Slimmed Down Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson Going Viral — Now Dubbed “The Pebble”

Web Desk,

Dwayne Johnson a/k/a “The Rock” was one of the biggest things in Hollywood.

No, literally…he was massive.

But today in newly released videos he appears almost unrecognizable in a substantially slimmed-down frame.

Take a look:

It’s most noticeable in these videos…

Watch here:

And here:

Some say the “roids” wore off:

Others are now calling him “The Pebble”:

Here’s what the NY Post reported:

The wrestler-turned-actor, 53, transformed his body to play MMA fighter Mark Kerr in Benny Safdie’s film “The Smashing Machine,” which is premiering in Venice Monday night.

Johnson showed off his weight and muscle loss as he attended the Miu Miu Women’s Tales event on Saturday night in a button-up blue shirt and black pants. He was joined by his co-star, Emily Blunt.

Then on Monday, Johnson wore a short-sleeved blue shirt that he tucked into his white pants at the film’s photocall.

Johnson’s skinny physique went viral on X where fans jokingly called him “The Pebble.”

“He’s so lean,” one fan wrote.

“Damn, he’s half of what he was!” another user said.

“Wow nice transformation,” a different person wrote.

In “The Smashing Machine,” Johnson plays UFC and MMA legend Kerr, who battled prescription drug addiction. Blunt, 42, plays Kerr’s now-ex-wife, Dawn Staples.

At the film’s press conference Monday afternoon, Johnson explained that he’s been waiting for a role this rewarding for a long time.

“When you’re in Hollywood — as we all know, it had become about box office. And you chase the box office, and the box office can be very loud and it can become very resounding and it can push you into a category and into a corner,” he explained. “This is your lane and this is what you do and this is what Hollywood wants you to do.”

“I just had this burning desire and voice that was saying, ‘What if there is more and what if I can?’ A lot of times, it’s harder for us — or at least for me — to know what you’re capable of when you’ve been pigeonholed into something,” the “Jumanji” star continued. “Sometimes it takes people that who you love and respect, like Emily and Benny, to say that you can.”

Johnson went on: “I looked around a few years ago and I started to think, you know, am I living my dream or am I living other people’s dreams? You come to that recognition and I think you can either fall in line — ‘Well, it’s status quo, things are good, I don’t want to rock the boat’ — or go, I want to live my dreams now and do what I wanna do and tap into the stuff that I want to tap into and have a place finally to put all this stuff that I’ve experienced in the past that I’ve shied away from.”

Nice look and all, happy for him….

But I actually was wondering something else.

Where did all that money go that you raised for Maui?

Can we get an update on that please?

I’m not saying anyone did anything wrong, I’m just saying I never really heard what happened from all of this?

Oprah and the Rock Face Outrage Over Misleading Maui Relief Fund

Oprah and “The Rock” Need YOUR Money Right Now Please!

Oprah Winfrey, who is estimated to have a net worth of around $2.5 BILLION, is asking the public to donate to Maui.

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The woman who bought over 1,000 acres of land in Maui is asking YOU for money…

To kick off her fundraiser with Dwayne Johnson, they have donated $10 million to the relief.

Promoting that anyone in Maui who needs it will receive $1,200/month.

More from USA Today:

“Every adult resident (18 and over) who lives in the affected area and was displaced by the wildfires in Lahaina and Kula is eligible to receive $1,200 per month to help them through this period of recovery,” Thursday’s announcement read. “All net proceeds will go to those directly impacted in Maui.”

The iconic show host, a part-time Hawaii resident, and the wrestler-turned-action-star have donated $10 million to the fund. Johnson, who is Samoan, also lived in Hawaii when he was growing up. Winfrey and Johnson announced their effort Thursday on Instagram in a video in which Winfrey shared that the two were texting about what to do. Winfrey said she was inspired by an article about Dolly Parton giving money to her community, and the idea of the fund was born.

Winfrey has been giving updates from Maui on her website Oprah Daily. In an Aug. 13 post she wrote of the “incredible people” she’s met at shelters, including a man named Julius whose “legs were covered in bandages where he had to run to escape the fire.”

Listen.

I am happy that they are giving this money to the Hawaiian people.

But why are they asking Americans?

Who are already struggling over a recession?

To donate money.

It’s especially ironic coming from Oprah, who has such a MASSIVE net worth.

People on Twitter are ripping her apart:

More from Forbes about the relief effort:

Winfrey’s and Johnson’s fund launch comes after the billionaire media mogul and other billionaires who own land in Maui came under fire for their lack of response to the wildfires. Meta billionaire Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan pledged a $400,000 donation to the Hawaii Community Foundation. Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and his fiancee launched a $100 million fund in support of Maui residents. Bob Parsons’ golf brand previously donated $1 million to a disaster relief organization when news about the wildfires spread. Workday co-founder and CEO emeritus David Duffield is reportedly working with the Maui Humane Society. Billionaire CEO of Nvidia Jensen Huang donated to local relief funds, according to The Verge. Billionaire Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told Yahoo Finance that the company donated $1 million to an organization that provides meals after natural disasters. But real-estate billionaire Neil Bluhm, billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and billionaire investor Peter Thiel—all who own property in Hawaii—have not come forward about any donations for wildfire relief.

Watch this last video all the way to the end…

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It’s good:

https://twitter.com/CBKNEWS121/status/1697622822225354827

RELATED:

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson Targeted In New Kidnapping Lawsuit?

I’ve been seeing this going viral today on social media so I had to investigate and cover it.

Did The Rock just get sued for $3 billion?

Was he part of a complicated kidnapping plot?

Has Disney “parted ways” with him due to all the legal troubles?

I’m no fan of this guy (I’ll explain more on that in a minute) but still something about this story didn’t smell right to me.

So let’s dig in.

The story mostly comes from two Disney fan sites that are mostly parroting each out.

Here’s one:

https://twitter.com/zerodarktony_og/status/1654339967345369088

And here’s the other:

And here’s more in this video:

https://www.tiktok.com/@rebeliousone1/video/7225736786868227370?q=dwayne%20johnson&t=1683137286086

So….is it true?

Well, kind of.

This is one of the rare times where I think Snopes gets their “Fact Check” correct.

Basically, the lawsuit does appear to be real…but that doesn’t make it valid.

Not only does the lawsuit name Johnson but it also names 23 other Defendants as co-conspirators, including Eminem, Naomi Campbell, and Michael Jordan.

Does that pass your smell test?

Here’s the full write up from Snopes:

In April 2023, claims began to spread online that actor and former wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson had been named as a defendant in a $3 billion kidnapping lawsuit.

The most prominent post we found about the claims on social media appeared on TikTok on April 24, 2023. It went viral on the platform, with the video receiving over 675,000 views at the time of publication. The person in the video claimed:

We also found posts about the lawsuit that mentioned Johnson on Reddit and Twitter. In addition, a post on a Facebook fan page for Johnson was posted the day before the viral TikTok video. The Facebook post had over 3,900 reactions at the time of this writing.

It is true that Johnson was named in the lawsuit. We reached out to his manager for comment and will update this fact check if we hear back.

Using the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) service, we found the lawsuit was first filed in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, on Oct. 8, 2022. That court presides over federal cases in the counties of New York, Bronx, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Dutchess, and Sullivan. (We have included the full court document at the bottom of this fact check.)

At the time of this writing, the date of last filing in the case docket was March 1, 2023, when the order that granted In Forma Pauperis (IFP) status was mailed to the plaintiff’s address. (A docket is a document that lists all papers filed and actions taken in a legal case. The Latin phrase stands for “in the form of a pauper” and is generally granted when applicants show they do not have the resources to pay the filing fee, according to the District Court’s website.)

The proceedings calendar for the court during the week of May 1, 2023, did not include the case. When we reached out to the court for comment about any further legal actions, the help desk referred us to the case’s docket.

In the document, the plaintiff asked for relief in the amount of $3 billion. Johnson was one of hundreds of defendants listed in the lawsuit. In total, the list of defendants spanned 23 pages — including celebrities such as Eminem, Naomi Campbell, and Michael Jordan, as well as companies like Verizon, Bank of America, and Universal Studios, and law-enforcement agencies like the FBI, Dona Ana County New Mexico Sheriff, and Las Cruces Police Department in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

The plaintiffs in the court case were listed as a former professional wrestler and her two minor children. The woman previously wrestled for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, a professional wrestling promotion company known as Impact Wrestling at the time of publication. The court documents stated that the plaintiffs were representing themselves pro se, meaning they were legally representing themselves. We reached out to an Instagram account that appeared to belong to the woman for further comment.

In a timeline included in the court document, the woman claimed that her ex-husband stalked her and her two children across state lines when he was on active probation for family violence against her. The timeline stated that her ex-husband had the assistance of law enforcement in stalking her, ultimately abducting her and her two children from a New York domestic violence shelter. The timeline also stated that her children had remained kidnapped since 2019.

Johnson was not named in the timeline. A statement of facts at the beginning of the lawsuit didn’t directly name Johnson, but did claim that the defendants named in the lawsuit collectively conspired to kidnap her and her children. According to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute, conspiracy is “an agreement between two or more people to commit an illegal act, along with an intent to achieve the agreement’s goal.” In order to prove conspiracy in most U.S. jurisdictions, an overt act, or an action that shows someone has committed a crime, is also required.

Claims Made About Johnson Related to the Lawsuit

The TikTok referenced above also included footage that claimed Johnson had appeared on “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) as himself saying he had created a “child molesting robot.” The TikTok also claimed Johnson had said that he “ate children” in an interview. Another TiKTok also linked to the SNL sketch and the lawsuit.

It is true that Johnson appeared in a “Saturday Night Live” sketch titled “World’s Most Evil Invention” that aired on May 20, 2017. In the sketch, he played a mad scientist named Roy who created a child-molesting robot. The other claim (that Johnson said he ate children) came from an interview Johnson did to promote his movie “Skyscraper” with the movie’s director Rawson Marshall Thurber, Indonesian entertainer Deddy Corbuzier, and his son in 2018. The Jakarta News reported that Corbuzier asked about what Johnson’s secret was after noting his body looked very large. (We translated the article, which was originally in Indonesian, using Google Translate.)

Disney blog Inside the Magic also wrote about the lawsuit, publishing a post titled, “Dwayne Johnson Axed From Disney Franchise Amid $3 Billion Lawsuit,” linking the lawsuit to the claim that Johnson would not be joining the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise.

However, there is no evidence that Johnson had ever joined the franchise in the first place, or that the lawsuit had anything to do with his potential participation, or lack thereof. Reputable publications would have reported that news if it had happened, as they did in April 2023 when he announced he would be heavily involved in the “Moana” live-action remake as a producer, as well as reprising his role as Maui from the original film. Also, Inside the Magic’s own blog post noted that neither Johnson nor Disney confirmed he was involved in the reboot of the franchise.

So, while I think the lawsuit looks fairly bogus, I’m not a big fan either.

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Nope.

Who thinks this is funny?

I don’t:

And why is he always flashing the devil horns?

https://twitter.com/invertyoureyes/status/1615180705666834432

https://twitter.com/invertyoureyes/status/1616207706855206913

Do you like him?

I’m not a fan.

United States