Yesterday, I saw a short video clip of Natalie Portman answering questions just after she won her Best Actress Oscar. Some journalist asked her about her association with the House of Dior – she’s the face of Miss Dior Cherie – and what her feelings were about the controversy surrounding Dior’s designer, John Galliano. Natalie’s publicist (or somebody else) short-stopped her answer, but she looked like she was prepared to say something. Now she has, coming on the heels of the video release of Galliano drunkenly saying that he loves Hitler. Natalie, who is Jewish and who was born in Israel, is seriously pissed off:

Oscar winner Natalie Portman today expressed her ‘disgust’ at British fashion designer John Galliano – saying she would ‘not be associated with him in any way’ because of his alleged anti-Semitism.

The 29-year-old actress, who won best actress at the Academy Awards on Sunday for her role in Black Swan, said she was shocked by a video in which Mr Galliano says ‘I love Hitler’ and says two women ‘should have been gassed’.

Ms Portman, who was born in Israel, is currently the face of a perfume by Christian Dior – the fashion label which has suspended Galliano as its chief designer pending an enquiry. The fact that she has now publicly attacked him means his future will be increasingly untenable, especially as he faces a prison sentence for his remarks.

Ms Portman said in a statement: ‘I am deeply shocked and disgusted by the video of John Galliano’s comments that surfaced today. In light of this video, and as an individual who is proud to be Jewish, I will not be associated with Mr. Galliano in any way. I hope at the very least, these terrible comments remind us to reflect and act upon combating these still-existing prejudices that are the opposite of all that is beautiful.’

Ms Portman frequently visits Paris, where Galliano is said to have launched anti-Semitic attacks on at least four women, because she is the face of Miss Dior Cherie, and is engaged to French ballet dancer Benjamin Millepied.

Galliano, past clients include Princess Diana and French First Lady Carla Bruni, visited a police station in the French capital on Monday to meet some of his accusers, but insisted: ‘I’m no racist.’

It followed the emerged of the video filmed at Le Perle, a Paris bar, last December in which Mr Galliano says to two unnamed Italian women : ‘People like you ought to be dead, your mothers, your forefathers would all be f*****g gassed. I love Hitler.’

One of their male companions started videoing the incident because he was so shocked.

An unnamed 48-year-old woman has also made a formal complaint to police that she was also subjected to anti-Semitic abuse by Galliano at the same bar last October. She is believed to have come forward after publicity about the case of Geraldine Bloch, 35, and Philppe Virgitti, 41. Last Thursday at La Perle he allegedly told Ms Bloch: ‘Dirty Jew, you should be dead.’ He is then said to have told Mr Virgitti, who is of Asian origin: ‘F***ing Asian b***tard, I’m going to kill you.’

Ironically none of the four women involved is Jewish – despite the alleged verbal assaults having taken place in Le Marais, Paris’s traditional Jewish quarter. On Friday Galliano launched a counter-claim in a civil court in Paris for defamation against Miss Bloch and Mr Virgitti. He met them at a Paris police station after being ordered to do so by prosecutors. A police source said the Public Prosecutor’s Office wanted to get them all together before deciding on whether to charge Galliano.

The detective added: ‘The accused has insisted that he is not a racist, and certainly not anti-Semitic. On the contrary, he is taking legal action against his accusers.’

During the meeting Galliano, who was brought up in South London, ‘denied all the charges against him’.

Galliano’s lawyer, Stephane Zerbib, insisted that the video on the internet has ‘no value’ and that Galliano has ‘never’ been anti-Semitic while working at Dior, which has a ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards such behaviour. He faces being sacked by the fashion house following an investigation.

[From The Daily Mail]

I told you yesterday that the Galliano controversy had gotten to the point where the celebrities associated with Dior were now going to come under criticism unless they distanced themselves. While I don’t care for Natalie in general, I think her statement was completely appropriate and she showed the requisite amount of disgust. I even read that Natalie’s first choice for an Oscar gown was Dior, but that she pushed the Dior aside in favor of the plum-colored Rodarte at the last minute, given the Galliano controversy. Meanwhile, Sharon Stone and Nicole Kidman both wore Dior to the Oscars, and women like Marion Cotillard and Charlize Theron are still closely associated with the brand. Will those ladies have to make statements too?

Photos courtesy of WENN.