It's not out of the ordinary for a publication to have prewritten obituaries and other presumed-to-become news stories in the can for when the need arises. Sometimes, journos really can predict the future, and they spend their slow-news days working on articles that will likely be useful at some point. So, it should come as no surprise that People magazine has an obituary written for 97-year-old legend Kirk Douglas. The fact that the article went live when the actor is still breathing, however, is. And, not only that, more than one shell story from People's content managing system was published by mistake.
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Here's what People wanted to at some point, or believes will happen in the future according to its backlog of "DO NOT PUB" stories:
- Christopher Plummer will die.
- Will and Jada Pinkett Smith are going to break up.
- Michelle Williams is going to "hold hands with a new guy" named Jeremy Strong.
- Johnny Depp was going to marry Vanessa Paradis in 2007. (They split in 2012.)
- Kate Middleton was going to enter a London hospital and have her baby.
Some of these things in the "DO NOT PUB" stories did, in fact, come true. Kate Middleton definitely welcomed Prince George into the world from a London hospital. The Smiths are, however, still together. Don't worry, though! If/when the news breaks, trust that People magazine will be the first to get the story up — hopefully it'll just fill in some more of those TKs first. (Gawker)