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Celine Dion sat on Jimmy Kimmel's couch for two (two!) whole segments last night (and then later performed her new single). She wasn't as goofy as one might expect, though sometimes hilarious regardless — Kimmel pointed out that the titular command of her new song "Love Me Back to Life" is technically impossible to pull off, but Dion vehemently disagreed, citing the scenario of a bunch of people praying around a hospital bed while someone was in a coma as an example of loving someone back to life. For Celine, all drama is melodrama. Life is but a soap opera.

Kimmel also asked her about her Vegas show, now in its 10th year, and Dion said that when she signed on to sing at Caesar's Palace, people thought her career was over ("The vibe was bad"), so she had any famous person who stopped by autograph a big canvas "for her kids." (Yeah, I don't know either, just go with it.) Kimmel asked if anyone refused to sign, and Dion said there was one person: Prince, whose name was a symbol when he attended her Vegas show.

That didn't happen — at least not like that. Prince changed his name to the "Love Symbol" in the early '90s, only to start going by Prince again in 2000, after he was released from his contract with Arista. In 2003, when Dion took the Vegas stage, Prince was already the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince. Celine Dion lied.

Why did Celine Dion lie? The story isn't even that good. The lie isn't even that significant. Was she just trying to fill space? Does she really have that little to discuss?

Actually, I can think of a few additional reasons why Celine Dion may have lied:

  • She still thinks Prince name-change jokes are hilarious. (If you enjoyed that one, she would also like to wow you with some riffing on Roseanne's weight, a no-panties Basic Instinct gag, and a joke whose punchline is, "Is that you final answer?")
  • Celine Dion lies whenever she damn well pleases because she is Celine Dion and doesn't have anyone to tell her no.
  • She really wanted to remind us that Prince wrote a song for her 21 years ago and she thought this elaborate story would be a good way of presenting this fact without looking like she was bragging.
  • This story happened exactly as she told it, and the reason why it sounds like she's lying is that Prince was fucking with her. He is known for having his own tenuous relationship with the truth (and it's been like this for decades).

Any of these as the real reason would satisfy me, but I'd most like it to be the final scenario, just because I love the idea of Prince going out of his way to confuse Celine Dion. She's probably just a big liar, though.