A poster advertising the new film Diana that was placed next to Paris the tunnel where the princess died has been removed.
The placement of the 6ft billboard provoked outrage after it was erected just metres from the spot where Diana was tragically killed in a car crash in 1997.
The poster site is also adjacent to the Flame of Liberty, which has become an unofficial monument to the princess, and is still visited by her admirers today.
One of Diana’s closest friends, Rosa Monckton, described the poster’s appearance as “shameless and despicable”, prompting advertisers to take action.
“I cannot imagine that any company could stoops low. It is a terrible intrusion into her memory, not to mention the lives of her sons, whose feelings are often forgotten in these stories. I would expect them to take it down right away.”
A spokesperson for the film’s French distributor said the placement of the poster was “a coincidence”, but after triggering fury in Diana’s friends and fans, the company has had the poster removed from the sight.
Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed were killed when the car they were travelling in crashed into a pillar in the tunnel in the early hours of August 31, 1997.
Her driver Henri Paul was drunk and attempting to outrun the paparazzi.
The film Diana opens in Paris this weekend and in Sydney next week. The critics have not been kind so far, branding it historically inaccurate, overly-dramatic and poorly-acted.
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