Dear everyone, no famous celebrities are moving to Detroit

ihanna is not moving to Novi. Samuel L. Jackson is not running for mayor of Detroit. Whatever you’ve read recently – likely on Facebook, an ever-spouting fount of wildly inaccurate information – about a celebrity moving to Michigan is probably false.

It’s true some celebrities have moved to Metro Detroit in recent years — and the word “some” (or the word “celebrity”) is being generous. Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland moved to Detroit’s Arden Park neighborhood last year. “Rehab Addict” host Nicole Curtis has been busy restoring homes in the city at Dan Gilbert’s behest. “Say Yes to the Dress” personality Keasha Rigsby opened a bridal shop on Jefferson Avenue. And there are the celebs that take up temporary residence – hello, stars of “Batman v. Superman” – whenever a film or other project is made here in town.

But that’s about as far as it gets. Your social media feeds may have been alight with news of other big names putting down roots in the area. It’s not happening. Let’s debunk.

Let’s start with this post on LocalNews33.com that claims that Rihanna is moving to Novi. “I’m just tired of living in a gated community full of other rich people walled off from the rest of the world. That’s just not real life. I feel like – at this point in my life – I just want to live in a place full of real, genuine people and I’ve found that in Novi.” You should know this is false because Novi has its own fair share of rich people in gated communities, but also because LocalNews33.com (other than WHPR in Highland Park, when have you ever seen news on any channel 33 in Metro Detroit?) bills itself as “a fantasy news site.” Don’t believe me? Check the site’s “about us” page right here. Our friends at WJLB and WDMK didn’t get the memo when they reposted this story.

As for Samuel L. Jackson running for mayor of Detroit? Not happening, either. That post originates on a site called The Clancy Report, another “fantasy news website” (which, incidentally, has the exact same layout as LocalNews33) that has fooled a few people into thinking that the actor would call the Motor City home.

We can all work together to stop being fooled by fake news sites or parody news sites by simply vetting these sites for what they are. If you live in Detroit, know the call letters and channel numbers for our local news stations. We have channels 2, 4 and 7 that deliver actual news. Anything other than that (a channel 10, for instance) is likely fake.

Other reliable news sources are print and web sources you’ve (hopefully) heard of, like (*ahem*) BLAC Detroit, the Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, Metro Times, MLive, Hour Detroit, Deadline Detroit, your suburban newspaper chains (Observer & Eccentric, C&G, Source Newspapers), the Macomb Daily, the Oakland Press, and so on. Note that most of these publications have Detroit or some other regional designation in its publication name (the M in MLive is for Michigan, by the way!) and are far more trustworthy than a site you’ve likely never heard of before you decided to share that fake post.

Lastly, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. While Jackson sitting in the mayor’s seat (and for that to happen, he’d have to live in Detroit for a year and wait for the next mayoral election in 2017 – which means Sam’s Hollywood career would have to take a back seat for the next two years; have you ever known this man to turn down a check?) sounds like fun, he doesn’t have the political experience to run a city like Detroit. And if you believe for a second that Rihanna would give up the sun and sand of Barbados for Novi (what, is she going to eat at the new Cheesecake Factory every day?) of all places, Matty Moroun’s got a bridge to sell you.