Nicky Doll sues Laurence Fox for calling drag queens pedophiles

RuPaul’s Drag Race star and Drag Race France host Nicky Doll is taking legal action against British actor and conservative activist Laurence Fox after he denounced a group of drag artists featured in the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony on social media, calling them “deviant little pedos.”

Nicky was one of the performers who appeared in the ceremony’s “Festivity” tableau, which was meant to celebrate diversity and inclusion. The scene received backlash online after some conservatives perceived it to be mocking Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting The Last Supper, but Olympics artistic director Thomas Jolly later confirmed on French network BFM-TV that the scene was actually inspired by Greek mythology.

Fox condemned the segment on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “No point in getting wound up when the child f—ers want to wind you up. Just laugh at the deviant little pedos. Eternity is a bitch.”

Nicky later reposted Fox’s comments, writing, “Since you didn’t learn the first time around when you called my friend @crystalwillseeu a pedo, I’m going to show you that you don’t get to write things like that about queer people for the fun and the misinformation of it and go away with it. See you in court, again, @LozzaFox!”

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Now, she has done just that. On Friday, her lawyer Anne-Sophie Laguens announced in a press release that they had “filed a defamation complaint [against] Mr. Laurence Fox and other users of the social platform X (ex-Twitter).”

“Nicky Doll, who for years has received insults and hate messages, has been subjected to an unprecedented wave of hate and nastiness, going as far as death threats, since her performance in the ‘Festivity’ tableau,” the release read. “These messages go beyond artistic criticism, with some of them conveying a mixture of hate and defamation, associating drag performances with pedophilia. These comparisons are serious and unacceptable.”

The statement continued, “This is the reason for this action. Any publication or message suggesting Nicky Doll’s performance encourages pedophile practices will be flagged.”

A representative for Fox did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s request for comment.

However, sharing her lawyer’s press release on her X account, Nicky added, “I will never again allow myself and other queer people to be defamed and demonized. If responding with love doesn’t work for some, then responding with justice should work. See you in court.”

The drag performer’s lawsuit comes days after Barbara Butch, a French DJ who was also featured in the tableau segment, filed multiple police complaints after receiving a wave of online “death, torture, and rape” threats following the ceremony, reports Sky News. French authorities have also opened an investigation into death threats made against Jolly over the tableau, Reuters reports.

In January, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season 1 star Crystal and former Stonewall chair Simon Blake won a libel lawsuit against Fox after he defamed them by falsely calling them pedophiles. He countersued the pair for calling him racist on social media, but his case was later dismissed in court. 

Crystal told Entertainment Weekly that she “took no joy” in the lawsuit, noting that Fox could have resolved the case with an apology.

“I’ve said it before, but pedophilia is one of the oldest and most damaging homophobic tropes,” she said. “Since Mr. Fox used that word about me, I have been re-labelled as such dozens of times, been physically threatened, and been afraid for my safety in public. This judgment unequivocally states that his tweet was defamatory and that it caused me harm. I am very happy to have this finalized, and I hope it will make some difference in the ongoing demonization of queer people as ‘groomers’ or ‘dangerous.’ This is a lesson: We will not take it.”

Nicky Doll became the first-ever French contestant to appear on RuPaul’s Drag Race when she competed in season 12. She has since gone on to become the host of Drag Race France. Fox last appeared on screen as Hunter Biden in the 2022 Breitbart News–distributed film My Son Hunter.