Celebrities avoid Dior show, days after Galliano fired

PARIS - Celebrities made themselves scarce Friday at Dior's fall-winter 2011-12 ready-to-wear show after the luxury house's public sacking of longtime designer John Galliano amid accusations he made anti-Semitic remarks.

Dior is always among the most highly anticipated shows on the Paris fashion calendar, and flocks of A-list celebrities generally take up first-row perches for the house's theatrical displays. Charlize Theron, Kate Moss and Kylie Minogue have graced the show with their photogenic presences in seasons past.

But Dior officials unveiled a meagre list of celebrity attendees Friday -- seven names, mostly little-known French starlets including actress Melanie Laurent and Vanessa Paradis' sister, Alyssob Paradis.

It was not even clear whether the head of Dior parent company LVMH Moet Hennessy, Bernard Arnault, would attend. He was not immediately spotted among the guests filing into the show's venue, a tent at Paris' Rodin Museum.

Dior CEO Sidney Toledano is expected to read a statement ahead of the show. The set, in icy blue, was decorated to look like a ballroom of a chic Hausmannian apartment.

Galliano, fired on Tuesday after a video of him saying "I love Hitler" went viral, was not expected to be at the show even though the collection was designed under his supervision. Rumor has it he was in rehab in Arizona, though Dior officials have declined to comment on his whereabouts.

Security at the show was unusually high, with television teams being told they couldn't speak to any celebrity guests. Security guards escorted photographers and camera crews into the venue, corralling them into the photo pit.

Earlier Friday, a spokesman for the John Galliano fashion line said the label will not hold a runway show in Paris Fashion Week as originally planned, but instead will host a simple presentation of its latest collection.

Label spokesman Alexandre Malgouyres said the site of the presentation and the guest list haven't been decided yet.

Presentations offer a lower-key environment than catwalk shows to display new collections.

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  Dior fashion house chief executive officer Sidney Toledano delivers his speech before the presentation of the last Fall-Winter ready-to-wear 2012 collection designed by John Galliano, in Paris, Friday, March 4, 2011. (AP / Jacques Brinon)

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  A model shows a creation from British designer John Galliano as part of Dior's Fall-Winter 2012 ready-to-wear fashion collection, presented in Paris, Friday, March 4, 2011. Dior fashion house chief executive officer Sidney Toledano made a statement before the show lamenting the 'very painful' situation in the wake of an uproar over Galliano's alleged anti-Semitism. (AP / Francois Mori)

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  Fashion designer John Galliano arrives at a police station in Paris on Monday, Feb. 28, 2011. Christian Dior has fired Galliano in wake of alleged anti-Semitic remarks he made during a dispute at a trendy Paris cafe. (AP / Michel Euler)