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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

UV Creations tweeted announcing the postponement of Radhe Shyam’s release in Andhra Pradesh to 23 March 2022

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerned a purported UV Creations tweet saying Radhe Shyam’s Andhra Pradesh release had been postponed to 23 March 2022. FACTLY reports that the viral post presented an image of the alleged tweet, but says the post’s author later indicated in the comments that it was shared as a joke. The review also notes that some people believed the image was genuine and shared it.

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

Video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky singing ‘Endless Love’ song along with his wife

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video circulated as showing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky singing “Endless Love” with his wife. FACTLY reports that the video instead shows English singer Connie Talbot performing with Alejandro Manzano, a musician and founding member of Boyce Avenue. It identifies the song as an acoustic cover of the Lionel Richie and Diana Ross song originally sung in 1981. The review therefore concludes the video does not show Zelensky and Olena Zelenska singing together. To identify the footage, the review says it conducted a reverse image search using screenshots from the circulating video. That search found a video with similar visuals on Boyce Avenue’s YouTube channel, whose description identifies it as the band’s acoustic cover with Connie Talbot. The review also says Talbot shared the same video on her own YouTube channel. These details connect the circulated footage to the performers named in the original video description, rather than to Zelensky and his wife. The review supplies two provenance dates: Boyce Avenue published its video on 20 February 2022, and Talbot shared the same video on 14 February 2022. It also describes Boyce Avenue as an American cover band formed in 2004 by brothers Alejandro Luis, Daniel Enrique, and Fabian Rafael Manzano. The available excerpt does not provide the archived social-media post itself or additional technical analysis of the video, so the explanation is limited to the reverse-image-search result and the source descriptions reported by FACTLY.

dpaCulture & entertainment

Melania Trump is de kleindochter van Anastasia Romanov.

Publisher’s rating: Melania Trump is niet de kleindochter van Anastasia Romanov. Anastasia Romanov stierf met de rest van haar familie op 17 juli 1918.

The review examined a Facebook post asserting that Melania Trump was Anastasia Romanov’s granddaughter. The post used a collage with two pictures of Trump and a picture presented as Anastasia. The review found that the supposed Anastasia image actually showed her older sister Tatiana: it was cropped from a photograph of the four Romanov daughters, in which Anastasia is described as the daughter standing in the middle. That means the collage’s identification of the woman in the image was wrong. The review also tested whether Anastasia could have been Trump’s grandmother through the family timeline. Anastasia was 17 when she and her family were killed on 17 July 1918; she was unmarried and had no known children. The review notes that the claim could only work if she had survived the execution, then considers evidence relating to the Romanovs’ deaths and remains. After the Romanovs’ remains were excavated in 1991, the initial grave contained the tsar, his wife, and three children. Two more bodies were found in a nearby grave in 2007 and were later identified as Alexei and the fourth daughter. The review says DNA testing also established that these remains were Romanovs. It further notes that Tatiana’s remains were found and that she, too, was unmarried and childless at the time of the execution. Finally, the review states that Trump’s parents were born in 1944 and 1945, well after Anastasia’s death, and identifies different women as Trump’s grandmothers.

Fact Crescendo CambodiaCulture & entertainment

បវរ​កញ្ញា​អ៊ុយក្រែន​ល្ងង់​ណាស់ ធ្វើ​បវរ​កញ្ញា​សុខ​ៗ​មិន​ចង់​ទេ ចង់​មក​កាន់​កាំភ្លើង​ធ្វើ​សង្គ្រាម មនុស្ស​ស្រី​មាន​ឧត្ដម​គតិ​គិត​រឿង​ជាតិ រី​ឯ​ស្រី​ចោល​ម្សៀត​គិត​រឿង​ប្រុស​ឈ្មោល មនុស្ស​ស្រី​ដែល​ស្អាត​មិន​មែន​ស្ថិត​នៅ​លើ​សម្រស់​នោះ​ទេ​ គឺ​ដួង​ចិត្ត​ ជាពិសេស​ទឹក​ចិត្ត​របស់​នាង​ចំពោះ​មាតុភូមិ​ដែល​មិន​អាច​កាត់​ថ្លៃ​បាន។

Publisher’s rating: False

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCulture & entertainment

CNN verkündet zum zweiten Mal den Tod des selben Journalisten.

Publisher’s rating: Die Tweets sind gefälscht und stammen nicht offiziellen CNN-Accounts. Das Foto zeigt zudem keinen Journalisten, sondern den amerikanischen YouTuber und Twitch-Streamer Jordie Jordan.

The claim concerned two purported CNN tweets about a man’s death: one circulating in connection with Russia’s February 2022 attack on Ukraine, and a second said to have appeared in 2021. The investigation found that the tweets were fabricated, rather than genuine CNN announcements. It also found that the person shown was not a journalist: he was American gamer and streamer Jordie Jordan. The review describes several checks on the accounts shown in the screenshots. The profiles lacked Twitter’s blue verification mark, while the review says official CNN accounts were verified. It also reports that a Twitter search found no CNN account dedicated solely to the situation in Ukraine. The supposed accounts, @CNNUKR and @CNNAfghan, were both suspended; an archived version of @CNNUKR showed 129 followers and that it had been created only in February 2022. The review adds that CNN communications chief Matt Dornic told Reuters the posts were “made up.” It traces the purported second report to August 2021, when the Taliban took over Afghanistan, and says that report had already been identified as false, including the claim that the pictured man was a CNN journalist. Thus, the evidence addresses both the alleged repeated death report and the identity of the person in the image; it does not establish that CNN announced the death of a journalist twice.