Fact Check

Is Hollywood Actress Jessica Biel a US Military Veteran?

An online advertisement with a picture of actress Jessica Biel promised a "surprising" list of Hollywood actors who were military veterans.

Published Feb 9, 2021

UNITED STATES - DECEMBER 06: Premiere of 'Home of the Brave' at The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, United States on December 06, 2006 - Jessica Biel. (Photo by Mike FANOUS/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images) (Mike FANOUS/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Image Via Mike FANOUS/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Claim:
Jessica Biel served in the U.S. Armed Forces.

In February 2021, actress Jessica Biel was featured in an online advertisement that appeared to claim she was a U.S. military veteran.

The ad featured a picture of Biel wearing a uniform. It read: "Celebs Who Served in the Military: Surprising Stars Are Veterans."

jessica biel military veteran celebs who served in the surprising stars are veterans timberlake actress army navy marines coast guard air force space

Readers who followed the ad were led to a lengthy slideshow article. Its headline read: "The Surprising List of Hollywood A-Listers Who Are Military Veterans."

The first page showed "Star Wars" actor Adam Driver, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps:

Hollywood is a land that is known for glitz, glamour, and pampering beyond most peoples' wildest beliefs. It's a world that often is associated with prissy tantrums, rude behavior, and selfish personalities. However, the reputation for fussy behavior isn't always true among celebrities, as these celebs who served in the military prove.

Believe it or not, many of the greatest celebrities to ever hit Tinseltown have a background that's as rugged as it gets. Many are military veterans who risked their lives for their country and endured difficult training in order to make it. Some famous veterans are fairly easy to spot, while others may take you by surprise.

The story spanned 40 pages. For example, Elvis Presley, Chuck Norris, Rob Riggle, Jesse Ventura, and Charleton Heston were mentioned in the article.

Biel's name did not appear on any of the 40 pages. Further, we found no evidence of her having served in the U.S. Armed Forces.

The ad with a picture of Biel appeared to be nothing more than misleading clickbait. In reality, the photograph showed the actress in the 2006 film "Home of the Brave."

jessica biel military veteran celebs who served in the surprising stars are veterans timberlake actress army navy marines coast guard air force space
Jessica Biel in the 2006 film "Home of the Brave." (Photo via MGM Distribution Co.)

The plot of the movie was about American soldiers coming home to normal life after experiencing war:

Following a lengthy tour of duty in Iraq, three soldiers find that readjusting to life at home is not as easy as they originally thought. One (Samuel L. Jackson), a doctor, has an especially hard time as he watches his life unravel despite his attempts to restore his practice and marriage.

In summary, we were unable to find any evidence that actress Biel is a military veteran. A clickbait advertisement appeared to have fooled readers into browsing 40 pages that never mentioned her name.

Note: Jessica Biel is married to singer Justin Timberlake and also goes by the name Jessica Claire Timberlake.

Snopes debunks a wide range of content, and online advertisements are no exception. Misleading ads often lead to obscure websites that host lengthy slideshow articles with lots of pages. It's called advertising "arbitrage." The advertiser's goal is to make more money on ads displayed on the slideshow's pages than it cost to show the initial ad that lured them to it. Feel free to submit ads to us, and be sure to include a screenshot of the ad and the link to where the ad leads.

Jordan Liles is a Senior Reporter who has been with Snopes since 2016.

Article Tags
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/jessica-biel-military-veteran/
www.snopes.com
CC-MAIN-2024-10
272125
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:GCSGHRGMZUFMQJ7JRFMEXOVY2WXQCJDU
<urn:uuid:d967d339-6280-4690-9a5a-6ba953434e7a>
2024-02-24T19:17:07Z
18.165.83.36
text/html
sha1:BWO4OVZRMVPLKOUTTSH7CRRFPI27WNKS
<urn:uuid:19205636-4ffa-4fc6-8d48-a8124c8c3a6a>
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/jessica-biel-military-veteran/
response
<urn:uuid:50406dae-d138-48bf-8f25-1a954438a1e0>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2024-10
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for February/March 2024
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-196
software: Apache Nutch 1.19 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.5-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/