Efforts to deny that the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony featured a drag-queen parody of “The Last Supper” are now in full swing, but the critics aren’t buying it.
Thomas Jolly, the ceremony’s artistic director, said that the tableau showing a woman in a halo crown flanked at a table by drag queens was not inspired by “The Last Supper.”
He said it was a reference to Dionysius, the Greek god of wine and celebration, who appeared a short time later served up on a silver platter.
“It’s not my inspiration and that should be pretty obvious,” Mr. Jolly told the French news outlet BFMTV, as translated by Deadline. “There’s Dionysius arriving on a table. Why is he there? First and foremost because he is the god of celebration in Greek mythology and the tableau is called ‘Festivity.’”
Others said that the tableau was a recreation of Jan Harmensz van Bijlert’s painting “The Feast of the Gods” which also features a dinner scene.
The problem? The Paris 2024 committee said otherwise.
The Olympic organizers acknowledged that the scene was inspired by “The Last Supper,” the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece depicting the last meal of Christ with the apostles before his betrayal, trial and crucifixion.
“Clearly, there was never an intention to show disrespect towards any religious group or belief,” said a Paris2024 spokesperson in a Saturday email to The Washington Times. “On the contrary, each of the tableaux in the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony were intended to celebrate community and tolerance.”
The email continued: “For the ‘Festivities’ segment, Thomas Jolly took inspiration from Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous painting to create the setting. He is not the first artist to make a reference to what is a world-famous work of art. From Andy Warhol to the Simpsons, many have done it before him.”
I’ve reported that Paris2024 said Thomas Jolly was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” in designing the opening ceremony. Here is a screenshot of the July 27 email I received from Paris2024 in its entirety. pic.twitter.com/OEz0gPmm9W
— Valerie Richardson (@ValRichardson17) July 29, 2024
That’s not all.
Conservative radio host Erick Erickson posted a now-deleted page from Sortir Paris, a tourism website, saying the opening ceremony would include “a recreation of The Last Supper, another famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, against the backdrop of the Seine.”
“In the face of widespread blowback, the French are choosing to gaslight the world and tell you not to believe your lying eyes,” Mr. Erickson said.
In addition, Barbara Butch, the woman who wore the halo crown, posted on her Instagram account a picture of “The Last Supper” painting next to the opening-ceremony scene with the caption: “Oh yes! Oh yes! The New Gay Testament!”
That post and the painting photo have since been removed and replaced with the caption, “The feast of the gods by Jan Harmensz van Bijlert,” as shown in screenshots posted by Sarah Fields, president of the Texas Freedom Coalition.
“Barbara Butch, the woman in the center, posted this photo to her Instagram, admitting that this photo had everything to do with them mocking the scriptures,” said Ms. Fields on X. “She then deleted it a few hours later and called it ‘the feast of the Gods’. Nope. Caught.”
Barbara Butch, the woman in the center, posted this photo to her instagram, admitting that this photo had everything to do with them mocking the scriptures.
— Sarah Fields (@SarahisCensored) July 28, 2024
She then deleted it a few hours later and called it “the feast of the Gods”.
Nope. Caught. pic.twitter.com/IhyREuYlU5
Paris 2024 has also removed without explanation from its YouTube page the opening-ceremony footage, while several prominent X accounts said they had been told to remove the drag-queen video clips for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act [DCMA].
“X locked my account and removed my video,” said @Amuse, which has 358,000 followers. “I deleted all of my Olympics-related content — losing my account isn’t worth it. While my use clearly fits within ‘fair use’ the IOC is clearly using the DCMA as a way to silence critics.”
So far, however, the critics are refusing to be silent.
A host of religious leaders, including the French Catholic bishops, Christian evangelist Franklin Graham, and several Muslim organizations, condemned the ceremony as disrespectful and insulting.
“Insulting Jesus Christ or any of his brother prophets is extremism and reckless barbarism,” said Egypt’s Al-Azhar, a leading Sunni Muslim institution, in a statement as translated by Middle East Eye.
William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, fired off a letter Monday to Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, urging him to “conduct an investigation into the obscene antics that marked the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics.”
Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps said Sunday “If people have taken any offense we are, of course, really, really sorry,” which Bishop Robert Barron of the Winona-Rochester diocese in Minnesota called “a masterpiece of woke duplicity.”
“Give me a break,” Bishop Barron said in a video post. “So we have a group of drag queens cavorting in a kind of sexually provocative way, clearly an imitation of da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper,’ which presents to the world the last supper of Jesus, and no disrespect was meant. Do you think anyone takes that seriously?”
Meanwhile, Judicial Watch filed a Federal Communications Commission complaint against NBCUniversal, which is broadcasting the games, for “airing obscene and indecent content from the Olympics Opening Ceremony.”
The complaint noted that the drag queens were joined by child performers during a dance scene on a catwalk and in the “Last Supper” segment, even though the blue-painted Dionysius actor was nearly naked.
“The blasphemous Olympics’ Opening Ceremony which included, among other obscene and indecent acts, a man partially exposing himself around children, is patently offensive for any sensible American and requires immediate FCC action against NBC,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.
The Washington Times has reached out to NBCUniversal for comment. The 2024 Paris Olympics began Friday and conclude Aug. 11.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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