The death of Halyna Hutchins, the director of photography who was fatally shot on the set of the movie "Rust" when a prop gun misfired, has been the source of a number of conspiratorial and false rumors. Doctored images designed to look like news article falsely claimed that actor Alec Baldwin was ranting about former President Donald Trump when the gun fired, and a fake tweet circulated supposedly showing a message from Hutchins about Hillary Clinton.
On October 24, 2021, a fake news article was published claiming that Hutchins was scheduled to make a documentary about Hollywood pedophile rings:
This article was published by the website WorldGreyNews.com. This is not a genuine news website. Rather, this is a "fake news generator" that allows users to make up their own headlines, write their own fake news items, and then publish them alongside the logos of genuine news organizations.
Here's a screenshot of WGN's "fake news creator" page:
While there is no truth to this story, and while it originated with a fake news generator, it still picked up traction on social media where it was presented as a factual news item:
This false rumor about Hutchins is part of a larger conspiracy theory holding that there is a vast pedophile ring that involves major Hollywood players like Tom Hanks (as well as companies, the mainstream media, liberal politicians, random bystanders, and just about anyone who has voiced opposition to former U.S. President Donald Trump). This conspiracy theory has led to dozens of pieces of disinformation.
For example, contrary to what has been claimed, Hillary Clinton was not convicted of child sex trafficking, late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg did not say pedophilia was good for children, Disney did not acquire Pornhub, and Wayfair is not trafficking children in overpriced cabinets.