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.

Reuters Image

Reuters Image
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.’”
Medeea Greere on X: "𝗕𝗼𝗺𝗯𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗹: 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗪𝗮𝗵𝗹𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗴  𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗮 $𝟯𝟬 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗢𝗽𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲  𝗧𝗼𝗺 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀 “𝗜'𝗹𝗹 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗛𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗹 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗜  𝗪𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗛𝗶𝗺.” In a ...
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.