Olympic Opening Ceremony Director Claims Drag Last Supper Not Inspired by Bible but a ‘Great Pagan Festival’

The artistic director of the LBGT-themed Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony has claimed he did not intend to portray the Last Supper after an apparent parody of the Biblical event drew outrage from Christians across the world.

Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of the Olympic Opening Ceremony, denied on Sunday that he was not “inspired” by the Last Supper, despite the striking similarities between the Leonardo da Vinci depiction of the Jesus Christ’s Last Supper with his 12 Apostles and the drag queen tableau shown at the opening of the Paris games.

“You will never find in me any desire to mock, or to denigrate anything. I wanted to do a ceremony that repairs, that reconciles, that reaffirms the values of our Republic,” Jolly said in comments reported by Le Figaro.

The French artistic director maintained that the Last Supper was “not my inspiration,” saying: “I think it was quite clear, there is Dionysus who arrives on this table. He is there, why? Because he is the god of the festival… of wine, and father of Sequana, the goddess connected to the river.”

“The idea was rather to make a great pagan festival linked to the gods of Olympus,” he said.

Jolly also claimed that he did not intend to celebrate political violence by showing a decapitated Marie-Antoinette, arguing that there was no “glorification of this instrument of death that was the guillotine.”

“If we use our work to regenerate… division, hatred… and that it continues to progress, when I believe that we have made a little peace… then it would be a great shame,” he said.

The comments from Jolly came as the organisers of the Opening Ceremony issued essentially a non-apology, saying: “If people have taken any offence, we are of course really sorry.”

The apparent mockery of the Christian religion drew fierce backlash throughout the world, with Catholic Bishop Robert Barron describing the drag queen scene as “gross, flippant mockery” of a “very central moment in Christianity.”

The Bishop of the Diocese of Winona–Rochester added: “Would they ever dared mock Islam in a similar way? Would they have ever dreamed of mocking, in this gross, public way, a scene from the Qur’an? We all know the answer.”

Backlash was also swift in France, with former Culture Secretary Philippe de Villiers declaring: “We are committing the suicide of our country in front of the whole world.”

Right-wing populist Member of the European Parliament, Marion Maréchal, said: “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. Not in my name.”

Follow Kurt Zindulka on X: Follow @KurtZindulka or e-mail to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.