Dujardin’s Oscar dream in danger for sexism

PARIS - Agence France-Presse

The poster shows actor holding the bare legs of an upside down woman. Photo by Marsfilm.com

Hollywood’s new darling Jean Dujardin was in trouble back in France Thursday after the Oscar frontrunner’s face appeared on the streets of Paris between a woman’s legs in a poster denounced as sexist.

France’s advertising regulator ARPP said the posters degraded women and requested them to be removed just days after they went up to advertise a racy comedy about male adultery.The French Internet was buzzing with speculation that the controversy could ruin Dujardin’s chances to be the first Frenchman to win a best actor Oscar later this month for his role in “The Artist”, a silent black and white movie.

The offending poster shows the 39-year-old actor in a smart suit and tie holding the bare legs of an upside down woman, his head between her high-heeled feet, under the caption “I’m going into a meeting”. Another poster for the film -- “Les Infideles” (The Players) -- shows co-star Gilles Lellouche with a woman facing him at groin level as he tells someone on his phone: “It’s going to cut out, I’m going into a tunnel”. The French magazine Le Parisien wondered in a headline whether what it called a “scandal” could damage Dujardin’s chances, while the British paper the Guardian wondered if the ads would “offend the American awards jury.”