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Culture & entertainment fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about culture & entertainment. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

3,169 published reviews in this topic

Fact CrescendoCulture & entertainment

Claim: Tamil Actor Goundamani not posted this tweet about MK Stalin

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerns a tweet attributed to actor Goundamani that congratulated MK Stalin on his election victory while warning him not to repeat past mistakes. Fact Crescendo says the tweet circulated as a screenshot and that it investigated whether the account belonged to Goundamani. The setting was the Tamil Nadu election, which the review says the DMK won, with Stalin expected to form the government. [“மேற்கண்ட ஃபேஸ்புக் பதிவில், நடிகர் கவுண்டமணி பெயரில் வெளியிடப்பட்ட ட்வீட் ஒன்றின் ஸ்கிரின்ஷாட்டை இணைத்துள்ளனர். அதன் மேலே, ‘’கவுண்டர் உள்குத்து வச்சுத்தான் வாழ்த்து சொல்றாரு,’’ எனக் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளனர். குறிப்பிட்ட ட்வீட்டில், ‘’தேர்தலில் வெற்றி பெற்றதற்கு வாழ்த்துகள் @mkstalin முன்பு செய்த தவறுகளை நீங்கள் செய்ய மாட்டீர்கள் என்று நம்புகிறேன்,’’ என எழுதப்பட்டுள்ளது.”] The review reports that it asked cinema journalists and public-relations contacts about the account. Those contacts said Goundamani did not have social-media accounts and that a genuine account would be verified and publicly announced. It also says the account posting the tweet, @itisGoundamani, was not verified. [“நடிகர் கவுண்டமணி, சமூக வலைதளங்களில் எந்த ஐடியும் கொண்டிருக்கவில்லை. ஒருவேளை அவர் வைத்திருந்தால், அது கண்டிப்பாக வெரிஃபைடு செய்து, வெளிப்படையான அறிவிப்பும் தரப்பட்டிருக்கும். இந்த ட்வீட்டை அவர் வெளியிட்டிருக்க வாய்ப்பே இல்லை,” என்றனர். ட்விட்டரில், கவுண்டமணி பெயரில் நிறைய ஐடி.,கள் செயல்பட்டு வருகின்றன. ஆனால், அவை எதுவுமே வெரிஃபைடு இல்லை. இதில், ஒரு ஐடிதான் நாம் ஆய்வுக்கு எடுத்துக் கொண்ட பதிவையும் வெளியிட்டிருந்தது. https://twitter.com/itisGoundamani/status/1388836491493789698 Archived Link ஆனால், இந்த ஐடி வெரிஃபைடு எதுவும் கிடையாது.”] Fact Crescendo further cited features of the account and its posts that it considered inconsistent with Goundamani’s authorship, including a tweet about actor Vivek’s death that it described as having spelling errors. It concluded that someone had used Goundamani-related photographs to create a fake account and post the tweet. The review’s stated result is False. [“அதேபோல, நடிகர் விவேக் இறப்புக்கு இரங்கல் தெரிவித்து, எழுத்துப் பிழைகளுடன் ட்வீட் வெளியிடப்பட்டிருக்கிறது, #RIPVivekSir என்று. நடிகர் கவுண்டமணிக்கு விவேக் வயதில் சிறியவர் என்பதால், இப்படி கூற வாய்ப்பே இல்லை.”] [“எனவே, இணையத்தளங்களில் கிடைக்கும் கவுண்டமணி தொடர்பான புகைப்படங்களை எடுத்து, ஒரு போலி ட்விட்டர் ஐடியை தொடங்கி, மேற்கண்ட ட்வீட்டை வெளியிட்டு குழப்பியுள்ளனர் என்று சந்தேகமின்றி உறுதி செய்யப்படுகிறது.”]

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaCulture & entertainment

FACT CHECK: රංගන ශිල්පිනී දුලීකා මාරපන මියගොස් ඇති බවට නොමඟ යවන සුළු ආකාරයෙන් පළවූ ව්‍යාජ පුවතක්!

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

Fact Crescendo examined a YouTube video posted by a channel called Vishwa Derana. Its headline and opening suggested that actress Dulika Marapana had died and that her body had been found in a public place. The review says the video used photographs of Marapana, while its thumbnail also referred to suicide. But the video’s later content described two different things: a launch event for the second stage of a drama, and the discovery of a man’s body near Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara. The review identifies this mismatch between the death implication and the material actually discussed as the basis for calling the video misleading. [S1] The investigation reports that Marapana told Fact Crescendo by phone that the claim about her death was entirely false. It also says she had posted on Facebook that the report was untrue and asked users to report the YouTube video. The review further notes that photographs on her official Facebook page showed her preparing for the second stage of the drama. These details support the review’s conclusion that the video’s implication about Marapana did not match the circumstances described in its content. [S1] The review traces the video’s apparent source material to a separate report: a man’s body had been found on temple grounds near Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara on the morning of April 20. It says that report was combined with material about Marapana and the drama, creating a video that implied the unrelated death was hers. The evidence described therefore addresses the specific video and claim in question, rather than establishing a general claim about death reports or about other videos. [S1]

dpaCulture & entertainment

Voici les 3 fils des plus grands ténors au monde, José Carreras, Placido Domingo et Luciano Pavarotti.

Publisher’s rating: Les jeunes que l’on voit sur la vidéo sont les membres du groupe Il Volo. Ils ne sont pas les enfants des membres des « trois ténors ».

The claim says that the young men shown in a video are the sons of José Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. The dpa review identifies those three singers as the group known as the “Three Tenors,” and distinguishes them from Andrea Bocelli, who is sometimes included in social-media versions of the claim. The review addresses the video bearing the caption « voici les 3 fils des plus grands ténors au monde » directly, rather than relying only on a general comparison between singers. The review identifies the performers in the video as Gianluca Ginoble, Ignazio Boschetto and Piero Barone, members of the Italian group Il Volo. It says the video itself identifies them as Il Volo, and reports that the group has no known family relationship to the Three Tenors. The review therefore separates a resemblance or comparison between the singers’ voices and an asserted parent-child relationship; the former does not establish the latter. For the video’s history, the review says the same outdoor-concert footage was posted on Il Volo’s official YouTube channel in 2012, with information that the concert took place in Germany in 2011. It also cites the Spanish fact-checking outlet Newtral as having reached the same conclusion about Il Volo’s parentage. These details identify the footage and its reported provenance; the excerpt does not describe independent genealogical records or other family-document checks.

FactCrescendo Sri LankaCulture & entertainment

සිද්ධිකා සේනාරත්න මහත්මිය අළලා සිදුවූ පුවත්පත් සංස්කරණයක්

Publisher’s rating: Altered

The investigation concerns a circulated image presented as a newspaper article about Siddhika Senaratne, then Director General of the Sri Lanka Standards Institution. The image attributed to her the headline “I do what the President told me… I am against poison being in food.” The article identifies this as an edited version of a real interview headline, rather than an authentic reproduction of the newspaper’s wording. [S1: “පුවත්පත් ලිපියක ආකාරයේ සේයාරුවක් සහිත සටහනක්” and “මම කරන්නේ මට ජනාධිපතිතුමා කියපු දේ.. වස තියෙනවට මම විරුද්ධයි”] To check the image, the publisher says it sent the post to Senaratne, who said the headline of her recent interview with the women’s newspaper Dharani had been edited. The publisher also examined the April 14 issue and found the interview on page 12. Its headline said she opposed poison being present in food “not even a decimal one” milligram—not that she was acting on the President’s instructions. [S1: “මෙම සටහන ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රමිති ආයතනයේ අධ්‍යක්ෂක ජෙනරාල් සිද්ධිකා සේනාරත්න මහත්මිය වෙත යොමු කළ අතර එහිදී ඇය අපට පවසා සිටියේ තමා විසින් “ධරණි” පුවත්පතට පසුගිය දා ලබාදුන් සාකච්ඡාවේ සිරස්තලය සංස්කරණය කරමින් මෙම ව්‍යාජ සමාජ මාධ්‍ය සටහන් හුවමාරු වී තිබු බවයි” and “අප අප්‍රේල් මස 14 වැනිදා “ධරණී” පුවත්පත පරීක්ෂා කල අතර එහි 12 වැනි පිටුවේ”] The comparison described in the review therefore supports the conclusion that the circulated image altered the original headline: the authentic wording concerned her opposition to poison in food, while the image added a claim about following the President’s instructions. The excerpt describes a check against Senaratne’s account and the printed interview; it does not provide further details about who made the edit or when the image was first created. [S1: “එහි “මිලිග්‍රෑම් එකක් නෙවෙයි දශම එකක්වත් කෑමවල වස තියෙනවට මම විරුද්ධයි” යන සිරස්තලය මෙසේ “මම කරන්නේ මට ජනාධිපතිතුමා කියපු දේ.. වස තියෙනවට මම විරුද්ධයි” යනුවෙන් ව්‍යාජ ලෙස සංස්කරණය කරමින් ඉහත සමාජ මාධ්‍ය සටහන් පළවී තිබෙන බව පෙනී යනවා”]

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCulture & entertainment

Zitat stammt vom Dichter Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: "Der Teufel hat der Diener vier: Die Bosheit, Dummheit, Macht und Gier."

Publisher’s rating: Es findet sich kein Beleg, dass das Zitat von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe stammt.

The claim attributes the line “Der Teufel hat der Diener vier: Die Bosheit, Dummheit, Macht und Gier” to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The review says this attribution appeared in a Facebook post and reports that the Goethe Society in Weimar told dpa the quotation was not by Goethe. A spokesperson for the Goethe and Schiller Archive of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar likewise said it was not a Goethe quotation. The review describes a separate textual check: a full-text Google search of Goethe’s digitally available writings returned no match for the wording. That search result supports the conclusion that the line was not found in the searchable texts; on its own, it does not establish who originally wrote it. The review notes that the quotation collections aphorismen.de and e-Stories.de attribute the line to poet and musician Thomas S. Lutter, but explicitly says that this attribution cannot be established conclusively. Thus, the evidence reported undermines the attribution to Goethe without proving a definitive alternative author.

dpaCulture & entertainment

Le Prince Philip fait une blague à la reine Elizabeth II en prétendant être un garde.

Publisher’s rating: Il n’est pas question de « blague ». La Reine Elisabeth II et feu son époux, le prince Philip, riaient de voir un essaim d’abeilles prendre ses aises lors d’une cérémonie des Grenadier Guards au château Windsor, en 2003. De plus, le prince Philip portait régulièrement cet uniforme lors de cérémonies officielles. Il a été colonel des Grenadier Guards.

The image under review shows Queen Elizabeth II laughing beside Prince Philip in the uniform of the Grenadier Guards. Its accompanying caption claimed that Philip was pretending to be a palace guard as a joke. The investigation identifies the photograph as having been taken by Chris Young at a Grenadier Guards ceremony at Windsor Castle in 2003, and rejects the caption’s explanation of the Queen’s laughter. The account says the laughter was prompted by a swarm of bees, not by a prank. The bees had caused guests to move away from their chairs, and a beekeeper had to remove the swarm. The photographer told the BBC that he recognized a human moment in which both the Queen and Philip were laughing. The review also notes that Philip regularly wore the uniform at official ceremonies and had been colonel of the Grenadier Guards, so his appearance in it did not mean he was disguising himself as a guard to surprise the Queen.

dpaCulture & entertainment

Lady Di est toujours en vie et ses enfants le savent.

Publisher’s rating: Les allégations sont mensongères : Lady Di a succombé à ses blessures après un accident de la route le 31 août 1997.

The claim appeared alongside photographs said to show that the car Diana entered and the car involved in the crash were different. The review says the image used to support that argument was poor quality and came from Vanity Fair. Its caption identified the car as the one Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed entered when leaving Dodi’s Paris apartment for the Ritz—not the car Diana entered when leaving the Ritz before the accident. The images therefore referred to different points in the evening, rather than showing that the crash account was false. The review identifies the crash vehicle as a 1994 Mercedes S280 and cites the British police investigation, Operation Paget, for its account that the car was travelling at about 105 km/h when it struck a pillar and then another vehicle in the tunnel beneath the Pont de l’Alma. It also notes that an archival caption described the damaged car’s rear and roof as intact, but says that observation was true and did not establish that Diana survived. The review reports that Diana was not wearing a seat belt and died from her injuries hours after the crash. For the final medical chronology, the review quotes the BBC’s account: Diana was taken to the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, where initial reports noted a concussion, a broken arm and cuts, and later reports identified severe chest injuries. The BBC account cited in the review states that her death was announced at 4:53 a.m. The review also points to William speaking about the impact of his mother’s death in a documentary interview. These details contradict the claim that Diana remained alive; the review does not present evidence that her children knew her to be alive.