Bryan Ferry in Nazi controversy
Yahoo! Music, Apr 16, 2007 2:00 pm PDTBryan Ferry is expected to face a storm of protest after speaking of his admiration for the Nazis.
The Roxy Music icon, currently starring in a high-profile advertising campaign forBritish department store Marks & Spencer, made a series of controversial comments in a recent interview.
Speaking to a German newspaper, he described the infamous Nazi parades as "just amazing" and also revealed his studio is named "Fuhrerbunker," after Adolf Hitler's HQ.
"My dear gentlemen, the Nazis knew how to put themselves in the limelight and present themselves," Ferry told Welt am Sonntag.
"Leni Riefenstahl's movies and Albert Speer's buildings and the mass parades and the flags--just amazing. Really beautiful," he said.
The comments have already enraged Nick Viner, chief executive of London's Jewish Community Center, who said Ferry had left "a bad taste in the mouth."
Viner said: "Riefenstahl was responsible for sending people to their deaths. There is a fine line between people going about their business and people colluding in truly terrible behavior."
However, Ferry's manager Steven Howard has defended the star, telling The London Standard that his client in no way supports the genocide perpetrated by Hitler.
"To suggest a certain appreciation of art and architecture that happens to be associated with the Nazi regime means condoning the action of that regime is illogical," he said.
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