Olympic opening ceremony drag performance resembling Last Supper rankles conservatives

PARIS — The extravagant opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics has caused fury among the populist and religious right in the United States and elsewhere, with critics especially unhappy about an apparent depiction of the Last Supper featuring drag performers.

A fashion show at the ceremony included a scene that resembled a modern re-creation of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, French actor and singer Philippe Katerine appeared as the Greek god Dionysus, painted blue and wearing little more than a bunch of flowers covering his modesty.

While some fans loved this unabashed display of French camp and kitsch, others — particularly those who espouse conservative or Christian beliefs — were not happy with it.

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“In this scene from the Olympic opening ceremony, the famous painting of The Last Supper is recreated, but Jesus is replaced with an obese woman, while queer and trans figures (including a child!) depict her apostles,” Jenna Ellis, former 2020 campaign attorney to Donald Trump, told her 1 million followers on X.

She described the ceremony as containing “overt pagan and satanic symbolism.”

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The Last Supper refers to the final meal that Jesus Christ shared with his 12 apostles before he was crucified. It’s also a popular subject in Christian art, most famously depicted by da Vinci, who painted a scene that captured the apostles’ reaction to Jesus’ announcement of his betrayal.

Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of the opening ceremony, defended the production when asked at a news conference Saturday about some of the backlash. Jolly said he was unaware of the criticism and wanted to display “inclusion.”

“When we want to include everyone and not exclude anyone, questions are raised,” he said at an International Olympic Committee media briefing.

“Our subject was not to be subversive. We never wanted to be subversive. We wanted to talk about diversity. Diversity means being together,” he continued. “We wanted to include everyone, as simple as that. In France, we have freedom of creation, artistic freedom. We are lucky in France to live in a free country. I didn’t have any specific messages that I wanted to deliver. In France, we are republic, we have the right to love whom we want, we have the right not to be worshippers, we have a lot of rights in France, and this is what I wanted to convey.”

Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker called the depiction “crazy” in a post on Instagram and quoted the New Testament book Epistle to the Galatians, warning that “for what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap.” Butker sparked accusations of sexism and homophobia over a commencement speech in May in which he told a class of college graduates that one of the “most important” titles a woman can hold is homemaker.

Bishop Emmanuel Gobillard, a spokesperson representing the Holy See for the 2024 Paris Olympics, told NBC News that the depiction of the Last Supper left him “deeply hurt.”

“The fact that our religion should be mocked is usual and we are used to blasphemy in France, but the context isn’t the same,” he said. “In an event that brings together all or part of the population, I found this staging hurtful and out of place.”

Far-right French politician Marion Marechal-Le Pen said in a post on X that the performance was “not France that is speaking but a left-wing minority ready for any provocation.”

Elon Musk responded to and amplified several memes decrying the “wokeness” of the event. And Kyle Becker, a former Fox News producer with more than half a million X followers, said the Games had “gone full Woke dystopian.”

This ignited debates, held in varying levels of good faith, on social media.

The British writer and broadcaster David Aaronovitch was among those to point out that the Last Supper has been “pastiched, parodied and altered tens of thousands of times” since da Vinci painted it in the 1490s.

Nonetheless, Bishop Robert Barron, of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, in Minnesota, asked his 280,000 X followers: “Would they ever have dreamed of mocking in this gross, public way, a scene from the quran?” He responded that “we all know the answer.”

French freedom of expression has not been aimed solely at one religion, however. In 2015, gunmen killed 12 people to avenge controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in an attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. The publication even republished the controversial caricatures five years later to mark the start of the attackers’ trial.

This “deeply secular postmodern society knows who its enemy is, they are naming it, and we should believe them,” Barron said in a video message. “We Christians, we Catholics should not be sheepish. We should resist. We should make our voices heard.”

Alexander Smith reported from Paris and Minyvonne Burke reported from Pittsburgh