When your country is home to one of the most famous supermodels in the world, you should brag about it. And that's what Brazil is doing with Gisele Bundchen being in the Rio Olympics opening ceremony. The host city for the the 2016 Summer Olympics, Rio de Janeiro, will have the opportunity to showcase the history and culture of Brazil during the artistic program of the opening ceremony. Like London before with Danny Boyle, Rio recruited the City of God and The Constant Gardener director Fernando Meirelles to helm the opening ceremony, which airs in the U.S. on Friday, Aug. 5 at 7:30 p.m. ET. While Bündchen won't be a part of the parade of nations that focuses on the athletes, she will be in the artistic program on Aug. 5, so what time is Bundchen in the opening ceremony?
NBC has the opening ceremony scheduled from 7:30 p.m. to 12:00 a.m., but as Time wrote, "The details of the opening ceremony are kept secret until the day of the performance." That means it's a struggle to find any official word on when anything is specifically happening during the Rio Olympics opening ceremony — including Bündchen's appearance. However, I can guarantee the first half hour will be pre-coverage with the ceremony not taking place until 8 p.m. And considering that for both the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing the opening ceremonies started off with the artistic program, you should expect to see Bündchen in the first half of the ceremony. Yahoo confirmed that the opening ceremony will start with the artistic program, so Bündchen should appear after 8 p.m., but presumably before 10 p.m.
Just like the time of Bündchen's appearance is hard to pinpoint, so is what she is exactly going to be doing during the opening ceremony. The Daily Mail reported that, according to spectators who attended the opening ceremony dress rehearsal at Rio's Maracanã Stadium, Bündchen walked down a catwalk to the Brazilian song "The Girl From Ipanema" and then was mugged as part of the act with a race to catch the perpetuator ensuing throughout the stadium.
Controversy obviously surrounded the report and The Washington Post reported on Aug. 2 that the skit in question was cut and Meirelles told the newspaper that this was all a "tremendous misunderstanding" in the first place, as the skit actually involved a food vendor asking the model for a photo and being chased by security guards. "Imagine us doing a scene like that in the opening," Meirelles wrote in an email to the newspaper. "I'm not that clueless." He also wrote, "It was a gag that was not funny so we cut it. ... There was nothing that looked like a robbery in the scene except two security guards chasing after a vendor. They are three professional clowns."
While that particular section of Bündchen's opening ceremony appearance was cut, she will still be in the Olympic ceremony as the model posted on Instagram during the morning of Aug. 5 that she was in Rio.
The entire opening ceremony, which includes not only the artistic event and the parade of nations, but also the presentations of the Olympic flag, anthem, oath, and flame, is scheduled to last approximately four hours. And while the artistic segment is one part of the overall ceremony, in years past, it's usually the most memorable — like when Daniel Craig's James Bond escorted Queen Elizabeth II to the London Olympics opening ceremony. Knowing that, whatever Bündchen does is sure to be epic. Just make sure you're watching the opening ceremony by 8 p.m. so you don't miss the model during the celebration of Brazilian culture. If you tune in when the parade of nations has already started, you'll have missed her.
