Fashion designer John Galliano poses at the end of the presentation of the Dior Haute Couture spring/summer 2010 fashion collection in Paris. Christian Dior said on Tuesday that Galliano has been fired, just days after he was suspended as its creative director pending an investigation into an alleged anti-Semitic incident in a Paris cafe last week. Jacques Brinon / Associated Press

PARIS - This time, John Galliano, long a top fashion-world provocateur on and off the runway, went too far.

The storied French label Christian Dior said on Tuesday it was firing the zany British bad boy after a video which appeared to show him saying "I love Hitler" in a drunken rant went viral online - sending shock waves through the start of Paris Fashion Week.

The ouster followed a barrage of accusations and revelations about Galliano's outbursts that spelled major career trouble for the talented and moneymaking couturier.

The allegations of bigotry had put Dior, which battles crosstown rival Chanel for the title of world's top fashion house, in the hot seat: Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman, the new advertising face of the Miss Dior Cherie perfume line, who is Jewish, expressed fury over the remarks.

Galliano's firing marked the latest bout of scandal to shake the rarified fashion world, including last year's suicide of Alexander McQueen, another celebrated British designer, and supermodel Kate Moss' brief stint in the industry wilderness after photos of her snorting cocaine went public in 2005.

"Knowing John's proclivity for provocation on the runway and in life, to hear such accusations wasn't surprising," said Dana Thomas, a fashion guru and author of Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster, an expose of the luxury industry.

"But the videos that went viral yesterday were too damning to deny," she said. "I'm sure (Dior CEO Sidney) Toledano was deeply hurt because he's Jewish."

"It's an insolence that's unforgivable," she added.

Fashionistas almost uniformly said Dior would pull through the controversy, and some even suggested the episode gave it a chance to clean its slate after Galliano's 15-year rein as its mastermind of creation.

The 50-year-old designer's tailspin began after a couple accused him of hurling anti-Semitic insults at them on Thursday at La Perle, a trendy eatery in Paris' Marais district - a hip neighborhood known for its sizable gay and Jewish populations.

As word got out that police were investigating, another woman came forward on Saturday accusing Galliano of similar anti-Semitic insults in October at the same brasserie.

An apparent smoking gun emerged on Monday when the British daily The Sun posted a video on its website showing Galliano, his speech slurred, appearing to taunt two women diners.

At one point, a woman's voice asks Galliano: "Are you blond, with blue eyes?"

Galliano replied: "No, but I love Hitler, and people like you would be dead today. Your mothers, your forefathers, would be ... gassed and ... dead."

Making anti-Semitic remarks can bring up to six months in prison in France, and Galliano appeared in a Paris police station on Monday to face the accusations against him.

In what some hailed as an appropriate and quick response, Christian Dior SA said on Tuesday it had launched termination proceedings for Galliano and decried "the particularly odious nature of the behavior and words" in the video.

Galliano's lawyer did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

News of Galliano's firing hit Tuesday's start of Paris' nine-day-long ready-to-wear marathon like a tidal wave, with journalists, editors and stylists reading out Dior's statement on a shuttle bus between shows.

Some murmured that Dior had long been looking to part with Galliano, and this was a way out. Others feared that it might bring his brilliant career to a tragic finish - and possibly overshadow his legacy.

Dior said it still planned to go ahead with its Galliano-designed fall-winter 2011-2012 collection on Friday as part of Paris fashion week.

Trying to limit the fallout, press officers at the designer's signature label, John Galliano, spent much of the day checking with journalists, critics, stylists and editors to make sure they would be attending its women's wear show, scheduled for Sunday.

Questions were bound to arise about whether Galliano's fame and fawning fans had gone to his head, or whether he had succumbed to the pressures of the high-octane, big-payoff industry.

"The situation is extremely sad. Creative people like John - great artists, great writers - often wrestle with the devil in the form of the bottle or drugs," Joanna Coles, editor-in-chief of American Marie Claire, said. After seeing the video, she said, "You were left thinking, 'What on earth was he thinking?'"

"The pressure is probably less when you start somewhere than when you've been there for some time and have to continue to produce at such a high level," she said. "We're very curious to see who replaces John."

The guessing-game got going in earnest from the moment it became clear Galliano was out.

While some fashion insiders put their money on Alber Elbaz, who has transformed Lanvin from a musty old label into one of Paris' hottest, others said Givenchy's Riccardo Tischi was their man.

Since his appointment in 1996, Galliano, who was born in Gibraltar and grew up in London, made an indelible mark on the storied House of Dior. Season after season, he reinterpreted the iconic New Look pieces pioneered by founder Christian Dior, managing to make the designs first fielded after World War II fresh and youthful.

Galliano's glorious past collections channeled inspiration like ancient Egypt - with models in Nefertiti eye makeup and King Tut beards - as well as Masai tribespeople accessorized with rows of beaded necklaces and crop-brandishing equestrians of the 19th century.

Always theatrical and sometimes outrageous, Galliano's star-studded runway shows are big-budget blockbusters and among the most-anticipated displays on the Paris calendar.

Associated Press