Fact Check

Were Seven Hollywood 'Liberal Heroes' Arrested During an Oscar Party Drug Raid?

Reports that Seth Rogen, Bette Midler, Justin Timberlake, and four other celebrities were taken into custody are just more fake news.

Published Feb. 27, 2017

Claim:
Seth Rogen, Bette Midler, and other Hollywood "liberal heroes" were arrested during an Oscar party drug raid.

On 26 February 2017, TheLastLineOfDefense.org published an article appearing to report that seven "liberal heroes" were arrested during an Oscar party drug raid:

Oscar night is Hollywood’s big chance to come together to celebrate each others’ achievements, strut around in a million dollars worth of gowns and tuxedos, show the world how elitists rule our society and then get together for a drug-filled night of partying and debauchery afterward. This year, on the orders of our president, Hollywood would pay for sticking its nose up at our laws, denigrating the good name of our president and protecting the illegal aliens and terrorists we all want gone.

[...]

Arrested in the raid were Allison Janney, Bradley Cooper, Bette Midler, Seth Rogan, Drew Barrymore, Miley Cyrus and Justin Timberlake. They were all charged with providing safe haven for drug abuse, possession of various classes of substances, resisting arrest and inciting violence against the government. The drugs seized at the different parties included cocaine, molly, ecstasy, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine. Rogan’s party also had large quantities of powerful psychotropic drugs like LSD, MDMA and the ubiquitous brain chemical DMT.

TheLastLineOfDefense.org has a long history of publishing fake news stories, and carries a disclaimer buried on its site advising readers that all of its content should be considered satirical:

The Resistance may include information from sources that may or may not be reliable and facts that don’t necessarily exist. All articles should be considered satirical and any and all quotes attributed to actual people complete and total baloney. Pictures that represent actual people should be considered altered and not in any way real.

While the ceremony was not without its controversies (and conspiracy theories), this was not one of them.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.