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It all started innocently enough. The New York Times posted a story Friday morning with the headline “Christie Ally expected to plead guilty in New Jersey bridge lane closings.”
But then the Internet happened, and thanks in part to this amazing Photoshopping job that replaced the lead image on the NYT article with one of Kirstie Alley, the “Cheers” and “Look Who’s Talking” actress became a trending topic on Twitter and some people may have wrongly deduced that she was somehow involved in “Bridgegate.”
She even responded to the Photoshop with a pretty hilarious tweet telling Philip Winn, the guy who made the image, to “check his facts” and that “Christie Ally is NOT Kirstie Alley…see how that works?”
The actual news was that an ally of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Port Authority official David Wildstein, was intending to plead guilty to conspiracy charges in the 2013 scandal that created massive traffic issues near the George Washington Bridge. Wildstein was a friend of Christie’s in high school, and it was the governor who got Wildstein his job at the Port Authority. Wildstein did in fact plead guilty to two counts of conspiracy on Friday at a US District Court in Newark, N.J.
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In its live online coverage of the George Washington Bridge story Friday, The New York Times acknowledged the Alley/Ally situation, posting an entry with the title “To Be Clear: Kirstie Alley Not Linked to Bridge Scandal.”
David Wildstein, the Christie Ally, is not Kirstie Alley, in case that still needs clearing up. You’re welcome. The actress handled the mix-up gracefully, tweeting that, “THIS is how rumors once again get started…jeez…hasn’t even been a week since my last accusation.”
Kirstie Alley to Plead Guilty in New Jersey Bridge Closings pic.twitter.com/bCIru9YO5L
— Philip Winn (@philipwinn) May 1, 2015
