{"id":7869,"date":"2026-04-05T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/?p=7869"},"modified":"2026-03-31T12:30:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T12:30:49","slug":"from-taylor-swifts-pregnancy-to-stevie-nicks-defending-trump-this-is-the-new-problem-facing-hollywoods-talent-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/2026\/04\/05\/from-taylor-swifts-pregnancy-to-stevie-nicks-defending-trump-this-is-the-new-problem-facing-hollywoods-talent-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"From Taylor Swift’s pregnancy to Stevie Nicks defending Trump, this is the new problem facing Hollywood’s talent teams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n
\n\n\n\n

There’s a new frontier for Hollywood’s talent teams – and it’s impossible to stop<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

LLMs have turned an annoying but manageable part of publicity work into an exhausting game of Whac-a-Mole…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

words laura bradley<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
\"Taylor<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Have you heard the news? It turns out, Taylor Swift is pregnant. Sydney Sweeney is feuding with Bella Ramsey, and Dolly Parton just opened an animal sanctuary. Also, Stevie Nicks is standing up for Donald Trump, if you can believe it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually, you shouldn\u2019t believe any of these things, because none of them are true. But if you\u2019re a heavy Facebook user and don\u2019t look too closely at the rumours that come across your feed each day, you might just fall for them anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI \u201cslop\u201d has become a hot topic on just about every social platform, and unfortunately for publicists everywhere, this slimy, sludgey trend has come for celebrity news. From fake pregnancy announcements to flame wars that never happened, scam artists are churning out content designed to rack up engagement and drive users to ad-heavy websites, where their clicks generate even more profit for foreign ad companies that, in some cases, appear to share revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Needless to say, celebrity talent teams aren\u2019t willing to shake it off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Taylor<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Batting away bogus news stories is part of the job for any publicist, but these days, the rumours are spreading on a scale that would have been unfathomable just a few years ago. The damage goes beyond a few celebrities\u2019 reputations, too. As these false stories flood our information environment, they damage reader trust, tax our skeptical energy, and, most importantly, make daily life even more frustrating during an already exhausting time. If only we could all collectively unsubscribe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fake news is not exactly novel in the celebrity space. Just ask Elvis Presley, who, according to an enduring tabloid conspiracy theory, is actually still alive. Still, the sheer amount of fabricated rumours in our feeds does feel new. A digital strategy agent who spoke to Grazia UK on the condition of anonymity confirms that talent teams have \u201cdefinitely seen an uptick in non-consensual content online using our clients\u2019 names, image, likeness, and voice\u201d since 2024, when LLMs first went public. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facebook seems to be the venue of choice for the digital celebrity rumour mill. Scroll for a while, and you\u2019ll likely run into a melodramatic story about your favourite celebrity doing or saying something wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Stevie<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Megan Loe, a web producer and editor at Snopes who has debunked a fair number of these stories, also confirms that fake celebrity news has spiked in recent years. Unsurprisingly, she says, a lot of these stories center around A-listers\u2019 personal lives: \u201cThey\u2019re pregnancy rumours. They\u2019re break-up rumours. They\u2019re rumours about supposed acts of charity that they’ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more famous a celebrity happens to be, the more likely it is that they\u2019ll wind up in a fabricated headline. Just ask Taylor Swift, who, on top of the pregnancy rumour, has also become the subject of explicit deepfakes and phony, AI-generated political endorsements. Because Swift is \u201cone of the biggest celebrities in the world right now,\u201d Loe says, \u201cI would think that these AI slop farms are trying to capitalize on her fame.\u201d In addition to A-listers like Swift, Loe notes that fake news can also ensnare figures like late-night hosts, news anchors, and football players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sydney<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some AI stories appear to build on one another, like the fake feud in which Bella Ramsey supposedly called out Sydney Sweeney, only for the Euphoria star to allegedly retaliate soon afterward. In other cases, multiple stars find themselves ensnared in a fake news story that seems to have come from a verbatim template, like the time Eminem, Morgan Wallen, and Adam Lambert all supposedly brought the same foster child on stage at their concerts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s one interesting distinction between tabloid stories and AI dreck. Tabloids usually stick to salacious themes, but a lot of AI content leans on feel-good sentimentality. Dolly Parton has her made-up \u201cPet Haven,\u201d and Stephen Colbert has supposedly also opened a sanctuary for abandoned dogs \u2014 a stunning feat, considering he has apparently also founded a wildlife rescue program for endangered elephants and adopted a young girl orphaned by the Texas floods last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Snopes often points out while debunking all of these claims, there\u2019s a name for this saccharine brand of baloney: \u201cglurge.\u201d But make no mistake. No matter how sweet these stories might be, they\u2019re also scams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dolly<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For most of us readers at home, celebrity-based AI slop likely provokes one simple question: Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with many scams, the answer probably comes down to money. There are two ways to profit from this kind of racket: monetising social pages that distribute the rumours, or sending readers to another website where their clicks generate ad revenue. Some of these secondary platforms encourage monetary transactions as well. At its core, most celebrity slop is basic engagement farming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s also reason to believe that the people behind these posts are not random, individual scammers. In many cases, if not all, Loe says, the scammers appear to be organized groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘the scammers are working in organized groups.’<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A 2025 Snopes investigation examined 15 Facebook posts tied to the deadly Texas floods from that year and determined that foreign ad companies had likely generated $500 to $2,000 in profits from those posts alone. Even more interesting, Snopes found evidence that the ad companies attached to these posts might share revenue or even common ownership. Factor in the exchange rate in some of these countries (including Pakistan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Myanmar) along with income generated by other posts, and the financial structure begins to make sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past, this kind of grift required at least some skill. Scammers needed the curatorial instincts to know which celebrities would go most viral, the storytelling instincts to know which narratives \u201csell\u201d the best, and the writing chops to jot down an eye-popping headline that would get readers\u2019 clicking fingers itching. Now, AI can do it all \u2014 and add an AI-generated image to make the story go viral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been seeing fake news since even before AI was widely accessible,\u201d the digital agent says. \u201cI think the difference with fake news stories is now you can make fake news more believable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Taylor<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dan Neely, CEO for the AI licensing and protection platform Vermillio, has seen more than his fair share of this sludgy content. Vermillio works with celebrity talent teams to protect their images from unlicensed use, and business has been booming. By his estimation, A-listers probably see between 30,000 to 40,000 uses of their likeness each day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neely and his team fight against all sorts of unauthorized content, which, alongside fake news, can include phony celebrity social pages, advertisements, and endorsements. Right now, Neely says, \u201cThe people with the most fans are going to be exposed the most, and often have the teams in place to be able to deal with it the most.\u201d Think: celebrities debuting new projects, and those who\u2019ve recently said or done something interesting. But ultimately, he believes this problem will expand well past our favorite movie stars and musicians. \u201cIt\u2019s going to affect everyone,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘IT’S GOING TO AFFECT EVERYONE.’<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s easy to shrug these fake stories off, but the negative effects are real. Just like romance scams using celebrities\u2019 likeness can con people out of money, so do some of these fake news stories. In some cases, Neely says, the posters behind these stories drive users to sites like Patreon with the goal of extracting money from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now, likeness is not legally protected, but Neely believes this will become a key battleground. Lawmakers in the U.S., U.K., and EU are also pushing for legislation to tag AI content. But for all of us, the cost goes deeper than money, or a celebrity\u2019s reputation. At Snopes, Loe sees how much confusion these stories create. \u201cWe’re covering it almost on a daily basis,\u201d she says. And while some people know how to spot an AI-generated story or image, not everyone does. As more and more fake information proliferates, Loe sees people becoming more skeptical and also, in some cases, more exhausted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s good to be skeptical,\u201d Loe says. \u201cIt’s good to fact check information.\u201d At the same time, she warns, this kind of environment can also lead to \u201cbroader distrust of media, or even news in general.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like it or not, Neely predicts that as AI slop proliferates, more media companies will put the truth behind paywalls. \u201cIt’s going to become the authentic thing, and that’s what people ultimately want,\u201d he says. \u201cWe’re just in this very messy middle moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n\n\n\n

Photos: Facebook <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And it’s impossible to stop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":7880,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"acf":{"article_authors":"","send_as_draft":false,"send_as_paid":true,"send_as_featured":true},"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7881,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7869\/revisions\/7881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}