#ICYMI, James Gunn isn’t a fan of TMZ or Hollywood rumors. His Twitter handle may as well be deemed dangerous or harmful to your health because if you tag him, his co-CEO James Safran, or anything DC Studios-related, he’ll see it. And, if you are wrong, misleading, ignorant, or even a troll, he fires.
Trust, James Gunn hits what lands in his crosshairs too. Most recently, DC stans and trolls have united under the “We want Henry Cavill back” banner. To wit, anyone with access to a blog or a cell phone has been getting the fan-casting bug and working their psychic powers to determine who is filling Cavill’s spandex in the new DCU.
Enter the fray, Jacob Elordi. The 6′ 5″ Aussie from Euphoria and Deep Water has been the Clark Kent du jour, and that note among Hollywood rumors has been gaining a little momentum. That is until the new DC boss let his thumbs do the talking.
My thoughts are no one has been cast as Superman yet. Casting, as is almost always the case with me, will happen after the script is finished or close to finished, and it isn’t. We’ll announce a few things in not too long, but the casting of Superman won’t be one of them. 🧜♂️ https://t.co/2SGWV2RSI7
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) January 13, 2023
Without someone as protective as James Gunn hoarding real news, and going full-Snopes.com on fake news, people go into delirium. Rumors spin out of control. And next thing you know, we hear the CIA killed John Lennon, someone named Zapruder captured some choice footage, or Phil Collins wrote a song about some fool he let drown.
These are the Top 10 Worst Hollywood Rumors of All Time!
P.S. Leave DC Studios alone. He won’t allow you to pass go and collect $200 or your 15 minutes of fame. So stop it. On with the show…
10. Clark Gable Didn’t Give a Damn About DWI
Back in 1945, there were three TV networks, few Silver Screens, and even fewer “big names” to fill them. Among the owners of Tinseltown was Clark Gable. The iconic Gone With the Wind leading man had a Hollywood life that Leonardo DiCaprio or Denzel Washington wouldn’t know anything about in terms of paparazzi.
All eyes were on him, but the rumor mill did not spin much back then. Until this happened. The rumor was reported everywhere by TMZ wannabes that Gable was tipsy, smacked a pedestrian, and MGM studio chieftain Louis B. Mayer sent Gable away so he could bribe the local District Attorney. For months, this rumor blazed like wildfire, until it was unceremoniously put out by the truth.
Turns out Gable went to a nationalist party–literally celebrating our troops in Iwo Jima. He left drunk and crashed in his front yard, hurting his car’s suspension and front yard landscaping. Now, his son on the other hand…
9. Lucy, You’re Smarter Than That
Sometimes, the worst Hollywood rumors are spread because of the movies, not those in them. In the ScarJo and Morgan Freeman 2014 film Lucy, there’s a girl who is forced to become a drug mule and ends up with superhuman powers because of some chemical slippage. Nice, right?
Morgan Freeman has been the voice of God, but people are sheep because they believed his role as a neurologist was Gospel. In the movie, Freeman perpetuates the myth “human beings only use 10% of their brain’s capacity.” If you watch Congress, the news, or social media, that’s not hard to believe. Only it’s a huge lie. It always has been, but if God says it, that must be true.
For a movie about the optimization of the human brain, this was one hapless, brain-dead film. Ah, well.
8. This Lemonade is a Little Salty
Speaking of movies being the source of some terrible Hollywood rumors, Brad Pitt hammered one home in Fight Club. The David Fincher film is an all-time twist-ending awesome film. Yet, if social media was a thing, parental advisory videos would have been global!
Back in 1999, Tyler Durden taught the world that “urine is sterile” and “you can drink it.” Guess what? Of course, they did! If Tiktok-watching dolts would eat Tide pods, their ancestors would gladly pee in a cup to see what happens. It’s waste–liquid (not all water and soda, folks) teeming with bacteria.
Maybe you should tell people about Fight Club sometimes. Like, when you’re really thirsty.
7. NOPE! Keke Palmer Isn’t Dead
Obviously, Keke Palmer is alive and well. She’s a trendsetter and started doing that way back in 2012 when Twitter spread a wildfire rumor about her death. It’s no secret Twitter needs to do something about “[insert your movie star here] trending.” Hey, Elon Musk, if someone is dead, place some praying hands after their name or something. Dang!
Death hoaxes have been a problem ever since social media was invented. But when Keke Palmer died, and her sister discovered Keke’s demise via social media, she set the trend to fighting back loudly. You can imagine the chaos in Palmer’s life when she gets a delirious phone call saying everyone (including family) thought she died. Her Twitter thread was legendary; yet, Hollywood rumors kill people every year.
6. Hey Leia, Daddy Issues Much?
Ah, yes. The 1970s was a great time of bell-bottom jeans, acid rock, and Force-enhanced borderline incest. Wait, what?! There were no such things as trolls or spoilers in the world of entertainment. So, when it was widely speculated that “Darth Vader uses the Force to seduce Leia to betray Han and Luke,” everyone went with it.
Back in 1977, that wasn’t thought to be nasty because not even David Prowse or Carrie Fisher knew what George Lucas was planning in the sequel. Thanks to a Starlog periodical, fans of the game-changing film thought Vader had a lil’ playa’ playa’ in him. But, as we soon learned, the guy never knew Leia was his offspring until his twilight moments. (But can you imagine?! Yeech!)
5. Hello, Gorgeous?!
Among the many stellar people in Hollywood, Barbra Streisand sits on a golden perch of her own. Even though she was rumored to work really blue. For decades, the unspoken secret of her career was that she made a 10-minute silent porn movie. Yes, her! Aside from whatever you think about her vociferous opinions on politics, her Hollywood star is untarnished.
Yes, this is one of the worst fake Hollywood rumors ever because it’s her! The woman is notoriously known for a lack of self-esteem, so if she needed to make ends meet, she’s selling latkes at Junior’s off Flatbush. Turns out Streisand went to see this body double and had a funny quote that no one believed for years.
“The girl has long hair, like I did back in the Sixties, although she was chubby, while I was very skinny,” she told a reporter. “But the dead giveaway came when the camera zoomed in on her hands. There they were: short, stubby fingers! Definitely not mine. So all you would-be buyers, don’t waste your money.”
Barbra Streisand
Legend!
4. Follow the Yellow Brick Road, With a Dark Detour
The life of Judy Garland is the stuff of legend. Even Oscars have been doled out for people portraying her, yet when she was Dorothy, one of the worst Hollywood rumors started and gave the Wizard an ominous light.
Look carefully at that image of Dorothy skipping down the Yellow Brick Road with the Scarecrow and Tin Man. In the middle of the screen, far in the distance is a black shadow. Do you see it? That has been the looming image of one of the scariest Hollywood rumors in history.
In 1989, during the film’s 50th-anniversary release, that shadow on center stage was dubbed the “Munchkin Suicide.” As soon as they get past the snarl and sinister laugh of the Wicked Witch of the West, off they go to the Wizard. But first, DVD watchers were convinced they skipped past a Munchkin actor who hanged himself in a fake tree.
MGM was forced to quiet that miserable story about a love-requited depressed dwarf, which was instead a bird on loan from the Los Angeles Zoo. The actors are supposed to be outside in the woods, so yeah, birds. Dang thing wanted some camera time and there, the scorned lover Munchkin rumor was born.
3. An Officer and a Gentleman…and a Rodent
Love can lift you up to where you belong unless it’s in through the back door of a pet store. (Pun slightly intended there.) Most cinephiles have heard of this disgusting fetish story involving a guy and a friendly pet. It’s truly one of the worst Hollywood rumors in history because…just…yuck!
Richard Gere is a remarkable talent, as he put on full display in the Oscar-winning An Officer and a Gentleman, but that isn’t the origin that started this flatulent gerbil affinity. That may go to Sylvester Stallone of all people. A story in Uproxx breaks down the timeline in flawless journalistic fashion. Gere’s love interest at the time was the lovely Cindy Crawford, and even she has debunked this nefarious rumor.
Yet, this disgusting tale among Hollywood rumors has more lives than the Buddha Gere worships. And, probably always will.
2. The Poltergeist Curse
It’s no mystery about the clown car of weird that unloaded on the set of Steven Spielberg’s classic paranormal horror film Poltergeist. We’ve discussed it here before. Two actresses died shortly after the movie was released in awful circumstances. Dominique Dunne was murdered (choked by her boyfriend in her driveway) and the beautiful 12-year-old girl, Heather O’Rourke, died of septic shock.
The rumor wasn’t about the spirits from an Indian reservation. It was about the real human skeleton with which Jobeth Williams was forced to swim in a pool of oatmeal above. The “curse” of horrible events to plague this entire franchise was said to be the real spirits of the cadavers Spielberg shook during filming. Depending on who you ask, the rumor still lives today.
1. Happy Birthday, Mr. President
Next to Elvis isn’t dead, this is the rumor that never dies. Even biopics and the smacked Blonde on Netflix have touched upon Norma Jean’s fanciful relationship with JFK. Generations have spread this rumor almost as fast as pregnancy scares on Nick Cannon’s Wild N’ Out.
As the story goes, the former president and Hollywood starlet met at JFK’s 45th birthday at Madison Square Garden. Of course, they were surrounded by a few hundred VIPs and their respective spouses, Jackie O and the legendary playwright Arthur Miller. There were also a few dozen still and video photographers.
This is where she sang that sultry version of “Happy Birthday.” That’s all it took for Marilyn Monroe biographer James Spada to blab among his ilk, “It’s pretty clear that Marilyn had sexual relations with both Bobby and Jack.” That’s all it took. TMZ wasn’t spawned on that day, but it may as well be.
GVN
Millions still believe that happened–Monroe acolytes and presidential conspiracy theorists alike. And although that photo is believed to be the only photograph of JFK and Monroe together, you’d think Instagram was around in 1962. The sexy time rumor has been unsubstantiated many times, but people want to believe people in politics are just seedy.
If that was his special birthday gift or not, we’ll never know. One thing is for certain: this rumor will always have as much fuel behind it as that other rumor involving the other guy in the image during a trip to Dallas.
Featured Image Source: The Day After Tomorrow via 20th Century FOX/Centropolis Entertainment
Since he saw ‘Dune’ in the $1 movie theater as a kid, this guy has been a lover of geek culture. It wasn’t until he became a professional copywriter, ghostwriter, and speechwriter that he began to write about it (a lot).
From the gravitas of the Sith, the genius of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, or the gluttony of today’s comic fan, SPW digs intelligent debate about entertainment. He’s also addicted to listicles, storytelling, useless trivia, and the Oxford comma. And, he prefers his puns intended.
