Jennifer Aniston seems like a nice person. So when a story appeared on a Facebook fan page this week which appeared to describe a situation when Aniston went out of her way to help someone in need, many Facebook users smiled, liked, and went about their day. The story, though heartwarming, never happened (at least to Aniston, her rep has confirmed). On November 9, a story of a woman (presumably Aniston, as it's told in the first person and features a photo of Aniston hugging a young woman) giving a homeless, teenage mother and her child food and money ends with an annual Christmas card sent from the mother, who's now a college student.
However, the post has gained a P.S. tacked on the end, "This story is not related to any celebrity and the person in the picture is just a wonderful fan and it's not related to her, but a story worth sharing!" The story is actually from a 5-year-old Reddit post.
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"I was day tripping to Vancouver from Seattle and stopped in for lunch at a little cafe. From my window I saw a young...
Posted by Jennifer Aniston Fans on Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Another celebrity Facebook hoax was posted on November 10. A Meryl Streep Facebook fan page posted a photo of the actress on the subway as a young woman. The quote below it, seemingly from Streep, describes a disappointing audition she had before the photo was snapped, which she didn't let discourage her. However, true Meryl fans should have been able to pick up on the hoax right away, as Yahoo U.K. pointed out, there's a pretty glaring factual error. The post claims Streep has won 18 Oscars, when in fact, she's won three.
If you fell for either of these posts, sharing them only to be torn down by commenters explaining how obvious the deception is, don't feel bad. It's good to want positive, uplifting stories to be true. And all the people critizing your sense of trust have, at some point in their life, looked down at their shirt at a stain that wasn't there.
Opener Photo: Jim Smeal/BEI/REX Shutterstock.