Breathtaking ceremony now an Olympic disappointment

Like everyone else, I was captivated by the elaborate opening ceremony to the summer Olympics in Bejing. How could you not marvel at the thousands of talented Chinese performers, the extraordinary musical selections, and the brilliant fireworks displays that danced across the sky? It was truly a spectacular event that will be one for the Olympic history books. I read today that it was the second most watched program on NBC after this year's Super Bowl.

Unfortunately, for the past two mornings I've woken up to news reports about how some of the things we saw weren't quite as amazing as we thought. I'm sure you've all heard by now, but just in case you live under a rock and never open a newspaper or flip on the TV news, the fireworks we saw that night were FAKE! Remember those incredible feet walking across Bejing to the stadium? Thank China's version of Hollywood because they were nothing more than computer-generated images for our viewing pleasure. And then, what's worse, this morning we learned that that cute 9-year-old Chinese girl who sang so brilliantly and seemed to be a singing sensation really WASN'T SINGING! What? How can this be? Well, turns out the girl who really sang the song was a 7 year old who just didn't pass China's cuteness test to make it on TV. The music director admitted that in the days before the ceremony it was decided that a cuter girl would have to lip sync the song. Imagine being the parents of that 7-year-old who had to tell her that she could record the song, but that she wasn't allowed to sing on stage because she wasn't cute enough! I wonder what we'll wake up to tomorrow. I'm telling you, if I find out that those 2,008 drummers were all computer-generated as well I think I'm going to call for a boycott of the games.

Now, I can only hope that Celine Dion is really singing when Kathy and I see her in concert in Boston tomorrow night. You can bet I'll be demanding a refund if I notice her mouth moving and no words coming out. Then again, we'll be sitting so far back we won't see her anyhow.