Skip to main content

PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

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

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

Video of Yogi Adityanath message against watching Shahrukh Khan’s Pathan movie

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerned a circulating video in which Yogi Adityanath compared Shah Rukh Khan with terrorist Hafiz Saeed. It was presented as a recent message against watching Khan’s upcoming film Pathan. The review’s conclusion was that the video did not show Adityanath making that request: it said his comments dated to 2015 and had no connection to the film.

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

Chris Rock’s statement of apology after his joke about Will Smith’s wife at the Oscars 2022

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The review examined a social-media post purporting to show that Chris Rock had apologized to Will Smith and his family for the joke about Smith’s wife at the 2022 Oscars. It says Rock did make brief comments about the incident at a comedy show in Boston, but those comments were not an apology to Smith. The review also distinguishes Rock’s alleged apology from Smith’s apology to Rock, which it says Smith had posted on Instagram. To check whether Rock had issued the statement, the review says it searched his Facebook, Instagram and Twitter profiles and his official website. It reports finding no such statement on those channels and no credible or legitimate news articles reporting one. The review also cites journalist Rebecca Keegan, who said the viral statement was not from Rock and that his team said he had not issued a statement. Taken together, the checks described in the review do not substantiate the purported apology; the Boston comedy-show comments were not evidence that he made the circulating statement.

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

Photo showing Nicole Kidman’s reaction to Will Smith and Chris Rock incident at Oscars

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a photo circulated as showing Nicole Kidman reacting to Will Smith’s onstage slap of Chris Rock at the Oscars. The review places the incident at the 94th Academy Awards on 28 March 2022 and says Smith slapped Rock after a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The review’s finding is that the photo was not taken during that confrontation: it was published hours earlier and shows Kidman reacting to Jessica Chastain instead. [S1: “On 28 March 2022, during the 94th Academy Awards ceremony, Hollywood actor Will Smith slapped comedian and Oscar Award ceremony presenter Chris Rock onstage for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s appearance at the Oscars ceremony.”; “The photo shared in the post was taken and published on Getty Images hours before Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscar Awards ceremony. This photo shows Nicole Kidman’s animated reaction after seeing actress Jessica Chastain during the un-televised first hour of the ceremony reserved for craft awards.”] The review describes two checks: it searched video of the slap for Kidman’s reaction and used reverse image search to trace the photo. It reports that it could not find her reaction in videos capturing the slap, while reverse image search located the same photo on Getty Images, published on 27 March 2022. The Getty description placed Kidman and Keith Urban at the 94th Academy Awards; the review says the image was credited to Los Angeles Times photographer Myung Chun. [S1: “When we searched to check whether Hollywood actress Nicole Kidman really made such a shocking reaction after Will smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, we could not see Nicole Kidman’s reaction in any of the videos that captured uncensored moments of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscar Awards Ceremony.”; “On reverse image search, the same photo was found published on the Getty Images website on 27 March 2022. The description of the photo states, ‘Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban during the show at the 94th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday’. The image was credited to the ‘Los Angeles Times’ photographer Myung Chun.”] As further support, the review says Vulture contacted Chun. Chun described the image as taken during the non-televised portion and said Kidman appeared excited to see Chastain across the room, reaching out and waving to her. The review therefore identifies both the photo’s timing and the person who prompted Kidman’s reaction, rather than relying only on the fact that the image was taken at the same awards ceremony. [S1: “Speaking to the ‘Vulture’, Myung Chun said, ‘Yes, the picture of Nicole Kidman was taken during the non-televised portion. It appeared that she was excited to see Jessica Chastain across the room. Kidman then reached out her arms and waved to her with both hands’.”; “The ‘Vulture’ confirmed that the photo was taken hours before Will Smith and Chris Rock’s onstage altercation, during the un-televised first hour of the Oscar Awards ceremony.”]

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

Only real picture of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The post claimed that a photograph circulating on social media was the only real picture of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh. FACTLY’s review challenged the word “only”: it reports that biographers Chaman Lal and Malwinder Jit Singh Waraich identified four genuine photographs of Bhagat Singh, not one. The review therefore treats the image’s authenticity and the claim that no other real photographs exist as separate questions. [S1: “There are four real pictures of Bhagat Singh which are in the public domain.”] To identify the circulated image, the review says it used reverse image search and found the same photograph on Prasar Bharati’s official Twitter account. According to the review’s account of that post, the image shows Bhagat Singh in Lahore in 1927, during his first arrest. It also reports that he was photographed when detained in connection with the Lahore Dussehra bomb case. [S1: “When reverse image search is done on the photo, the same photo was shared by the official twitter account of Prasar Bharati.”] The decisive counterexample came from another image in the same Prasar Bharati thread: the review says Bhagat Singh appears standing fourth from the right in a group photograph taken with National College Lahore students in 1923. It also mentions two further photographs in the public domain, one from his childhood and one taken in 1929 before the Assembly Bomb explosion. Together, these examples contradict the claim that the circulated image is his only real picture. The review’s account of the biographers’ estimate is that four genuine photographs are known; it does not claim that the circulated photograph is inauthentic. [S1: “In the next picture, Bhagat Singh could be seen standing fourth from the right. The photo was taken in 1923 with the students of National College Lahore.”]