Add Italian opera star Andrea Bocelli to the list of celebrities who have denied any affiliation with a recently announced fundraiser for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential campaign.
On Thursday, Bocelli’s representatives told Rolling Stone that the reports he will be performing at the fundraiser are not true, because he won’t even be in the United States when it happens.
For those keeping score, this is now the third high profile denial by a celebrity falsely associated with the event, following denials by Dionne Warwick and Martin Sheen.
It’s unclear where these false claims originated, specifically. What is known for certain is that a group called Silent Majority 4 RFK has announced the fundraiser, scheduled for Jan. 22 at the Indian Wells resort near Palm Springs, California.
The official invitation on that group’s website does not mention any celebrity guests at all. But on Dec. 28, the Daily Mail published a story about the fundraiser that included the claims, now known to be false, that Bocelli would perform and that ‘well wishers’ would include Warwick and Sheen, as well as Mike Tyson.
The Daily Mail asserted that this information came from “the organisers, who released the information on social media.” However, the story does not identify who they are nor does it contain any links to said social media announcement.
On the same day, a super PAC affiliated with Kennedy’s campaign shared the Daily Mail article on the social media site formerly known as Twitter in a post that tagged Warwick, Bocelli and Tyson. The Kennedy campaign’s official website has since also posted a link to the article in a format similar to an official press release, though with text taken entirely from that article and a link at the top reading, “The Daily Mail reports.”
Tyson has not publicly commented on the event, and his reps didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from TheWrap.
Representatives for the Kennedy campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from TheWrap. As of this writing, the campaign website page touting the event remains up.