At the end of August 2023, Russian television and social networks reported that Priscilla Presley and Shavo Odadjian allegedly persistently asked the President of Ukraine to go to rehab. We checked whether these celebrity appeals are real.
Since August 23, publications began to circulate on Runet that the widow of the king of rock and roll Elvis Presley, actress and businesswoman Priscilla Presley recorded a video message to Vladimir Zelensky, in which she allegedly advised him to get rid of drug and alcohol addiction in a specialized clinic. Proof of this was an almost three-minute video recording of several stories from Presley’s Instagram* account, shown on the smartphone screen.
On August 28, the video was talked about on Channel One in the program “Time will show" Presenter Olesya Loseva, repeatedly distributing fakes in her Telegram channel, reported that American celebrities staged a kind of flash mob - they allegedly invited Zelensky to a drug clinic. Loseva mentioned the actors Elijah Wood, Dean Norris And John McGinley, as well as a boxer Mike Tyson — “Verified” established that all four appeals were fakes. Next, a new video was shown on air, allegedly from the widow of Elvis Presley, after which presenter Anatoly Kuzichev exclaimed: “He’s kidding me!”
Priscilla Presley's appeal was reported on the TV presenter's Telegram channels Ruslana Ostashko (132,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) and the TV channel "360" (33,000), as well as "Uncle Slava"(261,000), "Putin on Telegram"(247,000), "Evil proof️" (166,000), "Heavenly"(147,000), TG Team Russia (78,000), "Russia 2.0" (63,000) and "Mriya"(40,000). In addition, the media wrote about the video, including “Radio Sputnik", EADaily, "Morning south", TVcenter.ru, "Main regional", as well as publics "VKontakte"
Widow of Elvis Presley
As in previous similar videos allegedly recorded by other celebrities, Presley never mentioned the last name of Vladimir, whom she was addressing, and used the Russian, rather than the Ukrainian, version of the politician’s name. At the same time, the tag of Zelensky’s official Instagram account is visible on the frames. Below is the full translation of the actress’s words.
Hello, Vladimir. I hope I pronounced your name correctly. I'm Priscilla Presley. And I know that you have family and friends who care about you very much. And you also have an addiction... Alcohol addiction. And I'm here to tell you: I have friends who were addicts too. And I helped them overcome this addiction, advising them to take a rehabilitation course in a rehab. (At this moment, a caption appears on the video with a link to the Betty Ford Medical Center; it was also mentioned in fake stories Wooda, Norris And McGinley. — Approx. ed.). You know, it’s very difficult to give this up on your own, that’s what addiction is. You need to look at this from the outside and think not only about yourself, Vladimir. Surely you are faced with something, you have some grievances, unfulfilled promises or negative thoughts. And you can drink to get away from it all. You need to turn to someone - somewhere where they can help you get through this. Because your family is worried, and your friends are worried, and now I am worried. Because I know this is not a good situation. When you take drugs or, for example, alcohol, you think that you are getting high and running away from your problems. Please, I urge you: seek help. This could be someone who can help you. Or you can go to a place where they can help you get rid of drug addiction. You will feel much better, because fighting your problems is fighting fear. And this struggle is what you need to do now in order to cope with everything and erase it from your life. So help yourself with this and listen to your friends and family, they are very worried. They love you and care about you. And it would be a little selfish of you not to fight, knowing that these people are hurting, that they care. So please, please, ask for help, even though it is not easy. Fine? I hope you get through this and become drug free, and I would love to hear that from you one day.
Presley actually has a verified profile on Instagram, but “Verified” did not find any traces of an appeal to Zelensky there. In general, this is logical, since stories visible only 24 hours in a profile unless they are added to a special album. However, there are no mentions of such a video in other social networks of the business woman (X/Twitter And Facebook*). Moreover, we found only one post related to Ukraine - in March 2022 Presley asked make donations to help the animals left there. At the same time, a single story post is circulating online, which seems strange, given that Presley has 667,000 followers on Instagram. In addition, not a single authoritative international media outlet wrote about the appeal to Zelensky, although Presley’s person has recently attracted special attention from the press in connection with the release film about her and death her daughter.
In the Telegram channel “Nebozhena” noted: “Well, obviously, this is not a neural network - it can’t do that yet.” “Verified” agrees with this conclusion. Since the previous four fake appeals to Zelensky were created based on real videos obtained through the Cameo service, we checked whether Presley was registered there. It turned out that she page there is on the platform, but at the time of writing this analysis it is not available. In the reviews section, “Verified” found two requests dated August 2023, in which Presley has the same hairstyle, clothes and jewelry. The background of the viral stories also matches those shown on the Cameo website. According to the Internet Archive, as of May 2022, Priscilla's circulation value amounted to $200.
The exact source of the “Verified” fake could not be traced. The earliest publication we found was appeared in the Voblya Telegram channel (131,000 views) on August 23, 2023 at 13:04 Moscow time. This channel many times distributed fakes. However, in the materials from their posts, the authors of Voblya put a proprietary watermark, which is absent in some later posts about Presley's conversion. So either there is an earlier post with a fake video, or it started spreading simultaneously from several sources.
System of a Down Bassist
Similar fake messages to Zelensky from celebrities usually appear every week, and eight days after the video with Presley, on August 31, a 2.5-minute video with Shavarsh (Shavo) Odadjian from the group System of a Down went viral. It is also a recording of several stories. In the Telegram channel "DPR 🅉 info 🇷🇺"(41,000 views) the video was commented as follows: “Not only American, but also Armenian stars took on Zelensky!”
In addition, the video was posted by the channels “Live broadcast"(688,000 views), "Uncle Slava" (207,000) "Putin on Telegram"(185,000), "Heavenly"(160,000), Voblya (156,000), "Yakov Kedmi"(74,000) and TG Team Russia (48,000), as well as users "VKontakte", LiveJournal, Rutube and sitesRambler/news", "Morning south", "Main regional" And "Podolyak"
In his address, the musician, like the other aforementioned stars, never pronounced Vladimir’s last name (the Russian version of the name was again used) and did not mention Ukraine in any way. At the same time, the artist pronounces the name of a certain Kamala. Below is a translation of Odadjian’s appeal.
How are you, Vladimir? This is Shavo from System of a Down. I've been told that you party too much. I know from myself what it’s like. But you have loved ones, for example Kamala (at this moment a link to Instagram-account of US Vice President Kamala Harris. — Approx. ed.) and other family members and friends who care deeply about you. This is very important. Most people who have gone astray do not have this. And you have it, and this is the first plus. The second plus is that you have willpower. And this is your best feature that will help you get off this shit. I know it can be fun: having fun, drinking, hanging out, having a good time, etc. - I've done it all myself. But there comes a time when you realize that this is too much and that this is not good. The more you use it, the more you want it. And then one day you might screw up and take so much that your loved ones lose you. It's selfish. So I'm telling you, bro: if you go to rehab, it will be amazing. Trust me, the first call is the best thing you can do for yourself, your family, friends and everyone who loves you. The best you can do. And as soon as you go there, you will understand how cool it is. You realize where you took a wrong turn and how bad things could have been. You're lucky, it's not so bad yet, you have a chance. It's all up to you. You have a chance to go and help yourself, making all your loved ones happy. I know what it’s like to take all these things and think that it’s only going to hurt you and not those around you. But remember, bro: if you have loved ones, then by hurting yourself, you hurt them too. You must remember this. No one wants to see those they care about fall into the abyss—especially like you. So, Vlad, I love you, bro. You have willpower, you have energy, you can do anything. I know many who have succeeded. Dude, the pros outweigh the cons, and you'll understand that. Words cannot describe how you will feel after the change. So I just want to give you some positivity, bro. Make it clear that you can handle it. You can and you will, I promise. All the best to you. See you!
As in the case of Presley, in the official instagram, twitter And Facebook The musician has no traces of an alleged appeal to the President of Ukraine. Once again, a single story post is spreading across the Internet, despite the artist’s half-million audience on Instagram. At the same time, there are at least two fundamentally different versions of the video: on one there is a Reuters watermark, and on another There is no such logo. However, on website and in social networks agency video of the musician is missing. Moreover, not a single authoritative international media outlet wrote about such an appeal to the President of Ukraine.
The authors of the fake, as in the previous five times, used the Cameo service - link to page Odadjian is listed on this platform in the description of the musician’s Instagram profile. The cost of his video is $149. “Verified” examined the entries in the reviews section and found video, recorded against the same wall as the viral stories.
The earliest fake post tracked by Verified is appeared in the Telegram channel “Shkvarka News” (2800 views). There, a fake video without a Reuters watermark was posted on August 31, 2023 at 14:33. This channel is not the first time becomes the primary source of disinformation.
Thus, the appeals of Priscilla Presley and Shavo Odadjian to Zelensky are yet another fakes created using a service for ordering videos from celebrities. According to our estimates, the organizers of the disinformation campaign spent about $1,500 to create six fakes (including videos from Wood, Tyson, Norris and McGinley).
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Cover photo: collage “Verified” / social networks
- Are the videos proving that Vladimir Zelensky uses drugs true?
- Is it true that a monument to Zelensky was erected in Milan in the form of a nose with white powder?
- Is it true that a billboard was installed in Milan with Zelensky, who is sucking up donations for Ukraine?
- Is it true that a nose-shaped exhibit ridiculing Zelensky was exhibited in a Paris museum?
- Is it true that a popular photograph shows a young Madonna asking for Elvis Presley's autograph?
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please let us know by highlighting the error text and clicking Ctrl+Enter.
