News reporter caught on air with no trousers - and five other working-from-home fails
Will Reeve appears on live TV in a jacket and shirt – and not much else
A US TV news reporter appeared live on Good Morning America – without any trousers.
Journalist Will Reeve, the son of Superman actor Christopher Reeve, was appearing on ABC News’s Good Morning America from his home during lockdown. But he failed to realise that his self-framed shot showed that he wasn’t wearing the bottom half of his suit.
Reeve, 27, was telling GMA’s anchors Michael Strahan and Amy Robach in their New York studio how pharmacies in the US have begun using drones to deliver prescriptions to patients during the coronavirus pandemic. But viewers were quick to point out that he appeared to have forgotten to put on any trousers.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Writing on Twitter, Reeve said: “The camera angle, along with friends, family and several hundred strangers on social media made me rethink my morning routine. Any sartorial tips from these people who are wearing a belt, trousers and shoes during their work video calls at home are most welcome.”
Reeve added that being caught short was “hilariously mortifying” – but he is by no means the first person to fall foul of working-from-home’s pitfalls.
Loose-lipped Labour minister
Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething was last week forced to apologise after being caught swearing about a Labour colleague in a video conference.
Gething could be heard muttering “What the f*** is the matter with her?”, in reference to Cardiff Central Assembly Member Jenny Rathbone.
The error was made after he left his microphone on by mistake in a virtual Welsh Assembly session conducted via Zoom – much to the amusement and horror of the rest of the call.
Gething has since apologised to his colleague, tweeting: “I’m obviously embarrassed about my comments at the end of questions today. I’ve sent a message apologising and offered to speak to Jenny Rathbone if she wishes to do so.”
California’s cat commissioner
CNN reports that officials in Vallejo, California are calling for planning commissioner Chris Platzer to be removed after he was seen “throwing a cat and drinking during a video meeting last week”.
During the meeting, which was recorded and can be viewed, the moderator asks Platzer for comment as a cat can be heard meowing in the background.
“OK, well, I’d like to first introduce my cat,” Platzer says, lifting up the cat to the camera before tossing it off camera.
Later in the call, Platzer is seen drinking “what appears to be a bottle of beer”, CNN adds. He is then heard saying “I’m going to call bullshit on you little bastards”, after everyone else has left the call.
Home office invasion
Perhaps the most iconic moment in Professor Robert E. Kelly’s distinguished career came while he was appearing live on the BBC.
As Kelly, a professor of political science at Pusan National University in South Korea, discussed inter-Korean affairs with the BBC host, his children gatecrashed his office.
As his wife burst into the room to retrieve the children, Kelly and his family made TV history, becoming a classic of the “working-from-home fail” genre.
Kelly is a regular guest on the BBC, but viewers would be lying if they said that they don’t have their eyes trained on that door behind him whenever he appears on screen.
Potato problem
Another working-from-home error from the coronavirus era occurred when Lizet Ocampo, political director at People for the American Way, managed to turn herself into a potato during a Zoom call.
Ocampo, who is based in Washington, told Buzzfeed: “Monday morning, we had our meeting and I usually try to do a camera, and when we started the meeting, I saw myself as a potato.
“I was so confused as to why I was a potato. Of all the things I could be, why a potato?”
Ocampo had previously used filters of potatoes for a light-hearted online meeting but had not realised they were still switched on. She then couldn’t switch them off.
She might have got away with her error had one of her staff not screenshotted her boss’s misfortune and shared it on Twitter.
Ocampo told Buzzfeed that she is “just glad to be brightening people’s days in these strange times”, adding: “I hope folks are really taking it seriously to be safe and stay planted.”
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––For a round-up of the most important stories from around the world - and a concise, refreshing and balanced take on the week’s news agenda - try The Week magazine. Start your trial subscription today –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Always check your angles
In a NSFW moment on Californian news network KCRA3, reporter Melinda Meza inadvertently showed her husband in the shower.
The New York Post reports that Meza was filming herself “cutting her bangs for a story about hairstylists during the coronavirus quarantine” when the camera caught a little “more than she bargained for”.
Her husband, Mike de Lambert, was caught in a reflection in the background, apparently unaware that his privates were being beamed out to viewers across the US state.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Are 'judge shopping' rules a blow to Republicans?
Today's Big Question How the abortion pill case got to the Supreme Court
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
Climate change is driving Indian women to choose sterilization
under the radar Faced with losing their jobs, they are making a life-altering decision
By Theara Coleman, The Week US Published
-
'A great culture will be lost if the EV brigade gets its way'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Covid four years on: have we got over the pandemic?
Today's Big Question Brits suffering from both lockdown nostalgia and collective trauma that refuses to go away
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
The hollow classroom
Opinion Remote school let kids down. It will take much more than extra tutoring for kids to recover.
By Mark Gimein Published
-
Excess screen time is making children only see what is in front of them
Under the radar The future is looking blurry. And very nearsighted.
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Covid-19: what to know about UK's new Juno and Pirola variants
in depth Rapidly spreading new JN.1 strain is 'yet another reminder that the pandemic is far from over'
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
Long-term respiratory illness is here to stay
The Explainer Covid is not the only disease with a long version
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Covid inquiry: the most important questions for Boris Johnson
Talking Point Former PM has faced weeks of heavy criticism from former colleagues at the public hearing
By The Week Staff Published
-
China's pneumonia cases: should we be worried?
The Explainer Experts warn against pushing 'pandemic panic button' following outbreak of respiratory illness
By Keumars Afifi-Sabet, The Week UK Published
-
Vallance diaries: Boris Johnson 'bamboozled' by Covid science
Speed Read Then PM struggled to get his head around key terms and stats, chief scientific advisor claims
By The Week UK Published