France, Dec. 29 -- Images of the screen diva were splashed across media outlets around the globe following the announcement of her death on Sunday. Many also highlighted her role as a catalyst for social change in France.

Bardot's libertine attitude in her breakthrough 1956 movieAnd God Created Womanoutraged censors at the time. The French Catholic dailyLa Croixsaid she had a "career without much success" which she cut short to devote herself to animals.

The left-leaningLiberationnewspaper said, however, that Bardot had a "meteoric career".

"She was probably the last of that handful of new and free figures in which France liked to recognise itself at the turn of the 60s," notedLiberation, which called her the "greatestsexsymbol of Fren...