RYAN TATE
CLIP
From The Wall Street Journal/California
Wednesday, September 01, 1999
(page CA-3)
Why Are They Waiting? It's Time to Call the Fembots
The parody spy from the 1960s, Austin Powers, has spent this summer on billboards promoting Virgin Group PLC's Virgin Atlantic Airways. But -- appropriately enough for the bumbling would-be swinger -- Mr. Powers's voice has turned up in an airport where Virgin doesn't even fly.
By Ryan Tate
Special to The Wall Street Journal
OAKLAND -- The parody spy from the 1960s, Austin Powers, has spent this summer on billboards promoting Virgin Group PLC's Virgin Atlantic Airways. But -- appropriately enough for the bumbling would-be swinger -- Mr. Powers's voice has turned up in an airport where Virgin doesn't even fly.
Last month, snippets from the 1997 picture "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" were surreptitiously broadcast over the public-address system at Oakland International Airport. One burst interrupted the airport's own announcer, while other clips blared shouts of "Yeah, baby!" "Groovy, baby!" and "Beeehaaave." The sounds had the crackle of digital compression, meaning that they probably came from a computer or were culled from the Internet.
So whose bag was it, baby?
"It could've been anything," says airport spokeswoman Cindy Johnson. "On the one side, it's sort of humorous, but on the other, we have to find where it originated, because it sets up a whole bunch of different concerns," including security.
Robbing airport safety announcers of their mojo is more in the spirit of Dr. Evil than Austin Powers -- both played by actor-writer Mike Myers. What would the International Man of Mystery say? He couldn't be reached, and a Virgin spokeswoman insisted, "I can't speak for Austin on that."