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France investigates death threats against Olympics ceremony director

2 Aug 2024, 3:04 PM
France investigates death threats against Olympics ceremony director

PARIS, Aug 2 — The French authorities have opened an investigation into death threats and cyber harassment targeting the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony's artistic director Thomas Jolly, said the Paris Prosecutor's office today.

Jolly filed a complaint after receiving threats and online attacks over a kitsch tableau in the unprecedented ceremony on the Seine River that appeared to parody Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece "The Last Supper".

The scene, which sparked fury among the Catholic Church, far-right politicians in France, and the religious right in the United States, featured drag queens, a transgender model, and a naked singer made up as the Greek god of wine Dionysus.

The Paris 2024 organisers apologised afterwards saying there had been no intention to show disrespect towards any religious group. Jolly said that religious subversion had not been his intention and that the scene was supposed to depict a pagan feast linked to the gods of Olympus.

French DJ and producer Barbara Butch, who performed in the scene, said on Monday (July 29) she had filed complaints against people who have harassed and threatened her because of it.

— Bernama

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