STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.

Fake Story

Did E! News report USAID paid celebrities like Ben Stiller, Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn, Orlando Bloom or Jean-Claude Van Damme millions of dollars to visit President Zelenskyy in Ukraine? No, that's not true: E! News told Lead Stories the video is "not authentic" and did not originate with them. Stiller denied he received any USAID money, posting on X that his trip to Ukraine was self-funded.

The story appeared in a post on X on February 5, 2025 (archived here). It opened:

Did you know that USAID spent your tax dollars to fund celebrity trips to Ukraine, all to boost Zelensky's popularity among Americans? 🤯

The post included a 36-second video with various graphics showing the E! News logo and watermark. A woman with a British accent narrates, saying the following:

USAID sponsored American celebrity visits to Ukraine after Russia's full-scale invasion began. Angelina Jolie -- $20M. Sean Penn -- $5M. Jean-Claude Van Damm -- $1.5M. Orlando Bloom -- $8M. Ben Stiller -- $4M. This was done to increase Zelensky's popularity among foreign audience, particularly in the United States. The involvement of celebrities made it easier to coordinate funding programs for Ukraine during the conflict.

Here is a screenshot of the post at the time of writing:

(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Feb 6 17:30:55 2025 UTC)

The U.S. Agency for International Development (archived here) has come under scrutiny from Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (archived here) in the search to cut government spending.

However, there is no evidence E! News reported that taxpayer money has been spent on "American celebrity visits to Ukraine."

No such story was on the E! News website as of February 6, 2025 (archived here). Lead Stories searched for the term "USAID" which only returned stories about Usain Bolt:

(Source: E! News website screenshot taken on Thu Feb 6 17:39:01 2025 UTC)

In a February 6, 2025, email to Lead Stories, a spokesperson for E! News said the video is not theirs:

The video is not authentic and did not originate from E! News.

One of the celebrities named in the video also said the story of being fake. Responding to a post that make the same claim, actor Ben Stiller posted on X (archived here) on February 5, 2025, that his humanitarian trip to Ukraine was "completely self-funded," with no money from USAID:

(Source: X website screenshot taken on Thu Feb 6 17:51:10 2025 UTC)

For more Lead Stories fact checks involving claims about USAID, click here.

For more Lead Stories fact checks involving claims about Ukraine, click here.