French celebrity drag queen and tv presenter Nicky Doll is suing Laurence Fox for defamation over pedophile comments he made about drag artists appearing in the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
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The action comes just three months after UK actor Fox, who is now better known as a controversial political activist and TV presenter, was ordered to pay £180,000 ($220,000) in damages to former RuPaul’s Drag Race UK contestant Crystal (Colin Seymour) and charity trustee Simon Blake, after he called them “pedophiles” on social media.
Nicky Doll, whose birth name is Karl Sanchez, was among a group of drag artists appearing in a scene entitled ‘Festivity’, celebrating inclusion and diversity. It was among 12 tableaux celebrating the French spirit woven into the Olympics opening ceremony on July 26.
Fox responded to the tableau with a clip and caption which read: “No point in getting wound up when the child f**kers want to wind you up. Just laugh at the deviant little pedos. Eternity is a b***h.”
The ‘Festivity’ tableau also provoked controversy after it was erroneously suggested it was a representation of Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic painting The Last Supper, capturing Jesus Christ’s final meal with his apostles. The ceremony’s artistic director Thomas Jolly has since denied this suggestio n, saying it was inspired by Greek mythology.
“The practice has, at the request of Mr Karl Sanchez, aka Nicky Doll, filed a defamation complaint Mr Laurence Fox and other users of the social platform X (ex-Twitter),” the artist’s lawyer Anne-Sophie Laguens said in a statement.
“Nicky Doll, who for years has received insults and hate messages, has been subjected to an unprecedented wave of hate and nastiness, going up to death threats, since her performance in the Festivity tableau,” it continued.
“These messages go beyond artistic criticism, with some of them conveying a mixture of hate and defamation, associating drag performances with pedophilia. These comparisons are serious and unacceptable.”
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“This is the reason for this action. Any publication or message suggesting Nicky Doll’s performance encourage pedophile practices will be flagged.”
The defamation action follows news on Friday that the Paris Prosecutor’s Office had opened an investigation into an official police complaint by artistic director Jolly about insults and death threats he has received in the wake of the open ceremony.
French DJ Barbara Butch, who also participated in the Festivity segment, a l s o lodged a police complaint earlier this week.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron spoke up in support of Jolly on Friday, praising the “audacity” of the show, and saying he was “scandalized” and “sad” about what the theatre director had been through.
Nicky Doll, whose stage name is a tribute to Nicki Minaj, broke out internationally in 2020 when she appeared in season 12 of RuPaul’s Drag Race , as its first French contender.
Since 2022, Nicky Doll has been the host o f Drag Race France and was recently a commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 semi-finals.
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