London Evening Standard/London

 

 

Natalie Portman: ‘deeply shocked and disgusted

Oscar winner Natalie Portman has become the first high-profile figure to publicly attack John Galliano, Christian Dior’s suspended chief designer, after a video emerged of him making anti-Semitic remarks.

The actress, the face of Miss Dior Cherie perfume, said she was “deeply shocked and disgusted” by the film in which the British designer tells two women he “loves Hitler” and that their parents “should have been gassed”. Portman said she would not be associated with Galliano, 50, whose suspension from the fashion house followed a separate allegation of anti-Semitic and racist abuse against a woman and her Asian boyfriend in a Paris cafe last week.

Portman, 29, who won the best actress Oscar on Sunday for her film Black Swan, said that in the light of the video, “and as an individual who is proud to be Jewish, I will not be associated with Galliano in any way”.

The actress, who is engaged to French ballet dancer Benjamin Millepied, frequently visits Paris as a face of Dior perfume.

Alan Sugar has also criticised the Streatham-raised designer. Lord Sugar, the multi-millionaire star of the hit BBC show The Apprentice, said on Twitter: “I hope French courts make an example of him for alleged racist remarks. These high-profile people think they are untouchable”.

Galliano, whose past clients have included Princess Diana and French first lady Carla Bruni, visited a police station in the French capital on Monday to meet some of his accusers, but insisted: “I’m no racist.”

The video, said to have been filmed in December at the La Perle bar in the historically Jewish Marais district, surfaced on the internet. In it, Galliano tells two unnamed Italian women: “People like you ought to be dead, your mothers, your forefathers would all be gassed. I love Hitler.” One of the women’s male companions is said to have filmed the outburst because he was so shocked.

An unnamed 48-year-old woman has also complained to police, alleging that she was subjected to anti-Semitic abuse by Galliano at the same bar in October.

She is believed to have come forward after publicity about the case of Geraldine Bloch, 35, and Philippe Virgitti, 41. Last Thursday at La Perle Galliano allegedly told Bloch: “Dirty Jew, you should be dead.” He is then said to have told Mr Virgitti: “I’m going to kill you.” None of the four women involved is Jewish.

Galliano launched a counter-claim in a civil court in Paris for defamation against Bloch and Virgitti on Friday. He met them at a Paris police station after being ordered to do so by prosecutors. A police source said the public prosecutor’s office wanted to get them all together before deciding whether to charge the designer.