Noël Godin

Noël Godin
Photo with Noël Godin (left) in Harelbeke, Belgium with his producer Francis De Smet and his director Jan Bucquoy.
Born	(1945-09-13) 13 September 1945 (age 71) Liège, Belgium
Occupation	writer, critic, actor, anarchist
Nationality	Belgian

Noël Godin (born 13 September 1945) is a Belgian writer, critic, actor and notorious pie thrower or entarteur. Godin gained global attention in 1998 when his group ambushed Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in Brussels, pelting the software magnate with pies. After bombarding Gates, Godin allegedly said, "My work is done here."

Godin claims his goal has long been to "entarter" as many people like Gates as possible - people he feels are particularly self-important and lacking a sense of humor. Godin told The New York Times he chooses "to function in the service of the capitalist status quo, without really using his intelligence or his imagination." He says his sworn enemies are "authority, depressing laws, the return of the moral order, nuclear power, any form of political power."

Since 1969, when Godin planted a pie on the face of the French novelist Marguerite Duras, he has pied dozens more, including choreographer Maurice Béjart, France's best-known television anchorman Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, French president Nicolas Sarkozy and film maker Jean-Luc Godard.

A regular target is French philosopher, socialite and writer Bernard-Henri Lévy. After one attack, in 1985, an enraged Levy was filmed standing over Godin snarling "Get up, or I'll kick your head in".

Godin, who uses the pseudonym "Georges Le Gloupier" has also inspired an unknown number of followers around the world, who now regularly provide him with details about the whereabouts of various important potential targets. It took 32 people to conduct the Bill Gates operation. His followers take care to look as ridiculous as possible as they throw their tarts, smiling broadly, spouting anti-pretentious poetry and repeating "gloup, gloup, gloup."