Mel Gibson

Did Mel Gibson accuse Oprah Winfrey of selling children? No, that's not true: "None of this is true," Gibson's longtime publicist told Lead Stories. The post offered no evidence for the claim that the Hollywood actor was "gearing up" to confront Winfrey. Had Gibson done so it would have been extensively covered by the news media. The claim appeared in…

Did actor Denzel Washington drop out of a $500 million project with Netflix, saying, "The company has gone woke"? No, that's not true: The report first appeared on a satirical website known for publishing made-up content. Washington's public relations representative told Lead Stories that the report is a "complete fabrication." The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook…

Did Tesla CEO Elon Musk invest $1 billion into actors Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg's "new un-woke production studio"? No, that's not true: We could not find any evidence to corroborate this claim. Lead Stories debunked a similar claim about a supposed Gibson-Walberg "non-woke film production studio" earlier in 2024. The original claim about the purported studio came from a…

Did actors Jon Voight and Angelina Jolie "join forces for a non-woke production studio" named "Time for a Change"? No, that's not true: The claim was first published on a self-described satire website. The article was not even an original, manually crafted piece -- it was an AI-generated story. The claim originated from an article (archived here) on esspots.com published…

Did Hollywood director Mel Gibson and actor Mark Wahlberg "join hands to create a non-woke film production studio," as a post on Instagram claims? No, that's not true: The meme image and caption that make this claim were taken word for word from an article published by a self-described satirical website. None of the website's content is real, according to…

Did Mel Gibson release a video of satanic rituals taking place on "Jeffrey Epstein's island"? No, that's not true: "He has nothing to do with this and has no knowledge of it," Gibson's publicist told Lead Stories about a social media post making this claim. There is no evidence given in the post that such a video even exists. The…

Did Mel Gibson make a statement on Facebook about "the end" of Israel, saying, "soon the end and they know it, that's why they want to destroy everything in the way"? No, that's not true: Gibson's agent confirmed to Lead Stories that the actor and director did not make the post. Gibson's agent also confirmed that the actor does not…

Did Mel Gibson start working on a new documentary "exposing the 34 billion dollar global child sex trafficking trade"? No, that's not true: No credible sources confirmed he made such an announcement, and his publicist explicitly denied Gibson's involvement in the alleged project in an email to Lead Stories. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Truth Social…

Did Mel Gibson say he wants to "expose the truth about the corrupted elites" on his official Telegram account? No, that's not true: "It's fake," Gibson's representative told Lead Stories about a purported quote from the actor. Gibson does not have a Telegram account, the representative said. The claim appeared on Facebook on December 13, 2022. It opened: Mel Gibson…

Did a woman experience a fentanyl overdose after touching a folded dollar bill she found at a Nashville McDonald's? No, there's no evidence of that: Although she was given a medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that's designed to rapidly reverse opioid overdose, neither the woman nor the dollar bill she touched was tested for narcotics. The…