In June 2025, posts appeared on social media alleging that after being denied entry at a country club, actors Keanu Reeves and Johnny Depp purchased the club on the spot without any evidence to corroborate the claim. The assertion was false.
The false rumor was spread in posts on Facebook detailing the supposed event, with photos and links to unreliable news sites. Both the story and the images showed signs of being created by artificial intelligence (AI) tools like DALL-E or Chat GPT.
Without naming a source for its information, one post sharing the claim began:
"Maybe you two should stick to mini-golf—less dress code drama there." The remark, intended as a jab, struck a nerve with Depp, who has faced public humiliation before, notably during his 2022 defamation trial with Amber Heard. Reeves, ever the peacemaker, attempted to diffuse the situation, but Depp's eyes narrowed as he retorted, "I've been kicked out of better places than this." Turning to Reeves, he added, "What do you say, Keanu? Should we buy this place?" Reeves, with a mischievous grin, replied, "Why not?" What happened next defied all expectations....
There was no evidence to support the assertion that Depp and Reeves bought a country club after being denied entry. If, hypothetically speaking, there was even a sliver of truth to the claim — for instance, if there was evidence Reeves or Depp owned a country club in the first place — that information could be found in place of public record and reliable entertainment publications would have reported it. That had not happened.
In short, the claim appeared to be made up from whole cloth for the purpose of gaining clicks, or views, online, in order to earn advertising revenue, like other claims Snopes has previously covered.
This was not the first misleading rumor related to Reeves or Depp that captured social media users' attention. For example, we previously debunked the false claim that Reeves debated tech billionaire Elon Musk about artificial intelligence, an assertion that was also spread with the help of AI tools.