Why You Always Lying: Top 10 Celebrity Liars

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By Kyle Boris

This time last year, then 21-year old, Nicholas Fraser turned the classic song, “Too Close” by Next, into an internet sensation with his parody titled “Why You Always Lying”. The unique video would become common knowledge to everyone on the internet and would be used as a meme for anyone caught lying. The classic remake celebrates its one-year anniversary this month and what better way to celebrate than to take a look at the Top 10 Celebrities who got caught lying.

10.) Ryan Lochtekazan_2015_-_ryan_lochte_200m_freestyle_semifinal

We’ll start off with our most recent liar. Olympic-gold medalist, Ryan Lochte, could do no wrong as one of the more popular swimmers in the country, besides Michael Phelps. That was until Lochte was caught fabricating a story about how he, along with three others, were robbed at gunpoint in Rio during the 2016 Olympics. In apparently a drunken state, Lochte  had actually vandalized a gas station which led to the altercation he exaggerated. The Olympian went on to lose many endorsements, including his deal with Speedo. See kids, lying isn’t smart; especially if it makes you lose millions of dollars. Jeah!

9.) Sean Kingston1280px-sean_kingston_drive-thru

I’m sure we’ve all told a small lie here and there to impress a date. “I make this much money” “I was a star-athlete in high school” “I can bench 300 pounds” “Justin Bieber gave me his car”

Oh, you can’t relate to that last one? Well neither can singer Sean Kingston.

In 2012, Sean Kingston and his date were leaving a restaurant when paparazzi asked him about the Fisker Karma he was driving. Kingston went on to say that Bieber had gifted him with the car as a symbol of friendship. The “Beautiful Girls” singer was obviously attempting to impress the beautiful girl that was his date, but I’m sure he messed up his chances once Bieber’s crew found out about the lie and called him out for it. I guess some of us need to learn the difference between a gift and a borrow.

8.) Steve Rannazzisi

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via zap2it.com

Every now and then someone tells a lie that just makes you question, “what is actually wrong with you”. This is the case for star of the FX series, The League, Steve Rannazzisi. As Rannazzisi would appear on podcasts and in interviews, he would occasionally bring up the story of how he survived the horrific 9/11 attacks. As an employee for Merrill Lynch, Rannazzisi claimed he was on the 54th floor the day of the attacks. Years later, Steve admitted to lying. He wasn’t anywhere near the attacks. He never worked for Merrill Lynch. Merrill Lynch didn’t even have offices in the World Trade Center. Its one thing to lie, but to lie about something so horrific just makes you question, “what is actually wrong with you”.

7.) Milli Vanilli

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via flickr

Milli Vanilli celebrated huge success in the United States during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The duo won three American Music Awards and even won a Grammy for Best New Artist. The R&B duo, consisting of Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus, were taking over a nation with their voices. Except…it wasn’t their voices. The two were lip-synching on all of their tracks. Apparently, the songs were sung by less attractive singers which is why Morvan and Pilatus were asked to stand in their place. Milli Vanilli’s certified platinum album was ironically titled Girl You Know It’s True.  Girl, you know it’s true that they lied.

6.) Brian Williams719px-brian_williams_2011_shankbone

Brian Williams had been a respected journalist in the world of broadcast television. That was until he lied about his experiences while covering the Iraq War. He told a story of how the military helicopter he was traveling in, was “forced down after being hit by an RGP”. Once again, we have a man using terrible circumstances to make himself look stronger. As a journalist, a lie of this magnitude will ruin your career, and that’s ultimately what happened to Williams.

5.) James Frey

James Frey is an author known for his memoir A Million Little Pieces. Its too bad his memoir that detailed his struggle with drug addictions along with his criminal record was more of a novel. The lies came to fruition when Oprah had him on her show and confronted the author. Frey would go on to admit that several of the allegations were in fact correct and he had fabricated most of the story. We know what Oprah must have been thinking; oooooooh my god.

4.) The White Stripesmeg_26_jack_the_white_stripes

You ever start a band with your ex-girlfriend, but lie to everyone and say that you’re siblings? Well, Jack White of the White Stripes is probably the only one on this planet that can say yes to that question. White’s reasoning behind the lie was, “when they’re brother and sister, you go, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’ You care more about the music, not the relationship.” Uhh, whatever you say Mr. White. Just don’t go kissing your sister, eh…wife, with that lying mouth.

3.) Manti Te’omanti_teo

Ah, the legend of Manti Te’o. This…this is a confusing one so you may have to do some research after reading this. Te’o played his 2012 collegiate football season at Notre Dame under heavy burden after he learned that his grandmother and girlfriend, who had leukemia, had passed away. Te’o would go on to be be an inspiration with his tremendous play on the field. However, it was later determined that a friend of Te’o was actually portraying the role of his girlfriend and lured Te’o into an online relationship. Te’o had lied that he had actually met his internet girlfriend because he was embarrassed of the online fling. This story takes being catfished to an entire new level.

2.) Tonya Harding

Tonya Harding, a two-time Olympian, was a tremendous figure skater. However, there was another skater who was just as good if not better by the name of Nancy Kerrigan. Prior to the 1994 Winter Olympics, Kerrigan was attacked by a man who was hired by Harding’s ex-husband and her bodyguard. Kerrigan was hit above the knee with a baton forcing her to miss the upcoming competition. Harding lied about her involvement in the incident, but eventually plead guilty after her ex-husband came clean. This was a lie mixed with an assault like no other.

1.) Anyone Involved with Frank Ocean’s Album

It’s tough to know who exactly to blame for this one. Frank Ocean’s long awaited album “Boys Don’t Cry” was finally released August of 2016, but fans had expecting this album for what seems like forever. Frank Ocean never came out and said, “my album is coming out this day”, yet, every couple of months rumors would fly around stating the album was about to be released. Where did these rumors come from? It could have been Twitter users. It could have been someone on Frank’s team looking to create some publicity. The world may never know who, but someone was responsible for lying and continuing to have us on the edge of our seats waiting for new music from Frank Ocean. Then, once we were let down because nothing was released, we were left asking…

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Kyle Boris is a contributing editor for YourSitch.com

Twitter: @KyleNoStyle

The Rio We Don’t See

A brief look into the life in Rio de Janeiro and it’s relation to the 2016 Olympics.

By Daisy Rivadeneira

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Sight of Brazil tourist when landing in Rio (BBC)

‘Welcome to Hell’ is how many were greeted when landing in Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Olympics earlier this month. Now, if that’s not terrifying, I don’t know what is. Months leading into the world-wide competition hinted that Rio was going through an economic crisis. The cost of last year’s World Cup, in addition to the construction of more stadiums for the Olympics, has put a strain on its community.

 

Here’s what we see versus what is actually going on just outside of the stadiums:

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2016 Rio Olympics Opening Ceremony (NBC)
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Olympic Park- Rio de Janeiro (Rappler)

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s not like people are walking in blind into Rio. It was publicly known that natives in Rio de Janeiro were protesting the Olympics, leading to the boycott of many police officers before the event. Yes, Brazil has brought in officers to keep the athletes and tourists safe as a temporary solution- but how has that held up? 

Rio Favelas CTSY ABCQuick background, as soon as it was announced that Rio would host the World Cup and the Olympics, the government quickly acted on pushing the poor into favelas; urban ghettos, where there is little to no police supervision. These favelas are far enough from where gold medals are being distributed, but still just a few kilometers away from the glamour.

Currently, many cities in Brazil are going through the same severe poverty Rio is going through. The only difference here is that most of the world has their eyes set on the Olympics, forcing the city into a negative spotlight. Unfortunately this isn’t something that has come about in the recent months, but something that has been going on for years. Yet, not much has been done by the government to change or resolve the problem. It seems almost as if the government has accepted the issue and is just settling. 

Due to the severe poverty in Rio, there are women selling their bodies and kids pickpocketing tourists just footsteps away from Maracana Stadium. People are doing this because there aren’t jobs that will pay them, coercing them to do what it takes to survive. Not sure if I missed that in the news, but all I have been hearing is how the city is beautiful, safe, and fun.Screen Shot 2016-08-18 at 12.05.55 AM Honestly this doesn’t come to my surprise, but it’s not what has really shocked me so far. What really has shocked me is how the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the people who chose Rio as the host city, are coming off. They appear to be more worried about looking foolish in the decision they’ve made in choosing Rio de Janeiro.

Throughout the Olympic games the IOC has overlooked and ignored many incidents in where people have been mugged, robbed, or just merely had their life threatened. However, it got to the point in where they could no longer ignore the real-life crime happening right in front of their faces. Now obviously there have been many crime related instances throughout the games, but what has been making headlines as of late is Ryan Lochte’s incident on Sunday.

In case you missed it,12-time Olympic Gold medalist Ryan Lochte reported that he had allegedly been robbed at gunpoint with three other US swimmers. Lochte goes on social media to break the news and instantly the news goes viral.  Now here is my issue. Any organization would have an initial reaction of trying to get ahold of the situation and get to the bottom of it. However, the IOC’s reaction was to shut down the claim and deny it happened immediately. Now it appeared as if they were trying to hide and bury the news as if nothing had happened, but since Lochte is a world-wide name it was hard to have the news disappear. Who knows what the truth in this story is, but Brazilian officials are determined to find out the truth. This case is currently under investigation and on Wednesday the Brazilian court ordered to seize Lochte’s passport along with the three other athletes he was with that night (USA Today).  Now if the Brazilian officials actually did this in-depth investigation for other crimes, things might not be so bad in Brazil. 

This is just a very tiny glimpse and a quick overview of what is going on down in Brazil. So what happens after the games are over and done with? The only places with protection seem to be around the events. Currently every event is being heavily guarded, and even locals have reported that this is the safest Rio has been… at least around Olympic Park (NY Times). Like I said this is just the tip of the iceberg and you can read about Rio’s crime problem for hours and even read into the corruption in IOC’s decision. But that’s another article for another time.

Let me know your thoughts as this discussion isn’t close to being done.


Daisy Rivadeneira is a contributing editor for YourSitch.com

Twitter: @day_zeeee