Several Hollywood actors, including Elijah Wood, fell victim to a Russian propaganda campaign that manipulated videos to push a false narrative about Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s alleged drug addiction, as revealed by the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center in a recent report. The campaign involved soliciting celebrities through the Cameo platform, where fans can purchase personalized video messages. The actors, including Priscilla Presley, Mike Tyson, Dean Norris, Kate Flannery, John McGinley, and Shavo Odadjian, were asked to address someone named “Vladimir” regarding substance abuse.
The innocuous Cameo videos were then distorted, removing them from their original context and making it appear as if the celebrities were referring to Zelenskyy. Modifications included adding links to Zelenskyy’s social media accounts, emojis, and logos of media outlets. Some videos even featured a TMZ logo superimposed, while others were photoshopped to look like they had been posted on the celebrities’ Instagram accounts.
Elijah Wood’s altered video, for instance, showed him expressing concern for “Vladimir” with a Ukrainian flag and links to Zelenskyy’s Instagram handle and a drug and alcohol research center. The manipulated videos, widely shared on Russian social media platforms like VK and Telegram, were also covered by state-owned Russian media outlets.
Celebrities named in the report, including Kate Flannery and Priscilla Presley, confirmed that their videos were manipulated, emphasizing their support for Ukraine. Cameo, though declining to directly address the Microsoft report, asserted that such deceptive tactics violate their community guidelines, and they would take steps to remove problematic content and suspend purchasers’ accounts when violations are substantiated. Both Elijah Wood and Mike Tyson’s Cameo pages now indicate they are temporarily unavailable for new videos.