Art gallery hoaxed by deep fake Pierce Brosnan
22-Nov-2023 • Actor News
A British art gallery has been reportedly fooled into thinking Pierce Brosnan wanted to have an exhibition there. A strange promotion for the event started circulating online a few weeks ago that raised a lot of questions. None more so than from Brosnan himself, who had his lawyers issue a cease and desist notice on the gallery whilst apologizing to fans and explaining he has no plans to exhibit in the UK, but would love to soon.
This week, the owner of the gallery came forward to local press to explain how she came to believe Brosnan would be making his UK art debut at her location.
She shared a voicemail that said: "Simona, it's Pierce Brosnan here, how it's going? Just wanted to apologise for not being able to set up a meeting. I've been swamped lately. Please let your team know that I truly appreciate the invitation to the art exhibition. I have no doubt it will be a huge success. And by the way, feel free to proceed with the billboard advertisement. I have high expectations for this event. Thanks again."
The Nottingham Post reports: "As well as the voice message exchange, Ms Simms also claims she spoke to Mr Brosnan on a video call on two separate occasions. The first occasion, it took place over the video-calling platform Zoom. Ms Simms says that she spoke to 'Mr Brosnan', who was sitting down, alone, in what appeared to be a holiday home in Hawaii. On the second occasion, the video call was witnessed by a friend, artist Neil Adcock, whose works are on display at the gallery. A picture of what seemed to be Mr Brosnan appeared on the screen, but the audio was off and messages from the person on the other side of the phone claimed that there was a technological issue."
Mr Adcock said: "'Pierce Brosnan' was there. We had a video call with 'him.' Apart from no sound, it looked genuine. That was Pierce Brosnan('s face). He said his son had set it up for him. He said the sound problem was on our end. It carried on for a while."
It is believed that Ms Simms was the subject of an elaborate scam, executed using AI and using a "deepfake" likeness of Brosnan on video.
Most of the people who bought tickets to the exhibition have now been refunded for their purchase.
It remains a mystery what, if anything, the hoaxer aimed to achieve, as all the ticket sales were through the gallery.
