Earlier this week we reported that Ricky Gervais was headed for Early Retirement, a comedy about a dad who quits his job to spend more time with his family. The news was reliable – it came from one of Hollywood’s most trusted sources: Variety. You know it isn’t really news until it’s printed in Variety. That’s why the magazine has managed to “scoop” news that has been available via many other websites for weeks, often without crediting the site that may have broken the news.

Well, it turns out Variety isn’t quite as reliable as it seems. In this case, the magazine jumped the gun and attributed Gervais to a picture he hadn’t signed on to. Despite the stigma that websites don’t do research, canmag.com found out the truth about the picture when they took the absurd step of contacting Gervais’s publicist. Weird, eh? So Gervais won’t be involved with the picture. Considering the actor’s discretion when it comes to scripts, this one must not be as superior as we thought.

What I find very interesting about this is that, despite being labeled as “unreliable”, most of the websites that posted the Gervais story have issued a retraction or a clarification – much like we are right now. Variety does nothing. No retraction. No explanation. No, “hey, we messed up.” The story stands in their system as inaccurate. There’s some good reporting for you. Internet: 1 / Variety: 0