Situation not so grave
Sylvester Stallone and his brother deny ‘stupidity’ of online death hoax
Sylvester Stallone is alive.
The actor and his brother took to social media on Monday to reassure the world of this fact after a hoax began circulating on Facebook and Twitter that claimed the actor had died at the age of 71 after a battle with prostate cancer.
The hoax, the origin of which is unclear, was fairly transparent — Stallone has been steadily working, recently appearing in an episode of This Is Us and filming several movies, according to IMDb.
Perhaps that’s why he seemed to brush it off in an Instagram post.
“Please ignore this stupidity,” he wrote in the post, “Alive and well and happy and healthy.”
“Still punching!” he said, referring to his Rocky Balboa character.
His younger brother, musician Frank Stallone, had far harsher words for whoever started the hoax.
“Rumors that my brother is dead are false,” he wrote on Twitter. “What kind of sick demented cruel mind thinks of things like this to post? People like this are mentally deranged and don’t deserve a place in society.
“I’m very protective of my older brother,” he posted, “and I don’t find any humor in this fake post today on my brothers demise. It upset my 96 yr old mother so I’m doubly upset. I just can’t understand what makes these sick minded people tick?”
This marks at least the second time false rumours of Sylvester Stallone’s death circulated online. The first time, in September 2016, a fake CNN report of his supposed “death” appeared on Twitter.
He’s not the first to be victim of a celebrity death hoax. They’ve been around for ages. In 1966, a small swath of fans claimed Paul McCartney had died and been replaced by a look-alike. Social media has made spreading such rumours easier and a common internet prank.
Among the celebrity targets of an online death hoax: Betty White, Jack Black, Robert Redford, Macaulay Culkin, Queen Elizabeth II and Jackie Chan.
In 2010, a Twitter user with fewer than 1,500 followers tweeted that CNN reported Morgan Freeman had died in his Burbank home. The story swept across the internet, eventually prompting CNN to set the record straight.
The Twitter user later said, “It was an inside joke between friends. I had no intention of things turning out this way.”
Mark Bell, an Indiana University adjunct media professor, said many hoaxers find deception exciting.
“People like to lie,” Bell told the New York Times in 2012. “They get a thrill from it. There is a little hit of dopamine when you lie, especially a lie that is believed by somebody else.”