Catherine Deneuve on anti-#MeToo letter: I apologize to the victims

Maria Puente | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption France's Catherine Deneuve denounces #Metoo campaign French film icon Catherine Deneuve has joined 99 other women to denounce a backlash against men following the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Rollo Ross reports. Video provided by Reuters

Catherine Deneuve is apologizing to the “victims who may have been shocked" by a letter she signed, which called the #MeToo movement a "witch hunt."

Denueve, 74, France's most revered movie star, was one of some 100 French cultural figures who signed an open letter in Le Monde decrying a "new puritanism" and the tide of “denunciations” that have brought down scores of men following the sex-scandal revelations about American movie producer Harvey Weinstein.

But after uproar ensued in France, Denueve wrote a new letter in the French newspaper Liberation that says, as People translates, she wants to apologize “to all the victims of these hideous acts who might have felt assaulted by the letter published in Le Monde.”

The Le Monde letter, signed by writers, entertainers, historians, journalists, curators, academics and intellectuals, was published Tuesday under the headline, in French, "We defend freedom to importune, indispensable to sexual freedom."

In essence, that means men should be free to hit on others as part of the ancient human seduction dance — especially valued by the French.

But since the Weinstein scandal broke in October, with blockbuster investigations of the mogul's alleged sexual predations against more than 80 women dating back decades, the result has been catastrophe, at least according to French stars.

The Le Monde letter argued that daily revelations of alleged sexual misconduct by men in multiple industries amount to a "witch hunt" that threatens sexual freedom and promotes hatred of men.

“Rape is a crime. But trying to seduce someone, even persistently or maladroitly, is not — nor is gallantry macho aggression,” opened the letter, translated by The Guardian. “Men have been punished summarily, forced out of their jobs when all they did was touch someone’s knee or try to steal a kiss."

According to a translation by Worldcrunch, a Paris-based digital news magazine that translates international journalism into English, the letter compared the current environment to "the good old witch-hunt days."

"What we are once again witnessing here is puritanism in the name of a so-called greater good, claiming to promote the liberation and protection of women, only to enslave them to a status of eternal victim and reduce them to defenseless preys of male chauvinist demons," the letter said.

The letter attacked the #MeToo social-media campaign and its French equivalent, #BalanceTonPorc (Call out your pig), for unleashing a "purging wave" of "summary justice."

"But what was supposed to liberate voices has now been turned on its head: We are being told what is proper to say and what we must stay silent about — and the women who refuse to fall into line are considered traitors, accomplices!" the letter says.

The signers add that "we are also able to tell the difference between an awkward attempt to pick someone up and what constitutes a sexual assault." Men should be free to "bother" — hit on someone — without fear of public indictment, the letter says.

"This frenzy" only helps the enemies of sexual liberty: "religious extremists and the worst sort of reactionaries,” the letter lamented.

Among the signatories of the letter were esteemed writer Catherine Millet, 69, author of the explicit 2002 best-seller The Sexual Life of Catherine M, and German film actress/singer Ingrid Caven, 79.

Deneuve attacked the #MeToo shame campaign last year.

“I don’t think it is the right method to change things, it is excessive,” she said, according to The Guardian. “After ‘calling out your pig’ what are we going to have, ‘call out your whore’?”

Contributing: Carly Mallenbaum