TOM Cruise is not moving to South Queensferry – at least as far The National can tell.
Over the weekend, social media was full of rumours that the Top Gun star was moving to the Edinburgh side of the Forth Bridge in a bid to escape the Hollywood lifestyle. According to a report on the Headline Brief website, Cruise had fallen in love with “the quaint Scottish town” while scouting for movie locations with Martin Scorsese. The website said the movie star wanted to “live in a place where people were just people and whose sincerity you didn’t have to question”.
“I’ve accomplished a lot in my career,” Cruise reportedly told the magazine, “and I feel like I just want to slow down a little bit and moving to a town like South Queensferry in such a beautiful and historic place full of wonderful people is exactly what I want in my life right now.”
The star then supposedly said: “I’m not giving up on my career.
I just want to move to a place that feels so different than what I’ve been used to all my life. For me, that place is South Queensferry.”
The news was, according to the magazine, a shock for residents of both Hollywood and South Queensferry.
After the shock, there was disappointment for the townsfolk of South Queensferry who discovered they were the latest victims of a social media prank. According to Snopes, a website set up to debunk internet rumours, Cruise’s purported move to within swimming distance of Fife was one of many rumours about famous people moving to small towns that started circulating at the end of February.
Snopes said: “The queries appeared out of nowhere at around the same time, as if an exodus from Hollywood occurred en masse for some unstated reason.
“The second thing that made us raise an eyebrow was that all these tidbits of entertainment reporting came from what appeared to be solely two websites – Headline Brief and McKenzie Post. Either two visually identical and, until that point, unknown outlets had suddenly cornered the market on celebrity real estate scoops or a new social media prank generator was afoot.”
The website generated hundreds of identical stories to that reporting Cruise’s move to South Queensferry, changing only the name of the celebrity and the name of the town.
Local councillor Norman Work joked that the news would be upsetting for locals hoping to attend the first meeting of the Queensferry Scientology branch at the Hawes Inn, but insisted that there was plenty in the town to attract the Hollywood A-lister.
“I can see why anyone would want to live in the Ferry,” Work said. “There are lovely pubs, cafes and restaurants to visit while enjoying the lovely views.”
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