Kate Beckinsale Wonder Woman Hoax

James Joyner @ Gone Hollywood | Tuesday, April 4, 2006

FemaleFirst and National Ledger are among those who, without attribution, are passing on word that British actress Kate Beckinsale is competing with Lindsay Lohan, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and others to play the title role in the upcoming “Wonder Woman” movie.

The problem is that it apparently isn’t true. The reports are being cribbed from INDB’s April 4 news summary:

Kate Beckinsale has reportedly joined the race to play Wonder Woman in Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon’s upcoming comic book movie. The British actress is in negotiations with Whedon, according to movie gossip website joblo.com. Insiders claim Whedon is “very happy” with Beckinsale and confirmed last week that production on his highly anticipated movie adaptation of the popular comic book series will begin filming in early September. Buffy stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and Charisma Carpenter, and teen queen Lindsay Lohan have been linked to the coveted role - which was played on TV by Lynda Carter.

That report is gathered from an April 1 “report” by JoBLo’s Movie Emporium. As that site notes today, the “report” was an April Fool’s Joke!

1) JoBlo.com is not, has never been and will never be…a “gossip site”. We’ve been a “movie news” site for about 8 years now and anyone who knows anything about movies on the Net should know that by now. 98% of our stories are based in fact, and we make sure to separate the “rumored” stories as such.

2) Even if these people read our article completely — which they obviously didn’t — where in our piece do we say that Kate Beckinsale “has joined the race to play Wonder Woman”? The article is titled “Wonder Woman cast!” To me that says…well, she IS Wonder Woman….she isn’t “being considered” at all. So on top of NOT recognizing the April Foolishness of the article, they even get the basic idea behind it wrong.

3) Finally, I just want to point out some of the stuff mentioned in our article that apparently wasn’t read or reported on by the IMDB article. The part about Whedon hoping to “bang” Beckinsale. The part about Whedon admitting that many other actresses wanted to “blow him” for the part. The part about Whedon admitting that Jessica Simpson had the “tits for the part”, but was as “dumb as they come”. The part about Whedon asking Beckinsale to get a breast job for the part and Beckinsale’s publicist…seeming okay with that! I could go on, folks.

Well, it’s Hollywood, after all. Those things happen all the time!

Regardless of who ultimately gets the Wonder Woman gig, though, Lynda Carter is going to be a tough act to follow.