The Breakfast presenter was unable to host the show for two minutes after mispronouncing the name of a museum in Wiesbaden, which holds a painting by Friedrich Heyser.
Video / TVNZ
Breakfast presenter Jenny-May Clarkson was unable to host the show for almost two minutes this morning, descending into fits of laughter after mispronouncing the name of a German museum.
Shortly after 7.33am, Clarkson had a prolonged on-air blooper while presenting a feature on an art museum in the German cityof Wiesbaden, which holds a painting that Taylor Swift fans are flocking to see.
The segment highlighted how Swift has been credited with driving up the museum’s patronage because it has Friedrich Heyser’s painting Ophelia, which is a probable inspiration for the music video of her new song The Fate of Ophelia.
The Friday funnies hit Jenny-May Clarkson on Breakfast this morning, triggering a giggling fit after she stumbled over the name of a German musuem. Photo / TVNZ
Clarkson fumbled over the pronunciation of “Hessische Landesmuseum”, which is the name of the art and natural history museum for the state of Hesse.
“In the opening scenes of the video for her song The Fate of Ophelia mimics a work by German painter Friedrich Heyser, which hangs in the Hessische Landesmuseum,” she said before pausing and laughing.
Breakfast co-presenter Chris Chang told Clarkson she’d “nailed it” before Clarkson tried, and failed, to carry on with the rest of the segment.
As a clip played of an art expert speaking about the characteristics of the 1900 Art Nouveau painting, Clarkson was unable to compose herself. At the end of the clip, she could be heard asking Chang to take over presenting duties.
With Jenny-May Clarkson unable to present, co-host Chris Chang had to take over the segment. Photo / TVNZ
When the cameras switched back to the TVNZ studio, Clarkson was holding her head in her hands and shaking with laughter. The show then cut to a financial market update, which ran unnarrated as she continued to be in hysterics for almost two minutes.
Chang stepped in to present the next weather forecast, starting by saying: “I don’t know what it’s like in Germany at the moment, but here it’s sunny for most of the North Island.”
By 7.35am, the show was back on track, with Clarkson saying, “Sorry about that” before Breakfast moved on to the next segment.
The Hessische Landesmuseum’s Museum Wiesbaden reported that it had received hundreds of additional visitors to see the painting.
Museum director Andreas Henning told the German DPA news agency that he was “surprised and delighted that Taylor Swift used this painting from the museum as inspiration for her video”.
“This is, of course, a great opportunity to attract people to the museum who don’t know us yet.”
