Ein volk, ein reich and, thankfully, only one Pharrell Williams, as singer has trouble with German audiences misunderstanding his tribute to Star Trek
Lost in Showbiz's heart bleeds for Pharrell Williams. It can only shake its head sorrowfully and say: honestly, you go on stage with your band NERD in Berlin, make a speech asking if your audience are proud to be German "come rain or shine", and suggest they behave like "German soldiers" while extending your arm rigidly in front of your head, and what happens? The audience start acting all antsy and offended and WTF?, and then the next thing you know, the humourless old PC brigade rides into town and starts suggesting it makes you look a little bit like a Nazi.
I know, I know: has it really come to this? One minute they're suggesting that raising your arm in a gesture that quite closely resembles a Nazi salute while talking about German national pride on stage in the former capital of the Third Reich is in some way dubious, the next thing you know they'll be trying to ban Christmas.
Thank God his publicist was on hand to clear things up, particularly after a second video emerged of Williams apparently goose-stepping across the stage with his arm once again raised rigidly in front of his head during a gig in Las Vegas. Seemingly rejecting the suggestion that, whatever Williams's intention, there are perhaps less ambiguous things you could do with your arm while on stage in Berlin, he claimed that Williams was in fact "throwing up the Star Trek sign, which is also the sign for his record label Star Trak. To suggest he's doing anything else is wrong and downright silly." Lost in Showbiz sighs with relief ? of course! What record label is complete without its own special salute? Who hasn't found themselves illustrating a speech about German nationalism with a Vulcan hand signal? ? steadfastly refuses to make jokes along the lines of "yeah, Star Trek into Poland at the head of a panzer division, more like", and instead says: well, that's that cleared up then.
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