Going for the gold in gossip

Some Opening Ceremony fireworks were faked

If you watched the Opening Ceremony on Friday night, chances are you said something like, "no way that's possible" at least once. It turns out you were right.

London's Telegraph newspaper reports that some of the fireworks which appeared over Beijing during the television broadcast of the Olympic Opening Ceremony were actually computer generated. But -- hold on -- it's not necessarily as bad as you think.

The faked fireworks were actually set-off at the stadium, but because of potential dangers in filming the display live from a helicopter, viewers at home were shown a pre-recorded, computer-generated shot. It sounds dishonest, but I'm not sure it's such a terrible thing.

The Opening Ceremony is, at its core, just one big performance. And isn't it accepted that some things might not be legit at a performance? The final torch bearer wasn't actually running around the top of the stadium, does the fact that everyone could figure that out make it any less impressive? It might have been unnecessarily deceptive, but the firework-faking isn't really that big of a deal. But, if I found out that the lighted-drum thing wasn't on the up and up, then we'll have problems, China.

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Isaac Hayes and Bernie Mac Smiling on IsaacHayes.com: Sometimes the Internet Can Be Creepy

Visiting the official Isaac Hayes site right now is a fairly spooky thing. As of this moment (2:28 am on Monday, August 11), the site not only hasn't been edited to reflect ex-Chef's death, but just one click beyond the opening splash page defaults to a smiling pop-up photo of Hayes with Samuel Jackson and . . . Bernie Mac.

The group shot isn't completely random: Hayes appears as himself in the upcoming comedy Soul Men, which stars Mac and Jackson. But of course, the 50-year-old Mac died on Saturday due to complications from a pnuemonia, one day before Hayes was pronounced dead in Memphis. We are not superstitious crazies, but the visual is fairly jarring. Indubitably, moreso to Samuel Jackson.

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