Bruce Willis Has Signed On to DeepFake Himself

Being a movie star somehow requires even less work now.

I do not speak Russian, and I am not in the habit of checking the websites of Russian advertising companies. Thus, had it not been for a Tweet from my friend and former New York magazine colleague Michael Idov, I would not have known that Bruce Willis just signed the most sweetheart of sweetheart deals.

The news item was in the Russian publication Sostav, which, if Google is translating it correctly for me, seems to cover the advertising industry. The piece features an interview with two executives at Russian mobile phone company Megaphone: Commercial Director Vlad Wolfson and Director for Brand and Marketing Communications Vasily Bolshakov. I find it relieving, somehow, to know that they have the same empty titles for executives in Russia as they do here.

The execs discuss a new ad campaign they’ve launched in which the mobile phone giant has made a series of family-friendly comedy episodes where the brand is “seamlessly integrated.” And those films star Willis. Now, it’s certainly not unusual for movie stars to do advertisements in other countries, particularly ones they wouldn’t necessarily want people in America to see. Here’s one for a Chinese car company from Leonardo DiCaprio, for example:

Or this goofy George Clooney one:

So that part isn’t strange. And it’s certainly not strange to see Bruce Willis doing some acting for cash: According to IMDB, Willis was in…