No other city in the world can do what Paris did over the past three weeks, staging the drama of Olympic competition against the mise-en-scene of a glowing Eiffel Tower and the lush gardens of Versailles. The 2024 Summer Games, with their classical trappings and sheer visual beauty, raised an important question. How can possibly top this? The organizers who will bring the offered a sneak peek during Sunday night’s closing ceremony at Stade de France.
Instead of tradition, they leaned into production values and pop culture. Like something from “Mission: Impossible,” Tom Cruise rappelled from the rim of the stadium to the field below, then roared off on a motorcycle. Snoop Dogg dropped a few bars.
Billie Eilish performed, albeit remotely, from Venice Beach. “We don’t have an Eiffel Tower,” said , chairman of the LA28 organizing committee. “We’ve got a Hollywood sign.
” The next host city always gets 15 or so minutes near the end of each Olympic closing. These presentations often involve music and dancers, some colorful lights. They often get overlooked.
But LA28 needed to make a splash in Paris. A big part of the reason was money. During the past six months, Wasserman and his private group remained secretive about their abbreviated production.
Not until details began to leak last week did they acknowledge hiring Winston was the Emmy-winning executive producer of “The Late Late Show with James Cordon” and thus partly responsible for bringing the world carpoo.