Wiktionary
n. An issue or incident (originally, a legal case) arousing widespread controversy or public debate.
WordNet
n. any incident that attracts great public attention
Wikipedia
A (; , famous case (plural ), is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning, and heated public debate. The term is particularly used in connection with celebrated legal cases.
The term is a French phrase in common usage in English. In French, cause means, here, a legal case, and célèbre means "famous". The phrase originated with the 37-volume Nouvelles Causes Célèbres, published in 1763, which was a collection of reports of well-known French court decisions from the 17th and 18th centuries. While English speakers had used the phrase for many years, it came into much more common usage after the 1894 conviction of Alfred Dreyfus for espionage, which attracted worldwide interest. Often, politicians and social gadflies will become involved to use the media attention surrounding the case to promote their own agendas.
It has been noted that the public attention given to a particular case or event can obscure the facts rather than clarify them. As one observer states, "The true story of many a cause célèbre is never made manifest in the evidence given or in the advocates' orations, but might be recovered from these old papers when the dust of ages has rendered them immune from scandal".
Notable examples of cases and events described by this term include:
- Ireland Shakespeare forgeries
- Mortara case
- Vera Zasulich trial
- R v Dudley and Stephens cannibalism case
- Dreyfus affair
- Beilis case
- Sacco and Vanzetti trial
- Scopes Trial
- Bombing of Dresden in World War II
- Petrov Affair, a Cold War spy incident in Australia
- Shooting of William Woodward, Jr.
- Wesley Cook shooting of Daniel Faulkner
- Rodney King incident
- O.J. Simpson murder case
- Amanda Knox trial
- Julian Assange case
- Pussy Riot trial
- 2012 Delhi gang rape
- Mike Duffy Senate Expense Scandal
Cause Célèbre or A Woman of Principle is a 1975 radio play by the English author Terence Rattigan. It was inspired by the trial of Alma Rattenbury and her teenage lover in 1935 for the murder of her third husband Francis Rattenbury and first broadcast on the BBC on 27 October 1975. Alma was played by Diana Dors. Rattigan was then commissioned to rewrite it into a stage play ready to be produced in Autumn 1976, but his terminal cancer and casting problems meant he was only able to start work in January 1977, alongside Robin Midgely. This stage version premiered on 4 July 1977 at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.
A 1987 television version of the stage play starred Helen Mirren as Alma. The stage play itself was revived at the Old Vic from March to June 2011 to mark Rattigan's centenary, with Alma played by Anne-Marie Duff and Edith Davenport by Niamh Cusack. A new production of the radio play was aired again by BBC Radio 4 on 25 June 2011 directed by Thea Sharrock with original music by Adrian Johnston.
A cause célèbre is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy.
Cause célèbre may also refer to:
- Cause Célèbre (play), a 1975 radio play by Terence Rattigan
Usage examples of "cause celebre".
Her innocence was supported by the fact that she never became a liberal cause celebre.
I said grimly, 'If this lark ever comes into the open it'll be the biggest cause celebre to hit Iceland since Sam Phelps tried to set up Jorgen Jorgensen as king back in 1809.
Some day, sooner or later, he will jecome the cause celebre that will lead these ignorant politicians and witch doctors to lift their ban on nanotherapy.
This case had become a cause celebre for the Aubinans, who claimed that Glaves was being persecuted by a vengeful Marneri government.