New Delhi, Dec. 29 -- Brigitte Bardot felt each pop of the flashbulb like the impact of a high-powered rifle bullet. And so it was, she said, that years of implacable hounding by the world's paparazzi turned a woman idolized as a sultry sex kitten into a militant animal rights crusader.

Bardot, who died Sunday at age 91, was just 22 when she rocketed to international fame with the 1956 film sensation "And God Created Woman," a cinematic ode to her hourglass figure, sultry pout and tousled blond mane.

Bardot would spend another decade and a half in the limelight - and among the paparazzi's preferred prey, including just days before she gave birth - before she retired from the cinema to devote her life to protecting animals.

"I understan...