Social media is a funny thing. On the one hand, it caters to both our narcissistic and voyeuristic nature, providing us with a platform to express our individuality in the last unique way possible, while being seen at all times. On the other hand, it often serves as the most effective means of spreading both information and misinformation (the respective pros and cons of which can be tirelessly debated). Consider, for a moment, the proverbial ‘grain of salt’ you must take when reading almost anything found on social media. Political memes, for example, usually lack any context and aim to present some sort of vague soundbite with the decisiveness of a mic drop. At the end of the day, no one’s winning any debates on Facebook, and yet…somehow…everyone thinks that they are. And social media delusion is furthered by the blurring of the line between real world and online activity. Have a conversation about needing to pick up cat food, and your news food will inevitably be littered (no pun intended) with ads for feline cuisine. So effective is this form of intuitive marketing that a major Hollywood mystery has been solved (albeit unintentionally) by Indiana resident, Jeff Durango. “I was on my phone,” he explains, “looking up Buy Here Pay Here Indianapolis, hoping that I could find a local car dealership that could help me buy a car, despite my bad credit score. I found a couple of options, and started hopping between their website and Facebook pages. While I was doing so, my roommate (who was watching “The Mummy Returns” at the time) turned to me and said,”You ever wonder what happened to Brendan Frasier? You never see him in movies anymore.”
And due to those simple circumstances, Jeff’s newsfeed found itself populated with a series of links reporting (or at least speculating) on the current whereabouts of former Hollywood A-Lister, Brendan Frasier.
“I’ve always been a huge Brendan Frasier fan,” explains Durango. “Journey to the Center of the Earth was my jam…so needless to say, I went down the rabbit hole.”
Some of the articles were little more than clickbait, using a photoshopped image which implied that Frasier had aged excessively and lost most of his hair after being blackballed by Hollywood. Some of the articles were ridiculous, while others were just convincing enough be taken at face value. But the unique parameters of Jeff Durango’s internet search seemed to reveal the truth about Brendan Frasier, proving that the internet and social media CAN serve as powerful investigative tools, if used properly.
So, where is Brendan Frasier now?
Just off of Route 36 in Indianapolis, you’ll find a (blink and you might miss it) used car dealership that would be easy to overlook if it weren’t for a sign which reads ‘LINK MOTORS”. Those with an affinity for 1992 teen comedies might recall that “Link” was the name of Brendan Frasier’s resuscitated caveman in the film ‘Encino Man’.
According to Durango’s research,”When Frasier decided to leave Hollywood, his ‘Encino Man’ co-star Pauly Shore fronted Frasier the money he needed to launch his dream of helping the credit-challenged to find affordable and reliable cars.”
“Since he was always one of my favorites, I don’t know how I could have decided to buy a car from anyone else. If the story was true, I was going to buy my next car from Brendan Frasier.”
We reached out to Frasier’s ‘Blast from the Past’ co-star Alicia Silverstone in the hopes of confirming the rumor was true, but she was unavailable. We also attempted to contact his ‘Bedazzled’ co-star Elizabeth Hurley with an equal lack of success. It was around the time that we attempted to contact Leslie Mann from ‘George of the Jungle’ that we realized that we knew way too many Brendan Frasier movies, and simply decided to wish him the best in whatever he was doing.
