IF YOU HADN’T already heard, Brad Pitt is in Ireland.
The Hollywood star arrived here at the start of the month to shoot his new movie, One For All, which will co-star Emmy-winning actress Julianne Nicholson.
Pitt’s expected to be filming here for the next few weeks, and with expected stop-offs in Dublin, Cork, Wicklow and Kerry, online rumours of his whereabouts have abounded.
But Bradwatch rumours have been bolstered by the proliferation of AI-generated memes popping up on social media, most of which are tongue-in-cheek, but some of which are closer to old-fashioned fake news.
The images — which are appearing in Facebook and Instagram feeds, and also circulating on WhatsApp — tend to show extremely glossy-looking versions of Pitt in local pubs, holding pints of Irish stout, visiting local businesses or just taking selfies with locals.
The trend appears to have begun soon after the actor’s trip to Ireland became public last week.
The Journal has seen Instagram posts from as early as 3 February that featured AI images of Pitt, accompanied by claims or suggestions from individuals that they had met him.
Although some posts contain references to the fact that images are AI-generated, in some cases they are not clearly labelled — containing only an AI hashtag — while in others the fact they are AI-generated hasn’t been referenced at all.
The claims have since morphed into a meme, with a number of local businesses (particularly ones based in Cork) humorously generating images of Pitt visiting them and claiming he’d stopped by.
They include a food court posting an image of Pitt eating a burger with the caption “we wish!”, football club Mayfield United sharing an image of the actor drinking a pint wearing their club kit, and a credit union in Clonakilty showing him in front of one of their billboards.
Genuine images of Pitt during his visit to Ireland have circulated online which show how he appears, with photojournalist Padraig O’Reilly capturing this image of him (on the right) in Dalkey last week:
Hard to believe there’s a gap of thirty years between my photos taken of Brad Pitt in Dublin filming..1996 in Inchicore shooting Devils Own and yesterday in Dalkey shooting One For All based on Tim Winton’s 1994 novel The Riders. pic.twitter.com/Fsqfd848uq
— Padraig O’Reilly Photojournalist (@padraig_reilly) February 5, 2026
Pitt still looks in pretty good shape, but the real image shows that he’s not looking quite as young as many of the AI-generated images that have been shared online make him out to be.
The fake images are nevertheless pretty convincing, and several members of The Journal’s team were fooled by them. But it’s safe to say that if your local Spar shares a picture of Pitt claiming that he dropped by for a chicken fillet roll, he probably didn’t.
