After Meryl Streep's speech at the Golden Globes criticizing President Elect Donald Trump several fake news sites published an article claiming she had been fired from a 'major project' because of it. LeadStories' Trendolizer engine picked up the fact that the fake stories started trending so we decided to investigate.
According to the fake article a remake of the popular seventies series "Happy Days" was in the works and Streep had been cast in it but director/actor Ron Howard who played Richie Cunningham in the original run had to fire her because of her remarks at the Golden Globes. The new version of the show was further described like this:
Streep was to team up with Otis Winslow of "Family Matters" so Happy Days could be written into this century, with multi-racial families, gender identity and the gays playing a role in the plotlines. Ron Howard was to take on the role of Richie Cunningham once again, and other original actors include the guys who play Potsie and Malph, a cameo by Henry Winkler while Jon Voight plays Fonzie and an attractive guy who isn't worth less than the chick from Charles In Charge plays Chachi, who now loves a guy named Jeff. Scot Baio had to be ejected from auditions when he found out he didn't get the part.
It would be very weird for a show that is described as liberal/progressive as this to fire someone for being anti-Trump, which is a first hint that the article might be totally made up. A second hint comes in the form of these recent tweets by Ron Howard, praising Meryl Streep for what she did:
trump used his fame to speak out on issues years before he ran 4 office. why was he allowed & Ms Streep should keep quiet? no hypocrisy pls https://t.co/CrpSCREcrw
-- Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) January 9, 2017
@deanne_tate trump was a reality tv star spouting criticisms of a president & reinforcing the Birther Lie. but now celebs should b muzzled?
-- Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) January 9, 2017
Trump takes the bait & calls #MerylStreep overrated?! Please Pres-Elect. Don't make this into the WWF which is fun but not presidential
-- Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) January 9, 2017
Doesn't exactly sound like someone who would fire her over this speech. If there even is a project to be fired from to begin with: the only news we were able to find about a "Happy Days" reboot happening came from a satirical website.
Despite the obvious clues: check out how fast fake news like this can spread by looking at this graph (created using data from Trendolizer):
