Posted on 08/27/2026 11:35:04 AM PDT by DFG
CNN was forced to apologize to Dolly Parton’s family for mistakenly using a photo of a Las Vegas impersonator of the country music legend while reporting on her death.
The cable news network aired an image of tribute artist Kelly Vohnn as it covered Parton’s Tuesday death from cancer — leaving the 58-year-old Vohnn stunned as friends began bombarding her with messages.
The errant image were broadcast during “Laura Coates Live” some 12 hours after Parton’s death was announced by her family.
“We regret the error and apologize to the Parton family,” CNN told The Post in a brief Thursday statement.
Vohnn said the photo was taken in December when she appeared on the red carpet at a Las Vegas screening of “Song Sung Blue,” starring Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman.
“I started getting all these texts in from friends saying that I was on CNN, and I couldn’t believe it,” Vohnn told The Post on Thursday.
“I was already heartbroken at losing Dolly because of how much she has given to me as a woman and an artist,” she continued.
“But then to see these images of me on screen was just weird.”
Vohnn, a longtime singer and tribute performer who has portrayed Parton throughout her career, blasted the network for the embarrassing mix-up.
“Somebody at CNN really messed up and didn’t do their research,” she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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Dimwits!
Well at least it was a female impersonator. Being CNN, it could have been otherwise.
Not a good choice of a picture anyway, but it must be very cool for the impersonator and his scrapbook.
The mistrusted news on cable................
That’s obviously not Dolly.
The head looks more like the late Loni Anderson (WKRP).
Think of it this way, at least the impersonator used is a real Woman!
Yeah but did the impersonator use real boobs?
The front page picture in the New York Times didn’t look much like her either.
““Somebody at CNN really messed up and didn’t do their research,” she said”
Vohnn plays “pretend to be Dolly” for a career and expects everyone to automatically know?
Doesn’t even consider she created confusion by being having picture taken while playing dress up?
Well its CNN after all, only brain dead morons watch it I doubt they noticed the difference
Your probably right, Both viewers are probably on crack.
I think she’d get a kick out of that.
https://www.cnn.com/profiles/laura-coates
How does a former attorney eff that up?
I know she likely didn’t create the vid, but it was her mug on the screen reporting on it.
Did Dolly?
Getting something wrong is something CNN is good at. Plenty of experience.
Didn’t Dolly enter a Dolly look-a-like contest and lose? Of course she had a good laugh about it.
“CNN uses pic of Dolly Parton Vegas impersonator during tribute, apologizes to icon’s family for blunder”
If CNN was a legitimate news organization, stupidity like that would be concerning, but since they’re not, “mistakes” like that are irrelevant ...
It was not a blunder. They did it full well knowing it was going up on the screen. The hate mail and official apology were also planned and expected.
Oh, man! NETFLIX at it again?
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