Barbara Eden, the I Dream of Jeannie actress, became the victim of a death hoax on August 17 when rumors of her death spread online. The 90-year-old actress is believed to have died early Wednesday morning. The apparent hoax of Eden’s death appears to have come from a YouTube station called Allan Radio, which has around 20,000 members. On Wednesday, the channel released the following video:
“RIP 7 minutes ago Barbara Eden / Goodbye, Barbara Eden.”
I hear that Barbara Eden (I dream of Genie) has died.
Sad news pic.twitter.com/pv5MWk9PYi
— Nigel – a guy from Bolton 🇬🇧🏴적적적적적적🧐🦒🆖♌ (@Nigel100007) August 16, 2022
The video in question had more than 97,000 views and over 700 user likes. Barbara Eden has her 91st birthday on August 23, so it seems the channel was targeting her. On August 16, the Tucson, Arizona senior posted a photo of herself with Priscilla Presley at Elvis’ Graceland residence in Memphis, Tennessee. Furthermore, the YouTube channel that started this myth spreads fake celebrity death announcements to get views.
Rumors of death
Following the fake news of the alleged death of Barbara Eden, the station aired a fake program claiming that actress Whoopi Goldberg had died. Other famous celebrities who have fallen victim to the channel’s ridiculous claims include Hot Fuzz actor Simon Pegg and Star Trek star William Shatner. Before the claims of Eden’s death, the station also released a fake video in which the famous Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley appeared to have died. Marley died in May 1981.
These channels appear to be run by bots as videos falsely claiming celebrity deaths are common on YouTube. Clint Eastwood, the actor and director, was one of the few victims of these tapes last month. Many netizens first assumed that the legendary Hollywood star had died when Recuerda Gente Famosa posted a video claiming his death. “10 minutes ago/ Sad news / RIP Clint Eastwood / Goodbye Clint Eastwood,” the video’s caption read. This title follows the same structure as the aforementioned fake videos from the Allan Radio YouTube account. Therefore, it is likely that these false statements were made by the same person or group that has many YouTube accounts.
Along with the shock value of such statements, the main purpose of these films is to generate views and ad revenue. These films, like most of the fake material on YouTube, do not even state the reasons for the deaths of these celebrities. In most cases, general star details are used to extend the runtime to around five minutes to allow for monetization. They also use text-to-speech to replace generic voice recordings, allowing them to create many pieces of content with false claims in a single day.
Barbara Eden is quite concerned about her health.
At the age of 90, the actress is still quite active, as evidenced by her recent trip to Memphis. Eden opened up to Closer Weekly about her health habits last year, just days before her 90th birthday. She stated:
“I’m really conscientious about (my) food. I’m a carnivore… I love steak. We eat a lot of pork, poultry, steak and vegetables.”
Eden also gave a sneak peek into her workout regime at the gym. She continued, saying:
“I walk a lot.”
The Blazing Star actress said that she included spinning in her exercises and hired a trainer for it, but had to stop because of COVID.
Categories: Entertaintment
Source: HIS Education