A fake letter is being circulated to claim that it was written by actor Sean Connery, best known for his big screen portrayal of James Bond, and is addressed to late Apple Co-founder Steve Jobs wherein Connery refused to be associated with Apple.
However, the letter was published in 2011 on a satirical website called Scoopertino and carries no truth. This comes in the backdrop of the actor’s death at the age of 90 on Saturday, 31 October.
CLAIM
A portion of the letter allegedly signed in December 1998 reads: “I will say this one more time. You do understand English, don’t you? I do not sell my soul for Apple or any other company. I have no interest in ‘changing the world’ as you suggest. You have nothing that I need or want. You are a computer salesman — I am **** JAMES BOND!”
The letter has been circulated on Twitter and Facebook far and wide.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We searched on Google using keywords “sean connery jobs apple” and found an article published in 2011 on a website called Scoopertino that had carried the viral image.
The article is titled as “EXPOSED: The iMac disaster that almost was.” The viral image is placed in the article that mentioned an excerpt from a book ‘iMaculate Conception: How Apple’s iMac Was Born’ (no such book exists).
“Steve Jobs, a lifelong fan of James Bond (he’d originally wanted to name the revolutionary computer “Double-O-Mac”), instructed his agency to begin work on a special celebrity Christmas ad featuring 007 himself, Sean Connery — even though Connery had yet to be signed,” the article read.
The website describes itself as “an imaginary news organisation devoted to ferreting out the most relevant stories in the world of Apple, whether or not they actually occurred.”
“All the news that’s fit to fabricate,” is the tagline of Scoopertino.
In 2011, regarding the fake letter, Washington Post had reported “Wishful thinkers have been delighting in actor Sean Connery’s pointed refusal to be Apple’s iMac spokesman.”
Further, fact-checking website Snopes had debunked the letter in 2011.
Evidently, a fake letter that was doing the rounds in 2011 has been revived in the light of the Sean Connery’s death.
(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)