Sometimes the internet can become the largest game of “telephone” known to man. You know the child’s game where you whisper a statement to the person next to you ..and by the time it gets around the circle, you find out that it’s completely different from what you first said. Well that’s been happening with this rumor about Colin Farrell supposedly being “set” to play Ozzy Osbourne in a new bio pic.
The problem may be blamed on an editor who didn’t take the time to really read the article. Two days ago Irish Central posted a story titled “Colin Farrell set to play Ozzy Osbourne in new bio pic”, however, when you read the story, there is nothing that says that it’s a done deal. They do report that “The Paramount Pictures and MTV Film’s have revealed that Colin Farrell would be their ideal choice to play the Brummie rocker”, but they also go on to report that Ozzy would really like to see an actor from Birmingham play him in the film.
Since the Irish Central article appeared.. there has been a rash of bloggers and twitterers repeating only the headline.. that Colin has been “set to play Ozzy”, when in fact, there is no truth to the rumor. Even Perez Hilton repeated the story as fact, quoting “a source”. Now, other supposed “news” sites are quoting what they call “the reliable” Perez Hilton.. as if a post by a gossip columnist who doesn’t even name his source.. makes the story true?
Now, I’m not saying that there is no way that Colin will play Ozzy, who knows, it may still happen, however I’m just really fed up with the way rumors get spread quickly these days..with no one checking sources. The same thing happened recently when Colin was “reported” to be starring in “Something Borrowed”. I even saw reports of “Colin Farrell filming in New York”.. when he was never signed on to do the film!
My rule of thumb is consider all stories of possible roles as “rumor” until we get an official announcement or it’s reported by a truly credible industry source such as The Hollywood Reporter or Variety. Sorry.. Perez Hilton just doesn’t cut it for me.
You can be assured that this site will be one of the first to let you know when there is news of a true story concerning a new role for Colin.. until then.. don’t believe everything that you read on the internet!
