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Did Beyoncé Really Send a Look-Alike to an Event?

Wed., Apr. 29, 2009 2:00 PM PDT by Leslie Gornstein

Ramey Photo

Did Beyoncé sent a look-alike to a meeting so that she could go shopping? Who does she think she's fooling?
—Beth, New Harmony, Ind.

The people of Vienna, apparently. Officials at a highbrow Austrian art museum were quoted today as saying that Beyoncé Knowles blew off a private tour they had arranged just for her—and sent a look-alike to meet them instead.

So what was the real singer reportedly doing while Beyoncé Fauxles posed for photos at the Albertina museum? You won't believe it...

...shopping, the articles say. Understandably, there are at least a few Austrians who would love to spit in Sasha Fierce's Weiner schnitzel.

"What a cheek," Albertina spokeswoman Verena Dahlitz told the Austrian news agency APA. (As for Beyoncé's people, they didn't immediately comment; Beyoncé's publicist's lookalike didn't immediately comment either.)

To be fair, many a celeb has employed a decoy; veteran publicist Howard Bragman says stars often recruit them through security firms or even casting agencies.

But the motive is usually safety or privacy, not a day lollygagging in a changing room. Katie Holmes has reportedly used look-alikes and decoy cars to avoid photographers, for example. Ditto Michael Jackson.

Even Jamie Lynn Spears, whose fame wattage falls somewhere between phosphorescent fungi and a stick-up bulb, has spurred safety officials to recruit look-alikes to divert papparazzi.

(Inexplicably, Paris Hilton once reportedly presented a decoy of the famous dog Tinkerbell at a movie set. Hilton denied the dog was anything but 100 percent Tinkerbell, but come on. The dog's nail color was so totally different.)

As for Beyonce, she was in Austria to perform a concert. I am happy to confirm that the woman on stage was really her.

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