BLOG RETRACTION
Remember yesterday how I told you a guy who looked like Bono told me "I'm not who you think I am?" and I, and my editor and my editor's boss who was also there decided not to believe him?
It turns out this man was telling the truth...Thewashingtonpost.com reports:
Bono at BWI?! Well, Sort Of.
We should have figured there was a professional Bono impersonator out there! The FauxBono who drew a crowd and posed for pictures at BWI Monday night was Pavel Sfera , a 42-year-old former property manager turned U2 frontman look-alike. He told us yesterday that for years people noticed his resemblance to the Irish rocker (they've never met); he finally decided to go pro (sunglasses, rosary, guitar, stubble) in 2000. "I make a living -- it's a humble one, but a living," said the Los Angeles-based Sfera, who was in D.C. to schmooze the USO and was trying to get permission to visit troops at Walter Reed.
Oh, and Sfera says he never tries to fool anyone, but half the time, people don't believe him when he says he's not Bono: "It's that willful suspension of disbelief." So he usually doesn't say anything -- just poses for pictures, and signs "Love every day" and "Be happy" when asked for an autograph. "I'm very gracious with people."
AWKWARD! I'm embarassed that I didn't fact check, and I trusted everyone especially the Getty photograher who assured me who was there who said, "It's really Bono" and posted the pictures on the Getty site. I wonder if they're labeled... hmmm. I called the ONE campaign to try to get a comment from the real Bono, but I doubt that will happen. I'm just glad I didn't put the Bono-sighting in the lede.
OK, and now is where I'm so glad I'm an "advocacy journalist" and not a "journalist journalist" because if I were actually working for a real newspaper or something I could quite-probably be fired.
It turns out this man was telling the truth...Thewashingtonpost.com reports:
Bono at BWI?! Well, Sort Of.
We should have figured there was a professional Bono impersonator out there! The FauxBono who drew a crowd and posed for pictures at BWI Monday night was Pavel Sfera , a 42-year-old former property manager turned U2 frontman look-alike. He told us yesterday that for years people noticed his resemblance to the Irish rocker (they've never met); he finally decided to go pro (sunglasses, rosary, guitar, stubble) in 2000. "I make a living -- it's a humble one, but a living," said the Los Angeles-based Sfera, who was in D.C. to schmooze the USO and was trying to get permission to visit troops at Walter Reed.
Oh, and Sfera says he never tries to fool anyone, but half the time, people don't believe him when he says he's not Bono: "It's that willful suspension of disbelief." So he usually doesn't say anything -- just poses for pictures, and signs "Love every day" and "Be happy" when asked for an autograph. "I'm very gracious with people."
AWKWARD! I'm embarassed that I didn't fact check, and I trusted everyone especially the Getty photograher who assured me who was there who said, "It's really Bono" and posted the pictures on the Getty site. I wonder if they're labeled... hmmm. I called the ONE campaign to try to get a comment from the real Bono, but I doubt that will happen. I'm just glad I didn't put the Bono-sighting in the lede.
OK, and now is where I'm so glad I'm an "advocacy journalist" and not a "journalist journalist" because if I were actually working for a real newspaper or something I could quite-probably be fired.
posted by diana at 9:54 AM
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