{"id":469890,"date":"2026-02-10T04:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T04:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/469890\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T04:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T04:55:11","slug":"whos-mariah-carey-italian-journalists-to-strike-after-commentators-blunders-at-opening-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/469890\/","title":{"rendered":"Who’s Mariah Carey? Italian journalists to strike after commentator’s blunders at opening ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN (AP) \u2014 Misidentifying Mariah Carey. Mistaking the Olympics’ top boss for the Italian president\u2019s daughter. Confusing the location of the opening ceremony. These gaffes at the Milan Cortina Winter Games<\/a> by a top Italian broadcaster’s commentator so thoroughly embarrassed its staff that they’re going on strike.<\/p>\n

Journalists from RaiSport announced on Monday that they were adopting protest measures \u2014 including strikes after the Games<\/a> end \u2014 following RaiSport director Paolo Petrecca\u2019s blunder-strewn commentary on Friday.<\/p>\n

The channel is part of Rai, the Italian state-owned network that is broadcasting free-to-air coverage of its home Games.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the broadcaster told The Associated Press that Petrecca has been removed from the commentary team for the Feb. 22 closing ceremony after a meeting on Monday afternoon with Rai CEO Giampaolo Rossi.<\/p>\n

One blunder after another<\/p>\n

First among Petrecca’s many mistakes, he welcomed viewers to the \u201cStadio Olimpico\u201d (In English, \u201cOlympic Stadium\u201d), the name of a massive arena in Rome. In fact, he was standing inside the iconic San Siro,<\/a> known across Italy as the home to legendary soccer clubs Inter Milan and AC Milan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show continues with Mariah Carey,\u201d he said as the camera locked onto Italian actress Matilda De Angelis, who is known throughout the country. Carey is more than 25 years older than her, and a global superstar. (De Angelis has since posted photos of the ceremony to Instagram with the caption: \u201cPlease, call me Mariah.\u201d)<\/p>\n

And when Italian President Sergio Mattarella walked into the stadium with International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry, Petrecca announced \u201cMattarella \u2026 and his daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The channel\u2019s Comitato di Redazione \u2014 the internal union body that represents its journalists \u2014 issued a statement on Monday that all reporters and commentators would withhold their bylines until the end of the Winter Olympics, and that there would be three days of strikes after the Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have all been embarrassed, no one excluded, and through no fault of our own,\u201d read the statement. \u201cIt is time to make our voices heard because we are facing the worst-ever figure of RaiSport in one of the most eagerly awaited events ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Petrecca wasn’t supposed to commentate on the opening ceremony, but decided to replace Auro Bulbarelli, who removed himself from the team after spoiling what was meant to be the surprise arrival of Mattarella aboard one of the city\u2019s classic orange trams, driven by former motorcycle racer Valentino Rossi.<\/p>\n

Service error<\/p>\n

Among his other errors during Friday\u2019s commentary was evidently failing to recognize Italy\u2019s male and female volleyball teams. Both are world champions, and the women are also the reigning Olympic champions. Representatives from both carried the Olympic flame toward the end of the ceremony.<\/p>\n

Petrecca named only one of the women, while referring to the remaining five champions as \u201cother torchbearers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to the commentators,\u201d men\u2019s captain Simone Giannelli commented on a post on Instagram, followed by three laughing-crying emojis.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Olympics: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN (AP) \u2014 Misidentifying Mariah Carey. Mistaking the Olympics’ top boss for the Italian president\u2019s daughter. Confusing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,239977,29333,239976,136,239974,239975],"class_list":{"0":"post-469890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-italian-president","12":"tag-mariah-carey","13":"tag-matilda-de-angelis","14":"tag-music","15":"tag-raisport","16":"tag-sergio-mattarella"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}