Did actor Keanu Reeves refuse to present actress Whoopi Goldberg with the Lifetime Achievement award, saying, "She's not a good person"? No, that's not true: This information came from a self-described satirical website that includes the disclaimer, "Everything on this website is fiction." A representative of Reeves also told Lead Stories that this is "absolutely false."
The claim appeared in a post on Facebook (archived here) on March 5, 2024. The caption said:
As soon as I heard it was Whoopi I backed out.
Above side-by-side images of Reeves and Goldberg, the text overlay read:
Keanu Reeves Refused to Present Whoopi Goldberg With The Lifetime Achievement Oscar: 'She's Not a Good Person'
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed. Jan 9 14:01:29 2025 UTC)
Lead Stories contacted Reeves's publicist to verify this claim. In a January 8, 2025, email, his publicist at Maisel PR responded that it's false:
It [the post] first appeared in February 2024. And it [the claim] is absolutely false. There is nothing remotely accurate about the post.
Lead Stories also reached out to Goldberg's representatives. This fact check will be updated if any responses are received.
The post appears on the Facebook account of America's Last Line of Defense (ALLOD). Under the About tab (archived here) on the ALLOD Facebook account, the account is listed under the "satire/parody" category and is described as an "Entertainment website."
In the comment section, an article titled "Keanu Reeves Refuses to Present Whoopi Goldberg's Lifetime Achievement Award: She's Not a Good Person" was linked (archived here) to The Dunning-Kruger Times website.
The website is named after the Dunning-Kruger effect, a term from a psychology experiment that describes being ignorant of one's ignorance. (A math professor has disputed that experiment.)
ALLOD & The Dunning-Kruger Times
The Dunning-Kruger Times is part of the ALLOD network of satire websites run by self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair, who lives in Maine. Along with a loose confederation of friends and allies, Blair runs several websites and Facebook pages with visible satire disclaimers.
Sites in the network have an "About" page that reads, in part:
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with "comedy":
sat·ire ˈsaˌtī(ə)r noun: The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites that omit the satire disclaimer and other indications showing that the stories are fake.
The Dunning-Kruger Times website also contains an "About Us" (archived here) page that has the following disclaimer:
About Us
Dunning-Kruger-Times.com is a subsidiary of the 'America's Last Line of Defense' network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery, or as Snopes called it before they lost their war on satire: Junk News
At the time this was written, multiple fact-checking organizations, including Snopes and Reuters in 2024, had previously reviewed the claim.
Additional fact checks of claims that mention Whoopi Goldberg can be read here. Other fact checks of claims that concern Keanu Reeves can be read here.
Lead Stories articles on claims involving America's Last Line of Defense (ALLOD) and its network of satirical websites are here.
