'Tasteless' April Fool Stunt Claims Patrick Wilson Killed Friend's Wife

A fake news release sent out to the movie industry yesterday claimed that actor Patrick Wilson had been arrested, after being accused of murdering his best friend’s wife.

The release came complete with a ‘quote’ from the LAPD, saying that a 41-year-old man was being detained for questioning around a ‘gruesome murder’.

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But it then emerged that the news release was in fact an April Fool’s joke sent out to news outlets in the hope of publicising black comedy ‘Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife’.

Giving the dateline of April 1, Los Angeles, it read: “BREAKING NEWS… Hollywood actor, Patrick Wilson, star of The Conjuring, Insidious and black comedy Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife, was today accused of murdering his best friend’s wife.

“In the early hours of this morning, video footage was leaked online exposing Wilson in what appeared to be his role in a gruesome murder.”

The faked statement from the LAPD then read: “We can confirm we are in possession of what appears to be crucial evidence of a suspected homicide.

“It is very early on in the investigation but we would like to inform the public that we are taking all accusations seriously and have detained a 41 year old male this morning for questioning.”

The release claimed to have ‘original footage’ of the incident ‘still available to view across various video sharing websites’, adding that the videos ‘echo scenes from the movie Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife’.

But these proved instead to be actual clips from the movie.

As stunts go, it was a shabby affair, but still, it does appear to have us talking about the film.

And anything might be better than confronting the reviews it got on its cinema release in the US.

Languishing with a 17% ‘fresh’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Variety called it a ‘torturously unfunny exercise, which doesn’t even rise to the level of competent misogyny’.

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Image credits: AP/Epic Pictures