Don’t believe viral claims on the Internet, especially if they’re thinly sourced and they conform to your biases.
Tread especially carefully if the story originates from sources like Elle Magazine or Teen Vogue reporter Lauren Duca, both of whom are responsible for spreading a mega-viral hoax this week alleging Superman actor Henry Cavill made 46 times more than Wonder Woman actress Gal Godot.
Elle published a poorly reported article Monday titled, “Superman got paid more than Wonder Woman.”
The story claimed that Gadot earned only $300,000 for her first solo outing as Wonder Woman, which is paltry compared to the $14,000,000 Cavill was supposedly paid for first Superman movie.
Duca dutifully followed up with a since-deleted tweet reading, “Gal Gadot made $300,000 for Wonder Woman as compared to Henry Cavill’s $14M for Man of Steel. The most compelling DC villain is the pay gap.”
Newsrooms weren’t far behind, as many writers were eager to cash-in on the shocking factoid, which was retweeted thousands of times.
“Gal Gadot’s ‘Wonder Woman’ salary was shockingly low,” read a Business Insider headline.
Teen Vogue followed with, “Wonder Woman’s Gal Gadot Got Paid Shockingly Little for Her Lead Role.”
“Gal Gadot Got Paid Shockingly Little for Her Role in ‘Wonder Woman,” said Glamour.
As it turns out, the entire story is bogus, and for many reasons.
First, Gadot’s negotiated salary of $300,000 is actually exactly in line with her peers in the world of comic book franchises, contrary to the suggestion that she was shortchanged.
“For superhero franchises just getting started … the process is usually simple: find a star on the rise, pay him or her relatively little, and then offer more if the franchise takes off. Marvel pioneered the effort with Robert Downey Jr. [Iron Man], Chris Evans [Captain America], and Chris Hemsworth [Thor], all of whom were reportedly paid less than $500,000 for their first solo superhero outings but eventually landed much bigger paydays for subsequent entries,” Vanity Fair noted in a great takedown of this bogus news cycle.
They added, “So while Gadot’s $300,000 is pretty small compared with the millions her movie has made, she hasn’t sold herself short; the actress hasn’t yet signed a deal for the now-inevitable Wonder Woman 2, and her agents are surely already working to net their 10 percent of her much-larger payday.”
Secondly, it’s extremely unlikely Cavill was actually paid $14 million for his role in Man of Steel. It’s possible this number reflects how much Cavill has earned for his combined work playing the new Superman, but that’s a different thing entirely from what Elle and Luca bemoaned.
As for the claim he made $14 million for his first foray into the D.C. universe as the son of Krypton?
“That’s insane,” a person familiar with the contract negotiations told Vanity Fair.
After it became clear the Gadot pay gap story had no legs, especially the part about Cavill’s alleged pay, an Elle editor attached an update to their report claiming the author had merely repeated a number found in a Forbes article. Forbes, for its part, said it got the $14 million number from a site called The Richest, which is probably not a source professional newspersons should cite for hard information.
The Elle update has since been corrected so that there are now no mentions of Forbes, and reads only, “Reports that Henry Cavill earned $14 m for Man of Steel are unconfirmed. Although the pay gap persists in Hollywood, this example is not adequately supported by the information available.”
Duca eventually deleted her tweet opining the pay gap, but not before it was shared by more than 15,000 Twitter users.
Great job, everyone. Spreading truth to the uninformed masses.
