Hollywood Gaslit: Eastwood Says “Never Happened”—Kurier Gets Roasted
Clint Eastwood just did the digital equivalent of staring down Dirty Harry's revolver—except this time, the barrel's aimed at tabloid journalism. This week, a supposedly “exclusive” interview from Austria's Kurier went viral, splattering the web with clickbait headlines: Eastwood savaging remakes, franchise fever, and Hollywood's imagination drought. Twitter spiraled. Reddit memed. “Boomer icon dunks on Marvel!” screamed the aggregated outrage echo chamber.
Twist: According to Eastwood himself, every word is fiction.
He didn't mince syllables. In a statement to Deadline, Eastwood said:
“I can also confirm that I never gave an interview to an Austrian publication called Kurier… the interview is entirely phony.”
Kurier, a mid-tier Austrian paper barely on Hollywood's radar, just got caught staging a wild west shootout—armed with blanks. Audacious doesn't even cover it. It's as if The Onion's interns snuck into Variety's offices and swapped the coffee for tequila.
But here's why this changes everything (or nothing):
The fake interview soared from the Austrian backend to the global front page. U.S. trades, industry burners, and your aunt's Facebook timeline all ran those bogus quotes. Meanwhile, one accidental truth slid through—the same week, Reuters independently confirmed Eastwood's already prepping another film project. So the tabloids get roasted for lying, but sneak in a kernel of news regardless. Hollywood rumors are like a J.J. Abrams lens flare—try to block it, it keeps bleeding into the frame.
For those thinking, “Surely this never happens!”—think again.
Remember when The Daily Mail concocted that 2015 Tom Hardy meltdown during “Mad Max” reshoots, only for cast and crew to debunk the whole circus? Or, more recently, the fake Jennifer Lawrence pregnancy interview that made the rounds on TikTok before her publicist nuked it from orbit? Tabloid fabrications are as reliable as Oscar-bait biopics—everyone claims “based on a true story,” but which part?
A longtime studio executive (who definitely isn't Clint) told me at a screening:
“Half of Hollywood is PR smoke, the other half is mirrors. Then there's the stuff you just make up for sport.”
What's next—Eastwood to star as himself, busting digital hoaxes on YouTube? (I'd watch that. Admit it. You would, too.)
