Elton John

Did Thai golfer Atthaya "Jeeno" Thitikul say 'don't touch my family' at a news conference with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt? No, that's not true: No media outlets reported that about the golfer or any other celebrity, including actors Robert De Niro and Tom Hanks and gospel singer Guy Penrod, who was rumored to have made the identical statement…

Did Eminem, Kid Rock, Chris Stapleton, Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift or other celebrities stand for photos of themselves and supporters opening "America's first 100% free community health center"? No, that's not true: Nearly identical stories mentioning more than 40 celebrities in near-identical photos were published by a network of foreign websites and Facebook pages. There were no legitimate news articles…

Did Barbra Streisand just announce a massive donation while accepting a "Lifetime Achievement Award" at a Los Angeles gala in front of various tech titans, billionaires and powerful people? No, that's not true: The exact same story, often accompanied by an image or a mention of Mark Zuckerberg, has been posted about dozens of celebrities by a network of sites…

Did Cher tell Karoline Leavitt to "sit down, baby girl" after reading out her bio on MSNBC? No, that's not true: The viral story about the singer reacting to a supposed rant from Leavitt about "out-of-touch celebrities who think they can lecture America" originated on a network of websites and Facebook pages run from Vietnam. It contained verifiably false details.…

Does Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in music for 2025 include Tom Jones, Jelly Roll, Willie Nelson, Pink, Jimmy Page, Johnny Mathis, Mick Jagger, or anyone? No, that's not true: There is no such TIME Magazine list. While musicians are sometimes included in the publication's annual list of most influential people, there is no specific list of 100 musicians.…

Did Patti Labelle, Novak Djokovic, Cardi B, James Hetfield, Morgan Wallen or a long list of other celebrities just open "America's first 100% free homeless hospital" because they wanted to leave a legacy behind? No, that's not true: Viral posts on Facebook were the latest variations of the same made-up story being spread by foreign clickbait accounts mostly run from…

Did Phil Collins "send the internet into orbit" when he announced the 32 dates of his 2026 World Tour? No, that's not true: Phil Collins has not announced a 2026 world tour. His name, and those of many other artists such as Trace Adkins, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Pink, and Lenny Kravitz, are being used in a clickbait formula gaming…

This is what fact checkers call a "prebunk." A prebunk is like a debunk (another word for fact check), only it's an advance notice of an anticipated false claim. This article is intended to inoculate you from future outbreaks of a specific type of false claims about your favorite entertainment celebrities, sports stars, and politicians. We call this "Viet Spam"…

Was Pete Hegseth sued for $50 or $60 million along with a television network after an "on-air clash" with Robert Irwin or someone else? No, that's not true: A network of spam pages on Facebook put out dozens and dozens of variations of the same story, sometimes with a slightly different dollar amount, in which the clash was variously with…

Did Mookie Betts or other athletes say "If you want people to speak kindly about you after you're gone, then you should speak kindly while you're alive." in relation to the shooting of Charlie Kirk? No, that's not true: The fake quote, also attributed online to Bryce Harper, Mike Norvell, Jalen Hurts, Brock Purdy, Julian Sayin, Aaron Judge, Dwayne "The…