Sean Mandell
Savannah Guthrie was feeling a little “hot and bothered” after a segment in the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony that gave heavy ménage à trois energy.
“We are transitioning from the ‘liberty’ portion, which got us a little hot and bothered in the pouring rain,” the Today show host, 52, said with a wry smile during the Olympics broadcast on Friday, July 26, referencing one of three sections of the opening ceremonies that paid homage to the national motto of France: liberté, égalité, fraternité – liberty, equality, fraternity.
The pre-taped bit showed three dancers in a library passing a book called, “Le Triomphe De L’Amour,” which translates to “The Triumph of Love.”
After leaving the library, the colorfully dressed group spilled onto the streets of Paris before rushing up a spiral staircase. One person at the center almost kissed each of their friends before they hurried into an apartment and began making out and nuzzling one another.
But before things got any steamier, one person looked directly at the camera with a devilish smile and shut the door, leaving the rest to the audience’s imagination.
“We are uninvited, well, OK,” Kelly Clarkson quipped. “That was just rude.”
The official Olympics account on X, formerly known as Twitter, posted a photo of the three revelers with a quote from Victor Hugo: “The freedom to love is no less sacred than the freedom to think.”
Providing some context about why the segment may have been included in the show, NBC Olympics primetime host Mike Tirico explained that “the artistic director, Thomas Jolly, decided to lean into some of the clichés about France.”
He added, “The City of Light, known as a romantic city. So much literature written or set here involves love. So in this segment, love and literature the twain shall meet. Or maybe we should say trois.”
The broadcasters’ reactions were not lost on those watching at home.
“They literally just showed a ménage à trois in the Olympic opening ceremony and the NBC team had no idea how to react lmfaoooooo,” one person posted on social media before adding, “VIVE LA FRANCE.”
Someone else imagined what might have gone through the minds of the opening ceremony producers when planning the segment, suggesting that the French phrase “menage a trois” might be something they felt they could “work with” to connect to American audiences.
Plenty of others on social media clearly enjoyed the bit.
One person wrote, “tired: liberté, égalité, fraternité,” adding, “inspired: Lady Gaga, a threesome and some Minions.”
“The threesome in the Reading Room at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France was quite the surprise,” another Olympics viewer posted.
“The androgynous poly throuple” as one person described it, was definitely a “slay.”
The 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony was filled with many other memorable moments, though perhaps none more memorable than Celine Dion closing out the event with an emotional performance of “L’Hymne à l’amour” from the first stage of the Eiffel Tower.
It was Dion’s first public performance since she revealed in December 2022 that she has stiff person syndrome.
Earlier in the day, the opening ceremony kicked off with Lady Gaga giving her own twist on a French song made popular in the 1960s, “Mon Truc En Plume,” or “My Thing Made of Feathers.”
This post was originally posted by NYPost
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