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Who occasionally mistook Ballerina Pig for Miss Piggy?--Pantalones 20:26, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
- Well, Time Magazine for one! ""Even after working with her, I still love her," sighed Ballet Star Rudolf Nureyev. Could this be Singer-Actress Michelle Phillips, his feuding film co-star in Valentino, that Rudi was talking about? Nope. It was Miss Piggy, his TV partner in an upcoming Muppet Show." It then discusses the Swine Lake, though at this point the language becomes vaguer, mentioning "the Muppet porker," but it never makes it clear that Miss Piggy and the ballerina are seperate, and never mentions the scenes Nureyev actually had with Miss Piggy (going on to give some actually rather nice details about the full-bodied character suit, and even mentions Graham Fletcher by name). With that, and references to debates about it in online sites, I figured it was enough justification to include it. I can either remove it or mention Time, though. It's not really that important a detail. --Andrew, Aleal 20:48, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
- Addendum: A quick Google search on "Nureyev" and "Miss Piggy" also brings up a Boston Phoenix article, an Amazon review, discussions on ballet message boards, the Schoenberg Video Archive at the University of South Carolina, a Nureyev biography page, The Guardian, New York Public Library, and Londondance.com, all of which explicitly state that Nureyev performed Swine Lake with "Miss Piggy." So yeah, I'd say that's occasional. One might even go so far as to say "often." It seems that it's only the Muppet buffs who can keep it straight, and the culture crowd and dance people who equate the two. --Andrew, Aleal 21:00, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
- Oh, and the New York Times, discussing Nureyev's 50th birthday, in 1988: "Dame Margot Fonteyn flew in from London. Lincoln Kirstein, the City Ballet's co-founder, surprised all except those who know of his admiration for the birthday boy by joining the others, who included Miss Piggy (Mr. Nureyev's one-time ballerina on The Muppet Show), Yvette Chauvire, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Peter Martins, Helgi Tomasson, Peter Schaufuss, Cynthia Gregory, Karen Kain, Carla Fracci and a host of other past and present partners." This is becoming fun. You could make a game out of it, place bets as to which institution or newspaper was able to tell the difference between the ballerina pig and Miss Piggy. --Andrew, Aleal 21:04, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
- Nice. I edited the article to reflect some of this information. I hope it's a little clearer now.
- Looks good! I did clarify the dates for the confusion (the NY Times wasn't publicity, and came a decade later), included one more example, and added in some specifics about the puppet from Time, and a citation if anyone wants to find the article for themselves. Plus all the extra prose more evenly matches the image. --Andrew, Aleal 21:18, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
- Nice. I edited the article to reflect some of this information. I hope it's a little clearer now.
- Oh, and the New York Times, discussing Nureyev's 50th birthday, in 1988: "Dame Margot Fonteyn flew in from London. Lincoln Kirstein, the City Ballet's co-founder, surprised all except those who know of his admiration for the birthday boy by joining the others, who included Miss Piggy (Mr. Nureyev's one-time ballerina on The Muppet Show), Yvette Chauvire, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Peter Martins, Helgi Tomasson, Peter Schaufuss, Cynthia Gregory, Karen Kain, Carla Fracci and a host of other past and present partners." This is becoming fun. You could make a game out of it, place bets as to which institution or newspaper was able to tell the difference between the ballerina pig and Miss Piggy. --Andrew, Aleal 21:04, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
- Addendum: A quick Google search on "Nureyev" and "Miss Piggy" also brings up a Boston Phoenix article, an Amazon review, discussions on ballet message boards, the Schoenberg Video Archive at the University of South Carolina, a Nureyev biography page, The Guardian, New York Public Library, and Londondance.com, all of which explicitly state that Nureyev performed Swine Lake with "Miss Piggy." So yeah, I'd say that's occasional. One might even go so far as to say "often." It seems that it's only the Muppet buffs who can keep it straight, and the culture crowd and dance people who equate the two. --Andrew, Aleal 21:00, 6 March 2006 (UTC)