The 2024 Olympic Ceremony opened up the games in Paris, France on Friday night, providing spectators with a taste of French culture and blasphemous art, leading to Christians around the world being offended and at least one sponsor dropping out.
Mississippi-based telecommunications and technology company C Spire posted on X that it had pulled all of its advertising from the Olympics over the ceremony’s mockery of painting created to show a biblical moment crucial to the Christian faith.
“We were shocked by the mockery of the Last Supper during the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics,” the company posted. “C Spire will be pulling our advertising from the Olympics.”
The four-hour spectacle was held along the Seine River, featuring global stars like Celine Dion and Lady Gaga, both of whom are considered icons for the queer community.
Drag Queen Nicky Doll, who competed in the 12th season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and has hosted “Drag Race France,” participated in a fashion runway segment with “Drag Race France” Season 1 winner Paloma, Season 3’s Piche, and Giselle Palmer.
The queens initially stood alongside the runway while gazing at the strutting models, then later joined in and showcased their own style.
Among their performances was a scene that appeared to evoke Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” featuring the drag queens and other performers in a configuration reminiscent of Jesus Christ and his apostles, which drew significant attention and mixed reactions, not just from C Spire, but people around the world. Da Vinci’s widely admired masterwork is in Milan, Italy.
“I am proud to see the private sector in Mississippi put their foot down,” Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, said on X. “God will not be mocked. C Spire drew a common-sense, appropriate line.”
One user posted to X that the opening ceremony “sucked and was filled with blasphemy.”
“There are over 2 billion Christians around the world and many love to watch the games,” the user wrote. “Why would you make fun and open with that?”
Another user wrote, “Gaga’s Olympics performance was the worst I’ve seen since Britney’s MTV show in 2007. It was the equivalent of defecating on [the] French flag. She insulted America, insulted France, and has no shame whatsoever.”
Still, one other Twitter user said, “I’m actually embarrassed on behalf of France, this is going down as the worst opening ceremony in history.”
Fox News Digital reached out to several camps, including members of the Catholic Church, but did not hear back.
Vice President Kamala Harris did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Prominent far-right French politician Marion Maréchal denounced the performance on social media.
“To all the Christians of the world who are watching the Paris 2024 ceremony and felt insulted by this drag queen parody of the Last Supper, know that it is not France that is speaking, but a left-wing minority ready for any provocation,” she posted on the social platform X, a sentiment that was echoed by religious conservatives internationally.
Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of the opening ceremony, afterward drew attention away from “The Last Supper” references, saying that hadn’t been his intention.
“Our idea was inclusion,” Jolly said during an International Olympic Committee media briefing. “Naturally, when we want to include everyone and not exclude anyone, questions are raised.
“Our subject was not to be subversive. We never wanted to be subversive. We wanted to talk about diversity. Diversity means being together,” he added. “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.”
Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet also weighed in.
“We imagined a ceremony to show our values and our principles, so we gave a very committed message,” he said. “The idea was to really trigger a reflection. We wanted to have a message as strong as possible.
“Having said that – it is a French ceremony for the French games – so we trusted our artistic director,” Estanguet said. “We have freedom of expression in France, and we wanted to protect it.”
Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
