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Did former NBA star Michael Jordan turn down a $200 million offer to do a commercial with current NBA star LeBron James, saying he would "never [work] with this woke creep?" No, that's not true: This story came from a website that calls itself satirical and "fake news." A representative for Jordan told Lead Stories there was "no truth" to…

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 rock musician Kid Rock call on the Grammys to ban Taylor Swift because she's "destroyed real music," as a social-media post claimed? No, that's not true: This claim initially appeared in an article on a satirical website known for publishing fabricated content. There is no publicly available or credible evidence to support the claim. A version of this claim…

Did quarterback Colin Kaepernick, a civil rights activist, say he is boycotting the NFL as long as kicker Harrison Butker is on an NFL team and did he say of Butker, "I don't like him"? No, that's not true: This claim initially appeared in an article on a satirical website known for publishing fabricated content. There is no publicly available…

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 entrepreneur and Tesla CEO Elon Musk say, "I'd rather drink sewer water than see Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl," as a post on Facebook claimed? No, that's not true: This claim originally appeared in an article on a satirical website known for publishing fabricated content. There is otherwise no publicly available or credible evidence to support this claim.…

Did Sylvester Stallone withdraw from a movie project with Robert DeNiro, calling him "woke" and "creepy"? No, that's not true: The website that originally posted the article making the claim labels the story "Hollywood satire." Stallone's lawyer told Lead Stories the article is "a completely false and fabricated story." And there is no corroborating evidence that Stallone gave up a…

Did rock musician Kid Rock refuse to do a collaborative tour with pop star Taylor Swift? No, that's not true: This claim initially appeared in an article on a satirical website known for publishing fabricated content. There is otherwise no publicly available or credible evidence to support this claim. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on…

Did Keanu Reeves reject a $1.7 billion "woke" movie offer after saying "woke mind virus should be destroyed," as a social media post claimed? No, that's not true: The claim was first published on a self-described satire website, and an analysis using a third-party tool determined that it was 99.9 percent likely to be an AI-generated story. The article was…

Are actors Roseanne Barr and Michael Richards developing a "new non-woke sitcom focused on traditional values"? No, that's not true: The site that produced this claim describes itself as satirical. Lead Stories could find no evidence that this claim was legitimate. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) by SpaceX Fanclub on April 12, 2024. The caption on…