Vanity Fair has issued a formal apology after its controversial editing on a photo of Australian actor Guy Pearce.

It follows the French edition of the magazine including Pearce in a series on actor portraits at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Pearce was in Cannes to help promote David Cronenberg’s competition entry The Shrouds, in which he stars with Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger.

In the controversial photo in Vanity Fair France, he sports a black Yves Saint Laurent suit in his portrait, and smiles straight at the camera.

But a small Palestinian flag pin, which fans had noted that Pearce wore on his lapel throughout the 14-day film festival, was missing from the photograph.

A different photo, featuring the pin, was posted to the magazine’s Instagram on the day the article was published. Both pictures showed a white, red, black and green bracelet – the colours of the Palestinian flag – on the Priscilla and LA Confidential star’s wrist.

Vanity Fair France apologised after editing a photo of actor Guy Pearce, in which a Palestinian flag pin he wore is not visible.https://t.co/2oKA6JvoBn pic.twitter.com/6qcvCflc13

— Razan Ibraheem (رزان) (@RazanIRL) May 29, 2024

Internet sleuths were quick to pick up the discrepancy, prompting the magazine to replace the un-edited photo and issue a correction.

It also posted an apology to social media on Sunday.

“We have published by mistake a modified version of this photo on the site,” the magazine wrote in French on X in response to a viral post criticising the edited photo.

“The original version was posted on Instagram the same day. We have rectified our mistake and we apologise.”

Pearce has made no public comments on the controversy. But he did post to X a day later to reiterate his support for the Palestinian cause.

Palestinians are being murdered as we speak. Displaced, traumatised, ruined.
The lives and futures of Palestinian children are being eradicated by a vengeful tyrant.

He MUST be stopped.

This MUST stop.

SHAME on you Netanyahu.#CeaseFire #FreePalestine 🇵🇸

— Guy Pearce (@TheGuyPearce) May 27, 2024

“Palestinians are being murdered as we speak,” he wrote.

“This MUST stop.”

Gaza’s health ministry says more than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s attacks on the enclave.

Israel launched its air and ground war after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israeli communities on October 7, killing about 1200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.