An Instagram post claims to show proof that the actor Tom Hanks supports pedophilia.
The Jan. 3 post showed a snippet of Hanks clapping his hands and shouting “sexy baby” at a child walking down from a stage.
The video’s caption said, “Tom Hanks Not Even Trying To Hide It,” and includes several hashtags, such as #epstein and #ghislanemaxwell, referring to Jeffrey Epstein, a financier who died in jail in 2019 before being tried on sexual abuse and sex trafficking charges, and Ghislaine Maxwell, a friend of Epstein who in June was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors.
PolitiFact has rated Pants on Fire similar, unfounded statements about Hanks and pedophilia.
The Instagram post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
The post takes Hanks’ clip out of context. It’s from a sketch the actor did in 2011 for the late-night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” satirizing the reality television series “Toddlers & Tiaras.”
“Toddlers & Tiaras,” which aired from 2009 to 2016 on TLC, was criticized throughout its run for sexualizing young children competing in beauty pageants, wearing costumes and performing routines that were considered overly adult in tone.
The sketch mocked the reality show; it did not endorse pedophilia.
It featured Hanks as an overbearing father obsessed with a fictional daughter named Sophie winning a nonexistent child beauty pageant called “Miss Ultimate Sexy Baby Nevada.”
QAnon conspiracy theorists have long claimed, without evidence, that some prominent politicians and celebrities are involved in a satanic child sex trafficking ring.
We rate this claim about Hanks as Pants on Fire!
This fact check was originally published by PolitiFact, which is part of the Poynter Institute. It is republished here with permission. See the sources for this fact check here and more of their fact checks here.
