December 05, 2017
There have been times in the past when we've questioned the behavior of Kevin Bacon, a Philadelphia-born actor and musician whose father shaped our city and therefore matters more to us than other celebrities.
Like, why did he wear spandex for an Apple commercial that aired exclusively in Europe? It was funny. That's a good enough reason. Also, ever since his grave misfortune at the hands of Bernie Madoff, Bacon has been vocal about the need for creatives to take a more structured approach to managing their finances. Perhaps the money was worth the spandex.
The latest Bacon question: Is he really singing the praises of President Donald Trump?
In the depressing age of fake news, there is a dual responsibility to identify the difference between news that is actually false or fabricated and news that simply rubs us the wrong way, generally because it comes with a slant or there are omissions that would otherwise provide a more comprehensive picture.
We can decidedly say that a recent story claiming Kevin Bacon believes we are all "blessed" to have Donald Trump as our president is utterly untrue.
The dubious news blog Worldwide Politics published a story on Sunday recapping a supposed interview Kevin Bacon had on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos." During this interview, the actor reportedly gushed over President Trump.
“I honestly think that we are blessed to have him as President – he is the only one who can take care of all this mess," Bacon supposedly said. “He should be given the Medal of Freedom for talking his mind in such a bold, honest, and straightforward manner.”
Bacon, of course, campaigned for John Edwards in 2007 and later donated to Barack Obama in 2008, officially endorsing the former president during his successful re-election bid in 2012. That's not to say some Obama voters didn't shift their support to Trump in 2016, but little about Bacon's political past suggests he would have done so himself.
Here's the kicker: Kevin Bacon last appeared on "This Week" in 2007 and never spoke a word about Donald Trump.
Worldwide Politics is the epitome of a fake news website. It's also not the only one that traffics in falsified celebrity news. Late last month, the Daily News for Americans ran a made-up story claiming actress Julia Roberts — an attendee of the Women's March in Washington, D.C. — called Trump "the best president in US history."
The only place this Kevin Bacon story may have legs, in other words, is in a game of "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon."
