Photos: Lip-synching hall of shamers

Milli Vanilli’s make-believe music career

Milli Vanilli (Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus) had reached such popularity that the first known instance of them having lip-synched -- during a live 1990 performance recorded by MTV at a theme park in Bristol, Conn. -- went virtually unnoticed by the crowd. During their performance of “Girl You Know It’s True,” the track jammed and began to skip, repeating the partial line “Girl, you know it’s” over and over. Later that year, however, after Morvan and Pilatus insisted on singing on their next album, their producer, Frank Farian, admitted to the media that his Grammy-winning act did not actually sing on the records.  (Douglas C. Pizac / AP File Photo)

Luciano Pavarotti‘s lip-synchs through one of his last performances

At the 2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony, Pavarotti brought those in the stadium to their feet after his rendition of “Nessun Dorma.” But the director of the performance, Leone Magiera, later revealed in the memoir “Pavarotti Visto da Vicino” that the entire thing was pre-recorded, both the opera singer’s vocals and the orchestra backing: “The orchestra pretended to play for the audience, I pretended to conduct and Luciano pretended to sing. The effect was wonderful.” Pavarotti died in 2007.  (Vadim Ghirda / AP File Photo)

Britney Spears’ would-be comeback

It was supposed to be Britney’s big comeback. Her bald head was covered up. Her post-pregnancy bod was almost back in tip-top shape. And she had a rising club hit in “Gimme More.” But a minute into her 2007 MTV Video Music Awards performance, it was painfully clear that less was more. The lip-synching was the least of it after factoring in her zombie-like expression and half-hearted dancing.  (Kevin Winter / AFP / Getty Images)

Mariah Carey caught faking it for ‘GMA’ crowd?

Wait for the three-minute mark. See that? She tells one of her backup singers to “stop singing my part, baby” during this April 25 performance of “Touch My Body” for “Good Morning America.” This is bizarre because up until then, Carey sounded pretty live -- and pretty bad. Better to have let your backups take it, Mariah. Fortunately, the boo-boo happened after her latest disc “E=MC2” had already debuted atop the charts (selling a big 463,000 copies in its first week).  (Evan Agostini / AP FIle Photo)

50 Cent cheaps out at the BET Awards

The guy didn’t even try to hide it during this performance of “Amusement Park” at the BET Awards. See how he opted to shed his jacket in favor of moving his mouth to the track. Caught. There goes your street cred.  (Kevork Djansezian / AP FIle Photo)

The lip-synch seen round the world.

In 2004, Ashlee Simpson was slated to perform two songs on “Saturday Night Live.” After she sang “Pieces of Me,” it was time for “Autobiography,” but the words to “Pieces of Me” came blaring through the speakers yet again. Ash’s lips weren’t even moving.

First, she blamed her band. Then, she blamed acid reflux. Then she blamed a band called Acid Reflux. OK, she didn’t do that last part, but she totally would have.  (Peter Kramer / Getty Images)

Beyonce performed the national anthem at President Obama’s second inauguration ceremony in Washington. Or, did she? After some snooping by several journalistic outlets, it was confirmed that Beyonce opted to go with a “pre-recorded” version of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”   (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)