“Emily in Paris” is sparking a très dramatique back-and-forth between the French president and the mayor of Rome, who are battling about the Netflix series potentially bidding adieu to the City of Light.
“Emily in Paris” is poised to head to Rome for its fifth season, but earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with Variety that he would “fight hard” to get the sitcom to stay in his country.
“We will ask them to remain in Paris!” Macron said, calling the show starring Lily Collins as an American living abroad “super positive in terms of attractiveness for the country.”
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter Roma published Thursday, Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri knocked France’s leader, saying, “Doesn’t President Macron have more pressing matters to worry about?”
“I would like to believe, at least I would like to hope, that Macron was joking, because he ought to know that a production company like Netflix does not take orders from heads of state or make decisions based on political pressure,” Gualtieri said.
“There are perhaps a few more pressing issues for the French president. For example, there a couple of wars going on in Ukraine and in the Middle East, there is a horrible hurricane that hit America and which is linked to climate change, and a few other matters of state in Europe for Macron that are more important than Emily, I imagine,” he said, before making a pitch for his Italian city.
“We see Emily’s move to Rome as a confirmation that our city is becoming more and more important, and we are quite relaxed about Netflix production decisions. They know what they are doing,” the mayor said.
“To be honest, we think Mr. Macron should just relax,” he added.
A Netflix spokesperson didn’t respond to ITK on Wednesday about Macron’s original remarks.