Universal heart-throb, hero, sensitive soul, feminist and all-round deity Ryan Gosling chose Father’s Day to reveal how he became a dad himself.
Gosling broke the news on Facebook, explaining: “This little guy was only 9 months old when I became his dad. His mom and I were great friends before she passed away from cancer. I promised her, I'd always look after him. So, I had decided to step up and become his dad. He brought me so much joy. He was my everything.”
Beautiful right? Or it would be, if it were true, or believable in any way at all.
At time of press the “announcement” had been liked nearly one million times and shared over 50,000 times.
It prompted outpourings of saccharine heartfelt good wishes, (including: “I'm a single dad, raised my 3 sons without their mom since 2002 and they are and will always be the biggest treasure of my life. Mr Gosling, God bless you", "Well, my ovaries just exploded" and the charmingly worded: “Oh my freaking god penetrate me right now Ryan I want your babies.”)
The post, which was added to a fan page boasting more than 165,000 likes, continues with: “1 year later after the adoption, his biological father wanted him. Of course, I put up a fight, but he won. That 1 year of being his father taught me how to love unconditionally.
“We have to stop and be thankful for our children and children should stop and be thankful for their parents. What I truly learned most of all is, every child needs love. Save thousands of children and meet me while doing it.”
It sensitively ends with a link to an "exclusive" T-shirt, the purchase of which apparently enters the buyer into a competition to meet the actor (alarm bells? anyone?).
Coincidentally Bradley Cooper has *also* adopted a baby! (He hasn't)
It would appear it wasn't just the general populace at large who were taken in - Closer magazine did a piece on Gosling's happy news - but pulled the article shortly afterwards (and intriguingly posted a picture of a baby orangutan in its place.)
Some fans cited seeing near identical posts on fan pages for both Bradley Cooper and Brad Pitt.
Curious.