Louise Cousineau didn't write a script or dialogue, but she wrote thousands of pages on television.
• Also read: TV columnist Louise Cousineau has died
She also spoke about it a lot on the radio, especially on the microphone of Paul Arcand, whom she called “Monsieur Paul” and with whom she spoke to you. She also said “you” to every artist she called or met. Authors and performers feared this shell-clad chronicler as “the Seven Hour Man.” Hoping to stay in her good graces, Radio-Canada had even established a special protocol for her: never start a presentation before she's arrived, and always make sure there's an ashtray at her disposal.
The public broadcaster, which has never had major financial problems, does not skimp on the buffets when it comes to a press presentation. During Louise Cousineau's “reign,” we made sure to put in her mouth the appetizers and appetizers she liked. I was even told that Radio-Canada's advertising and public relations department had hired a person to invite him to the restaurant from time to time just to maintain good relations.
It was all pretty useless. Louise Cousineau was no more “venal” than René Lévesque, whom she defeated in a smoking competition. They both smoked enough cigarettes to pay for the Olympic ring.
Even Réjean enjoyed it
Réjean Tremblay, Louise's colleague at La Presse, enjoyed her biting lyrics. The columnist only had good words for the first two seasons of “Lance and Count,” but afterward her words were more biting. She could have addressed her criticisms discreetly to Réjean, but she wrote them down in black and white in the diary. Her openness didn't stop Tremblay from creating a role like Louise in the series Scoop. It was Francine Ruel who was supposed to play Léonne Vigneault, a copy of her colleague.
Because they looked like her, Louise Cousineau always had a weakness for unusual characters with sharp tongues. On a radio show recently I was paired with Louise Cousineau at the next table. She had written some very beautiful things about Jamais deux sans toi and greatly admired Jean Besré. But it was Marie-José Lafleur, played by Micheline Lanctôt, that she talked to me about during dinner. A few years later, Louise Cousineau was less polite for The Duval Heirs and even less for Peau de Banana. But how can I blame him, who I have almost always found to have good judgment?
A TRUE INFLUENCER
There is no television hall of fame, but if such a pantheon one day exists, Louise Cousineau must be inducted quickly. Perhaps she wasn't aware of it, but the lover of images and stories contributed a lot to the exemplary nature of our television through her criticism.
Louise Cousineau was a bit of a “groupie”, yes! She also had quirks and bit the same calf over and over again, but anyone like me who has worked as a television critic knows how much her opinion influenced us. For better or worse, we always took it into account. I'm sure she knew, judging by the clever look in her eyes when we met her.