Navigate to News section

Golly, Galliano!

Designer apologizes, is charged by prosecutors

by
Dan Klein
March 02, 2011

Much as with grief, there are several steps to being caught out as a celebrity anti-Semite.

1. Denial
2. Feigned Anger
3. Bargaining: “I’ll sue you unless you stop.”
4. Depression/Silence after video evidence appears.

Fortunately, (because Alana Newhouse is still in mourning) today John Galliano moved onto stages five and six: An obviously insincere apology, issued by lawyers, where he apologizes for “offending” anybody, and hints that he’ll soon be entering rehab.

Unfortunately for Galliano, not only do the French eat horses, but they also have laws against hate speech. Now, they’re probably unstylish laws that only shop at GAP Outlets, but they’re the laws with which Parisian prosecutors are promising to charge the former designer. Galliano faces maximum charges of $31,000 and six months in prison.

The best part of the linked AP story, however, is Galliano’s attorney, Stephane Zebrib, who argues that the video where a drunken Galliano professes his love for Hitler aren’t incriminating, they’re just… taken out of context.

[In the video] “we see a man who’s alone, battling with his demons … who’s in an advanced state of drunkenness and apparently mixed alcohol with medicines,” Zerbib said, adding the combination had made Galliano “extremely vulnerable.”



“No one knows the context,” he said. “Today Mr. Galliano is presumed innocent and will certainly speak out … at the right moment.”

No word yet on when exactly that “right moment” will be.