News

Seven people were due to stand trial in Paris on Wednesday on charges of making death threats and cyberbullying against director Thomas Jolly in the wake of his controversial Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony last July.

French media reported that six men, aged between 22 and 79 years old, and a woman aged 57 had been summoned to court on charges of “repeated death threats, cyberbullying and aggravated insults based on sexual orientation and real or supposed religious affiliation.”

A number of the insults were reported at the time to have been antisemitic in nature. Jolly is not Jewish.

The accused face maximum jail terms of seven years and fines of up to €75,000, if found guilty.

The Paris criminal court hearing comes seven-and-half months after theater director Jolly’s July 26 Olympics opening ceremony on the River Seine caused furore in some quarters for its modern, inclusive take on French history and culture.

Jolly filed...

Barbara Butch is a self-proclaimed “love activist.” This, she says, is why her feelings weren’t hurt when her appearance in the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony unleashed an avalanche of death threats, abuse and harassment.

The French DJ was the centerpiece of a tableau during the four-hour event on July 26. Drag queens and dancers struck poses along a long table with Butch on the decks in the middle. Singer Philippe Katerine, painted in sparkly blue and semi-naked, sang while resting on a dinner platter in front.

Social media users were quick to claim the image resembled Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, the portrait of Jesus Christ and his 12 apostles before he was crucified. Suddenly, Butch was caught at the center of mass backlash.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the highest-ranking Catholic official in Malta and Vatican official for its doctrinal office, said he contacted France’s ambassador to Valletta to complain about the “gratuitous insult.

Updated: Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics, has filed a second complaint on Aug. 3, along with two organizers of the event, Alexandre Billard and Thierry Reboul, alleging death threats, swiftly prompting the crime unit (Brdp) to launch a new investigation, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.

According to national newspaper Le Parisien, some of the death threats cited verses of the Quran, saying that the “Allah’s punishment will fall down on the organizers in Saint Denis.” The closing ceremony will take place at the Stade de France, located in Saint Denis, on the outskirts of Paris. Billard is the joint managing director of the event planner agency Ubi Bene, while Reboul is the executive director of the Olympic ceremonies.

Jolly previously filed a complaint on July 30, the same day that the DJ of the ceremony, known as Barbara Butch, also filed a complaint for cyber harassment.

French drag performer Nicky Doll has taken legal action against British actor and politician Laurence Fox after he lashed out at drag queens involved in the Paris Olympics opening ceremony and called them “deviant little pedos” on social media.

The July 26 ceremony, which featured a group of drag artists portraying Greek gods and has been perceived by some as a parody of Leonardo va Vinci’s religious painting “The Last Supper,” sparked debate worldwide. Fox, posted on X about the performance, saying: “No point in getting wound up when the child f**kers want to wind you up. Just laugh at the deviant little pedos. Eternity is a b***h.”

Nicky Doll, whose real name is Karl Sanchez, announced the lawsuit through a statement from lawyer Anne Sophie-Laguens. The statement detailed that performers faced online harassment and threats following the July 26 ceremony.

“Stop Homophobia lawyers have received numerous reports of incitement to hatred,...

French celebrity drag queen and tv presenter Nicky Doll is suing Laurence Fox for defamation over pedophile comments he made about drag artists appearing in the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

The action comes just three months after UK actor Fox, who is now better known as a controversial political activist and TV presenter, was ordered to pay £180,000 in damages to former RuPaul’s Drag Race UK contestant Crystal (Colin Seymour) and charity trustee Simon Blake, after he called them “pedophiles” on social media.

Nicky Doll, whose birth name is Karl Sanchez, was among a group of drag artists appearing in a scene entitled ‘Festivity’, celebrating inclusion and diversity. It was among 12 tableaux celebrating the French spirit woven into the Olympics opening ceremony on July 26.

Fox responded to the tableau with a clip and caption which read: “No point in getting wound up when the child f**kers want to wind you up.

Prosecutors in Paris are investigating death threats and harassment directed at Thomas Jolly, the artistic director behind the opening ceremony at the 2024 Olympics, according to The Associated Press.

The investigation was launched, the Paris prosecutor’s office said, after Jolly filed a police complaint on Tuesday, July 30 (the opening ceremony took place a few days prior, on July 26). Jolly said he’d been subjected to death threats, “public insults,” and “defamation” and has been “the target of threatening messages and insults on social networks criticizing his sexual orientation and his wrongly-assumed Israeli roots.

Donald Trump told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that the Paris Olympics opening ceremony was a “disgrace” due to its controversial moment involving a tableau that some viewers believed to be a recreation of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” only the Olympics version replaced the painting’s religious figures with drag queens. However, organizers for the event have stressed the moment was not a nod to “The Last Supper” but to the feast of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine.

When Ingraham brought up how the opening ceremony mocked “The Last Supper,” Trump weighed in and said: “I thought it was a disgrace.” The Fox News host then asked if Trump will “have enough influence on the organizers that we won’t be insulting Christians” if he is elected president again, as his potential term would overlap with the 2028 summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Calif.

“We won’t be having a Last Supper,...

A French DJ and LGBTQ+ rights icon said she has filed police reports over targeted death threats for her participation in a section of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony where comparisons were drawn to Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.

During the four-hour ceremony on Friday, drag queens and dancers at one point struck poses along a long table as Barbara Butch DJed in the center. A person painted sparkly blue, singing in French, was resting on a dinner platter in front. Some social media users said the image resembled the portrait of Jesus Christ and his 12 apostles before he was crucified, which became the center of swift backlash.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, French far-right politician Marion Maréchal and Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker were among those berating the tableau. “Last night’s mockery of The Last Supper was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world,...

Update: French DJ and activist Barbara Butch said on Monday that she has filed several police reports after receiving death threats for her participation in an Olympics opening ceremony tableau that drew comparisons to Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” The Paris Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to Variety that a complaint for cyber-harassment was received and an official investigation has been launched.

“The national body in charge of combatting against online hate speech (Pnlh) has appointed the central office in charge of fighting crimes against humanity and hate crimes (Oclch) to conduct an investigation into the discriminating messages referring to the religion or sexual orientation that were addressed to her or posted online and flagged,” the Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement. “The facts could potentially qualify as abuse aggravated by discrimination, death threats and public incitement to attempt on the life or physical integrity of people.”

The scene,...

French DJ Barbara Butch, who participated in a controversial drag queen scene in the Paris Olympics Open Ceremony, has lodged a number of police complaints after receiving a raft of threatening online messages.

“Since the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games artist, DJ, and activist Barbara Butch has been the target of an extremely violent campaign of cyber-harassment and defamation,” Butch’s lawyer Audrey Msellati said in a statement.

“She has been threatened with death, torture, and rape, and has also been the target of numerous anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, and anti-grossophobic insults.”

Butch was among the participants in a scene celebrating sexual diversity and inclusion entitled “Festivity”. The colorful scene, which also featured Nicky Doll and a number of past Drag Race France contestants, was among 12 tableaux capturing the French spirit running through the opening ceremony.

It has sparked controversy after it was erroneously suggested that the film was...

Paris Olympics organizers apologized Sunday to anyone offended by an image of drag performers that evoked Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” during the opening ceremony.

The scene during Friday’s ceremony featured LGBTQ+ icon, DJ and producer Barbara Butch flanked by drag artists and dancers.

Religious conservatives decried the segment, with the French Catholic Church’s conference of bishops deploring “scenes of derision” that they said made a mockery of Christianity. Complaints were also made by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova and the Anglican Communion in Egypt.

The ceremony’s artistic director, Thomas Jolly, claimed he meant to celebrate diversity and pay tribute to feasting and French gastronomy.

Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps responded to that during an International Olympic Committee news conference on Sunday.

“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. On the contrary, I think (with) Thomas Jolly, we really...