No, no, no. Russell Crowe is NOT dead. For reasons unknown, it seems that every day I wake up to news that I call, “Fake Death of the Day.” Today, as was the case yesterday, the latest dead rumor has been bestowed upon fave Gladiator, Russell Crowe.
I believe Crowe should get a mention for a two-day run here. That usually doesn’t happen.
This rumor, no matter who the target is, goes viral every time. The searches go hot and heavy for more information, only to be led down a dead end street. There is some indication that these hoaxes start on Twitter. One tweet leads to another and then the more established media, thinking it has an inside scoop, picks it up and runs with it.
Later on, when the facts are finally stripped from the fiction, we realize it was another [insert pop-culture personality died here] fake out.
So, what happened to Russell Crowe? Supposedly, he fell 15 meters off a mountain in Austria while filming a movie stunt. Since the filming was in a “remote” region, it would be hard to get first-hand facts. The news industry, being as competitive as it is, just grabs what it can and runs with it.
Now Crowe has supposedly tweeted the following in response to these rumors, “Unable to answer tweets fell off a mountain in Austria,all over red rover. Don’t know how i got there, but the media are never wrong.G’Bye.”
I would report this as a fact but the real fact remains that I don’t follow Russell Crowe on Twitter if indeed, he has an account at all, so for all I know, this tweet is just another viral search ploy leading to nowhere.
As David Byrne sang years ago with the Talking Heads, “Facts all come with points of view. Facts don’t do what I want them to.”
All I’ll say right now is that I am happy to report that Russell Crowe is not dead yet.