12 January 2010

Old News: Zahi Disses Beyonce


(Via Objects-Buildings-Situations)

I'm late to this one, I admit. Back in November, Zahi Hawass and Beyoncé did a photo op at the Pyramids together. He gave her a personal tour and a book about Tutankhamun, but she was insufficiently excited about the honor. So he made some snide comments about her behind her back, as Bossip reports:
In a shocking display of poor diplomacy, Egypt’s chief Egyptologist Zahi Hawass allegedly called American pop-star Beyonce a “stupid person” during her brief tour of the Giza pyramids earlier this week. Writing in al-Shorouk newspaper, Summer al-Gamal said that Hawass became fed up with the pop star’s attitude after she did not show the interest Hawass felt was deserved of the pyramids.
A meeting of great entertainers, for sure, complete with celebrity ego flameouts. Can I get a reality show with Zahi Hawass teaching some pop singers to excavate? We could call it "celebrity archaeology camp." I would pay money to see that for reals.

Besides the amazingness of seeing a photo of these two together, the reception of the event on the blogs is fascinating: his insult to Beyoncé became a segue into discussions of his bad temper and insults toward archaeologists (see here, here, and here). As if Beyoncé was somehow the last straw!

(Bossip)

I wonder if Beyoncé is too busy with her occult rebirth to pay sufficient attention to archaeology?

Thanks to Kostis Kourelis' great blog for clueing me in to the story.

5 comments:

  1. Hey, Dan!

    Thanks for linking to my story (the middle "here" in "here, here, and here")!

    Unfortunately, the link doesn;t work, so I will add one here:

    http://emhotep.net/2009/11/16/egypt-in-the-news/zahi-hawass-and-beyonce-pay-no-attention-to-the-story-behind-the-curtain/

    I hope that is ok? I welcome all the traffic I can get, but having it link to a 404 page makes me look like a putz.

    I will also add Archeopop to my blogroll. Not all of my readers are stodgy old graverobber types.

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  2. Thanks Keith and/or Shemsu! Link is fixed.

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  3. hawass needs to be put out to pasture.

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  4. As a general comment, check out Willow Smith's music video, "21st Century Girl." I'd be interested to hear what you think.

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  5. Thanks, Clara. It's a cool video... I love the idea of pulling a skateboard out of the earth. Someday an archaeologist will probably do it!

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