There is some serious bullshit that gets floated around on the internet. I know that there are some webmasters who will see a guy say ‘Gee, wouldn’t it be great if Actor X was cast in this role?’ and run a story claiming that Actor X is rumored or in talks for the role. I know some web guys who will just make up a story whole cloth, in fact. But the truth is that the most bullshitty of all bullshit stories come from the newspapers.
And it’s the foreign newspapers, too. Seriously, at this point if I see a story originates in the British or Australian press, I get wary of it. Even if it has a quote from Actor X – these guys just make shit up whole cloth. So why is it that the web still gets painted with the brush of being unreliable, when I run more true stories that originate online (and then get stolen by the print and television press) than in the papers? Fuck a double standard.
Anyway, the latest steaming pile of bullshit is the story that Russell Crowe will be playing Dr. Watson in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. Empire Online caught up with the director at the red carpet for Rock n Rolla in London and he denied it up and down. “I don’t have a Watson…Somebody just told me that I have Russell Crowe lined up but that’s news to me. I suspect that hasn’t happened and I’m still looking for my Watson.”
That seems to pretty much seal that. Fuck you, flat out lying Australian press.