Olivier Martinez over the holidays, but neither star has talked about their happy news — until now.

At the opening of his restaurant Villa Azur in Miami Saturday, Martinez, 46, confirmed his engagement to Miami.com: “Yes, of course we’re engaged!”

Berry, 45, first met French actor Martinez while working on the film Dark Tide; they stepped out as a couple in the fall of 2010.

Martinez also addressed rumors surrounding Berry’s engagement ring. “There is a jeweler taking credit for doing the ring and it’s a lie!” he said. “They have nothing to do with this.”

The bauble was actually designed by Robert Mazlo, a jeweler from Martinez’s Saint-Germain-des-Pres neighborhood in Paris. According to the actor-turned-restaurateur, Mazlo is “a real artist” whose family has been designing jewelry for “kings and queens for many centuries.”

Berry, who has a 3-year-old daughter, Nahla, with ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry, has been married twice before. She wed former baseball player David Justice in 1993 and divorced four years later. She then married R&B singer Eric Benet in 2001, only to separate in 2003 and finalize their divorce in 2005. Martinez dated Kylie Minogue for several years before splitting in 2007.

A source previously told Us Berry “had given up on being married, but she trusts Olivier. He makes her feel safe. He’s a keeper!”

[From Us Weekly]

First, I’m surprised Olivier was allowed out of Halle’s dungeon. Second of all, I wonder if Halle is happy that Olivier just shilled their engagement to promote his restaurant. Third, I can’t believe Olivier is willingly tying himself to Halle. Yes, I know her body is incredible, and the sex is probably insane. But there are huge sirens going off for Olivier everywhere – you’d think he would have heeded the warnings by now.

Here are some photos of Olivier at the restaurant opening:

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

Is the sh-t about to hit the fan? According to TMZ Halle Berry has hired a real “bulldozer” lawyer who previously represented Mel Gibson and is known for getting his way in court. Rich people can easily switch lawyers when they’re not getting results fast enough, but TMZ says this means that Halle is about to dial it up in her custody battle with Gabriel Aubry. I’m also thinking that Halle’s last lawyer tried to get her to bring it down a notch and be more realistic and she told him to stuff it. Halle wants to move to France with her new boyfriend/maybe fiance, Oliver Martinez, and she’s going to make that happen at any cost, particularly to her daughter. I’m just waiting to see what kind of petulant response Gabriel gives Radar Online about this one. I’m not on Halle’s side by any means, I just think Gabriel has quickly stooped to her level. He still deserves a relationship with his daughter, though. Here’s TMZ’s report on this:

Halle Berry has dumped another man … but this one has been with her way longer than all the others — her longtime lawyer/confidante, Neal Hersh … TMZ has learned.

Here’s the lowdown. Our sources tell us Halle wants to go after her baby daddy Gabriel Aubry with nuclear weapons — metaphorically speaking — and she thinks Hersh is too much of a gentleman to wage that kind of legal war, even though he has guided Halle through 2 divorces, a custody war and various other legal skirmishes.

So we’ve learned Halle has hired Stephen Kolodny (above), who is legendary in L.A. legal circles for the level of legal warfare she so wants. You may recall Kolodny repped Mel Gibson in his epic battle with Oksana Grigorieva — and that got kinda nasty.

Kolodny has already gone to court with Halle. We’ve learned last Thursday the new duo went to dependency court to have more restrictions placed on Aubry. The dependency judge has already ordered that Gabriel can only have contact with Nahla in the presence of a monitor. On Thursday, we’re told the judge voiced additional concerns and ordered Gabriel to return the child to Halle earlier than the 6 PM deadline on days he has custody.

Kolodny will have his hands full trying to convince the family law judge that Halle should be able to move to France with the child because she’s concerned about paparazzi and safety.

[From TMZ]

Will Halle get her way? Will this go down as she’s expecting and will she get to both smear her daughter’s father in the press and limit his contact with her? Even if the custody case resolves exactly as she’s hoping, I doubt it will be a happily ever after for Halle. It rarely is. The novelty of France will wear off and so will the novelty of her latest relationship. Maybe I’m wrong, though, maybe she’s matured as a person. Although if that were the case she would be staying put in LA and working on establishing a friendly co-parenting relationship with her ex. Can it be that hard to get along for the sake of their daughter?

Halle is shown on 2/22 and 2/24 outside Nahla’s school. She’s shown with Oliver and Nahla on 2/26 and with Oliver alone on 2/28/12. Credit: LRR/FameFlynet Pictures

Last week, the trailer for Dark Tide finally came out – that’s the film where Halle Berry met and fell in love with Olivier Martinez. Since working on the film, Halle and Olivier have been loved up all over the place, finally settling down in LA… although Halle now wants to move to France, mostly because Halle is engaged in a full-blown custody war with her baby-daddy ex, Gabriel Aubry. Olivier has stayed very quiet during this whole thing – I don’t even remember one interview, one quote from him since he’s gotten with Halle. At first I thought Olivier was biding his time, waiting for Dark Tide to come out so that his showmance with Halle could draw to a close. But post-production on the film languished at a snail’s pace. It’s finally being released in March – first “on demand” and then it will have a brief theatrical release. So, here’s the trailer:

CB and I were having fun trying to figure out how bad this movie is. CB said something about it being “like Piranha 3D, only with sharks.” I just think it was some producer’s idea to get a lot of shots of Halle in a bikini, plus some nice underwater shots and shark pr0n. I imagine they sold the extra footage to the Discovery channel or something for Shark Week.

So, with Dark Tide about to come out, I can’t imagine that Halle and Olivier will be doing much in the way of promotion. But will it signal “the end” for their relationship? Halle doesn’t do breakups well. I think Olivier sees that now – she might be fun to date, but all hell breaks loose when the relationship is over. Halle is always the victim, and her ex is always some terrible, racist, misogynistic, abusive monster. Which makes this report in People Magazine a little bit interesting – Olivier is putting down some roots. In Miami!!! Oh noes. Is he moving to Miami?

Halle Berry’s beau Olivier Martinez has been spending so much time in Los Angeles with the Oscar winner that he hasn’t visited Miami for months. But that will change early next month, when the French actor opens a restaurant on South Beach.

“I love the interesting and international people I have met in Miami,” Martinez tells PEOPLE. “So when my friend Michael Martin said he found a space for a restaurant and lounge where we could bring in the best aspects from the South of France, I was excited and wanted to get involved.”

Together with restaurateur Jean-Phillippe Bernard, the partners are opening Villa Azur, featuring the seasonal ingredients and international flavors of Saint-Tropez, where Martinez and Martin have spent many late nights enjoying fine food and wine.

“Olivier and I love Miami and want to bring the glamour and allure of the South of France to this melting pot of a town,” Martin says.

The menu will be French and Italian-inspired and feature entrees such as penne pasta with vodka and caviar cream sauce, or a veal filet mignon stuffed with artichokes, tomatoes and cheese.

The bar and lounge boasts a library with art and design books, as well as couches for guests to sip champagne and share plates of oysters with caviar and Olivier’s special olive bread, which he enjoys in France.

Designed by Francois Frossard, the restaurant will be outfitted in antique woods and chandeliers with both contemporary and old pine furniture.

La Cave d’Azur, the intimate private dining room and wine cellar, will seas 12 VIPs and offer nearly 200 choices of hand picked wines.

Says Martin: “Olivier knows that we are doing something special together where people can get a touch of Saint-Tropez glamour in South Beach.”

[From People]

Of course, he’s probably just investing and lending his name to help out a friend’s restaurant. But it feels like Olivier is feeling a little bit confined in Halle’s dungeon, right? Oh, this is going to be epic when everything goes to hell.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.