Mystic
03-18-2007, 12:36 AM
Comedian Sinbad had the last laugh this week after his Wikipedia entry announced he was dead.
Rumors began circulating last weekend regarding the posting, said Sinbad, who first got a telephone call from his daughter. The gossip quieted, but a few days later the 50-year-old entertainer said phone calls, text messages and e-mails started pouring in by the hundreds.
''Saturday I rose from the dead and then died again,'' the Los Angeles-based entertainer said in a phone interview.
Wikipedia, which describes itself as ''the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit,'' leaves it to a vast user community to catch factual errors and other problems. Apparently, someone edited it to say Sinbad died of a heart attack.
By the time the error was caught, e-mail links of the erroneous page had been forwarded to hundreds of people.
A note on Sinbad's Wikipedia page Friday said the site has been temporarily protected from editing to deal with vandalism.
Wikipedia was created in 2001 as a Web research tool. It has more than 1.6 million articles, contributed by members of the public.
Wikipedia did not return a call for comment.
When asked if he was upset about the mixup, Sinbad just laughed.
''It's gonna be more commonplace as the Internet opens up more and more. It's not that strange,'' he said.
Sinbad, who is currently on the road doing his stand-up act, said he hasn't received an apology from the Internet site.
He appeared in the films ''Houseguest'' and ''Jingle All the Way.''
Source (http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/people/301438,cst-ftr-sinbad17a.article)
Rumors began circulating last weekend regarding the posting, said Sinbad, who first got a telephone call from his daughter. The gossip quieted, but a few days later the 50-year-old entertainer said phone calls, text messages and e-mails started pouring in by the hundreds.
''Saturday I rose from the dead and then died again,'' the Los Angeles-based entertainer said in a phone interview.
Wikipedia, which describes itself as ''the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit,'' leaves it to a vast user community to catch factual errors and other problems. Apparently, someone edited it to say Sinbad died of a heart attack.
By the time the error was caught, e-mail links of the erroneous page had been forwarded to hundreds of people.
A note on Sinbad's Wikipedia page Friday said the site has been temporarily protected from editing to deal with vandalism.
Wikipedia was created in 2001 as a Web research tool. It has more than 1.6 million articles, contributed by members of the public.
Wikipedia did not return a call for comment.
When asked if he was upset about the mixup, Sinbad just laughed.
''It's gonna be more commonplace as the Internet opens up more and more. It's not that strange,'' he said.
Sinbad, who is currently on the road doing his stand-up act, said he hasn't received an apology from the Internet site.
He appeared in the films ''Houseguest'' and ''Jingle All the Way.''
Source (http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/people/301438,cst-ftr-sinbad17a.article)