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Oprah and Janet Jackson had plans to shoot a movie together, claimed an article from one year ago today. At the time, Gossip Cop reported it was a complete fabrication. Now that a full 365 days have passed, it’s clear once again our fact-checking was right, and the National Enquirer’s story, which was picked up and shared by other outlets, was a work of fiction.
On June 10, 2017, the supermarket tabloid maintained Jackson wanted to team up with Oprah because she felt her niece Paris was hogging all the family’s “headlines.” The magazine asserted the singer was “secretly plotting” with the media mogul to give Michael’s daughter “a run for her money” and be the one and only Jackson topping the box office. An unnamed “source” alleged Jackson was so “itching to get back onto the big screen” that she was “huddling round-the-clock with Oprah,” who the outlet contended was “dying to produce her comeback.” The publication’s same untraceable and seemingly concocted “source” added that Jackson wasn’t only “determined to act,” but that she was also “aiming for an Oscar… And with Oprah in her corner, anything’s possible.”
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So, what kind of film were they planning? What was the plot? Who else was slated to star in it? Of course, the tabloid didn’t offer any details because the truth was there never was a film Oprah and Jackson were collaborating on. It was all made up by the tabloid.
And, as we noted 12 months ago, it seemed a little odd that that magazine claimed Jackson was going to give her niece a “run for the money” at theaters. To date, Paris’s credits are basically four appearances on the Fox series “Star,” and a small part in the film Gringo. Additionally, the singer herself has only done a handful of movies over the past 25 years. Jackson’s few major film credits include the 1993 film Poetic Justice, Nutty Profession II: The Klumps in 2000, and Tyler Perry’s 2010 movie For Colored Girls.
Curiously, the article was from the same tabloid that ran a cover story about how Jackson “hates” Oprah’s “guts” for interviewing Paris and her brothers Prince and Blanket after Michael Jackson’s death. The magazine alleged at the time that it somehow knew of a supposed “blistering blowup” phone call in which a “furious” Jackson lashed out at Oprah and allegedly told her, “You make me sick.” We’re still not sure how the publication went from that to having the talk show host trying to win Jackson an Oscar.
Regardless, Oprah’s rep, who was speaking on her behalf, exclusively told Gossip Cop that the outlet’s tale was “untrue.” A full year has passed, and it’s clear the tabloid’s unidentifiable source’s claim was phony. There was no talk of a Jackson film with Oprah’s involvement back then, nor is there any today.
We bring up these articles to remind our readers that the truth always bears out over time. And though we’re not infallible, while other outlets almost always hide behind unnamed insiders, our sources often publicly put themselves on the line to correct phony stories about themselves or the celebrities for whom they’re authorized to speak. As a result of our research, access, and dedication to the truth, it should have been obvious to readers then and all the more so now that the Enquirer’s story about Oprah and Jackson “plotting” to work on a film together was fiction, while Gossip Cop‘s report was grounded in facts.
