It was an embarrassing case of mistaken identity but this hard-hitting reporter never quite cottoned on to his error.
And the celebrity impersonator he had mistaken for U2 frontman Bono wasn't about to spell it out for him.
Human events editor-at-large Jason Mattera ambushed Bono impersonator Pavel Sfera in a video interview at the Village Recording Studio in LA last month.
Without realising his error, he published the interview this week to promote his new book, Hollywood Hypocrites,
Media Matters reports.
Mattera is seen in the video asking for an autograph before launching into a barrage of questions, accusing U2 of dodging taxes by moving its company from Ireland to Holland to shelter the band's music royalties from taxation.
"By dodging on taxes on royalties are you raiding the poverty campaigns you purport to champion?" he asks.
"No…I don't have control of that," the impersonator answers.
"You moved your shop from Ireland to Holland to get a better cut," the reporter challenges.
"No I didn’t. It's not my company," Sfera responds.
The Washington Post reports Sfera had turned up at an event at the studios as a Bono spoof and was loitering outside the venue when he was ambushed.
"I wasn't pretending to be Bono," he was quoted.
"I don't walk around with the accent, I don't fake people out."
He said he was waiting for Mattera to figure out that he wasn't Bono but the moment didn't come.
"I let him go," he said.
"I didn't think he was being legitimate and fair."
Mattera has since made light of the encounter on Twitter.
"I promise to ambush every impersonator until I get to the real Bono," he tweeted.
