As if there aren’t enough shenanigans happening ahead of the Olympics, here comes something else that could possibly top it all. What hasn’t gone wrong so far? Things like body parts washing up near the volleyball beach , the Australian team experiencing a strange illness, and the USA Men’s basketball team having to stay on a yacht (because let’s be honest Rio isn’t the safest place to visit).
All of these strange occurrences have made this Olympic destination sound like a horrible vacation. To top it all off, the plug was pulled on an opening ceremony skit sure to ruffle plenty of feathers.
How bad could it be?
People who watched Sunday’s dress rehearsal said a skit starring Brazilian supermodel Gisele shows her being robbed by a black boy which led to a police chase. Reports went circulating on the web, calling for the video to be removed.
Fernando Alvares Salis, head of the communications department at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, was one of those who saw the skit during rehearsals. He said, “It’s totally unacceptable, it’s got to be dropped.”
Not only did Salis feel it was unacceptable but he felt as though the story reaffirmed a racist stereotype.
Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles, is behind the skit and called the reaction a “tremendous misunderstanding”. He says a guy was actually trying to get a selfie with Gisele and two security guards were trying to stop him.
“It was a gag that was not funny so we cut it,” he told The Washington Post. “There was nothing that looked like a robbery in the scene except two security guards chasing after a vendor. They are three professional clowns.”
After all, the message at the end of the video was meant to show peace. The skit has officially been scratched from the opening ceremony.
The Olympics need not another horror story or bad press before the actual event on Friday.
