Sorry, That ‘Pumpcast News’ Video is Fake

Just after mother's day and you have to disappoint your mom by telling that another thing she is sharing on Facebook is fake. The Smoking Gun has busted the Leno video.

Last week a clip from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno went viral and has gotten over seven million Youtube hits. In the video called Pumpcast News two real, regular, unsepecting people are talked into showing off their hidden, and amazing, singing talents. Oh the delight of real people on the street.

"...the couple sang (and danced)...in exchange for gas money. Leno was so pleased with the feel-good bit, he had the married couple on the show last Wednesday and let them sit in with the house band. Leno introduced Will as a bartender and Monifa as a fitness trainer, enthusing that “these people were so entertaining.” He then said, “You know, this almost seems like a plant,” before adding that staffers had no idea that the too-good-to-be-true duo were coming to the Costco station, which is less than three miles from Leno’s Burbank studio." -The Smoking Gun

But alas, it was not to be.

The bit was staged and they are actors. Actors the Tonight Show has used before.

"Will and Monifa are both trained actors who founded a theater company in Chicago before relocating to Hollywood. Monifa, whom Chicagoist once described as a “Chicago actress of some reknown,” previously won a nationwide dramatic auditions contest by the cable network TNT.

More importantly, the “Tonight Show” never bothered to mention that Monifa appeared in a “Pumpcast News” segment broadcast more than two years ago." -The Smoking Gun

Read the whole story here.