You know, we never brought up the little Noah Wyle stunt that Apple pulled off at the keynote, because in the swirl of so much other information, it just kind of got lost in the shuffle. For those of you who have no idea what we're talking about, a Reuters article has a decent summary, but you'd be much better off watching the event yourself via the magic of QuickTime 4 video-on-demand. Here's the skinny: at the beginning of the keynote, "Steve Jobs" walked out on stage and started the usual feel-good spiel, but "Steve Jobs" was actually ER's Noah Wyle, who, as you are undoubtedly aware, played The Mercurial Mr. Jobs in TNT's made-for-cable movie, "Pirates of Silicon Valley." Shortly after, the real Steve walked on stage to interrupt Mr. Wyle and chide him for inaccuracies in his "Steveness," namely the omission of bottled water from his act. It was a nice moment, and it showed Steve Jobs has a sense of humor; in fact, not only did he watch "Pirates," but he was also the one who personally asked Noah Wyle to join him on stage at the Expo. And he even took Noah's departing question-- "Are you a virgin?"-- in stride.

Now, one of the reasons we bring this up almost a week after it happened is because we're still hearing about the stunt, and the accuracy of some reports leaves something to be desired. On the radio we heard it reported that the entire keynote audience was completely fooled by Noah's performance and expressed dumbfounded surprise when the real Steve walked out. Not quite, folks; Wyle's good, but he ain't that good. The AtAT staff, at least, recognized him from the get-go; the voice wasn't quite right, and even at a distance it was clear the speaker was too young to be Jobs. (In fact, Katie, AtAT's resident fact-checker and Goddess of Minutiae, actually posited that Noah Wyle might show up for the keynote several weeks before it really happened, displaying a level of either perspicacity or psychic ability that's bordering on spooky.) And very soon after Wyle appeared, his magnified image was projected on three giant screens, complete with a caption that identified him as "Noah Wylie" (sic) for those who hadn't yet gotten the joke. By the time the real Steve finally walked out, the only people who didn't realize that it was Wyle on stage were just not paying any attention.

So we're just setting the record straight; it was a cute way to kick off a memorable keynote, but the idea that everyone was taken in by the act and awestruck at the presence of two Steves, well, that's an embellishment. By the way, we noticed that "Pirates," undoubtedly the most entertaining techno-soap drama of the year (barring our own little show, of course), has racked up five Emmy award nominations: Best Casting for a Miniseries or Movie (they'd better win that one!), Best Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or Movie, Best Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or Movie, Best Writing for a Miniseries or Movie, and the biggie-- Best Movie. Congratulations to everyone involved, and we'll keep our fingers crossed for you.