Is it Tom or is it Bill?
Picture of mom meeting star goes viral as Internet asks: So which actor is this?
Let’s have an argument.
Does this photo show actor Tom Hanks mimicking a bawling toddler?
Or could it be comedian Bill Murray?
The image was taken back in October 2012, but it has recently gone viral. It’s even got its own Facebook page — “Reasons My Son Is Crying.”
There are plenty of definite opinions on both sides.
The baby’s mother, Laura DiMichele-Ross, posted what might seem like the definitive answer on Facebook three years ago. She put the photo on Facebook on May 19, 2013, with the caption “Bill Murray, probably.”
A few days later, she added a comment: “Awesome. It’s already going to be the first picture we show to future girlfriends. If they don’t know who Bill Murray is they’re out the door.”
The photo continues to pop up every now and then and wreak havoc with people’s minds, she told Britain’s The Guardian.
“We are finding this very funny, DiMichele-Ross said. “I personally don’t see the resemblance to Tom Hanks but we’ve noticed that people have been mentioning it for years.”
That’s not enough for some suspicious web-surfers.
“Tom Hanks. Bill has those little lumps on the right side of his mouth,” one Facebook commenter confidently asserted.
“Oh come on, it’s Tom,” says another insistently.
And here is another nugget to stir the pot: The BBC has reportedly concluded that Hanks was “almost certainly” in New York when the photo was taken in Scotland. In other words, it’s not Tom Hanks. The debate is somewhat like last year’s online furor about the photo of The Dress, which divided online viewers — some of whom were sure the garment was white and gold, while others were equally firm that it was blue and black.
That $96 dress sold by British clothing retailer Roman Originals Ltd. had captivated the Internet in February 2015, causing a debate that drew in the likes of reality TV star Kim Kardashian and singer Taylor Swift.
The answer to that head-scratcher: blue and black. With files from Bloomberg