Jessica Simpson fake news story - evolution of a tabloid rumour

23-Dec-2005 • Casino Royale

MEDIA RUMOUR
From the sublime to the ridiculous, as the latest Bond Girl rumour doing the rounds in the press is an olive short of a martini.

UK tabloid The Sun first mentioned American singer-turned-actress Jessica Simpson a week ago on the end of a report claiming that South African actress Charlize Theron had turned down a role in Casino Royale, the 21st James Bond film.

Above: Jessica Simpson

Unfortunately, the mass media grabbed on to this nonsense snippet and have started to expand the false rumour into credible sounding news reports.

IGN FilmForce were the first major site to echo the item from The Sun's report on Theron (via a Toronto fashion news website, strangely), and that in turn was picked up by news outlets around the world, including the likes of Hollywood.com, Entertainmentwise, Ireland Online and New Kerala. The rumour has now grown to the point where other newspapers are running the story as their own, with new "insider" quotes.

According to the padded out reports, "she is sexy, blonde and seductive, so she could be perfect," an insider mused. Luckily the papers always have a "secret inside source" to give a juicy quote, even if they don't have real sources for the news in the first place.

MI6 Rumour Rating: Double-oh-no-no. Even a stopped watch is correct twice a day, but these reports are way off base.