(no subject)

[sombrefan]

So once again another Joss Whedon Wonder Woman casting rumour hits the Internet. Priyanka Chopra is the latest actress to be in the running. So how did this start? Well on IMDB's Wonder Woman page it states that the actress is "in negotiations". Now bear mind that anyone can submit info to IMDB about casting roles. Anyone. Remember that 'kay?

So the news got posted at Whedonesque and subsequently got deleted cause if we're relying on IMDB to tell us what's happening with the movie, we might as well shoot ourselves. But before it deleted, Slice of SciFi picked it up and posted a news entry about it. Now remember that I said that this came from IMDB? Well this is how Slice of SciFi interpreted (or to be more accurate - made it up) the news.

"One of our fans by the name of Thomas dropped a tick in our ear about some latest developments over in the Joss Whedon camp and its all about Wonder Woman casting that comes right out of left field, but looks to be right on the mark.

Evidently Joss and company are in negotiations with actress Priyanka Chopra to play the lead in his next big blockbuster comic-to-movie project."

Oh and in case you wonder, the phrase "Joss Whedon camp" is hyperlinked to the now deleted Whedonesque entry.

So a couple of days pass and then Cinematical (a film blog site) picks up the news at Slice of Sci Fi and with doomed inevitably posts a blog entry about

"Today's hot rumor comes to us straight out of Bollywood, from one of India's own comic book actresses. A scooper over at sliceofscifi reports the Whedon camp has expressed some serious interest in actress Priyanka Chopra, most recently of Krrish fame. Apparently, Miss Chopra is popularity incarnate in Bollywood right now, and Whedon thinks her charm might play just as well in the West."

So we've now gone from an entry at IMDB to "Joss thinks her charm might play just as well in the West". It's either Chinese Whispers or very sloppy reporting (I'd go with the latter). So the stone continues to roll down the hill gathering momentum as other blogs and film sites pick up the news. Here's some examples:

Filmstalker

"The word on the nuttyweb is that Priyanka Chopra has been picked for the role"

Film Junk

"The only question is whether or not Ms. Chopra is up for all the action requirements of such a film. Apparently this also disproves rumours that Morena Baccarin (Inara from Firefly) had a lock on the role. ".

Comic Book Movie

"Wonder Woman writer/director Joss Whedon is reportedly in talks with Indian film star and beauty queen Priyanka Chopra to star in his film as the Amazon Princess."

Now what have we learnt this. Firstly the myth that bloggers are far better than mainstream journalists is a crock of shit. Meet the new journalists, exactly the same as the old journalists. Facts? What are they? Secondly, an anomyous person (probably a Bollywood fan) can submit made-up info to the Internet's leading movie resource and people will take it as gospel. I'm too jaded to even be remotely surprised by this.

Comments

[chilli-1.livejournal.com]

heeee.

Man - the Internet age brings with it communication, and friendships with people from many a different background, and the negatives are the dodgy crap, and the awful reporting.

And when it sinks into the real world... urggh

[buffydub.livejournal.com]

Personally I don't think it helps by deleting the thread ,instead the headline should be changed to indicate that the story is false and so that if anyone on other sites does bother to check the link they get the message the story is false and not think they just have a broken link

[simonf.livejournal.com]

Once the story is out there, it takes a life of its own. And judging by past experiences, other sites don't bother to check if it is correct or not.

[spikeylover.livejournal.com]

LMAO, Simon. Maybe you should do as Buffydub says when it gets out of control like that.

[deborahw37.livejournal.com]

Oh Good grief.


It always amazes me that utter bollocks very quickly gets reported as " fact" just because it gets put on the internet somewhere.

IMDB is an especially rich source of this kind of nonsense but I've seen it happen even within Jossverse communities ... someone posts a speculation, people start discussing it and before you can say WTF?? It's all over the web that Nathan Fillion hasa serious pineapple fixation or that Joss and Tony Blair are teaming up to make a new film about cycling in the Cotswolds ... actually that's not a bad rumour * nips over to IMDB*

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

I've got the impression that today the majority of Internet editions get news either from magazines or from fan sources. To make them look "original" they rewrite news and give them their interpretations, often very different from initial one.