Hollywood

Are viral posts claiming your favorite celebrity family adopted or had twin babies and giving them names that "are taking the internet by storm" real? No, that's not true: Nearly identical posts naming at least 49 celebrity families were distributed on Facebook in mid-April 2026 by a spam network managed from Vietnam. The posts appear to be AI-generated and have…

Does a photo show Hollywood actors, including Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, attending the funeral of Chuck Norris? No, that's not true: An online AI image detection tool found it to be 100% likely AI-generated. A separate analysis further revealed a SynthID watermark, indicating the image was created or edited using Google AI tools. The claim appeared in a post…

Do the Epstein files reveal that Ellen DeGeneres and hundreds of Hollywood VIPs ate Stanley Kubrick at a satanic ritual? No, that's not true: There are no reports in the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice that claim DeGeneres or anyone else ate Hollywood director Kubrick at a satanic ritual. The article does not cite any sources for…

Did Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift announce on a livestream that they are spending $250 million to find the truth in the Virginia Giuffre case? No, that's not true: Neither the celebrity couple nor news organizations said anything about it. The claim was promoted by overseas-based pages that publish made-up stories to drive traffic-based ad revenue. The claim appeared in…

Did Rowan Atkinson, Barbra Streisand, Jon Bon Jovi and Stevie Nicks, and other celebrities all give the same speech to Mark Zuckerberg and a roomful of the rich and powerful on Dec. 20, 2025, saying "you are not creating change -- you are creating noise"? No, that's not true: Nearly identical stories mentioning those and other names were published by…

Did Stevie Nicks, Tom Brady, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Elon Musk, or dozens of other entertainers, sports stars, or media figures defend Donald Trump from accusations he's authoritarian and trying to cancel elections? No, that's not true: The identical story is told about at least 55 celebrities who purportedly said "This disorder is being used to scare Americans. To convince…

Did TV host Johnny Carson comfort dying woman Barbara Martinez while taping the March 17, 1983, episode of NBC's Tonight Show? No, that's not true: Social media posts about it did not include the actual recording of the purported event, sharing an AI-generated image instead. Lead Stories found no credible sources ever mentioning the supposed dance, and the Library of…

Were Novak Djokovic, Barbra Streisand, Cher, Dolly Parton and dozens of other celebrities each honored with a full-body bronze statue on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? No, that's not true: The exact same story, usually just altered by changing the name of the celebrity, appeared on dozens of sites and Facebook pages run from Vietnam. There were no real news…

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, Patrick Mahomes, Bono and other celebrities pull business deals with Amazon over founder Jeff Bezos' "quiet alignment with Trump," sending messages to Bezos that all began "Wake up, Jeff"? No, that's not true: The posts tell nearly identical stories featuring those and dozens of other famous names all quitting Amazon. The clickbait fictions were published by a network…