Beyonce blamed for sending double to museum it was radio station prank

English-speaking news outlets are incorrectly reporting that Beyonce Knowles has become a huge diva – and flat out disrespectful towards her public. They’re saying she sent a body double to a Vienna museum that had booked a special private tour just for her so that she could go shopping instead. They’re getting the story wrong, though. German-language sources say that it was all a prank by an Austrian radio station that was pulled off with a body double without Beyonce’s consent. Here’s an account in Yahoo! News, which incorrectly interprets the German stories about the incident:

Note: the story below is incorrect. Beyonce did not arrange this, it was a prank by a radio station

US pop star Beyonce has angered a high-brow art museum in Vienna by sending a look-a-like to her own special personal tour of the museum, while she went shopping, according to newspaper reports here Wednesday.

Tabloid dailies Oesterreich and Heute said the R&B diva had been due to visit the Albertina, one of the Austrian capital’s most famous museums which attracts around one million visitors each year. Recent visitors include Hollywood stars such as Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Nicolas Cage.

But Beyonce, who gave a concert in Vienna on Tuesday, decided to skive off and do some shopping instead, sending a look-a-like to the museum and be photographed with Albertina director, Klaus Albrecht Schroeder, according to the reports.

The museum was understandably put out and said it would protest to the star’s management. “What a cheek,” Albertina spokeswoman Verena Dahlitz told the Austrian news agency APA. “We were a little doubtful yesterday, but weren’t really sure. It could have been her,” Dahlitz said, adding that fans were apparently duped, too. Beyonce’s concert in Vienna met with very mixed reviews and was only half-full, according to Oesterreich.

[From Yahoo News]

I’d written this whole article about how ungracious Beyonce was being, which I’m sure some other sites will be doing as well in the next day. Luckily, Celebitchy’s husband – who’s German – offered to read a few of the articles and translate, and the English articles got the story entirely wrong. What actually happened is that radio station Krone-Hit arranged the museum visit as a prank on the museum without Beyonce’s knowledge. Presumably they were acting as though they were Beyonce’s representatives. Then they sent the Beyonce double to the museum. Who, from the picture, isn’t that great a doppelganger – she has a much smaller frame, and even with sunglasses you can tell the face isn’t all that similar. She looks a lot more like Leona Lewis than Beyonce in my opinion.

The museum employees became suspicious because the faux-Beyonce avoided eye contact with the director and was behaving oddly. The radio station has YouTube video up (it’s in German) but according to Celebitchy they’re still not admitting it isn’t her, though it’s obvious to anyone with semi-vision. The woman shows up in a limo that has a picture of Beyonce on the window and bodyguards surrounding it to give the impression that it’s her.

Beyonce and the museum were just the victims of a stupid prank. The problem is that it seriously wasted the gallery’s time, and it may very well become a PR issue for Beyonce. I’m fairly certain most sites don’t have the advantage of a German translator at the ready and will have to assume that Yahoo’s story is accurate. But to be clear, Beyonce appears to have had absolutely nothing to do with it. The only thing that was correct about the article was that her concert got some pretty bad reviews.

* Big thanks to Celebitchy’s husband for his help with this article.

Images thanks to Krone.at and WIEN .

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