Super Bowl halftime producer: There was never a Prince hologram

Variety

“There was never an idea to have a hologram,” says Super Bowl halftime producer Ricky Kirshner of  Saturday’s uproar over TMZ’s report of a Prince hologram. Kirshner has no idea how that rumor got out, but he hates how the controversy overshadowed the event. “Our people show up in below-zero temperatures and work their butts off for two weeks or more,” he says. “That’s what people should be writing about — how do you put on a show like that, and get that (production) on and off the field in six minutes? I think that’s more important than if we had a hologram or not. Kirshner, whose first Super Bowl halftime was Prince’s in 2007, said the iconic singer's estate “absolutely gave us the audio and authorized Warner Bros. to give us the footage” for Sunday’s performance. He said it made sense to pay tribute to Prince in his hometown of Minnesota, especially with an homage to his Super Bowl performance that is widely considered the best-ever. “I watched the morning news shows in Minneapolis the day after the show and all of them were over the moon that we did something to honor Prince,” he said. “Just because a few people tweeted that they didn’t think we should doesn’t make it wrong, in my opinion. It was always the intent to honor Prince.”