We haven't whined about European LCC EasyJet in a while, and you know we like to complain a bit about all those "cheap" airlines that keep adding charges. So you can imagine our delight to hear EasyJet in the news again, even if it's the bad news that the LCC was recently mean to a middle-aged, overweight Italian woman.

But then we discovered that the whole ordeal was faked. Anna Delluci went public about suing EasyJet after they apparently made her step on the scales in front of a bunch of other passengers, then told her that at 98kg (216 pounds), she would have to buy a second ticket to be able to fly. A day after her story went public, it was unveiled as a hoax.]]> amandak 2009-08-28T09:09:42-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/1/10/17812/8397

Funny story: I was surfing the web last Saturday, looking for travel-related items that might make for good Jaunted fodder, when I came across a video featuring Matt from the Where The Hell is Matt? series. Having enjoyed his original videos - in which former computer guy Matt Harding does a nerdy dance in exotic locations as downtempo music plays in the background - I gave it a click, expecting a few chuckles.

In the video, Matt addresses a crowd at the Entertainment Gathering conference in California last December, nervously narrating a slide show that purports to reveal that the whole Where The Hell is Matt? series was a hoax. Telegraphing his punchlines and sabotaging any effort at deadpan delivery, Matt talked about how he was really an actor, and the videos were created by a viral ad agency using robots and cutting-edge video technology to dupe a gullible public.

It's clear from watching the video that nobody in the audience believed Matt was serious about his travels being faked, but they laughed at the appropriate times as he stiffly read his lines off index cards. I was left thinking that the joke was funny in concept and lame in execution, but nonetheless worth sharing with Jaunted readers. Thus, I typed up an entry entitled Matt Comes Clean: He Was Faking It All Along. ]]> Victor Ozols 2009-01-10T17:08:12-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/1/3/132647/0611

Update: Just in case you don't watch Matt's own video, posted to the right, he explains that his dancing is indeed real and spectacular here...

I always thought there was something fishy about that Matt kid, but the truth is even worse than I could have imagined. That's right, after riding his cute "Where The Hell is Matt?" video series to internet stardom and a lucrative gum sponsorship, Matt Harding - world traveler, goofy dancer, and international goodwill ambassador - admitted that it was all an elaborate hoax. Matt's actually an actor, he's afraid of flying, and he's never left the country. ]]> Victor Ozols 2009-01-03T13:26:47-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/7/9/82021/94315

They don't have mythical powers either: Six weeks after the release of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," three real-life crystal skulls were debunked by museum experts as modern hoaxes, not Mesoamerican miracles.

Paris' Quai Branly Museum was the first to declare its crystal skull a fake, but the Smithsonian and the British Museum were also taken in by the artifacts, which were claimed to be part of a set of 12 that combined would prevent a Mayan doomsday in 2012. But under a microscope the skulls all bore traces of modern adhesives and tracks from drills and rotary wheels, none of which Central American cultures would have used.

The Smithsonian and British Museum skulls were purchased from the same shady Mexico City-based dealer around 1880. Of course, if you've seen "Indy 4," you know where the crystal skulls really come from... but we won't spoil the (ridiculous) source for you.

Related Stories:
· Crystal Skulls in British, American Museums Were Fakes [AFP, via Yahoo]
· Movie Set Travel: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull [Jaunted]
· Museum coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: MTV Movies Blog]]]> egw 2008-07-09T10:00:13-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/