KCNA/EPA
Dennis Rodman and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his wife, Ri Sol-ju, applaud at an exhibition game in the capital, Pyongyang.
Call it Dennis Diplomacy — and it apparently includes Dennis Rodman singing Sinatra's "My Way" to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
It was all part of the basketball star's February trip to the Hermit Kingdom, along with three members of the Harlem Globetrotters and filmmakers from Brooklyn-based Vice Media.
"I'm sorry my country and your country are not on good terms," Rodman told a packed stadium in North Korea, with Kim Jong-un by his side. "But for me, and your country, you're a friend for life."
PHOTOS: DENNIS RODMAN VISITS KIM JONG UN IN NORTH KOREA
A Wednesday screening of the bizarre season finale of HBO's new show "Vice," which will air June 14, gives details on Rodman's unlikely visit, which ended with a Globetrotters exhibition against North Korean basketball stars.
The game resulted in a 110-110 tie (though ties are technically prohibited in organized basketball).
Jason Mojica
Dennis Rodman (right) sings Frank Sinatra's 'My Way' to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un on the season finale of HBO's 'Vice.'
After the game, the Americans were ushered to a private dinner reception with Kim, where the Sinatra rendition is said to have taken place. (Vice wasn't allowed to bring cameras to the dinner.) Before Rodman's solo, a female North Korean pop band played the theme song to "Rocky" on electric violins.
RELATED: DENNIS RODMAN TO VISIT 'FRIEND' KIM JONG UN AGAIN IN AUGUST
Asked yesterday about meeting Kim, Vice correspondent Ryan Duffy said the leader was "socially awkward" and didn't make eye contact when shaking hands.
Strangely, at no point in the season finale does Rodman speak to Vice's cameras to give his impressions or thoughts about North Korea — even though Vice organized the entire trip.
Instead, we only see him from afar, usually behind thick sunglasses and a low-slung baseball cap.
RELATED: DENNIS RODMAN HEADED TO NORTH KOREA TO BROKER AMERICAN'S RELEASE
KCNA
During the former NBA champion's visit to the Hermit Kingdom, the Harlem Globetrotters played an exhibition game against North Korean basketball stars.
Asked about this after the screening, Vice co-founder Shane Smith said that Rodman was freaked out by all the negative publicity surrounding the trip and was trying to downplay his role in the documentary.
But that doesn't mean he won't go back. Rodman recently told TMZ that he was planning to return to North Korea on Aug. 1 to try to secure the release of an American prisoner there.
Rodman was only in the country for two days for the Vice show. But the film crew spent 10 days being ushered around the country, to shopping malls with no customers, a Sea World-like theme park of dancing dolphins, and a gym where the treadmills were apparently designed and inspected by Kim Jong-un himself.
Everywhere the group went, giant banners proclaimed the success of the rogue state's recent nuclear tests.
None of it felt real, Duffy said after the screening yesterday, adding that everything they saw seemed to have been staged for their benefit.
In one particularly strange scene, the Americans are shown a class full of students browsing the Internet, except that hardly any of the students are actually clicking on anything. Instead, they just stare blankly at the Google homepage.
30 May, 2013
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Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFKq_MZ0wiH_ow8BEw5QV8bNk4-Pw&url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/vice-tracks-rodman-strange-days-north-korea-article-1.1357860
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