The mainstay of the Kim-is-fake cottage industry is a Japanese university professor called Toshimitsu Shigemura, who once claimed that the real Mr Kim died in 2003, and that everything since has been make-believe. One Mr Kim, he maintains, even flatly confessed to a Japanese visitor, "I am a double."
At first, I smirked at this suggestion. But a photo comparison has left me wondering.Kim 1 is the Kim who sat next to President Clinton at the photo op. Kim 2 is the one we see in Wikipedia's entry, in a photo dated 2009. If Professor Shigemura is right, this man must also be a double -- and, to my eyes, he looks identical to Kim 1. Ah, but what about Kim 3? The third image is an undated photo from this site.
I have to admit that this Kim seems rather different. When experts try to identify someone from photos, they look first at the ears. Although our photos are quite indistinct (at least in their internet incarnations), the 2009 Kim would appear to have long, hanging ears, while Kim #3 does not. Also, the "third man" lacks that weird chin formation.
Well...for now, let's file this one under maybe.
Amusing "body double" rumors have floated around the political world for ages. In olden times, the impersonators preferred to pop up post-mortem -- and for some reason, they tended to be French. For example, an adventuress once posed as Joan of Arc, miraculously un-incinerated; she even cajoled the real Joan's brothers into going along with the gag. (There was money involved.) An American professor once claimed to be Marshal Ney, who was Robin to Napoleon's Batman. And need I mention Charles Naundorff? Or Elvis? Or Michael Jackson?
It occurs to me that you could start a really, really successful religion using trickery of this sort...
One leader known to have used doubles during his lifetime was Adolf Hitler, as Time Magazine reported in 1935. "Monty," the famed British General, used a look-alike actor named M.E. Clifton James; he later starred in a film called I Was Monty's Double. Stalin used several doubles, including actor Alexei Dikiy. (Mikhail Gelovani, who played Uncle Joe in the outrageously entertaining Fall of Berlin -- available here -- was too tall to stand in for him in real life.) Saddam Hussein and his son Uday used impersonators from time to time -- as did, apparently, Manuel Noriega.
Have any U.S. Presidents used decoys? There were wild reports that a JFK double was shot in Dallas and that a fake Reagan was shot in Washington. We may safely dismiss those rumors. Frank Zappa (of all people) and Larry Flynt were among those testifying to the existence of a video tape depicting Ronald Reagan, Vicky Morgan, and a certain plastic device; I'm told that this film did exist, and that it was produced by an eastern intelligence agency, using doubles. Rumors about a George H.W. Bush double may have inspired the film Dave.
Back in the pre-internet days, when paranoids had to get their fix via newsletter, a wacky "seer" who called himself Cosmic Awareness insisted that all presidents since Carter were, in fact, impersonators. Whatever happened to good old Cos? He was hilarious.
3 comments:
OK, from what I've read your nose and ears do go longer as you age. So somebody with a pig snout nose looks halfway decent when older. The other is that if Kim Jong is Ill (sorry) and wasting away he will look like those photos.
To be honest, I think you're a little off on this one Joe. When I distend my cheeks and move my jaws, the position of my ears change, as does the outline of my chin. I can see this in the mirror.
I think that can explain the difference in the 3rd photo, because his face is obviously posed abnormally.
I remember Cosmic Awareness (used to get the newsletter). I forget if the author was Dr. Peter Beter, but I think not, even though he as well advocated the Carter replacement theory. One of them thought the replacement was an artificial non-human replicant android kind of machine. They made a big deal out of Carter's change of the side of his head his hair was parted on (which I agree is odd for a grown man).
One should remember the Saddam double stories, including the news piece that made the world press, not so much the domestic US press, that after being allowed to meet with him, Saddam's wife denied the man in custody was her husband, and demanded to be taken to her real husband.
Some have pointed to a difference in lower mandible dentition (Saddam in prior photographs had displayed a straight row of caps in the lower jaw; the man in custody had a ragged lower tooth line).
The recent movie 'Vantage Point' featured another presidential double, this time of president Bill Hurt, who gets killed in a ceremonial appearance.
Apropos of nothing, I noticed that the person who befriended the gorgeous female alien in 'Species' in the mid-'90s was named 'John F. Kerry,' although I don't know how it was spelled for that character.
XI
Post a Comment