Entertainment business reporter Nikki Finke was duped into believing a false tip about a new Ghostbusters movie, reports Ian Mohr of the New York Post.
Mohr writes, “Dangling the carrot further, one ‘tipster’ claimed Deadline was running the Landis story the next day. Another begged Finke not to run the story as it was promised exclusively to Variety.
“Finke pulled the trigger. Landis then tweeted, ‘It pains me to say this, but [there’s] zero truth to the Ghostbusters report.’
“Finke confirmed to us she’d been had, and added, ‘I always check out every tip I receive. In this case, an executive at Sony mistakenly confirmed it, so I went with it. In the beginning I received several hoax tips, and I’m extra, extra, extra careful.’
“Sony had no comment. A studio source said, ‘She doesn’t call studios to fact check.'”
Read more here.