Providing a needed distraction from the long national nightmare of the stranded cruise ship, the Internets were burning up Thursday afternoon with a Guardian story about Dick Van Dyke being saved from a death at sea while surfing off a local beach. The rescuers: porpoises. The online reaction: What in the name of Rob Petrie was the 84-year-old Van Dyke doing surfing?
Well, more clarity was provided with a video link via Twitter of Van Dyke's appearance last week on "The Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson." Van Dyke was there talking about the DVD/Blu-ray release of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." And about 8 minutes and 20 seconds into the 10-minute clip, he starts to talk about how he lives in Los Angeles. Ferguson asks if he surfs. No, not anymore, Van Dyke says, but used to, on the East Coast. And he launches into this incident:.
Now go back to the story. The quotes seem to match up. The story lacks a time element. Diagnosis: Fishy.
(Thanks to Molly Priesmeyer for the link to the originial story and Fiona Quick for the link to the video.)
