Hollywood

Does a real video from the Epstein files show a cannibalism party where Epstein is carving into a trussed and cooked human corpse? No, that's not true: Scenes of this cannibalism party came from the production of a fake trailer for a horror movie named Thanksgiving. A mix of real images from the movie trailer production and AI-generated scenes derived…

Is a video showing Celine Dion confessing to drinking the blood of children real? No, that's not true: The altered clip posted on social media uses footage from a documentary that shows Dion having a seizure and recovering. She does not say that she ate children or drank their blood in the original video. The claim appeared in an Aug.…

Did American actor Sylvester Stallone say talking to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was "like listening to a high school girl"? No, that's not true: The claim originated from a page with a satire label that specifies everything on it is fictional. No credible media outlets reported the nonexistent story. The claim appeared in an article (archived here and here) published on…

Have you seen viral videos showing elaborate movie sets of small-scale cities and landscapes where the crew creates special effects -- explosions and natural disasters -- in front of a blue or green screen? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. They do not show real…

Does a viral image of actor Elliot Page actually show him on the August 2026 Men's Health magazine cover? No, that's not true: The magazine told Lead Stories it didn't publish such a cover. The picture shared on social media originated from a self-described satire account, but later variations removed the watermark linking the image with that account. The claim…

Have you seen viral videos showing Sandra Bullock asking for personal information of followers? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and has found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. They do not show the real Sandra Bullock or real situations. They seek private or personal information in order to scam people. This article…

Did President Donald Trump post a video about "Dr. Trump and his Trump Derangement Syndrome patients" on an official social media account? Yes, that's true: The content appeared on his verified Instagram account. Although the video contains numerous signs of AI-generated imagery and audio, there is no evidence that it was posted by an unofficial or impersonator account. The claim…

Could a man who claimed in a viral video that he had a stack of unclaimed ballots mailed to voters who had moved use them to vote for Spencer Pratt for mayor of Los Angeles as he claimed? No, that's not true: The ballots appeared to be for a precinct in West Hollywood, which is a separate city from Los…

Is this a real photo of Robert De Niro wearing a T-shirt that says "Obama are you coming home soon? The babysitter is weird" and flipping off the camera in front of Trump Tower? No, that's not true. De Niro's rep told Lead Stories the photo was "fake." An online detection tool rated the photo of De Niro with his…

In a real social media post, did Donald Trump write about a Joe Biden visit to Moscow in 1987 and implicate him in various conspiracy theories? No, that's not true: The supposed post does not appear on the president's official Truth Social account, and there are no reliable reports that it ever did. Biden also never visited Moscow in 1987.…