Every now and then along comes a scammer whose background story is so poor…you really have to wonder how anyone fell for it. Sure, these scammers usually prey on the poor weak or elderly who don’t really see that they’re being taken for a ride.
Clearly, American TV station The Food Network falls into the “weak and elderly” category. They’ve just sacked Robert Irvine, the presenter of their Dinner: Impossible TV show. Amongst other lies, Irvine had claimed to have helped make the wedding cake for Prince Charles and Diana’s wedding (creating “elaborate side panels” telling the history of the Royals); to have been knighted; and to have cooked for former US Presidents.
Now, I guess the latter technically could have been true, but let’s do a quick think about the first two items. Charles and Diana got married in 1981. Irvine is currently 42. That would have made him 15 at the time of the wedding. I don’t think the Royal Family are quite so stretched for cash that they have to get kids to make their wedding spread. (In fact, Irvine attended the school where the cake was made, but this actual contribution was “picking fruit and things like that”.)
Secondly, he’s a chef. He may be a good one, but he’s still just a chef that’s presumably only part-way through his career. No matter how well he cooks, I don’t think the Queen doles out knighthoods just because her dinner of spag bol was really tasty.
(Although maybe that’d be one way to get quicker and better service: “If you can deliver my sofa by Tuesday, one will give you a knighthood.”)
Food Network – next time you hire staff, do a quick check of their CV, yeah? Or maybe just run through the “facts” in your head, and see if they actually make sense?