Dylan’s Honor Goes Up In Smoke

Bob Dylan was passed over for one of France’s top honors because of his anti-war activism and the fact he’s smoked dope, according to The Guardian.

He’d been put forward for the Légion Of Honour, an order established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, by culture minister Aurélie Filippetti, who’s said to be a huge fan.

But General Jean-Louis Georgelin, the award’s grand chancellor, isn’t keen to have the aging troubadour in the ranks.
Current Légion Of Honour holders include Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev, whose wife Mehriban is also on the list.

Albert Camus, Simone De Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Georges Brassens, Aimé Césaire, Guy de Maupassant, and Marie and Pierre Curie are among those who’ve turned down the award.

Dylan could of course try to buy a Légion Of Honour. The French media wasn’t shy about accusing former national leader Nicolas Sarkozy of doling out decorations to anyone who slipped cash to his party.

Dylan already holds the less prestigious French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, which allows him to wear a green lapel clip with a silver cross on it.