Barbara Eden, I Dream of Jeannie actress, became the victim of a hoax on August 17 when rumors of her death spread online. The 90-year-old actress is believed to have passed away early Wednesday morning. The apparent hoax about Eden’s death appears to have come from a YouTube station called Allan Radio, which has about 20,000 members. On Wednesday, the channel released the following video:
“RIP 7 minutes ago Barbara Eden / Goodbye, Barbara Eden.”
I heard that Barbara Eden (I dreamed of the Genie) passed away.
Bad news pic.twitter.com/pv5MWk9PYi
— Nigel – a guy from Bolton (@Nigel100007) August 16, 2022
The video in question has had over 97,000 views and over 700 user likes. Barbara Eden has her 91st birthday on August 23, so it looks like the channel is targeting her. On August 16, the Tucson, Arizona senior posted a photo of herself with Priscilla Presley at Elvis’ Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee. Furthermore, the YouTube channel that started this legend spread fake celebrity death announcements to gain views.
Rumors of death
Following fake news of the alleged death of Barbara Eden, the station aired a fake program claiming that actress Whoopi Goldberg had passed away. Other famous celebrities who have fallen victim to the channel’s ridiculous claims include Hot Fuzz actor Simon Pegg and Star Trek star William Shatner. Before the news of Eden’s death, the station also released a fake video in which famous Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley appeared to have passed away. Marley died in May 1981.
These channels appear to be run by bots because videos that make false claims about celebrity deaths are common on YouTube. Actor and director Clint Eastwood was one of the few victims of these tapes last month. Many netizens initially assumed the legendary Hollywood star had passed away when Recuerda Gente Famosa posted a video announcing his death. “10 minutes ago/ Sad news/ RIP Clint Eastwood/ Goodbye Clint Eastwood,” the video’s caption read. This title has the same structure as the aforementioned fake videos from Allan Radio’s YouTube account. Therefore, it is more likely that these false claims are made by the same person or group with multiple YouTube accounts.
Along with the shocking value of such claims, the main purpose of these movies is to generate views and advertising revenue. These movies, like most fake YouTube docuseries, don’t even state the reasons for these celebrities’ deaths. In most cases, generic asterisk insights are used to extend the run time to about five minutes to enable monetization. They also use text-to-speech to replace generic voice recordings, allowing them to create multiple pieces of content with false claims in one day.
Barbara Eden is quite concerned about her health.
At the age of 90, the actress is still quite active, as evidenced by a recent trip to Memphis. Eden told Closer Weekly about her health habits last year, just days before her 90th birthday. She stated:
“I really care about (my) food. I’m a meat eater… I like steak. We eat a lot of pork, poultry, steak and vegetables.”
Eden also revealed about her training regimen at the gym. She continued:
“I walk a lot.”
The Flaming Star actress says she included spinning in her workouts and hired a trainer for it, but had to stop because of COVID.
Categories: Entertaintment
Source: vcmp.edu.vn