His drug-induced death at the age of 50 in 2009 would itself turn into a worldwide spectacle of grief, speculation and unseemly jockeying for money and position among family members and lawyers.
And many Brazilians seem to be unexcited, to say the least, about the worldwide spectacle that's due to take place in their country.
In this worldwide spectacle we see the remarkable heights of achievement the human body can attain and also the profound and sometimes subtle differences among individuals.
One of a celebrity's main jobs is to draw attention, and this was a spectacle that drew comment worldwide — a grand diva moment that was noticed, and will be remembered, the way a perfect performance never would.
"I think this is the time that the Paralympics will go from something that happens after the Olympics to being a massive worldwide sporting spectacle".
The GANEFO, as a huge media spectacle that projected images worldwide of successful Chinese athletes, highlights the culmination of that project and shows that China's recent Olympic achievement is built on the foundation of these Mao-era developments in sport.
The first movie by a mainland Chinese director that achieved wide global appeal was "Hero," the 2004 swordplay spectacle directed by Mr. Zhang that earned $177 million worldwide.
Along with her husband, Vincent, McMahon founded and built World Wrestling Entertainment, known worldwide for its quasi-sporting spectacles.
Up to 600,000 people gathered in central London and the spectacle was watched by some 750 million people worldwide.
With Johnny Depp's 3-D visual spectacle of a movie currently standing at a worldwide gross of $1,024,299,904, I suspect he made Alice in Wonderland very cool for a lot of Disney executives too.
