Thierry Ardisson received the Legion of Honor on April 11 from the President of the Republic. Several actresses like Judith Godrèche and Sara Forestier railed against this decoration which they described as “shame”.
The announcement of the upcoming award to Michel Sardou of the National Order of Merit by Emmanuel Macron also made certain feminist activists jump. In the context of the #MeToo movement, the president was also criticized for having described the actor Gérard Depardieu as a “huge actor” who “makes France proud” The writer Christine Angot, who said she was humiliated on several occasions on the set of Ardisson's show “Everybody talks about it”, described Emmanuel Macron’s gesture of decorating the host as a "slap in the face’. “In a system where respectability is indexed to wealth, strength, power, those who hold them can only receive admiration, smiles, medals,” wrote the author.