France TV breast kiss puts sex harassment under spotlight

While Donald Trump has bragged in private about making unwanted sexual advances on women, a French commentator has gone a step further by kissing a woman on the breast on live TV.

Jean-Michel Maire found his requests for a kiss rebuffed by a young woman during a re-enactment of the Kim Kardashian robbery in Paris, so he went for her chest instead, BBC reports.

It is the latest in a series of scandals in France that together are prompting a backlash against "seduction a la francaise" - a traditional tolerance for male sexual opportunism, particularly by those in positions of power.

More than 250 outraged viewers - including women's rights minister Laurence Rossignol - complained to the media regulator and others called for Mr Maire to be prosecuted.

Mr Maire said he had watched the episode again backstage and "laughed about it", Marianne reported. He later tweeted a semi-serious apology. The show's host, Cyril Hanouna, said he did not think it was "that serious".

The woman, a 21-year-old dancer called Soraya, told L'Express magazine she had been shocked by Mr Maire's act - "I'm a human being, not just an object," she said.