Kevin Hart roasts NBC for mistaking him for Olympic athlete Usain Bolt
Kevin Hart had several words and face-palm emojis for NBC News on Tuesday after the media outlet incorrectly attached a photo of the comedian to a report on Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt.
The image of Hart appeared on a Facebook alert with the headline, “Usain Bolt, the fastest man alive, tests positive for coronavirus.” NBC News has since fixed the error — but not before Hart uploaded a screenshot of the blunder on Instagram.
“No comment,” Hart wrote Tuesday. “I must of gotten really fast & tall overnight....I want to take advantage of this moment & race anybody in the world. We can bet whatever ... I am also no longer doing comedy due to my Olympic training schedule.
“P.S this is Disrespectful on so many levels. All you can do is laugh. Maybe the Covid 19 shrunk his legs & torso.”
Amid mounting criticism, NBC News later removed the photo of Hart and issued a correction claiming the mistake was the result of “a technical error.”
“The social image on this post mistakenly featured a photo of comedian Kevin Hart,” a new caption on the post reads. “In the content management system, a social image was not selected, and the system reverted to an image of Hart from an unrelated video. The display image has been corrected.”
The Facebook alert now correctly pictures Jamaican track and field star Bolt, who announced Monday that he was quarantining himself “just to be safe” while awaiting his COVID-19 test result but that he had experienced no symptoms. Hours later, Jamaica’s minister of health officially confirmed that Bolt had tested positive for the respiratory illness after the athlete was recently seen at a party wearing no face mask.
“It is now public knowledge that Mr. Bolt has tested positive,” Christopher Tufton told reporters. “He has been formally notified, I’m told by the authorities. It triggers an approach to questioning, interrogation if you will, which we follow through with contact tracing.”
Late-night TV host Stephen Colbert was among many who had a bewildered reaction to “vengeful banshee” Kimberly Guilfoyle’s RNC remarks on Monday.
While performing stand-up at Dave Chappelle’s “An Intimate Socially Distanced Affair” show over the weekend, Hart reportedly said that he’d also come down with COVID-19 in March, but joked that he couldn’t go public with his diagnosis at the same time that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson announced theirs.
Other Hollywood figures who have shared their coronavirus stories this year include Antonio Banderas, Idris Elba, Daniel Dae Kim, Bryan Cranston, Lena Dunham, Pink and many more.
“Pain and Glory” actor Antonio Banderas announced on Twitter on Tuesday that he has recovered from COVID-19 after three weeks of confinement.
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