Something Else at the Olympics Rings False

Just when you thought things couldn't possibly get any worse for the scandal-plagued Beijing Summer Olympics Opening Ceremonies, comes word that those cherubic children wearing costumes of China's 56 ethnic groups, who stole our hearts as they carried the repressive totalitarian country's banner to the Scary Goose-Stepping Soldiers who then hoisted it up on the Official Beijing Olympic Games Flag Pole, were not actually members of those ethnic groups.

They were -- are you sitting down?

Actors!

" 'Ethnic minority' children at Olympics ceremony were fake," screeched the Associated Press yesterday.

"Fake fireworks, a fake singer and now fake children at the Olympics opening ceremony," screamed Reuters, joining the latest Olympics scandal cacophony heard 'round the world.

Technically, the children were genuine children. But they are members of the Galaxy Children's Art Troupe, which, the Asian Wall Street Journal reports, is made up of young actors and actresses primarily from the dominant Han ethnic group. They're like the white people of China.

But in the media guide for the Opening Ceremonies, the outraged reports scolded, China promised us "56 children from 56 Chinese ethnic groups" who would cluster around the Chinese national flag.

"It is typical for Chinese performers to wear different apparel from different ethnic groups," Beijing Games Executive Vice President Wang Wei told reporters yesterday. "They will wear different apparel to signify people are friendly and happy together."

Wang's also the guy who told the news media about the scandalous footprint fireworks seen in worldwide TV broadcasts of the Opening Ceremonies, including on our own NBC.

"Some footage had been produced before the opening ceremony to provide theatrical effect," Wang said earlier this week, adding that some fireworks "were genuinely produced. Some maybe were used from previously recorded material."

As that great diplomat Katherine Heigl once said, I'm going to be really honest right now -- he needs to just not speak in public. Period.

It appears this latest ceremonies scandal story was broken by the Asian Wall Street Journal under the headline "Chinese Children in Ethnic Costume Came From Han Majority."