Were Novak Djokovic, Barbra Streisand, Cher, Dolly Parton and dozens of other celebrities each honored with a full-body bronze statue on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? No, that's not true: The exact same story, usually just altered by changing the name of the celebrity, appeared on dozens of sites and Facebook pages run from Vietnam. There were no real news reports about full-body bronzes on the Walk of Fame, despite the names of several global mega-stars being used. Several of the AI images used to illustrate the fake stories used identical fake background faces in identical position.
The Djokovic version appeared in a Dec. 20, 2025 Facebook post (archived here) on the TopSpin Times page. It began "In an emotional ceremony that nearly brought Sunset Boulevard to a standstill". It continued:
Novak Djokovic created a new historic milestone: he became the first tennis athlete ever to be honored with a full-body bronze statue on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, far surpassing the traditional star plaque that has existed for decades.
This is what the image on the posts looked like on Facebook at the time of writing, with stars swapped in over identical backgrounds:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshots of Facebook posts found by searching for "full-body bronze statue on the Hollywood Walk of Fame".)
The Facebook page "TopSpin Times" (archived here) which was used to promote the story had a page transparency tab (archived here) indicating it was run from Vietnam:
(Image source: screenshot of the transparency tab of the "TopSpin Times" page on Facebook.)
The Vietnam connection is significant, since fact-checkers, including Lead Stories, have identified a major source of AI-generated false stories coming from a single operation based in that Southeast Asian country. You can see recent reporting and fact checks mentioning that country here.
Lead Stories searched the Google News index of thousands of news sites for articles mentioning "Djokovic", "first" and "honored with a full-body bronze statue on the Hollywood Walk of Fame" and found no such reports (archived here). Searching the index for versions of the story that featured Streisand, Dolly Parton, or Cher similarly yielded no reports (archived here) by credible news outlets.
The Facebook post of the Djokovic version linked to a story (archived here) on the https://poweralign.feji.io/ website that included following passage:
In an emotional and chaotic ceremony that brought traffic on the legendary Sunset Boulevard to a complete, gridlocked standstill, tennis icon Novak Djokovic created a new historic milestone.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion became the first tennis athlete ever to be honored with a full-body Bronze statue on the Hollywood Walk of Fame ..."
A search for "Hollywood Walk of Fame" on Djokovic's Facebook page only returned copies of the fake story, but no posts about such a statue by Djokovic himself.
A search on Facebook for the phrase "full-body bronze statue on the Hollywood Walk of Fame" (archived here) brought up dozens of results with identical stories, featuring dozens of different celebrities, accompanied by very similar images showing a crowd around the performer, their statue, or a ribbon-cutting. Lead Stories found posts involving 38 celebrities, listed below in alphabetical order:
- Folk singer Joan Baez;
- Rock star Jon Bon Jovi;
- Country stars Ronnie Dunn & Kix Brooks;
- Six-decade rock star Cher;
- Rock star Eric Clapton;
- Movie star Kevin Costner;
- Rockstar David Coverdale;
- Movie star Robert De Niro;
- Pop star Celine Dion;
- Ventriloquist Darci Lynne Farmer
- Rock star David Gilmour;
- Dancer Derek Hough;
- Rock star Mick Jagger;
- Pop singers The Jonas Brothers;
- Rapper Jelly Roll;
- Motown star Gladys Knight;
- Recording artist Patti LaBelle;
- Country star Miranda Lambert;
- Pop star Adam Lambert;
- Christian rocker Brandon Lake;
- Comic Martin Lawrence;
- Country singer Scotty McCreery;
- Rockstar Joni Mitchell;
- Pop star Donny Osmond;
- Country star Dolly Parton;
- Rockstar Steve Perry;
- Pop star Linda Ronstadt;
- Rock star Richie Sambora;
- Rock star Gene Simmons;
- 19 platinum rock record seller Rod Stewart;
- EGOT winner Barbra Streisand;
- Country star Josh Turner;
- Actor Dick Van Dyke;
- Country star Gretchen Wilson;
- Country star Lainey Wilson;
- Rock stars Ann & Nancy Wilson;
- 25 Grammy-winner Stevie Wonder;
- Rock star Neil Young;
Lead Stories collected screenshots of the Facebook posts, displayed here in a GIF that autoscrolls through them:
(Image source: animation of Facebook search results for the phrase "full-body bronze statue on Hollywood's Walk of Fame".)
Lead Stories has published a primer -- or a prebunk -- on how to identify these kinds of fake posts exported from Vietnam. It's titled "Prebunk: Beware Of Fake Fan Pages Spreading False Stories About Your Favorite Celebrities -- How To Spot 'Viet Spam'"
