Many people have reacted to a controversial performance during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. Some celebrities, church leaders, and conservatives have accused the performance of recreating the mural, The Last Supper, and mocking Christianity in the process. Thomas Jolly, the opening ceremony’s artistic director has said that the performance was not inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s 15th century mural, The Last Supper.
Among the celebrities who have spoken out against the performance is former Full House star Candace Cameron Bure, who accused the performance of “blasphemy” and called it “disgusting.” At least one of her former costars disagrees with this interpretation of the performance.
Weighing in on the controversy on Instagram, Jodie Sweetin, who portrayed Candace’s sister on Full House, appeared to imply that Candace doesn’t understand art history.
Jodie, 42, reposted a video via her Instagram Stories. The video was created by Walter Masterson, and in it, he explained why the controversial performance was actually inspired by ancient Greek god Dionysus, not The Last Supper.
The Last Supper is Leonardo da Vinci’s interpretation of the meal Jesus Christ and his 12 apostles shared before Jesus was betrayed by Judas and sentenced to death.
In the video that Jodie reposted, Walter said, “Why would the Olympics have anything to do with the Last Supper?”
Jodie shared her own thoughts on the matter by writing over the video she shared to her Story. “Tell me you don’t know about art or history without TELLING me you don’t know about art and history,” she wrote over it, appearing to address people like Candace, who criticized the performance for depicting The Last Supper.
Jodie also reposted an image from another creator. The post explained that the performance was never meant to depict The Last Supper. It criticized the assumptions critics have made about the performance and the language used to talk about it.
“The drag queens of the Olympics were re-creating the feast of Dionysus, not the last supper. And even if you thought it was a Christian reference — what’s the harm? Why is it a ‘parody’ and not a tribute? Can drag queens not be Christian too?” the post read, per Entertainment Weekly and Deadline.
Though Jodie did not specifically call out her former costar, it’s clear that their perceptions of the performance were very different. Candace also did not respond to Jodie specifically, but addressed the claims that the performance had nothing to do with The Last Supper.
After Candace shared her thoughts on the performance, she later wrote that “many have tried to correct me saying it wasn’t about an interpretation of DaVinci’s The Last Supper, but a Greek god and the festival of Dionysus; who is a god of lust, insanity, religious ecstasy, ritual madnes etc.”
In spite of this, Candace wrote that she is “not buying it.”
“I still don’t see how that relates to unifying the world through competitive sports and acceptable for children to watch,” she wrote on Instagram.
The opening ceremony’s artistic director, Jolly, said that the performance was not meant to “be subversive, or shock people, or mock people,” reported The New York Times.
In a television interview with the French media outlet BFMTV, Jolly explained that “it is Dionysus who arrives at the table” and “the idea was instead to have a grand pagan festival connected to the gods of Olympus, Olympism,” per the outlet.
Because of the controversy, Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps apologized and explained Jolly’s intentions.
“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. On the contrary, I think [with] Thomas Jolly, we really did try to celebrate community tolerance,” Descamps said, per USA Today.
“Looking at the result of the polls that we shared, we believe that this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense, we are, of course, really, really sorry,” Descamps continued.
