On Monday, late night talk show host Chelsea Handler, of Chelsea Lately fame, was talking about Sochi mayor Anatoly Pakhomov and his remarks that the city does not have any gay people.
However, when a photo of Pakhomov was supposed to appear on the screen, a picture Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson’s face showed up.
A viewer in Victoria noticed and tweeted this photo:
Robertson, who has always been an avid supporter of gay rights, also tweeted to Chelsea Lately about the mistake.
A photo of Anatoly Pakhomov:
Speaking at a press conference in Vancouver on Wednesday, Robertson laughed when he was asked about what happened.
“I did see the photograph, came through social media yesterday, Vancouverites yesterday saying ‘wait a second that’s mayor Gregor, that’s not the mayor of Sochi,’ so actually my staff are in touch with producers of Chelsea’s so we’ll see what they do next,” he said.
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“I sent her a reminder that I am not the Mayor of Sochi, I’ve always stood strong and proud for Vancouver’s LGBTQ community, and gay rights are really important to Vancouverites, and it’s a bizarre little confusion and we just want to set the record straight,” Robertson added.
On Wednesday, Robertson said he had not heard back from the Chelsea Lately show.
But Handler did address the mix-up on her show Wednesday night.
She apologized for using the wrong picture in her segment and then said she meant to show a different one. That is when a photo of Rob Ford popped up on the screen.
Vancouver councillor Tim Stevenson has now travelled to Sochi to fight homophobia. The group hopes to convince the International Olympic Committee to make Pride Houses, which are not allowed in Sochi, a requirement for all future Olympics.
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