French actress Marion Cotillard was in hot water for wearing a Rising Sun flag-patterned cap. Capture from the Instagram account of "usatabloid" French actress Marion Cotillard will dump her Rising Sun flag cap after learning the flag is an emblem of Japan's wartime aggression and colonization, reports said Wednesday.
The Japanese military used the flag during World War II.
Cotillard raised the eyebrows of online users, mostly Koreans, for wearing the disputed cap on July 6 (local time) at the Longines Paris Eiffel Jumping event ― a horse-riding competition ― in Paris.
Photos of the actress wearing the cap ignited controversy after they went viral. In the wake of the fuss, a Korean online user sent an Instagram message to Eliott Bliss, Cotillard's close friend and manager, explaining the flag's meaning. He also asked the actress to refrain from wearing the cap.
The user captured Bliss' message and posted it online Wednesday.
In her reply, Bliss said the pair did not know about the significance of the flag, adding there were many items with the pattern in Europe. Cotillard rose to global stardom after appearing in several hit works including the films "Inception" (2010) and "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012).