Satirical website headlines citing Mark Wahlberg as having said that he refused to work with fellow American actor Tom Hanks are being taken seriously online.
“Mark Wahlberg Declined Opportunity To Star Along Tom Hanks: ‘I’ll pray for his soul, but I won’t work with him’,” some social media posts read, opens new tab.

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Other posts paraphrase the headlines, opens new tab and quote from one of the satirical articles.
However, there are no credible reports of any such comment by Wahlberg.
The headlines originate on two websites that clearly identify their content as satire and parody, Esspots and Dunning-Kruger Times.
On Jan. 27, Esspots published, opens new tab an article titled “Breaking: Mark Wahlberg Bows Out of $65 Million Project with Tom Hanks, ‘What A Woke Creep’,” and on March 1, Dunning Kruger Times published, opens new tab an article titled, “Mark Wahlberg Turned Down a $30 Million Role Opposite Tom Hanks: ‘I’ll Pray for His Soul But I Won’t Work With Him.’”

The “About Us” pages for Esspots, opens new tab and Dunning Kruger Times, opens new tab each state that the sites publish satire and parody news.
Esspots adds on a disclaimer page: “Before you proceed to read our content, we would like to emphasize that nothing on this website is real. All of the articles, stories, and commentary found on Esspots.com are entirely fictitious and created for the purpose of entertainment only.”

Reuters has previously addressed online posts making false claims about Hanks in relation to the late, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

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A representative for Wahlberg declined to comment. A representative for Hanks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

VERDICT

Satire. Headlines suggesting Mark Wahlberg refused to work with Tom Hanks originate from satire websites.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work.