Has Wallace Shawn been named as frontrunner to replace Daniel Craig as James Bond in the next 007 movie? No, that's not true. Following earlier satirical hoaxes claiming the role would go to Scarlett Johansson or Whoopi Goldberg it is now the turn of satire website The Onion to do their version of the hoax.
The story originated from a very short article published on August 24, 2018 titled "Wallace Shawn Emerges As Frontrunner To Replace Daniel Craig As James Bond" (archived here) which just contained a picture of the actor.
But the actor best known for his roles in My Dinner with Andre (1981), The Princess Bride (1987), Clueless (1995), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999) and Gossip Girl (2008-2012) will probably not be taking up the role of the iconic British spy.
The Onion is one of the oldest and best known satire websites on the internet. Their about page claims:
The Onion is the world's leading news publication, offering highly acclaimed, universally revered coverage of breaking national, international, and local news events. Rising from its humble beginnings as a print newspaper in 1756, The Onion now enjoys a daily readership of 4.3 trillion and has grown into the single most powerful and influential organization in human history.
In addition to maintaining a towering standard of excellence to which the rest of the industry aspires, The Onion supports more than 350,000 full- and part-time journalism jobs in its numerous news bureaus and manual labor camps stationed around the world, and members of its editorial board have served with distinction in an advisory capacity for such nations as China, Syria, Somalia, and the former Soviet Union. On top of its journalistic pursuits, The Onion also owns and operates the majority of the world's transoceanic shipping lanes, stands on the nation's leading edge on matters of deforestation and strip mining, and proudly conducts tests on millions of animals daily.
If you somehow find that hard to believe: you are right. Scroll down a bit futher on that page and you'll find this:
What if I want to sue The Onion?
Please do not do that. The First Amendment protects satire as a form of free speech and expression. The Onion uses invented names in all of its stories, except in cases where public figures are being satirized. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental. The Onion is not intended for readers under 18 years of age.
Articles from The Onion are frequently mistaken for real news by people on social media that only see the headline, short description and thumbnail image. Being one of the best known satire sites their articles also frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites that don't carry a satire disclaimer. Always Google before sharing something that sounds improbable!
