Sick to death of hearing Brigitte Bardot’s bigoted views? Me too

There can’t be many famous people left who are yet to offer their opinion on #MeToo, so it was only a matter of time before we discovered what former screen siren Brigitte Bardot makes of it all.

In a new interview with Paris Match, the 83-year-old was asked what she thinks about the movement. She replied that many actresses flirt with producers to get roles and the vast majority of harassment claims are “hypocritical, ridiculous and without interest”.

Pity poor Bardot, having to endure the tedium of hearing about women trapped in hotel rooms before being raped by a man in a position of unimaginable power and influence or perhaps of women getting off lightly, with only their entire careers wrecked by a smear campaign instead.

When Catherine Deneuve put her name to an open letter to Le Monde, which criticised #MeToo and warned of a new sexual puritanism, she was widely pilloried, so much so that, later, she apologised to “the victims of these hideous acts” and clarified that obviously she was not in favour of harassment. The nauseating seesaw of daily public opinions on #MeToo has been remarkable, and provocative, and while I might not agree with Deneuve, she aired a point of view that plenty of women hold. It should go without saying that it’s mindless and counterproductive to listen to only one side of an argument.

But I’m not sure Bardot’s side is one we really need to consider. She is, by all accounts, reclusive and not particularly engaged with the world. In 2003, she wrote A Cry in the Silence, a book that railed against gay people, young people, the unemployed and Islam. She holds opinions so offensive that they are literally illegal: she’s been repeatedly fined for inciting racial hatred.

It all feels a bit like waking Bernard Manning from the dead and asking him to chip in with a nuanced view on Brexit.