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Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Fact Check: Story about Peyton Manning leaving ritzy gala in tuxedo to comfort crying boy named Dylan is fiction
Claim: Former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning left a gala in a tuxedo to sit on the floor with a crying 9-year-old boy named Dylan. Rating: Rating: False A rumor that users circulated online in May 2025 told the story of five-time NFL Most Valuable Player Peyton Manning leaving a black-tie charity gala to sit on the floor with and comfort a crying 9-year-old boy named Dylan. For example, on May 1, a user managing the Magic Clement Facebook page posted (archived) the story, receiving over 343,000 reactions, 16,000 comments and 29,000 shares. The post showed a picture of Manning, who retired from the NFL in 2016, sitting on the floor with a crying boy. The story began, "Peyton Manning Left a Gala in a Tuxedo — Just to Sit on the Floor With a Crying Kid in the Hallway." (Magic Clement/Facebook) Users on Facebook, Instagram and X shared the same story. One LinkedIn user's post (archived) received over 3,000 reactions. In the story, the organizers of a black-tie charity event invite Manning to speak as a guest of honor at a ritzy gala attended by wealthy people. Manning steps out of the ballroom and into a hallway to comfort a crying 9-year-old boy named Dylan, who organizers tasked with introducing Manning. Manning tells him, "It's not about perfect words. It's about heart. And I heard you've got a big one." He then gives Dylan his tie, saying, "Wear this for luck. It's been on some good stages." At the end of the story, Manning says of Dylan, "I thought I was the guest of honor. But I think we just found the real star of the night." Dylan then says, "Peyton sat on the floor with me — when no one else would." While it's possible Manning — or anyone, for that matter — has, in the past, comforted an emotional child, this specific story displayed several glaring signs of inauthenticity. Namely, a review of recent posts from the Magic Clement Facebook page found at least dozens, if not hundreds, of made-up stories about Manning's heroism and kindness, not to mention an apparent abundance of free time. A majority of the posts — including the in-question story — displayed fake photos someone generated with one or more artificial-intelligence (AI) tools. Further, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no reports from news media outlets covering the purported act of kindness. In other words, the rumor about Manning comforting a child named Dylan at a gala was false. Snopes reached out to a spokesperson for Manning's official website, as well as WME agents listed on IMDb Pro as his representatives, but we had not received replies by the time of publication. A manager for the Magic Clement page also did not yet respond to questions about whether they use generative AI tools to write their stories, in addition to creating fake photos with the tools. Examining the false Manning rumor Snopes established multiple data points to conclude with a false fact-check rating. Two of those points concerned the Magic Clement Facebook page's seemingly endless wall of made-up stories about Manning, as well as the AI-generated images accompanying the posts. For example, past Magic Clement posts featured made-up stories of Manning leaving a gala to encourage a 22-year-old man to never give up, saving a lost dog in the rain, helping an elderly woman with groceries in the rain and walking in the rain to deliver a medal to a grieving veteran. Other fictional stories alleged Manning comforted a crying teenager at a bus stop, a crying janitor at an airport, a bullied boy at his house, a crying boy at a cemetery, a woman crying outside a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and many others. These stories all very much resembled glurge, which defines as "stories, often sent by email, that are supposed to be true and uplifting, but which are often fabricated and sentimental." The AI image detector Sightengine found that the photo of Manning and Dylan was likely the product of AI software, even though it displayed no obvious signs of generative AI such as the missing letters and illegible words found in other pictures hosted by Magic Clement. However, the unnaturally smooth appearance of the image provided one big clue — a clue noticeable to those trained to spot AI but perhaps not to others. The low-angle perspective of the supposed photographer also prompted the question of why someone would photograph a child crying on the floor, as opposed to helping them or simply giving the person some space. A reverse-image search located no credible results for a photographer or image-licensing company hosting the photo. For further reading, past fact checks examined claims that Manning calmed a crying baby on a long flight, as well as a tale saying he gifted a minivan to a mother. Sources: Evon, Dan. "Snopes Tips: A Guide To Performing Reverse Image Searches." Snopes, 22 Mar. 2022, "Glurge." Huberman, Bond, and David Emery. "Snopestionary: What Does 'Glurge' Mean?" Snopes, 21 Aug. 2021, Legwold, Jeff. "Manning Fights Back Tears: 'I Revere Football.'" 7 Mar. 2016, "NFL Most Valuable Player: Complete List of Winners by Year." FOX Sports, 6 Feb. 2025,
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Fact Check: False tale of Peyton Manning calming crying baby on flight is prime example of 'glurge'
Claim: Former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning calmed a crying baby on a long flight, then slipped the child's father a kind note of encouragement. Rating: A rumor that users circulated online in April 2025 told the story of five-time NFL Most Valuable Player Peyton Manning calming a crying baby on a long flight and later slipping the child's father a kind note of encouragement. For example, on April 23, a user managing the Forbidden Stories Facebook page posted (archived) the story, receiving over 41,000 reactions. The post showed pictures of Manning, who retired from the NFL in 2016, holding a baby wearing a jersey for the Indianapolis Colts — one of the teams for which Manning played. The story began, "A baby was crying nonstop on a plane. Everyone was frustrated — until Peyton Manning got up and did something no one expected." (Forbidden Stories/Facebook) At least dozens of other Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, Threads, and X users shared the same story, with several Facebook posts receiving tens of thousands of engagements. Some of those posts incorporated a meme reading, "Peyton Manning comforted a crying baby on a flight, offering kindness and encouragement to a struggling dad, calming the entire cabin." (This Will Blow Your Socks Off/Facebook) The story takes place on a flight, with no mention of the airline's name, from Denver to Atlanta. Manning approaches a father holding a crying baby and asks, referencing his athletic abilities, "Mind if I hold her for a bit? Sometimes I've got a pretty good spiral." Within minutes, Manning calms the child. He then hands the father a note reading, "You're doing better than you think. Don't measure your fatherhood by the noise. Measure it by the love." The story ends with the words, "That dad still keeps the napkin in his wallet. Because one man chose compassion over convenience. And sometimes… that's all it takes to change everything." While it's possible Manning — or anyone, for that matter — has, in the past, offered to help a parent on an airplane calm a crying baby, this specific story — and a Facebook user who originated the tale — displayed several glaring signs of inauthenticity. In other words, the rumor about Manning and the crying baby was false. Snopes reached out to a spokesperson for Manning's official website, as well as two WME agents listed on IMDb Pro as his representatives, but we had not received replies by the time of publication. Snopes established multiple data points to conclude with a false fact-check rating. The story of Manning and the crying baby contained a flight route, direct quotes and a transcript from a private note, yet no news media outlets reported on the matter, per searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo. Had the story transpired as authored, wouldn't some passengers have shared their firsthand accounts of Manning's kindness on Facebook or elsewhere? Searches for such firsthand information turned up no results. Also, the pictures included with the posts showing Manning holding a baby had nothing to do with a flight. According to information published by Vigilant Sports (archived), the photos showed the former NFL quarterback with his son, Marshall, inside the Colts locker room in 2011. Further, searches of Facebook indicated the made-up story originated in an April 17 post on the Magic Clement Facebook profile. One or more users managing the profile posted similar fabricated stories of Manning comforting people, with some of the tales also featuring people crying and Manning handing them notes of encouragement. For example, on April 23 and 24 alone, the Magic Clement profile showed posts telling tales of Manning comforting a crying janitor, a bullied boy, a crying boy at a cemetery, a woman crying outside a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and many others. Some of these posts featured AI-generated pictures of Manning with the other person, including the post about the boy crying at a cemetery. Signs of generative-AI in the photo included a nameless, misspelled headstone reading "Husbad and Father," as well as incorrect numbers of stars and stripes on an American flag. (Magic Clement/Facebook) These stories all very much resembled glurge, which defines as "stories, often sent by email, that are supposed to be true and uplifting, but which are often fabricated and sentimental." For further reading, past fact checks examining other tales of glurge told of tech billionaire Elon Musk reuniting a lost 5-year-old girl with her mother and buying the family a house, as well as U.S. President Donald Trump once helping a homeless veteran in New York City find housing and a job and later holding a White House ceremony in his honor. Agness, Scott. "Peyton Shows off Son Marshall Manning in Colts Locker Room." Vigilant Sports, 27 Nov. 2011, "Glurge." Huberman, Bond, and David Emery. "Snopestionary: What Does 'Glurge' Mean?" Snopes, 21 Aug. 2021, Legwold, Jeff. "Manning Fights Back Tears: 'I Revere Football.'" 7 Mar. 2016, "NFL Most Valuable Player: Complete List of Winners by Year." FOX Sports, 6 Feb. 2025, "U.S. Flag Facts." U.S. Embassy & Consulates in the United Kingdom,
Forbes
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Sydney Sweeney Boards Adaptation Of 2025's Potential GOTY, ‘Split/Fiction'
TORONTO, ONTARIO - SEPTEMBER 08: Sydney Sweeney receives the IMDb "Fan Favorite" STARmeter Award at ... More The Getty Images Portrait Studio Presented by IMDb And IMDbPro at InterContinental Toronto Centre on September 08, 2024 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo byfor IMDb) Things either move very fast or very slow in Hollywood, and while it may take a decade to get an Uncharted movie made, it has taken less than two months for 2025's Split/Fiction to land a huge star and huge director for its movie adaptation. One the most popular names in Hollywood right now, if not the most, would be Sydney Sweeney who is now on board the Split/Fiction movie as one of the two leads, though it's not confirmed which one that will be yet (I mean, the blonde one, probably). This is a month after it was reported she was 'circling' starring in a Gundam move, but the Split/Fiction outing seems like a done deal. Oh, and Sweeney was just said to be attached to another game adaptation, producing an OutRun movie directed by Michael Bay about an old, relatively obscure racing game. It hasn't been said that she'll star, however. Split Fiction But just as impressive as Sweeney starring is the fact that the movie will be directed by Jon M. Chu of Crazy Rich Asians and Wicked fame, where this seems like it would probably be his next movie after Wicked Part 2 was released. Why is this movie getting so much attention, and a movie spooling up this quickly? Well its studio, Hazelight, won Game of the Year in 2021 for It Takes Two, a co-operative story game. Split/Fiction is another co-operative story game, and is currently tied with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as the best-reviewed game of 2025 with a 92 Metascore, putting it easily in GOTY contention. Clair Obscur is tough competition and Grand Theft Auto 6 may come out this year, but it's not impossible it could win, and these reviews have been stellar. It's no secret that Hollywood has been jumping on video games left and right for movie or show adaptations with massive hits like Fallout, The Last of Us, The Super Mario Bros. Movie and now Minecraft. Split/Fiction may not be as high profile as those, but if you've played the game, which blends sci-fi and fantasy worlds in an awesome way, you can see how it would make a good film. You can also see how it would probably make a very, very expensive film. There's no release date for this as this is all still coming together. But with a big star and director, this is going to speed along pretty quickly, it seems. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Bluesky Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Gender-Balanced Films Are More Profitable Than Those With Mostly Men, ReFrame Study Finds
According to Sundance and WIF's ReFrame study out Wednesday, movies that feature gender-balanced casts and crews are more profitable than those that just employ mostly men. However, only 30 of the 100 most popular films of 2024 actually meet the criteria for a ReFrame Stamp based on gender-balanced production, per IMDbPro data. 'Since the brief climb captured in the first few years of the report between 2017 and 2019, progress for parity in feature films has stalled, with 30% or fewer projects receiving the ReFrame Stamp for the past five years,' the study shared. 'Despite their smaller share across the Top 100, Stamped films over-index on profitability, comprising half of the 10 top-grossing films in 2024, with 'Inside Out 2' following in 'Barbie's' footsteps as a Stamped film with a female lead that topped both the year's domestic and worldwide box offices.' 'Stamped films also receive lower budgets overall, but on average, Stamped theatrical releases within the Top 100 earned more than double their non-Stamped counterparts at the worldwide box office ($293.9MM for Stamped films compared to $117.8MM for non-Stamped films),' ReFrame continued. 'Stamped films garnering awards recognition also remains consistent, with three of the 10 films nominated for Best Picture at the 97th Academy Awards meeting ReFrame Stamp criteria: 'The Substance,' 'Wicked' and 'Emilia Pérez,' which tallied 26 nominations and five wins between them. Stamped films have accounted for three Best Picture nominations each year since the expansion to 10 nominees in 2022.' Additional statistics revealed in the 2024 ReFrame Report on Gender and Hiring in Film include, and quote: Films with larger budgets are less inclusive: over the last three years, the proportion of Stamped films at the highest budget level ($100M or more) is about half that of the lowest budget level ($15M or less). The average budget for a Stamped film fell $18M (from $63M in 2023 to $45M in 2024) while budgets for non-Stamped films decreased $8M (from $76M in 2023 to $68M in 2024). The number of women directors represented in the Top 100 films of 2024 fell from 2023 (20 to 14), and there were zero transgender or nonbinary directors and only five women of color (down from nine in 2023). Lead acting roles reached parity, with 51 films starring women including one transgender woman. Of those 51 women, 17 were women of color. Co-leads (the four largest supporting roles) frequently include women, with 97/100 films including a qualifying candidate. This year, four of 100 films include a nonbinary or transgender performer in a supporting role. However, ethnic diversity for co-lead performers dropped nearly a quarter (24.1%) from last year's 58 to 44. Numbers for women screenwriters also fell 23.3% from 30 in 2023 to 23 in 2024, with steeper declines for women of color (eight last year and three this year). Directors of photography, composers and visual effects supervisors remain three of the positions most lacking in representation, with women holding fewer than 10% of each role. In 2024, women accounted for three directors of photography, six visual effects supervisors and eight composers within the Top 100 films. Direct-to-streaming releases comprised 21 of the Top 100 films and included more than 50% (11) Stamped films, while theatrical releases were only 30.7% Stamped (16/52) and limited theatrical releases were 37.5% Stamped (3/8). You can find the full report by clicking here. The post Gender-Balanced Films Are More Profitable Than Those With Mostly Men, ReFrame Study Finds appeared first on TheWrap.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Inside Out 2' Succeeds ‘Barbie' As Blockbuster Milestone For Gender Equity, But Sundance/WIF's ReFrame Says Overall Progress Remains Stalled
While Inside Out 2 took the mantle from Barbie as a female-centric megahit, overall industry progress on gender equity continued to stall in 2024. That's the main takeaway from the latest annual report from ReFrame, the initiative launched in 2017 by the Sundance Institute and WIF (formerly Women In Film Los Angeles). With IMDbPro also backing the effort, the report said 30 of the 100 most popular films of 2024 (judging by box office and streaming views) met the 'ReFrame Stamp' criteria for gender-balanced production. Along with Inside Out 2, the roster of recognized titles included Oscar winners Wicked and Emelia Pérez and five-time nominee The Substance. More from Deadline Mattel Laying Off 120 Workers As Part Of Cost-Cutting Push As Toymaker Also Reckons With Tariffs The Black List & WIF Set 2025 Episodic Lab Participants 'Inside Out 2', The Year's Highest-Grossing Film, Is A Sequel That Takes The Original Concept To New Heights - Contenders Film: The Nominees With global box office of almost $1.7 billion (including a record $1 billion-plus outside the U.S.), Inside Out 2 is the highest-grossing animated film in history. The sequel to Pixar's 2014 film about the inner emotional life of Riley sees the protagonist navigating the complexities of high school. The 2024 ReFrame Report on Gender and Hiring in Film, which examined hiring across key roles on all 100 top films based on IMDbPro data, reveals little improvement in gender-balanced hiring over the last five years. Notably, the projects also had significantly lower budgets in 2024. Since an upswing between 2017 and 2019, progress for parity in feature films has stalled, the report said, with the number of 'stamped' films remaining at or below 30% for the past five years. Films with larger budgets are less inclusive, according to the report. Over the last three years, the proportion of films earning the stamp at the highest budget level ($100M or more) is about half that of the lowest budget level ($15M or less). The average budget for a 'stamped' film declined by $18M (from $63M in 2023 to $45M in 2024) while budgets for non-'stamped' films decreased $8M (from $76M in 2023 to $68M in 2024). What's more, the number of women directors represented in the Top 100 fell from 20 in 2023 to 14 last year. There were no transgender or nonbinary directors and just five women of color, down from nine in 2023. Despite these less-than-encouraging findings, the report noted that revenue for films earning the stamp was much higher than that for non-qualifying films. On average, theatrical releases in the Top 100 with the stamp collected more than double the grosses of non-stamped films at the worldwide box office ($293.9 million to $117.8 million). Netflix, which lacks any material commitment to theatrical releasing, nonetheless fared well in the study. Half of the streaming giant's total met ReFrame's standards. Amazon joined Netflix in the 50% club, while Apple, Lionsgate and Paramount had zero qualified releases. ReFrame issues a stamp to features hiring 'qualifying candidates,' defined as 'women or individuals of other underrepresented gender identities/expressions (including those who are transgender, nonbinary, or gender nonconforming)' in at least 50% of key roles. Those roles include writer, director, producer, lead, co-leads, cinematographer, production designer, costume designer, editor, composer, music supervisor, VFX supervisor, line producer, unit production manager, first assistant director, stunt coordinator and intimacy coordinator. Additional points are awarded to productions that hire qualifying candidates of color in these key positions, and to those with overall gender parity in their crews Best of Deadline How Jon Gries' Return To 'The White Lotus' Could Shape Season 3 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery How To Watch 'Wicked: Part One': Is The Film Streaming Yet?
