Claims that he was unaware of Simpson lip synching before the incident
As has been reported by both me and a lot of other media sources earlier, CBS/60 Minutes just happened to be at the SNL set the week of the Ashlee Simpson lip synching gaffe, and in the aftermath of the incident, Leslie Stahl interviewed the force behind Saturday Night Live, Lorne Michaels.
After some rather jovial questions about the history of the show, and how he was perceived by some who had left the show, he was asked the questions we all wanted to know about.
First he was asked whether he knew that Ashlee Simpson was going to lip synch, which he said he didn't... after they had just shown footage of him in the control room as it happened, which to me would seem to be one of the few areas of the studio that would need to be set up specifically for such a augmented performance. And since the report also made it seem like he was VERY aware of almost everything that went on in that studio, it also seems rather doubtful that he would be so totally out of the loop about such activities.
He was then asked if he was aware of other people lip synching on the show... to which he replied in effect that aside from some very dance oriented acts, he was not aware of it, which might have passed muster if this particular report was broadcast before Eminem did some lip synching of his own on that very same stage just one week after a scandal.
Perhaps he was trying to protect a few acts who he knew were big ratings grabbers in the past for the show, or maybe he wasn't comfortable acknowledging that SNL isn't as Live as it is supposed to be. Whatever the reason, I think this further complicates the public's perception of the show because now a lot of people(myself included of course) will always wonder if the musical guests are playing live or is it just Memorex?