Celebrity Number Six has been found
September 8, 2024 5:59 PM   Subscribe

If you’re not familiar with the mystery of Celebrity Number Six, catch up here. In short, the internet has been looking for a photo for around three years.

Earlier today, Reddit user IndigoRoom posted what appears to be the original photo.

Or did they? Some users are suspicious that it could be generative AI. In response, IndigoRoom posted more details on how they got the photo. Most searchers seem to believe that it’s real, a few are still skeptical.
posted by maleficent (28 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
I found this whole rabbit hole a delightful waste of time, and I hope you will too
posted by maleficent at 5:59 PM on September 8 [3 favorites]


Also, it gives me hope that this 2014 AskMe mystery will someday be solved.
posted by maleficent at 6:01 PM on September 8 [11 favorites]


Also, it gives me hope that this 2014 AskMe mystery will someday be solved.

Oh yeah, that one has been solved. It was that sit com named The Mandela Effect.
posted by NoMich at 7:51 PM on September 8 [4 favorites]


Oh yeah, that one has been solved. It was that sit com named The Mandela Effect.

Oh, I remember that.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:04 PM on September 8 [4 favorites]


The Mandela Effect was a great show. The crossover episode where the Berenstein Bears join the ANC was both unexpected and delightful.
posted by kaibutsu at 8:25 PM on September 8 [9 favorites]


So you're telling me number six is not Patrick McGoohan.
posted by Prof. Danger at 8:35 PM on September 8 [17 favorites]


So you're telling me number six is not Patrick McGoohan.

No, it’s just that there’s a new new number six.
posted by house-goblin at 9:07 PM on September 8 [2 favorites]


Looks like River Phoenix to me.
posted by CCBC at 9:33 PM on September 8 [3 favorites]


The Mandela Effect was a great show. The crossover episode where the Berenstein Bears join the ANC was both unexpected and delightful.

Especially the twist where the ANC decides the Berenstein Bears will henceforth be known as the Berenstain Bears.
posted by 2N2222 at 9:33 PM on September 8 [1 favorite]


I’ve seen that Anttila pattern from time to time in Finland. I was going to say now I can finally name all the celebrities, but I’ve forgotten who one through five are.
posted by Kattullus at 11:48 PM on September 8 [5 favorites]


So you're telling me number six is not Patrick McGoohan.

He's not a number! He's a free man.
posted by bigendian at 1:21 AM on September 9 [11 favorites]


That original Reddit post makes it surprisingly difficult to work out which of the faces they're even talking about. How about cropping that one out and putting it nice and big at the top guys?
posted by GallonOfAlan at 1:26 AM on September 9 [13 favorites]


Man i could swear I've seen that final photo as one of the ones that's been rejected before. Or am I just remembering seeing the original image? Or echos of the graphic it became?? Help! But I'm thrilled they got to the bottom of it.
posted by Iteki at 2:35 AM on September 9


Prisoner alternative: Celebrity Six is a Cylon.
posted by terretu at 2:55 AM on September 9 [1 favorite]


This is great. I thought #6 looked like the illustration of the guy from the mid-'80s "A-Ha" video "Take on Me" but that would be quite an anachronism.
posted by SoberHighland at 5:05 AM on September 9 [1 favorite]


> That original Reddit post makes it surprisingly difficult to work out which of the faces they're even talking about.

This is unironically my favorite part of the whole thing. Making an authoritative omnibus "newbies start here" megapost that's so far down the rabbit hole you forget to say the basic problem statement is such a classic caricature it's practically performance art.
posted by range at 5:49 AM on September 9 [28 favorites]


It was JM Bullock in the lower left square with the paint roller. Am I playing this right?
posted by mubba at 6:08 AM on September 9 [4 favorites]


I am so happy for these Internet detectives and I hope all of them find another minor no-violence-involved mystery to investigate together soon!
posted by brainwane at 6:15 AM on September 9 [4 favorites]


maleficent: Also, it gives me hope that this 2014 AskMe mystery will someday be solved.

Why would you do this to me, Maleficent. This is worse than losing The Game.
posted by tzikeh at 6:33 AM on September 9 [1 favorite]


This whole drama where one of the mods on the subreddit tried to claim this was an AI image, despite evidence it isn't, and hounded this user into hiding, is weird and Very Internet 2024.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:42 AM on September 9 [1 favorite]


Okay so they found the photo but what is the name of the celebrity please ? This is not obvious to me ..?
posted by Faintdreams at 8:05 AM on September 9


Leticia Sardá, so, for me at least, celebrity is used loosely here.
posted by teece303 at 8:10 AM on September 9 [5 favorites]


Also, it gives me hope that this 2014 AskMe mystery will someday be solved.

This is always in my head and every now and then I revisit to see if it has been solved. I should have been able to solve this. This is my jam. I obsessed about it for a time. In fact, I just spent several hours going through old tv schedules and looking up the credits to lesser known shows that aired between some of the better known shows.

Some day...
posted by guiseroom at 8:20 AM on September 9


There's a bunch of actors from Lost on the fabric and some have hypothesized that the artist thought Sarda was Evangeline Lily
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 8:45 AM on September 9


Update: the model in question has posed with and posted the full photo-- basically killing any doubts about its veracity. It's over.
posted by Pitachu at 2:40 PM on September 9 [2 favorites]


Interview with #6 about the whole kerfuffle, in Spanish because she's Spanish.
posted by signal at 3:59 PM on September 9 [1 favorite]


> Also, it gives me hope that this 2014 AskMe mystery will someday be solved.

I remember this question and I remember this scene. I'm almost positive it's a promo from perfect strangers.

here's the issue : tv promos were NOT the intro back then, and would feature things that didn't make the air.

here's the best example I can think of : in the Simpsons episode where Bart goes to France, the promo had a quick clip of him sitting a ta cafe, with a beret, eating fries watching some ladies dance and saying "ooh-la-laaa-a". this is not in the episode, intro, deleted scenes, and there's not even a point in the actual episode where that scene would make sense. But it happened, and I remember it because it was confusing, especially since animation is so much more expensive, and how big the Simpsons were and trying to track every single second of it down, and it STILL not being there when the damn dvds came out.

so yeah, short of pouring through the archives of that one lady who had 30 vcrs and recorded every hour of tv, it's not likely you'll find that clip but that doesnt mean you didn't see it.
posted by lkc at 5:01 AM on September 10 [1 favorite]


I'm almost positive it's a promo from perfect strangers.

It's from a TV promo clip for the movie Shazam! starring Sinbad. It aired only during episodes of The Berenstein Bears.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:43 AM on September 10 [1 favorite]


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