Actor Michael Rapaport faced criticism after a Holocaust-related image he posted to Facebook was later determined to be fake.
The veteran actor, 55, on Saturday took to Facebook and posted the picture in question, depicting a violin player in an Auschwitz concentration camp.
Rapaport, who’s been seen in motion pictures such as True Romance, Higher Learning and Deep Blue Sea, garnered almost 9,900 likes and 1,200 shares on the image, Mediate reported, which he later apparently removed.
The following day, the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum, which is based out of Poland, condemned the image as ‘a dangerous distortion’ of reality.
The museum added via their Facebook page that ‘publishing fake, AI-generated images’ of Holocaust victims is disrespectful and harasses their memory;’ and advised that ‘if you see such posts, please don’t share them.’
Daily Mail has reached out to the actor via Instagram, as well as his rep, for further comment on the story.
Actor Michael Rapaport faced criticism after a Holocaust-related image he posted to Facebook was later determined to be fake.
The museum advised to follow their pages ‘where every name, every photo, and every story is based on rigorous historical research and the utmost respect for the truth.’
A number of commenters commended the museum for setting the record straight on the topic.
‘Thank you, for speaking out against those attempts to make a spectacle out of the real historic suffering,’ one user wrote.
The commenter said that ‘the spectacle is not only disrespectful to the victims, it is also dangerous to the historic truth, because it mixes it with fantasy and fake and (willingly or unwillingly) makes it just some story instead of facts.’
Another user remarked, Thank you for fighting for the voiceless in all of this.
‘AI is proving to be a huge plague in the art community (which is what photos and writing is part of.) it’s gross watching it bleed into real life tragedies as it robs humans of their humanity (in cases like these, for a second time.)’
Another user who works as ‘a full time violinist’ thanked the museum for ‘speaking out about these images,’ noting that there has been much misleading information about musicians in a historical context circulated via AI.
It was not immediately clear if the actor addressed the controversy as of Wednesday evening.
The veteran actor, 55, on Saturday took to Facebook and posted the picture, depicting a violin player in an Auschwitz concentration camp
A number of Facebook commenters commended the museum for setting the record straight
Rapaport played the role of Gary – a police officer who was dating Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) – on the NBC comedy Friends for four episodes in 1999
Rapaport delivered a memorable performance as aspiring actor Dick Ritchie in the 1993 classic True Romance opposite Brad Pitt, Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette
Another lamented: ‘I am beginning to lose all faith in mankind in this day and age. AI may be the future but the past needs to be remembered as it is.’
Rapaport played the role of Gary – a police officer who was dating Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) – on the NBC comedy Friends for four episodes during the show’s fifth season in 1999.
He appeared in four total episodes: The One with the Cop; The One with Rachel’s Inadvertent Kiss; The One with the Ride Along; and The One with the Ball.
