Last week, the French edition of Vanity Fair magazine published an edited photo of actor Guy Pearce taken at the Cannes Film Festival, removing a pin of the Palestinian flag attached to his clothes, in what seemed like an attempt by the magazine’s editors, to avoid unnecessary controversy.
The edit was noticed by Palestinian supporters who flooded social media with accusations of censorship that they said had deeply offended them.
The original photo showing the pin, as well as a bracelet in similar colors on Pearce's wrist, was posted on the magazine's Instagram page. After the complaints gained traction on social media, the magazine was forced to remove the edited photo from the website and issued an apology.
"We have mistakenly published a modified version of this photo on the site. The original version was posted on Instagram the same day. We have rectified our mistake and we apologize," The magazine didn’t explain why it decided to edit the photo.
On Tuesday, Pearce responded to the uproar with a statement on his X (formerly Twitter) account: " Palestinians are being murdered as we speak. Displaced, traumatized, ruined. A vengeful tyrant is eradicating the lives and futures of Palestinian children. He MUST be stopped. This MUST stop. SHAME on you Netanyahu.”
Although the Cannes Festival producers this year banned guests from making political statements on the red carpet, Pearce found a loophole and wore the pin during a special photo session taken for the website.
Actress Cate Blanchett also found a way around the rules, wearing a dress featuring shades of green, black, and light pink. On the red carpet, the dress turned into the colors of the Palestinian flag. She neither confirmed nor denied she had any intentions in her choice of clothes, leaving it up to public interpretation.