
The City of Light turned on the electricity for an eye-popping four-hour opening Olympics ceremony Friday night that featured an extravaganza with acrobats, Lady Gaga in a black-feather cloak, Beyonce, France's own Celine Dion, Moulin Rouge cancan dancers and a drag "Last Supper" along the Seine.
Massive crowds gathered in the rain along the river, on terraces and boats as the city lifted the curtain on its first summer Olympics in a century. The outdoor ceremonies featured the city's iconic landmarks, from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower and restored Notre Dame Cathedral — and a talking headless Marie Antoinette.
"The rain can't stop us," said U.S. basketball star LeBron James, sporting a plastic poncho along with the other American flag bearer, tennis player Coco Gauff.
The Marie Antoinette Olympics
— Erika G. Rockwell (@EGRockwell) July 27, 2024
opening ceremony at the
Conciergerie, the place she was
held prisoner with her children
(until she was taken by cart to
Place de la Concorde, with hands
bound behind her back and her
hair cut off), is extremely intense.
I’d not expect anything less… pic.twitter.com/gxZcFAxFyw
The ceremony celebrated women, with 10 golden statues of female pioneers at one point rising from giant pedestals along the river. It's the first Olympics ever with equal numbers of female and male athletes.
One group not so thrilled were grumpy American MAGAs who erupted on social media over the drag performers in the the final scene of a drag-themed runway show that appeared to evoke Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper" of Christ and his apostles the night before he wass betrayed and crucified particularly hit a MAGA nerve.
One-time Donald Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis blasted the "overt pagan and satanic symbolism."
In this scene from the Olympic opening ceremony, the famous painting of The Last Supper is recreated, but Jesus is replaced with an obese woman, while queer and trans figures (including a child!) depict her apostles.
— Jenna Ellis (@realJennaEllis) July 26, 2024
Overt pagan and satanic symbolism. pic.twitter.com/YImWfFDekB
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, who recently told female college graduates that their greatest calling was as a homemaker, posted a passage from the bible warning against mocking God.
“Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting.”
— Harrison Butker (@buttkicker7) July 26, 2024
Galatians 6:7-8 pic.twitter.com/bhCHoO1HXk
And tech mogul Elon Musk weighed in against the "disrespectful" "degeneracy."
This was extremely disrespectful to Christians
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 26, 2024