A British filmmaker duped some of the country’s top tabloid newspapers into printing fake stories about celebrities, including one about Amy Winehouse’s beehive catching fire, he said on Thursday.
Chris Atkins and his team put in hoax calls to some of Britain’s best known newsrooms, including that one girl band singer was a physics wizard, only to see the details printed — unchecked — in the press the next day.
Among the celebrity ‘sightings’ they invented was a tale about how troubled British singer Winehouse had been playing music with friends when the fuse blew and set fire to her hair in its trademark beehive style.
The story appeared in two major tabloid papers, before being splashed across the Internet, Atkins told the Guardian newspaper.
“We wanted to test how much truth there is in much of the celebrity stories that now completely dominate all areas of our news media,” said the director, who details the team’s two-year investigations in a new movie, “Starsuckers”.
“And we specifically wanted to see how much journalists fact-checked their stories. So in order to do this, we made some stories up.
Yahoo (Thanks SuZi)
cant wait for the film
I think the “physics wizard” referred to, is Sarah Harding – I remember reading that article and thinking that it just didn’t sound right… It just goes to show, you can’t be too careful
Well I laughed, just proves it doesn’t it.
I’ve heard of this, they made up a story about one of the Girls Aloud girls moving house and they found all these books on Quantum Physics…
lol brilliant
That’s actually a pretty good idea, just goes to show you really can’t believe everything you read in the papers/on the internet!
xxx.
…“And we specifically wanted to see how much journalists fact-checked their stories…”
Be interesting to find out how many journalists ‘do’.
Really just goes to show doesn’t it. Nice to have proof that these papers are just as full of bull as everyone thinks they are
A few friends of mine did something similar in Ireland a few years ago – I think they reported a celebrity death. Sadly, I forget most of the details, but it did do the rounds in the press, including some details in the British tabloids that my friends hadn’t made up.
Brilliant! There was a time back in the spring that my Other Arf kept being mistaken for Russell Brand, so we planned an experiment to see how many times we could get *our* Russell Brand “spotted” by the tabloids engaging in public nudity, urination, and being ridden around a fetish club on his hands and knees like a horse.
Ha! Says it all…!!
How do we know the facts were mpt actually all true and this post is made up and unverified and Sarah is on her way to the Nobel Prize for Physics?
thats just confusing for gullible ppl like me.
Oh I do enjoy this blog! Always cheers me up!
That would fit with the Mirror’s online article about Derren’s ‘crazy rant’ on Youtube. One quick check to this blog they’d've found out the truth. Often the truth doesn’t make a good article.
Oooh thats so naughty, but I like it ! xx
Haha well I think it is rather funny!
If you believe what is in a tabloid paper, then you really do need checking out.
Going back to the Bananas must be straight – in the EU….
It has been and always will be codswallop and the saddest thing about it all, is that people DO believe it. The tabloids tend to hold the country at ransom. If they all slander Labour, Tories get in, when they slander the Tories, Labour gets in.
The press control a lot more than what people think, and that’s one of the big problems in society today, people don’t think anymore. They read and believe.
@thebritscott
Hold on a minute – Derren is gay, right?…
Most of the stories they make up could have been true, the stories are not that weird. And they can make a celebrity look so much more interesting and alive than they really are.
Non celebreties are not free from being discussed as well. Lots of stories are being made up, secrets are being spread. A glossy or humans .. Sources are more often not being checked. At times only because it does not really interest them enough.
Celebrities make up their own stories as well .. tell stuff that is not true, and not only to avoid talking about too private stuff.
God I hate the scummy tabloid press. I also think anyone who makes this stuff up should get the jail too.
When are people going to get it into their heads that not all actors etc want to be celebrities. It’s a job, for fuck’s sake. People want to do a good job, they don’t always want to sell their souls!
Paradoxical that they are happy to print any old made up shite, but don’t complain when they are stopped from printing stuff about the dumping of hazardous waste on the coast of Africa. If I was a conspiracy theorist, I would be wondering if it’s all deliberately made up to distract us from the people with the real power making mroe and more money and living comfortable, very quiet lives out of the media glare. When the revolution comes, it will be announced on Twitter. No wonder Rupert Murdoch wants to close down the free internet.
at some point the tabloid’s are going to fight back – if they’ll stoop this low (come on – who didn’t know that they made quotes up?) then don’t be surprised when they start planting fake ‘outrage’ Tweets on Twitter.
It’s coming soon (imho), and they’ll be drooling over the mileage they can get out of it if there’s a sudden knee-jerk reaction.
Trafigura, Carterruck and Jan Moir were fantastic examples of positive use of Twitter – but we need to be very, very careful now.
This documentary will just push them further into a corner, where they’re more likely to lash out.
(still looks bloody funny though)
All your minds are belong to us…..???? eh???? doesnt make sense!!!! grammer ….grammar….gram…..er……. pfft…nemind… you get what i mean
Msg from Abeo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us
So, basically this is saying that we shouldn’t believe all that we read about celebs, right? Well, peel my tangerines, I really didn’t know that!
LC x
@Lady Claire – ‘peel my tangerines’? Heehee!
Do I get a sense of battle lines being drawn between the twittersphere and Daily Scum land?
I know which side I’m on, even if it’s only because the other side are mostly fatter.
@JayKay – A little Blackadder euphamism…..I like the one “Well, cover me with eggs & flour and bake me in the oven for 40 minutes…..”
LC x
the gutter press are on their way out, due to the tinternet, so their ‘stories’ will become ever more extreme in attempting to generate sales – the ‘ruling classes’ will be getting worried too, as they lose their sphere of influence.
I haven’t bought a ‘news’paper in many years and the only downside is a lack of combustible material for my logburner!
ps. loved that joke on have I got news about twitter crashing and Stephen Fry (luv ya) having to talk to real people.
I’m off dahn the kalider…
(hi, other mike)
Hahaha! Makes me want to go watch a few eps now!
The internet has been giving the tabloids a real thrashing this week. Hopefully it will continue…There’s nothing more entertaining than watching the high-and-mighty press, so used to wrecking peoples lives and dictating what is right and wrong, being chastised by something that didn’t exist twenty years ago!
I thought it was a given that tabloids publish BS. Isn’t “the whole truth” a theme avoided in any television media?
Speaking of spoofs, but ones for a cause, check out the Yes Men: http://www.theyesmen.org