The Celebrity's Car Breakdown (Ellie Moore)

## Legend Summary

In the years 2016-2017, there was a surge of fake news stories being published across the United States about various celebrities having car troubles in small towns across the United States and locals rushing to help them. The skeleton of the story remained the same on all news sites, but the celebrity and town would change. The headlines typically included a celebrity’s name and a claim that said celebrity praised locals of a certain town. The celebrities often used were Matthew McConaughey, Patrick Dempsey, Bill Murray, Tom Hanks, Adam Sandler, Harrison Ford, and Will Ferrell. The towns often used were Mustang, Oklahoma; Marion, Illinois; Rochester, New Hampshire; Pflugerville, Texas; Marion, Ohio (LaCapria).

## History

The years these stories heavily occurred in alignment with the 2016 election, when fake news was being discussed almost daily. Fake news existed before this, but there was a lot of attention being brought to the news at the time. Media outlets were pushing fake stories about anything. It varied from fake information about political candidates to seemingly harmless stories of celebrities having car troubles in small towns. Most of the stories posted about the celebrities car troubles were posted on these news sites: WLEB 21, WCPM 3, 16wmpo.com, and newsdaily12.com. These sites had disclaimers that stories published were fantasy or satire.

## Adaptations

It is difficult to find the actual news stories that were posted because the sites they were originally on no longer exist. Snopes.com provides some quotes and pictures of the stories posted. Three stories were published using nearly identical wording. The only words that changed between the three stories were the celebrity’s name and what town their car broke down in.

One source used Tom Hanks and the city of Canton, Ohio. “​​Hollywood actor Tom Hanks passed through Canton, Ohio recently and apparently was quite impressed with the residents there. In an interview this week Hanks said:

‘Well, we had a flat tire just as we were about to leave the city limits of Canton and two, maybe three cars pulled over within five minutes to help us with it. And no, they had no idea who I was before they pulled over. They were very helpful and very friendly. I gotta say, I was really impressed with the people of Canton, Ohio! That would’ve never happened in L.A.!’” (LaCapria).

The same story was used about Harrison Ford having trouble in San Angelo, Texas. “Hollywood actor Harrison Ford passed through San Angelo, Texas recently and apparently was quite impressed with the residents there. In an interview this week Ford said:

‘Well, we had a flat tire just as we were about to leave the city limits of San Angelo and two, maybe three cars pulled over within five minutes to help us with it. And no, they had no idea who I was before they pulled over. They were very helpful and very friendly. I gotta say, I was really impressed with the people of San Angelo, Texas! That would’ve never happened in L.A.!’” (LaCapria).

## Analysis of Adaptations

The sites that published these stories used famous celebrities' names to gain traction on their website. In this digital climate, stories like those easily go viral because with one click someone can share it to their friends and it turns into a snowball effect. People do not necessarily take the time to read or investigate the source, so they do not realize it is a website that looks like a news site, but claims its stories are satirical. These websites know that people will read the headlines and believe it to be true, without even reading the rest of the article. If people do not realize it is fake, the story will continue to be shared. Share after share, the story has reached a lot of people and gained a lot of traction because a celebrity’s name was used. These sites also use cities to make it more personal to people. If people from the city used in the article see the article and think a celebrity praised their town, they will likely want to share it with friends who likely live in that same town. This is another way these stories can get shared over and over again. This legend is the result of fake news and the digitical climate. Rather than valuing truth, people want to gain views so they create fake stories about different celebrities in different towns having car trouble.

## Works Cited

“Ap Fact Check: Alike Tales of Actors’ Car Trouble Are False.” AP News, The Associated Press, 6 Jan. 2017, www.apnews.com/article/will-ferrell-celebrity-adam-sandler-Entertainment-celebrities-a664afac61b24203bf0748ba05cfc09b.

Gillin, Joshua. “Politifact - No, a Celebrity’s Car Didn’t Break down in Your Hometown.” Politifact, Poynter Institute , 6 Jan. 2017,www.politifact.com/factchecks/2017/jan/06/blog-posting/celebrity-praise-helpful-locals-are-fake-stories-c.

Kalvapalle, Rahul. “Fact Check: Hollywood A-Listers’ Cars Are Not Breaking down in a Small Town near You - National.” Global News, Corus Entertainment Inc., 9 Jan. 2017, https://globalnews.ca/news/3169674/fact-check-hollywood-a-listers-cars-are-not-breaking-down-in-a-small-town-near-you/.

LaCapria, Kim. “A Celebrity Had This to Say about Your Town!” Snopes, Snopes Media Group Inc., 3 Apr. 2016, www.snopes.com/fact-check/a-celebrity-had-a-flat-tire-in-your-town.