The implication seems to be that the pictures are suspicious because they only show up on a Russian image bank.
Except that’s not true. Several of them appear in this November 2006 edition of the German magazine “Der Spiegel”, one of Europe’s biggest news magazines. One of them is on the front page of the culture section: http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/kulturspiegel/index-2006-11.html
Several others are used in the article about “The Isis Project”: http://magazin.spiegel.de/EpubDelivery/spiegel/pdf/49383495
And as this edition of the magazine was published in 2006 they couldn’t have been taken in 2007 as the image tags say …
Things you need to be aware of if you follow or reblog from SophieHunter.net, BenophieDaily, or SophieHunterCentral in other social media:
- This blogger insisted on creating a Wikipedia page for Lyndsey Turner many times, even after Lyndsey herself contacted Wikipedia to ask them to take it down because she was dealing with a case of stalking/harassment serious enough to involve the Police.
- This blogger alerted the tabloids about Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter’s relationship before the engagement was announced, while they were still trying to keep it under wraps.
- This blogger impersonated Sophie Hunter’s agent on IMDB in order to edit her bio.
- This blogger created Sophie’s Wikipedia entry, including inaccurate information about her and her work that was afterwards picked up by the same tabloids that she tipped off about the relationship.
- This blogger has been banned several times from Wikipedia due to her malicious behaviour and, to this day, she has created around 100 sockpuppets and has tried to use at least 30 of them to edit Sophie’s entry.
For more information about SophieHunterCentral/Benophiedaily, click here.
* Many thanks to @ockhamsrazorbc for compiling all the facts and evidence in a useful and comprehensive series of posts.
So, a blogger who has a website in honour of SH on tumblr is bashing her elsewhere, such as Wikipedia? I’m not sure I follow. Why would someone do that?
No, not bashing. I believe she wants to be in control of her life, and infos about her in a way. Not sure exactly why…probably she’s only the other side of the same obsessive issues skeptics have. She’s the one behind the Lacuna Theatre mistake, and many other mistakes about Sophie. She doesn’t stop from publishing private pics from private account (I don’t understand how people can still follow her after she has done it repetedly). She has repeatedly attacked whomever tried to make her notice her mistakes (myself among those). I am afraid, should Ben and Sophie ever split, she would turn into the worst hater (if she’s not to be considered one already).
The problem is not that she’s a fan of Sophie; the problem is the way she goes about it, steamrolling everyone, putting dubious facts out there, ignoring people’s wishes for privacy, harassing other bloggers she sees as competition, etc. which in turn reflects badly upon Sophie. Remember that many of the things the “skeptics” blame on Sophie are actually SHCentral’s doing.
I can see what you mean, now, about giving the haters ammunition.
I remember when Ben and Sophie first became engaged, there were a couple of magazine articles with facts about Sophie that I think may have been incorrect.
For example, the articles stated that Sophie is an accomplished horsewoman as well as an accomplished pianist. These things may be true, but isn’t it odd that neither of those “facts” have been addressed or corroborated since that initial article? I’ll see if I can find the link.
If you had read @ockhamsrazorbc excellent posts, you would know that it was SHCentral who put the “Hunter is fluent in French and is a highly skilled pianist and equestrian.” on Wikipedia, citing as source her CV at Curtis Brown. If you visit the page in question, it doesn’t say anything of the sort.
There is actually another Sophie Hunter in the UK who is an equestrian. I suspect that SHCentral confused the two. An easy mistake to make but SHCentral should have fact-checked before she tried to add it to Wikipedia. Had she done so she would have realised she had the wrong Sophie.
This earlier PDF bio mentions the following skills:
Skills: Dance: Ballet, Modern, Music: Piano, Singing, Languages: fluent French and near fluent Italian. Learning Trapeze.
And just to clarify I don’t think she is behind the Lacuna Theatre mixup. Sophie is in fact a co-founder of a (different) Lacuna Theatre Company. (It is also mentioned in the July 2014 IMDB mini bio, which SHC would have had access to when she first wrote the Wikipedia page but was replaced by the fake Curtis Brown one by SHC in October.)
The problem is that none of the 14 sources on the 5 November 2014 version of Sophie’s Wikipedia page mention Lacuna Theatre. The article says:
Hunter co-founded the Lacuna Theatre Company, is an artistic director of the Boiler Room, is an associate director at the Broadhurst Theatre, and serves as collaborating director and dramaturge on marionette and puppetry production with the Phantom Limb company.[6]
(Note: The Broadhurst Theatre info in that paragraph is incorrect. It was part of the first version, and wasn’t backed up by the source.)
A journalist no doubt read the Lacuna Theatre info on Wikipedia but didn’t find a linked source, so they typed “Lacuna Theatre Company” into Google.
The other company by the same name - http://www.lacunatheatrecompany.com - is the first thing that comes up.
(I’m not saying nobody is allowed to make mistakes. That’s human after all. It’s the combination with other behaviour that irritates me - tweeting the link to the Wikipedia article to journalists along with sneaky pictures before the BC/SH relationship was public, impersonating Sophie’s agent on IMDB to add a mini bio, excessive sockpuppeting on Wikipedia after being banned, etc.)
I think this is were the equestrian and sailing things come from even if the article parrots some of the early wrong wiki infos from sophiehuntercentral: X
her spotlight profile lists her skills as athletics, horse-jumping horse-riding, running, sailing, swimming, tennis and yoga.
If you don’t know Spotlight is a casting resource. If you’re not in the industry though you can see it only if someone gives you a direct link to their page.
Things you need to be aware of if you follow or reblog from SophieHunter.net, BenophieDaily, or SophieHunterCentral in other social media:
- This blogger insisted on creating a Wikipedia page for Lyndsey Turner many times, even after Lyndsey herself contacted Wikipedia to ask them to take it down because she was dealing with a case of stalking/harassment serious enough to involve the Police.
- This blogger alerted the tabloids about Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter’s relationship before the engagement was announced, while they were still trying to keep it under wraps.
- This blogger impersonated Sophie Hunter’s agent on IMDB in order to edit her bio.
- This blogger created Sophie’s Wikipedia entry, including inaccurate information about her and her work that was afterwards picked up by the same tabloids that she tipped off about the relationship.
- This blogger has been banned several times from Wikipedia due to her malicious behaviour and, to this day, she has created around 100 sockpuppets and has tried to use at least 30 of them to edit Sophie’s entry.
For more information about SophieHunterCentral/Benophiedaily, click here.
* Many thanks to @ockhamsrazorbc for compiling all the facts and evidence in a useful and comprehensive series of posts.
So, a blogger who has a website in honour of SH on tumblr is bashing her elsewhere, such as Wikipedia? I’m not sure I follow. Why would someone do that?
No, not bashing. I believe she wants to be in control of her life, and infos about her in a way. Not sure exactly why…probably she’s only the other side of the same obsessive issues skeptics have. She’s the one behind the Lacuna Theatre mistake, and many other mistakes about Sophie. She doesn’t stop from publishing private pics from private account (I don’t understand how people can still follow her after she has done it repetedly). She has repeatedly attacked whomever tried to make her notice her mistakes (myself among those). I am afraid, should Ben and Sophie ever split, she would turn into the worst hater (if she’s not to be considered one already).
The problem is not that she’s a fan of Sophie; the problem is the way she goes about it, steamrolling everyone, putting dubious facts out there, ignoring people’s wishes for privacy, harassing other bloggers she sees as competition, etc. which in turn reflects badly upon Sophie. Remember that many of the things the “skeptics” blame on Sophie are actually SHCentral’s doing.
I can see what you mean, now, about giving the haters ammunition.
I remember when Ben and Sophie first became engaged, there were a couple of magazine articles with facts about Sophie that I think may have been incorrect.
For example, the articles stated that Sophie is an accomplished horsewoman as well as an accomplished pianist. These things may be true, but isn’t it odd that neither of those “facts” have been addressed or corroborated since that initial article? I’ll see if I can find the link.
If you had read @ockhamsrazorbc excellent posts, you would know that it was SHCentral who put the “Hunter is fluent in French and is a highly skilled pianist and equestrian.” on Wikipedia, citing as source her CV at Curtis Brown. If you visit the page in question, it doesn’t say anything of the sort.
There is actually another Sophie Hunter in the UK who is an equestrian. I suspect that SHCentral confused the two. An easy mistake to make but SHCentral should have fact-checked before she tried to add it to Wikipedia. Had she done so she would have realised she had the wrong Sophie.
This earlier PDF bio mentions the following skills:
Skills: Dance: Ballet, Modern, Music: Piano, Singing, Languages: fluent French and near fluent Italian. Learning Trapeze.
And just to clarify I don’t think she is behind the Lacuna Theatre mixup. Sophie is in fact a co-founder of a (different) Lacuna Theatre Company. (It is also mentioned in the July 2014 IMDB mini bio, which SHC would have had access to when she first wrote the Wikipedia page but was replaced by the fake Curtis Brown one by SHC in October.)
The problem is that none of the 14 sources on the 5 November 2014 version of Sophie’s Wikipedia page mention Lacuna Theatre. The article says:
Hunter co-founded the Lacuna Theatre Company, is an artistic director of the Boiler Room, is an associate director at the Broadhurst Theatre, and serves as collaborating director and dramaturge on marionette and puppetry production with the Phantom Limb company.[6]
(Note: The Broadhurst Theatre info in that paragraph is incorrect. It was part of the first version, and wasn’t backed up by the source.)
A journalist no doubt read the Lacuna Theatre info on Wikipedia but didn’t find a linked source, so they typed “Lacuna Theatre Company” into Google.
The other company by the same name - http://www.lacunatheatrecompany.com - is the first thing that comes up.
(I’m not saying nobody is allowed to make mistakes. That’s human after all. It’s the combination with other behaviour that irritates me - tweeting the link to the Wikipedia article to journalists along with sneaky pictures before the BC/SH relationship was public, impersonating Sophie’s agent on IMDB to add a mini bio, excessive sockpuppeting on Wikipedia after being banned, etc.)
Part 9: Why Sophie Hunter Central isn’t PR in disguise
Back to SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit Masterpost
There are many reasons why I think SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit is a fan and not Benedict’s or Sophie’s PR in disguise. Here’s a list in no particular order, with details under the cut. (For the record, Sophie Hunter Central never claims to be anything other than an unofficial fansite.)
1) Active in BC fandom since 2012
2) Fairyspit FamousFix account
3) The Katia Elizarova edits on Wikipedia (more here)
4) The Lyndsey Turner situation on Wikipedia (more here)
5) Timing of the creation of Sophie Hunter’s Wikipedia page (more here)
6) Tweeting gossip media
7) Impersonating Sophie’s agent to add IMDB mini bio (more here)
8) Mistakes on Sophie’s page (year of birth etc) (more here)
9) The private pictures argument
10) Correcting people on twitter
11) WHOIS data for sophiehunter.net (more here)
12) Based in the Philippines
13) Asking cumberbatchweb questions
1) Active in BC fandom since 2012
SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit has been editing on Wikipedia since July 2012 and posting on Tumblr (as 030891posts) since at least August 2013. This is before before Benedict’s relationship with Sophie.
2) Fairyspit FamousFix account
The Fairyspit account on FamousFix clearly focuses on Benedict’s relationships (an those of his exes or other women he’s connected with)
http://fairyspit.famousfix.com/contributions/
3) The Katia Elizarova edits on Wikipedia (more here)
When the Daily Mail and The Telegraph publish pictures of Benedict and Katia in Ibiza, Fairyspit edits Elizarova’s page the same day to add favourable information and the relationship (clearly assuming Katia is Benedict’s girlfriend). After it turns out a week later that Elizarova already has a boyfriend, Fairyspit turns on her and tries to get rid of her own edits on Wikipedia. She is clearly emotionally involved with this situation, as she gets into and edit war and is blocked for a week (for edit warring and sockpuppetry). She also uses twitter to correct people who post about Benedict and Katia and tumblr to post a “clarification” over and over again. This to my mind is the behaviour of a fan and not PR.
4) The Lyndsey Turner situation (more here)
This becomes even clearer when you look at Fairyspit’s behaviour with regards to Lyndsey Turner. She creates a Wikipedia page for her the day it is first announced that she will most likely direct Benedict’s Hamlet. The page is nominated for deletion after Fairyspit is banned. After an Article for Deletion discussion the page is kept but then deleted a few weeks later because of “legal reasons”. For two months different Fairyspit socks try to re-create the page over and over again (using different titles, creating the fake article on userpages, asking other editors to create the page for them). After all this fails, she creates an external fan page with the WIX website builder and promotes it on twitter. I do not believe this could reasonably be the behaviour of Benedict’s PR, especially considering Lyndsey Turner’s comment below.
5) Timing of the creation of Sophie Hunter’s Wikipedia page (more here)
There is speculation on eggsbenedish in July and August 2014 as to who the secret girlfriend might be, and Sophie is mentioned several times (amoung several others).
A Fairyspit sockpuppet creates a page for Sophie Hunter the day she sees a tweet about Benedict being at the theatre with a woman (the OP thinks it’s his girlfriend). She uses her twitter handle @000BCF (now @BenedictTweets) to try and find out who the woman was and presumably guesses it was Sophie. She creates a new sockpuppet on Wikipedia (BrunetteGirlfriend) to make a Sophie Hunter Wikipedia page and promotes it with another twitter handle @ladymagsacay (now @BenophieDaily).
It turns out later that the woman at the theatre was in fact not Sophie. Which anybody actually connected with Benedict or Sophie would have known.
6) Tweeting gossip media
The SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit twitter handles @cruzdanny100, @ladymagsacay/@8888eunice/@senyorita24601 and @ethiopiansun/bae90210 repeatedly tweeted various gossip media journalists, sending them sneaky pictures, pap photographs and links to Sophie’s Wikipedia page (created by Fairyspit).
Somebody working for PR would have other way of contacting the media - they wouldn’t have to resort to publicly tweeting them. They would most likely also not use an incorrect twitter handle as was the case with @senyorita24601 and @ethiopiansun (both tweeted the wrong person when they tried to contact Hanna Flint from the Daily Mail).
7) Impersonating Sophie’s agent to add IMDB mini bio (more here)
I think it’s very likely that SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit impersonated Sophie’s agent Curtis Brown to add a new mini bio to IMDB. Actual PR would have added a bio through the real Curtis Brown account.
8) Mistakes on Sophie’s page (year of birth etc) (more here)
There are several mistakes on various versions of Sophie’s Wikipedia page. Ignoring the sockpuppet issue for a moment it is of course always possible to make mistakes when researching a subject. But these are not mistakes PR would have made (especially ones like incorrect year of birth wrong location for Ubu Roi).
The first available version of Sophie’s Wikipedia page has info that is not supported by the sources given. The Fairyspit sock SecretGirlfriend (later BelleJournee1991) claims that Sophie is associate director at the Broadhurst Theatre, even thought the source says that she was associate director for the play Enron at the Broadhurst Theatre. She also lists several past projects which are only mentioned as forthcoming projects in the source (like the Magic Flute African Tour).
Several early online biographies list Ubu Roi at the BAC Fairyspit sockpuppet TheVerge24601 (later TheVerge0000) adds the full name “Battersea Arts Centre” here. But BAC stands for Baryshnikov Arts Center, as mentioned here. A perfectly reasonable mistake for a fan to make, but not for Sophie or PR, who would know the correct location.
Then there’s the question of the year of birth. As far as I can tell none of the sources listed on the first Wikipedia verison from 31 August 2014 say when she was born, but IMDB bio available at that time mentions the birth year 1978. On 30 September she finds the information on the peerage website that claims Sophie was born in 1977. She uses an IP sock to add that information to Wikipedia. When a different editor changes it back to 1978, a different IP sock changes is back to 1977, claiming to have checked it in the actual book. The sock Phantomlimb does the same thing after it’s changed back to 1978. And another IP sock here. And the sock TheVerge24601 (now TheVerge0000) adds 1977 here. TheVerge24601 finally changes it back to 1978 here, possibly after finding her actual birth year in DueDil records. @senyorita24601 (now @benophiedaily) mentions these records here:
Once again a reasonable mistake for a fan to make, but Sophie, Benedict and their PR would know when she was born.
9) The private pictures argument
Several people are suspicious of SHC/Benophiedaily because they have access to private pictures of Sophie and feel that the only way to get those would be through Sophie herself or her PR. But a closer look at the early days on eggsbenedish and other sites like SoGO and TFOE show how several people knew that Sophie had and Instagram account (now deleted) and were looking through the IG accounts of her friends for pictures or her.
Sophie is first mentioned by name on eggsbenedish on 3 July 2014 and her name comes up in the secret girlfriend discussion several times, like here. An anon asks about the Instagram account here on 30 August and the name of her Instagram account is mentioned here and here. They mention the fact that it has now been set to private, which means people were looking into it before it was locked. I assume people were checking it out after she was pictured with Benedict at the French Open in June. An anon sends links to pictures of Sophie on a friend’s IG account on 21 August, and another mentions looking at IG accounts.
So the Eggsy crowd clearly knew about about the Instagram accounts of Sophie and her friends before the relationship rumour with Benedict was ever mentioned in the media, so they were able to go through them and save pictures of Sophie. Other bloggers posted IG pictures as well. The first post on sophiehuntergossipblog uses a picture from someone’s IG account, and others are posted or mentioned later as well. For example:
http://sophiehuntergossipblog.tumblr.com/post/102624897535/here-are-some-screencaps-from-william (14 November 2014)
Here are some screencaps from William Richmond-Watson’s Instagram account. The top two are from the time of her last birthday, when they were in Miami. The bottom one is from last May, when she had supposedly already moved back to London and was dating Benedict. (The Brant Foundation is located in Connecticut.)
Of course it doesn’t really matter who she was dating last March or even necessarily May…just putting this out there. And if anybody knows anything about this guy please let me know! He is based in NYC but is a Brit.
http://sophiehuntergossipblog.tumblr.com/post/102645568945/a-gift-for-you-gleaned-from-wrws-ig (14 November 2014)
http://sophiehuntergossipblog.tumblr.com/post/105604424920/sh-and-canaries (14 November 2014)
Anon: On a tangent, browsing that account’s posts before May this year turns up a handful of photos of SH. Screencapping all I can, just in case.
SoGo: Go for it, anon! We have some screencaps from it already but could probably use more. Also note that they were together and looking date-y on Sophie’s birthday last year (March 16)
She mentions Sophie’s Instagram account name here.
TFOE also posts pictures from friends’ IG accounts:
So I did a little hunting around and lo and be hold the photos were posted on Insta by Jessica Grindstaff. Who I can safely say is a friend/co-worker of Missy from the many theater companies she “breezily runs.” Both Grindstaff and SH worked in 69˙S by Phantom Limb Company based in NYC. SH directed and Jessica was in charge of the set design.
You guys know how much I love to dig around in the interwebs to dig up the juicy little secrets it has to offer. And boy did I find the mother load after a few scrolls and clicks, so PR if you were trying to hide it, you didn’t do such a good job.
Okays. So I started looking through WRW’s Instagram first and let me tell you that he’s lucky there’s gay rumors going around about him. The level of obsession he has over the Snow Queen even surpasses her own and that’s saying something for sure. (You’ll see what I mean once you start reading the hashtags and comments on his Insta pics)
No matter how you stand on the issue of going through the IG accounts os Sophie’s friends, it is clear that SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit is not the only person doing it. Several people had access to these pictures early on, before some of Sophie’s friends set their accounts to private and/or deleted pictures.
10) Correcting people on twitter
The other main twitter handle next to @senyorita24601/@benophiedaily is @Benedict_Tweets and all it’s previous names. This account frequently seeks out people criticising Benedict or one of his projects and attempts to “correct” them. It is my opinion that someone involved with PR would know that that is entirely counterproductive.
11) WHOIS data for sophiehunter.net (more here)
The reason sophiehunter.net shows up when you search for “Sophie Hunter” on Reverse WHOIS lookup sites is the fact it is part of the name “Sophie Hunter Central”, which is listed as the Registrant Organization.
12) Based in the Philippines
The first section of the Fairyspit Sockpuppet Investigation mentions the first IP sock for Fairyspit (then Aikatastrophe), which is in the Philippines. This was the first edit war Fairyspit got into over the Elizarova page. She edit warred with another user on 3 August 2013 and then logged out to continue her argument. She only started proxying later on after she was indefinitely blocked from Wikipedia on 27 December 2013, as mentioned here. She had no reason to do so at this point.
This section mentions a whole array of IPs from the Philippines. Here’s an example of her trying to cover her tracks: On 18 February 2015 the sock Lady Greenland (now FeministAtHeart) complains about the editor Avianax making changes to Sophie’s page that she tried to undo. The new sock Save Draft continues the discussion on the talk page, and on 21 February she uses an IP from the Philippines to request a page semi-protection for Sophie’s page. She then presumably wants to disguise who is asking for the page protection by using a Korean IP to change the IP address in the request from Philippines to Korea.
I think SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit is in the Philippines and sometimes tries to hide that fact. It does not look like a PR person pretending to be in the Philippines.
13) Asking cumberbatchweb questions
Before the tumblr account benophiedaily was renamed, it asked cumberbatchweb several questions as 030891posts over a period of months. This question is a question a fan would ask, not a PR person.
After looking at the sockpuppet behaviour on Wikipedia, the behaviour of the various accounts on twitter and tumblr, and the various points made above, I think it’s clear that the person behind all of them is a fan (and she never claims to be anything else), not Sophie, not Benedict, not their PR or anybody connected to them.
Back to SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit Masterpost
Part 8: sophiehunter.net and Reverse WHOIS searches
Back to SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit Masterpost
There are some conclusions drawn in this HHR post that I’d like to address here.
HHR describes how she used a reverse WHOIS site and typed “Sophie Hunter” into the “Registrant Name or E-Mail” field. sophiehunter.net is one of six domains that match the search.
When you look at the WHOIS data for sophiehunter.net, the Registrant Name is (the fake) Scarlett Wilkins and the Registrant Organization is Sophie Hunter Central. HHR therefore claims that Sophie Hunter owns sophiehunter.net. I think that while it is an understandable conclusion, it is also false.
I think sophiehunter.net shows up because Sophie Hunter is part of the the Registrant Organization name “Sophie Hunter Central”.
https://who.is/domain-history/sophiehunter.net
Domain Name: SOPHIEHUNTER.NET
Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Registrant Name: Scarlett Wilkins
Registrant Organization: Sophie Hunter Central
In addition, as I see it WHOIS data will only either show the Registrant Name given by the person registering the domain, or “Private Registry”. You cannot have a domain registered in one name privately and have WHOIS publicly show another.
Other examples for comparison and links under the cut.
Let’s test that theory with a different company name and see what happens.
Alec Peters, the owner of the company Propworx, has registered several domain names, for example apocalypse40k.com, aresstudios and axanarproductions.com.
The WHOIS date for all three of them lists Alec Peters as the Registrant Name and his company Propworx as the Registrant Organization.
So if you go back to the Reverse WHOIS site and type the company name Propworx into the “Registrant Name or E-Mail address”, it gives you a list of domain names that match this query. Among them them apocalypse40k.com, aresstudios.net and axanarproductions.com. Because Proworx is the Registrant Organization.
http://viewdns.info/reversewhois/?q=propworx#
Another example.
The domain startreknewvoyages,com lists Robert Mauro as Registrant Name and Retro Film Studios as Registrant Organization.
If you type part of the company name “Retro Film” into the “Registrant Name or E-Mail Address” field, guess what shows up in the list?
startreknewvoyages.com
Because Retro Film is part of the Registrant Organization name Red Film Studios. Just like Sophie Hunter is part of the Registrant Organzisation name Sophie Hunter Central.
http://viewdns.info/reversewhois/?q=Retro+Film#
GoDaddy offers registrants who want to keep their personal details private Private Registration through the company Domain By Proxy.
To keep your personal data from falling into the wrong hands, GoDaddy.com offers Private Registration through our partner, Domains By Proxy®. Instead of displaying your personal information in the WHOIS database for all to see, Domains By Proxy® will replace it with their own. The domain will still belong to you - except now, you and Domains By Proxy® will be the only ones who know it. See the difference.
As I understand it the Registrant Name either shows the name the registrant has provided (real or fake) or “Private Registration”, in which case the Registrant Organization is the company providing the private registration. Sophie Hunter cannot be “hiding” behind a fake name and still show up in Reverse Whois searches. The only reason sophiehunter.net shows up in those is the fact that the Registrant Organization is Sophie Hunter Central.
More on WHOIS: https://whois.icann.org/en/about-whois
Part 9: Why Sophie Hunter Central isn’t PR in disguise
Back to SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit Masterpost
Also @SophieHCentral, @sophiehphotos, @sophiehunterHSC, sophiehunterphotos and sophiehunter.net
(And possibly fleur--fleur as well.)
Back to SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit Masterpost
As shown here, the SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit twitter accounts @cruzdanny100, @ladymagsacay/@8888euncie/@senyorita24601 (now @benophiedaily) and @ethiopiansun tweet gossip journalists in September and October 2014, sending them sneaky pictures and pap photos of Sophie and Benedict, as well as links to Sophie’s Wikipedia page (created and edited by her Fairyspit sockpuppets). She uses these twitter handles and the tumblr account 030891posts/senyorita24691 (now benophiedaily) to frequently post about the BC/SH relationship (often with the text “Benedict Cumberbatch & girlfriend Sophie Hunter”) - at a point when Benedict and Sophie were clearly still trying to keep their relationship a secret.
The fleur--fleur tumblr account (possibly a SHC forerunner) appears for a few days in early October. The twitter handle @SophieHCentral/@sophiehphotos (now @sophiehunterSHC) starts tweeting pictures of Sophie on 22 October 2014, almost always with the text “Theatre director and Benedict Cumberbatch's girlfriend SOPHIE HUNTER #BenedictCumberbatch #SophieHunter”. The early tweets are often retweeted by her other accounts @cumbertweets and @ethiopiansun.
http://twicsy.com/i/os8xVg
The tumblr account sophiehunterphotos starts posting the same type of material on 23 October. An early version has a link to the @senyorita24601 tweet in its header (the engagement announcement).
links to http://sophiehunterphotos.tumblr.com/post/101573270445/theatre-director-and-benedict-cumberbatchs (2 November 2014)
Current version: http://sophiehunter.net/post/101573270445/sophie-hunter-in-the-music-video-of-cher-isis-from
Several pictures are personal photos taken from the Instagram accounts of Sophie’s friends, but with no link and no indication where she get them from. (Sophie’s Instagram and pictures from her friends’ IG accounts were already talked about on eggsbenedish in August 2014. Other tumblr users also posted IG pictures after the engagement was announced).
The pictures have since been edited to include a photo credit and to delete the text “Benedict Cumberbatch’s girlfriend/fiancée”. Almost all posts from October 2014 have been backdated to make it appear like the blog was already active in November 2013.
@sophiehphotos is renamed to @sophiehuntershc in June 2015, and sophiehphotos on Tumblr became sophiehuntercentral around the same time. The domain name sophiehunter.net (which redirects from sophiehuntercentral.tumblr.com) is bought in early June as well.
According to an early FAQ on sophiehunter.net, they clearly state that they also run Benophie Daily.
On Wikipedia, over 20 sockpuppets add over 80 sophiehunter.net links to many different Wikipedia pages, many only distantly related to Sophie (like dramaturge, Patrick Stewart roles and awards, etc).
Detailed timeline under the cut.
fleur--fleur
In early October 2014, anons on eggsbenedish mention the tumblr fleur--fleur.
The interesting thing is that has a lot of backdated entries - a technique that SHC uses as well. These three posts are supposed to be from 4 years ago/ 1 year ago/ 1 month ago, but the URL numbers show that they were all posted around the same time - in October 2014.
This post on Eggsy also mentions the backdating. According to this post ifleur--fleur is gone by 6 October. I don’t know this for sure, but I would guess that fleur--fleur is an early version of SHC.
@SophieHCentral tweets a few times around 22 October, almost always with the text “Theatre director and Benedict Cumberbatch's girlfriend SOPHIE HUNTER #BenedictCumberbatch #SophieHunter -”
http://twicsy.com/i/Fu7xVg
Then @sophiehphotos becomes the main twitter account, and it is the one that is later renamed back to @SophieHunterSHC. This account continuously tweeted pictures of Sophie with the text:
“Theatre director and Benedict Cumberbatch's girlfriend SOPHIE HUNTER
You can see @sophiehphotots and @senyorita24601 using the same text here:
sophiehphotos: Theatre director and Benedict Cumberbatch's girlfriend SOPHIE HUNTER #BenedictCumberbatch #SophieHunter https://twitter.com/sophiehphotos/status/525996077074235392- 2014-10-25 17:03:31
Now links to: https://twitter.com/SophieHunterSHC/status/525996077074235392
http://twicsy.com/i/hH2GWg#
and
senyorita24601: Theatre director and Benedict Cumberbatch’s girlfriend Sophie Hunter was born 16 March 1978 via @duedil #SophieHunter 2014-10-23
https://twitter.com/BenophieDaily/status/525290586899619840 (at that point @senyorita24601, as can be seen in the answering tweet.)
Many of the very early @SophieHCentral/@sophiehphotos tweets were retweeted by other SHC/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit accounts like @cumbertweets (now @Benedict_Tweets) and @ethiopiansun.
http://twicsy.com/i/mkjTVg
http://twicsy.com/i/BNHmXg
The sophiehuntercentral Tumblr is mentioned on 23 October 2014 here:
The blog is then renamed to sophiehunterphotos. Here is a capture of the blog from 9 December 2014. There is a link to the @senyorita24601 Twitter account in header (“Benedict Cumberbatch’s fiancée” links to the tweet with the engagement announcement https://twitter.com/senyorita24601/status/529895586074345472, which now redirects to https://twitter.com/BenophieDaily/status/529895586074345472)
If you go to the current archive, you will see that there are only two posts from October 2014, and that several posts seem to be from late 2013 and early 2014. But just as with fleur–fleur, the posts have been backdated. If you look at the numbers in the URL you can see when they were actually posted - all between 23 and 31 October. SHC is clearly trying to appear more legitimate by implying that the blog was set up before Sophie’s relationship with Benedict became known. They may also be trying to disguise the fact that they were frequently posting about Sophie when the relationship was not yet official.
[Edit: several posts have been deleted since I made this list.] I have also added the accompanying @sophiehphotos (now @sohiehunterSHC) links - they indicate when the pictures would have been posted on tumblr.
http://sophiehunter.net/post/100646112845/theatre-director-sophie-hunter-and-suno-founder (Fake date 22 November 2013, actual date 22 October 2014)
A few more backdated posts have been added since the last time I checked. As they also have accompanying tweets from October 2014, I assume they are self-reblogs and that the original has been deleted.)
Pictures from Instagram accounts of Sophie’s friends
Several pictures that were posted in the weeks after the engagement were taken from the Instagram accounts of Sophie’s friends. People on Eggsy and SoGo knew about Sophie’s Instagram account and who her IG friends were and were going through her friends’ pictures as early as August 2014. SoGo and TFOE have also posted screencaps from Sophie’s friends’ IG pictures. So SHC is not the only person doing this.
Sophiehphotos originally posted them without any indication where they came from, and generally with the text “Theatre director and Benedict Cumberbatch’s fiancée Sophie Hunter”. These posts have since been edited to add a picture credit (and to delete the “fiancée text.)
@sophiehphotos is renamed to @sophiehuntershc in June 2015, and sophiehphotos on Tumblr became sophiehuntercentral around the same time. The domain name sophiehunter.net (which redirects from sophiehuntercentral.tumblr.com) is bought in early June as well.
According to an early FAQ on sophiehunter.net, they clearly state that they also run Benophie Daily.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150609155407/http://sophiehunter.net/FAQ (9 June 2015)
The domain is originally registered under the Registrant Name SH Central, with no Registrant Organization given.
According to a convo with SBCHS (published with SHC’s consent), somebody reported the fact that it was not registered under a real name, and she changed it and added a name (but not her own). The full WHOIS report with this new name (including address in the Philippines, telephone number etc) was published by a skeptic. When contacted, SHC claimed that the name and address were completely made up.
The name has been changed again, the new WHOIS data shows the (fake) Scarlett Wilkins as Registrant Name and Sophie Hunter Central as Registrant Organization. Which is why the domain shows up if search for “Sophie Hunter” on Reverse WHOIS lookup sites.
I assume the reason for the new fake name is to disguise the fact that SHC is based in the Philippines, maybe to avoid association with Fairyspit. (Skeptics pointed out that the name previously given was an actual person, though I don’t think it’s SHC herself.) Even though the address was made up, it was clearly an address in the Philippines.
As mentioned earlier, many sophiehunter.net links were added to various Wikipedia sites by confirmed and suspected sockpuppets of Fairyspit.
All of these have added sophiehunter.net links: Classic Cherry, Mess Of A Story, TheCumberbatches, ChoppedCreationCheesecake, HankHunk,Beckett Volunteer, May 50 Cents Ka?, Wt1010, Fakeblogs, Friends and Crocodiles, CEMFashion, Free Happy Days, Billy Shake Shakes, Opera Madonna, BrittenBae, IskoIskaIskoIska, AltoJello, Mizz Korea, The Temerity, IP sock 1, IP sock 2, IP sock 3, IP sock 4
They have added over 80 sophiehunter.net links to Wikipedia, the same way the sockpuppets added links to the Lyndsey Turner WIX page the year before.
Part 8: sophiehunter.net and reverse WHOIS searches
Back to SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit Masterpost
Back to SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit Masterpost
As mentioned in the last post, @ladymagsacay starts promoting the brand new Wikipedia page, created by the sockpuppet BrunetteGirlfriend, on 21 August 2014. (The day @000BCF sees the tweet about Benedict and a woman at the theatre and then tries to find out who it was.)
After a Mirror article by Simon Boyle on 30 August 2014 speculating about who Benedict’s girlfriend might be, the twitter account @cruzdanny100 starts tweeting links to the article and sneaky pics of Benedict and Sophie on 31 August (even though one of the photos was not actaullay Sophie). The brand new sockpuppet SecretGirlfriend recreates the Sophie Hunter Wikipedia page (which has been deleted in the meantime when BrunetteGirlfriend was blocked as a sockpuppet.)
People report seeing @cruzdanny100 tweet pictures and a link to the Wikipedia page to Simon Boyle from the Mirror, who publishes an article on 13 September 2014 saying Sophie is Benedict’s girlfriend. The @cruzdanny100 account is deleted and the @ladymagsacay account takes over (who will then be renamed to @8888eunice, @senyorita24601, @bensophupdates and eventually @benophiedaily).
When @ladymagsacay finds pictures of Sophie with Benedict at James Rhodes’s wedding, she starts tweeting them to various gossip journalists on 28 September 2014. She then renames to @8888eunice and then @senyorita24601 that day, always tweeting more journalists. Her reaction to people criticising this behaviour is to STAY PRESSED NANNYS!.
She uses her 030891posts tumblr account to post the pictures (this account will eventually be renamed to @senyorita24601, @bensophupdates and then @benophiedaily).
She uses both twitter and tumblr to relentlessly post about Benedict and Sophie, at a time when they were still trying to keep the relationship a secret (arriving separately at events etc). Whenever someone sees Benedict she asks them if Sophie is with him. She another of her accounts @ethiopiansun/@bae90210 to tweet other pictures to the gossip media.
On the 26 November 2014 she renames both twitter and tumblr senyorita24601 accounts to bensophupdates (briefly) and then to benophiedaily.
@ladymagsacay first shows up on Twitter on 17 August 2014 in a fight with a Keira Knightley fan (one that @000BCF had had a disagreement with just before that.
On 21 August 2014 user @000BCF (previously @pinakulo and @beachpasty, then @cumbertweets and now @Benedict_Tweets) sees this tweet by Charles Perrin.
@000BCF sends the OP a picture and asks “Is this the lady?” The picture is no longer visible because the tweet has been deleted, but going by what happens next I think was a picture of Sophie.
http://twicsy.com/i/iwShmg
A few hours later, @ladymagsacay (who will later be renamed to @8888eunice, @senyorita24601, @bensophupdates and eventually @benophiedaily) starts tweeting that Sophie is probably Benedict’s girlfriend. She also posts a link to the brand new Sophie Hunter Wikipedia page (which was created that very day by the confirmed Fairyspit sockpuppet BrunetteGirlfriend).
http://twicsy.com/i/PDQomg
(The two links in the tweet are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Hunter andhttps://mobile.twitter.com/ladymagsacay/status/502523200421384192/photo/1)
An anon (probably @ladymagsacay) sends two twitter links (here and here) to eggsbenedish, which can be seen here, as well as a separate link to the new Wikipedia page.
BrunetteGirlfriend is blocked as a sockpuppet of Fairyspit on 27 August 2014 and the Sophie Hunter page is speedy deleted.
@cruzdanny100 and SecretGirlfriend
Simon Boyle from the Mirror publishes an article on 30 August 2014 speculating about who Benedict’s secret girlfriend might be.
On 31 August 2014, the twitter handle @cruzdanny100 tweets links to the Mirror and the Daily Mail article that picked up the story. She also tweets a picture of Benedict and Sophie.
That day, Fairyspit creates a new sockpuppet, SecretGirlfriend, later renamed to SikretongNobya and then BelleJournee1991), who recreates the deleted Sophie Hunter Wikipedia page.
On 13 September 2014, Simon Boyle from the Mirror publishes an article claiming that Sophie is the secret girlfriend.
As discussed in this Celebitchy comment section , the twitter account @cruzdanny100 sent information about Sophie and Benedict to Simon Boyle a week before the article came out. After this discussion the tweets and then the whole twitter account are deleted and @ladymagsacay starts taking over.
Leo says:
Check out this one @cruzdanny100. This person tweeted the author of the article Simon Boyle a week ago, sending him Sophie’s name, links to her Wiki page and all the sneaky pics she/he could find on the net.
Shiv says:
@Leo
Now that is interesting!!! I saw them for myself and what’s even more interesting is since this has been discussed, the tweets direct to SimonBoyle have been deleted. Someone doesn’t want to get caught out that their source of info is a bloody twitter account.
@cruzdanny100 behaved in a very similar way to @ladymagsacay, so I’m quite certain it’s the same person. This post on Eggsy also shows a tweet by @cruzdanny100 that includes a link to Sophie’s Wikipedia page.
@ladymagsacay starts tweeting about Sophie being Benedict’s girlfriend and tweets gossip journalists after she gets ahold of the James Rhodes’ wedding pictures with Sophie in them.
http://twicsy.com/i/5H4qyg
ladymagsacay: Sophie Hunter, theatre director, actress, singer and Benedict Cumberbatch's girlfriend https://www.cft.org.uk/sophiehunter https://mobile.twitter.com/ladymagsacay/status/511077078049910784 - 2014-09-14 13:00:45
(The mentioned link https://mobile.twitter.com/ladymagsacay/status/511077078049910784 now redirects to https://twitter.com/BenophieDaily/status/511077078049910784)
This eggsbenedish post claims that most of @ladymagsacay’s posts are retweets of @cruzdanny100.
The wedding pictures
When James Rhodes gets married on 27 September 2014, he tweets a few wedding pictures, and while Benedict is in some of them, none show Sophie (a conscious decision no doubt.)
After some anons wonder if Sophie was photoshopped into the picture, the person who submitted the pictures clarifies:
The anon also gives further hints here. The identity of the IG account is revealed here. A few posts later an anon (probably @ladymagsacay herself again) sends a link to (presumably) her tweet with the pictures. She has found the original source of the pictures and has posted them (as can be seen in the Tumblr reblogs further down).
@ladymagsacay (who that day becomes @888eunice and then @senyorita24601) starts tweeting the pictures to gossip journalists, and her 030891posts account posts them on Tumblr as well.
Here’s an example of @ladymagsacay tweeting journalist Cassandra Hough
http://twicsy.com/i/kXN9Fg
@ladymagsacay is renamed to @8888eunice and then to @senyorita24601
@8888eunice tweets the pictures to Rebecca Davison and Louise Saunders from the Daily Mail, among others.
http://twicsy.com/i/r9adGg
Senyorita24601
After renaming to @senyorita24601 she tweets the picture to various journalists, for example: Simon Boyle from the Mirror, Hannah Flint from the Mail (wrong account) and Kaiser at Celebitchy
This is the post that proves the name change from 030891posts to senyorita24601 and then benophiedaily (as mentioned here). Since the post includes text, whenever somebody reblogs it, the name of the OP shows up in the reblog (like 030891post). The name at the bottom of the notes however is the current name (”benophiedaily posted this”).
Pinkgurl reblogged the post when it was still called 030891posts. Johnlockdivision reblogged it was called senyorita24601, and benophiedaily reblogged it after senyorita24601 was changed to benophiedaily. If you look at the numbers in the URLs you can see that they all link to the same original post.
http://pinkgurl85.tumblr.com/post/98639770478/030891posts-benedict-cumberbatch-and-his links to
030891posts is renamed to senyorita24601 on 10 October, to bensophupdates on 26 November and benophiedaily that same day.
The @senyorita24601 twitter and tumblr accounts make frequent posts about Sophie and Benedict in the month before the relationship was officially announced, almost always with the text:
“Benedict Cumberbatch and girlfriend Sophie Hunter ...”
The resulting article: http://www.kpopstarz.com/articles/125824/20141019/photos-sherlock-benedict-cumberbatch-girlfriend-2014-sophie-hunter-engagement.htm
When Benedict is spotted on a plane to Edinburgh, and according several anons on eggsbenedish (here, here and here) @senyorita24601 asks the person tweeting about it if he was with Sophie.
When Benedict flies back to London @ethiopiansun (previously @indiansuburb, @mauritiomojo, later @bae90210 now @auroralrambles) asks the tweeter if he’s with Sophie. (This is not the same twitter account but I’m essentially certain that it is also Senyorita - more on that here).
Both @ethioiansun and the later version @bae90210 tweet stuff to gossip media:
For example The day of the Quaglino’s Restaurant Pap pictures:
@ethiopiansun trys to tweet Hannah Flint from the Mail but she gets the wrong account at first, then tweets the correct one (@HannaInes now @HannaFlint). The original tweets are gone, but you can tell from the responses what is going on. (Also, when @senyorita24601 tried to tweet Hannah Flint earlier on she also got the wrong twitter name: http://twicsy.com/i/L5WgHg)
@bae90210 tweets the Edinburgh Christmas pictures to Kaiser at Celebitchy and Lainey Gossip http://twicsy.com/i/4uVsrh and http://twicsy.com/i/JA2srh
This is what Senyorita has to say about the issue of tweeting journalists via anon message to eggsbenedish. (After seeing many sockpuppets lying on Wikipedia I’m not sure if I should believe that she is not fleur--fleur).
Benophiedaily
On the 26 November 2014 she renames both twitter and tumblr senyorita24601 accounts to bensophupdates (briefly) and then to benophiedaily. All tweets to journalists and many of the other early tweets have been deleted.
Part 7: Sophie Hunter Central/ sophiehunter.net
Back to SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit Masterpost
Back to SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit Masterpost
On 21 August 2014 the twitter handle @000BCF becomes aware of a sighting of Benedict at the theatre with a woman, and she tries to find out who the woman was. She presumably guesses it is Sophie (her name had been mentioned in the secret girlfriend speculation on eggsbenedish several times). She creates the new Wikipedia sockpuppet BrunetteGirlfriend, who in turn creates a Wikipedia page for Sophie. She then uses her @ladymagsacay twitter account to promote the page (and most likely sends anons to eggsbenedish about it as well.
When BrunetteGirlfriend is blocked as a sockpuppet of Fairyspit, the page is speedy deleted. After Simon Boyle publishes a piece in the Mirror on 30 August speculating who the secret girlfriend might be, Fairyspit creates a new sockpuppet on 31 August 2014 called SecretGirlfriend. This sock recreates the Sophie Hunter page. It includes several factual errors - she lists several projects as having already happened even though the source only calls them “forthcoming projects”. Like the Magic Flute African Tour. She also claims Sophie is the associate director of the Broadhurst Theatre, even though the source she links to only says she is the associate director of Enron at the Broadhurst Theatre.
Over the next two months, the page is edited almost exclusively by the Fairyspit sockpuppets. When the article is first nominated for deletion on 14 September 2014, Fairyspit sockpuppets engage in all sorts of behaviour that adds confusion to the situation (blanking sockpuppet investigation pages, renaming the sock that created the page, deleting “nomination for deletion tags” repeatedly, creating multiple article versions with different names like “Sophie Ann Hunter” and “Sophie Hunter (theatre director).
I’m also almost certain that she impersonated Sophie’s agent Curtis Brown to add a mini bio to IMDB that is almost word for word identical to her Wikipedia pages. That means that essentially all information about Sophie on Wikipedia and IMDB would have been controlled/written/edited by SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit when the engagement was announced on 5 November 2014 and journalists from various media outlets began researching Sophie for their “Who is Sophie Hunter” articles.
She continues to edit Sophie’s page with various sockpuppets to this day (despite having been banned for almost two years now). When she bought the domain sophiehunter.net she started creating sockpuppets that added SHC links to a whole number of Wikipedia pages (around 20 sockpuppets have added over 80 links to different pages, many which have been deleted again).
Detailed timeline under the cut
The Creation of the Sophie Hunter Page
The confirmed Fairyspit sockpuppet BrunetteGirlfriend first creates a Wikipedia page for Sophie Hunter on 21 August 2014 (the sock was also created that day). The page itself is speedy deleted on 27 August and therefore doesn’t show up in the contributions list, but you can see that she added links to the new Sophie Hunter page to other related pages, like Guy Chambers using the tag [[Sophie Hunter]]. The sockpuppet investigation also names BrunetteGirlfriend as the creator of the page for Sophie Hunter.
The date is interesting because that’s the day the twitter handle @000BCF (previously @pinakulo/@BeachPasty, then @cumbertweets and now @Benedict_Tweets) saw this tweet by Charles Perrin. (Evidence that @000BCF and @benophiedaily are the same person in this post.)
@000BCF sends the OP a picture and asks “Is this the lady?” The picture is no longer visible because the tweet has been deleted, but going by what happens next I think was a picture of Sophie.
http://twicsy.com/i/iwShmg
A few hours later, @ladymagsacay (who will later be renamed to @8888eunice, @senyorita24601, @bensophupdates and eventually @benophiedaily) starts tweeting that Sophie is probably Benedict’s girlfriend. She also posts a link to the brand new Sophie Hunter Wikipedia page (which was created that very day by the confirmed Fairyspit sockpuppet BrunetteGirlfriend).
http://twicsy.com/i/PDQomg
(The two links in the tweet are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Hunter and https://mobile.twitter.com/ladymagsacay/status/502523200421384192/photo/1 )
An anon (probably @ladymagsacay) sends two twitter links to eggsbenedish, which can be seen here, as well as a separate link to the new Wikipedia page.
The timing of these tweets and posts is another indication that the @000BCF (@cumbertweets), @ladymagsacay (@senyorita24601/@benophiedaily) and the Fairyspit sockpuppets are one and the same person.
BrunetteGirlfriend is blocked as a sockpuppet of Fairyspit on 27 August 2014 and the Sophie Hunter page is speedy deleted.
Simon Boyle from the Mirror publishes an article on 30 August 2014 speculating about who Benedict’s secret girlfriend might be.
Recreation of the Sophie Hunter page
On 31 August 2014, the twitter handle @cruzdanny100 tweets links to the Mirror and the Daily Mail article that picked up the story. She also tweets a picture of Benedict and Sophie.
(How the @cruzdanny100 and @senyorita24601 story continues on twitter and tumblr can be read here: Part 6: The Infamous Senyorita)
That day Fairyspit creates the new sockpuppet SecretGirlfriend (later renamed to SikretongNobya and eventually to BelleJournee1991), who recreates the deleted Sophie Hunter Wikipedia page.
Notice how some of the misinformation was later picked up by the media originates in this early version of the page. SecretGirlfriend claims things that are not backed up by the linked source material.
This version says Sophie is associate director at the Broadhurst Theatre, even though that is not backed up in the citation. (The playbills only say that Sophie was the associate director for Enron at the Broadhurst Theatre.) http://www.playbillvault.com/Person/Detail/19795/Sophie-Hunter
And then there’s this:
“She has collaborated on a production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte (performances in France and London) and Benjamin Britten's The Rape Of Lucretia (New York), Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen (Italy), Mozart's The Magic Flute (African tour), and Beethoven's Fidelio (Palestine).”
The source for this information is this Location 1 bio from 2011: , which clearly states that four of those are forthcoming projects.
Sophie has just collaborated on a production of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte (performances in France and London). Forthcoming projects include Benjamin Britten’s The Rape Of Lucretia (New York), Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen (Italy), Mozart’s The Magic Flute (African tour), and Beethoven’s Fidelio (Palestine).
Looking ahead a bit, the edit that falsely identifies Sophie as the director of The Magic Flute (African tour) was done on 26 October 2014 by Fan of the Dames, another Fairyspit sockpuppet. The editor writes:
She directed the North American tour of the experimental play 69° South (2012),[15][4][16] the New York production of Benjamin Britten's opera The Rape of Lucretia (2011)[17], the African tour of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Magic Flute (2011)[18][19], the 2010 revival of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts as well as the Italian production of Leoš Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen and Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio in Palestine.[20][9]
This is not backed up by the source material she links to. The two sources for the African Tour are the aforementioned Location One bio (that lists it as a forthcoming project) and the Opera for Change website which lists the following key people in the team:
Other key people involved with the organisation include Violinist and Journalist Rosenna East; Event Manager and Producer Alan Doyle; Marketing and Management Consultant Stephen Colgrave and his colleague Karen Mitchell; PR Account Manager Victoria Ford from WildKat PR and her boss Kat Alder; Actor Jack Fishburn; Actor and Director Sophie Hunter; Conductor Daniel Harding; Conductor and Musical Educator Lucy Griffiths; Management Consultant Nicolas Sukitsch. Opera for Change is very grateful to Sir Vernon and Lady Ellis for their support in the early stages of this project.
The Location One link for Lucretia doesn’t call it an opera production but an installation. The source for the Cunning Little Vixen and Fidelio performances are again the Location One bio - which lists them as forthcoming projects only.
After it’s creation on 31 August, Sophie Hunter page is edited almost exclusively by Fairyspit sockpupets: SecretGirlfriend/SikretongNobya/BelleJournee1991, French Film Star, Phantomblimbtheatre, TheVerge24601 (later renamed to TheVerge0000 because the number is too hard to remember. TheVerge24601 was created on 29 September 2014, the day after the name senyorita24601 first appeared on Twitter.), Fan of the Dames (previously Dame Judi), Joked Tops, OliviaPGirl, and a whole array of IP socks from the Philippines.
When the article is first nominated for deletion on 14 September 2014, Fairyspit tries all kinds of tricks to keep the it from being deleted. She changes the name of the sock who created it twice, presumably to muddy the water in case the sock is confirmed as a sockpuppet. When an editor nominates the article for deletion, she deletes the tag.
She then creates a new page under the name “Sophie Hunter (theatre director)” as can be seen by the use of the new tag in this edit. Next, she nominates the original article for deletion because it is a duplicate. Then she deletes almost all the content off of the original Sophie Hunter page. Another sockpuppet creates yet another page called “Sophie Ann Hunter”, as can be seen in the tag in this edit. An IP sock blanks one of the pages and nominates it for deletion because it is blank. (Because some or all of the pages have been merged it is hard to tell what page was blanked when,
She blanks the pages of her own sockpuppet investigation (the post that adds SecretGirlfriend to the suspected sockpuppet list). She accuses an editor she had a fight with (over Keira Knightley) she accuses them of being a Fairypsit sock.
She creates one sockpuppet who goes to one of the editors heavily involved in the Fairyspit investigation and asks her a question, claiming to be be new to Wikipedia. And again two weeks later. She also asks other editors to add things for her. She uses the sockpuppet TheVerge24601 to vote in the first Article for Deletion discussion.
Then she blanks the BelleJournee1991 talk page, possibly to delete all mentions of the two previous names, one of which created the Sophie Hunter article.
There are two Article for Deletion discussions here;
Articles for Deletion: Sophie Hunter
This page was created by a sock of User:Fairyspit who was banned on April 7, 2014, the article was created September 13, 2014, clearly AFTER Fairyspit was banned. This is grounds for speedy delete WP:G5 but the tag kept getting removed by IPs and by another user and finally was denied after saying the article was created prior to the ban but as you can see...it wasn't. This has nothing to do with notability, this has everything to do with the fact that allowing this article to be kept is allowing the socks to get away with this behavior. Having dealt with these socks for a while, they have an irrational obsessive behavior towards Benedict Cumberbatch and will create articles solely to link it to it, Blacks Club, Lyndsey Turner, and now Sophie Hunter (because she is Cumberbatch's current girlfriend). In regards to Lyndsey Turner, it got so bad that Turner contacted the OPMS team and told them that because of the socks stalkerish and obsessive behavior, she didn't want a Wikipedia page about her. This article should not be kept. LADY LOTUS • TALK 17:18, 3 October 2014 (UTC)
Articles for Deletion: Sophie Hunter (2nd nomination)
The decision is to keep the article.
Interlude: The IMDB bio
Before the engagement Sophie Hunter’s Wikipedia page was edited almost exclusively by the Fairyspit sockpuppets. But I strongly suspect that she is also behind the IMDB mini bio that would have been on the site on 5 November 2014, and that she impersonated Sophie’s agent to make it more official.
This is what the IMDB bio looked like on 23 July 2014
It’s no longer on IMDB, but the link above shows the version that was available on 30 October 2014. This post mentions that there was a reference to dating Benedict at the end, before somebody deleted it:
“As of September 2014, Hunter has been dating British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who was her co-star in the 2004 film Burlesque Fairytales."
According to this post, as of 10 October 2014 there was only one biography written by that account: Sophie’s. (By now there are two more, and Sophie’s has been deleted):
The wording of the “as of 24 September” bit mentioned on Eggsy seemed familiar, so I compared the IMDB bio with the versions of Sophie Wikipedia page from around that time, and voilá, there are versions that are almost word for word identical. This is the edit where the sockpuppet TheVerge24601 (later TheVerge0000) adds the “as of September” section.
This version from 4 October is almost exactly the same. Not just the one section, but the entire article.
As of September 2014, Hunter has been dating British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who was her co-star in the 2004 film Burlesque Fairytales according to numerous sources
Another example:
IMDB bio
After studying French and Italian at Oxford University, Hunter moved to Paris to study avant-garde theatre for two years at the L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. She then trained at the Saratoga International Theatre Institute (also known as the SITI Company) in New York City under the mentorship of Anne Bogart. She has co-founded the Lacuna Theatre Company, is an artistic director of the Boiler Room, is an associate director at the Broadhurst Theatre, and collaborates on marionette and puppetry production with the Phantom Limb company.
Wikipedia page from 4 October: (Bold text is identical)
After studying French and Italian at Oxford,[1] Hunter moved to Paris to study avant-garde theatre for two years at the L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq.[11][12] She then trained at the Saratoga International Theatre Institute (also known as the SITI Company) in New York City under the mentorship of Anne Bogart.
She has co-founded the Lacuna Theatre Company, is an artistic director of the Boiler Room, is an associate director at the Broadhurst Theatre, and collaborates on marionette and puppetry production with the Phantom Limb company.[13]
The only bit that’s missing is the section about her family, and even that can be found in a version from 30 September.
Considering that at that point the text of Sophie’s Wiki page had been crafted almost exclusively by the various Fairyspit sockpuppets, I think it is very unlikely that her agent would have copied the text word for word. In addition, the information on the actual Curtis Brown website is not up to date (and only lists her acting credits), and I think it’s highly improbable that they would add the dating rumours in October 2014, before the relationship had even been officially announced.
Impersonating a real person online is something that Fairyspit has done with another sockpuppet on Wikipedia - she pretend to be the photographer Harvey Kim in order to get a non-free picture of Benedict uploaded.
Harvey Kim impersonated photographer Harvey Kim as ways to upload pictures of Cumberbatch via Commons. LADY LOTUS • TALK 12:12, 1 October 2014 (UTC)
She also has the habit of using other people’s Tumblr and Twitter usernames to create more sockpuppets.
If she is in fact the author of the IMDB bio then the information about Sophie on Wikipedia and IMDB, the two main sources journalists would likely have first turned to on 5 November while putting together a quick “who is Sophie Hunter” piece, was controlled/edited/written by Fairyspit/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/SHC. Mistakes and all.
Fairyspit socks and sophiehunter.net links
Fairyspit is still heavily involved in the sockpuppeting business - she has created at least 100 so far. She still frequently edits the Sophie Hunter page and other Benedict/Sophie related articles.
After she bought the sophiehunter.net domain in June 2014 (for sophiehuntercentral.tumblr.net), she started creating sockpuppets specifically to add links to her new site to many Wikipedia pages, some of which only have a very tenuous link to Sophie (like cantata, Patrick Stewart roles and awards etc)
All of these have added sophiehunter.net links: Classic Cherry, Mess Of A Story, TheCumberbatches, ChoppedCreationCheesecake, HankHunk, Beckett Volunteer, May 50 Cents Ka?, Wt1010, Fakeblogs, Friends and Crocodiles, CEMFashion, Free Happy Days, Billy Shake Shakes, Opera Madonna, BrittenBae, IskoIskaIskoIska, AltoJello, Mizz Korea, The Temerity, IP sock 1, IP sock 2, IP sock 3, IP sock 4
They have added over 80 links to sophiehunter.net, the same way the sockpuppets added links to the Lyndsey Turner WIX page the year before,
The most recent socks on Sophie’s page have been The Temerity, Mizz Korea, Opera Madonna, Darthmouth Roar and AltoJello. And that’s only from October 2015 onwards. You get the picture.
The sockpuppet investigation from 27 August 2014 onwards has a lot of references to the Fairyspit activity on the Sophie Hunter page. Here’s an interaction between a sock and on of the editors trying to keep them under control.
Sidenote: If someone has a Wikipedia page about themselves, they are not responsible for keeping it factually correct. Not only that, they are not supposed to. Any edit by them or by somebody they know is considered to be a Conflict-of-interest (COI) edit, and those are strongly discouraged.
Original research is not allowed. All information added to a Wikipedia page must be supported by reliable, published secondary sources (and to a lesser degree tertiary and primary sources), which must be linked to in the article.
Wikipedia: Conflict of Interest
Conflict of interest (COI) editing involves contributing to Wikipedia about yourself, family, friends, clients, employers, or your financial or other relationships. Any external relationship can trigger a conflict of interest. (The word interest refers here to something in which a person has a stake or from which they stand to benefit.)[n 1]
Conflict of interest is not about actual bias. It is about a person's roles and relationships, and the tendency to bias that we assume exists when roles conflict.[3] That someone has a conflict of interest is a description of a situation. It is not a judgment about that person's state of mind or integrity.
COI editing is strongly discouraged
Purpose of Wikipedia[edit]
Further information: Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not
As an encyclopedia, Wikipedia's goal is to provide reliable, nonpartisan information. Readers expect neutral articles written independently of the article's subject, not a corporate or personal webpage, nor a forum for advertising or self-promotion. Articles should contain only material that complies with Wikipedia's content policies and best practices, and Wikipedians must place the interests of the encyclopedia and its readers first.
Wikipedia: Conflict-of-interest editing
Wikipedia: No original research
Wikipedia does not publish original thought: all material in Wikipedia must be attributable to a reliable, published source. Articles may not contain any new analysis or synthesis of published material that serves to reach or imply a conclusion not clearly stated by the sources themselves.
Wikipedia: Verifiability
In Wikipedia, verifiability means that anyone using the encyclopedia can check that the information comes from a reliable source. Wikipedia does not publish original research. Its content is determined by previously published information rather than the beliefs or experiences of its editors. Even if you're sure something is true, it must be verifiable before you can add it
Part 6: The Infamous Senyorita
Back to SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit Masterpost
Another woman connected to Benedict that SHC/Senyorita/BenophiedailyFairyspit has focused on is theatre director Lyndsey Turner.
Fairyspit first creates a Wikipedia article for her on 20 September 2013, the day it is announced Lyndsey Turner will likely be directing Benedict’s Hamlet. After Fairyspit and the two socks Pinakulo and 030891posts are blocked in December, the page is nominated for deletion. The deletion discussion results in a decision to keep the article, but it is still deleted on 22 January 2014 because of legal issues. Lyndsey Turner herself contacted Wikipedia and requested for it be taken down.
Over the next two months, Fairyspit uses different sockpuppets to try and recreate her page seven times (using different article titles such as Lyndsey Turner, Lindsay Turner, Lyndsey Turner (director), Lyndsey Turner (theatre director), Lyndsey Turner (British director), Lyndsey Turner (stage director). She uses other sockpuppets to ask other editors to create the page for her or to lift the block on creating a new page. When that fails, she creates an external Lyndesy Turner fan page using the WIX Website builder. She uses more sockpuppets to add these links to Wikipedia and her twitter persona @000BCF (now Benedict_Tweets) to promote the webpage.
I suspect that SHC/Senyorita/BenophiedailyFairyspitt is not be the person behind the real world issues mentioned above. But the fact that she kept recreating the Lyndsey Turner Wikipedia page against the subjects wishes definitely would have made the situation worse.
Detailed timeline under the cut.
On 20 September 2013 it is announced that Lyndsey Turner will likely be directing Benedict’s Hamlet. That very day, Aikatastrophe (later renamed to Fairyspit) creats a Wikipedia page for her and adds it to various other articles using the tag [[Lyndsey Turner]]
Since the page was deleted in January 2014, the page creation does not show up in Fairyspit’s contributions. But you can see her adding the page to Rebecca Hall, Posh (play) and Chimerica (play) that day and other pages later on (Benedict Cumberbatch), A picture of Lyndsey Turner uploaded by Aikatastrophe (Fairyspit) is listed as possibly unfree. The Fairyspit sockpuppet investigation mentions how the Lyndsey Turner page was created by Aikatastrophe/Fairyspit and that only Fairyspit and the sock Pinakulo make substantial edits.
After the now renamed Fairyspit and the two socks Pinakulo and 030891posts are blocked indefinitely on 27 December 2013, the editor Lady Lotus creates a discussion for deletion page for the Lyndsey Turner article.
“I only nominated the article because the user was known to upload images or create articles soley based for fan purposes. I have never heard of her, and thought they only created the article because they were somehow connected to Benedict Cumberbatch.”
The sock Skylar Jean (later Orbitrack~wiki) protests and votes to keep the article. Other editors also vote to keep, and the decision as of 9 January 2014 is to not delete the page.
On the 22 January 2014 the page is deleted because of “legal issues, marginal notability, created by sockpuppeteer”.
Tthe deletion discussion “courtesy blanked”. According to Wikipedia,
From time to time, a discussion will have its content hidden from view based on the judgment of the community, an administrator, or another functionary. This generally is not done except under rare circumstances, such as where public view of the discussion may cause harm to some person or organisation. To avoid having such text in the most recent version and thus being indexed by search engines, the debate will be blanked out of courtesy. For deletion discussions, the entire debate can be replaced with the {{xfd-privacy}} template. When either courtesy blanking or xfd-blanking is used, the actual content remains accessible via the edit history. In more serious cases, the entire history of the page may be deleted. Courtesy blanking, history blanking, or oversighting should be rare, and should be performed only after due consideration.
As can be seen in this discussion two months later (after her Wikipedia article had been recreated by sockpuppets 7 times), Lyndsey Turner contacted the OTRS (One Ticket Response System) team on 22 January and asked for the page to be taken down due to the following issues:
Being blocked indefinitely obviously doesn’t deter Fairyspit from creating more sockpuppets, many of which try to recreate the Lyndsey Turner page by using various different titles.
25 January 2014
1) The new sock Beachpasty recreates the “Lyndsey Turner” page and starts adding links to other pages, (Rebecca Hall, Posh (play).
It is nominated for deletion. An IP sock protests.
26 January 2014
The "Lyndsey Turner” page is deleted and the deletion discussion (2nd nomination) is also courtesy blanked.
2) The new sock Tigilanmonato creates the page “Lyndsey Turner (theatre director).
This is what the sock has to say on another editor’s talk page:
hello! thank you for helping me with creating the article as i am new here. i just have a question, why is it being a candidate for deletion? she is notable. i have enough sources. i just saw her play on broadway (machinal) this weekend and searched for her but she doesn't have a wikipedia page. i just thought to make her one. i don't know what's happening, really. i just hope it doesn't get deleted as i've worked hard to find sources and create the page as a whole. sorry, i'm asking for help i just don't know how wikipedia works yet. it would be unfortunate to get my first article deleted. thank you very much! Tigilanmonato (talk) 12:59, 26 January 2014 (UTC)
The sock also receives a vandalism warning:
Please stop your disruptive editing. If you continue to vandalize Wikipedia, as you did at Lyndsey Turner (director), you may be blocked from editing. Do not create an account just to create an article that has already been deleted twice. Wikipedia doesnt work that way. LADY LOTUS • TALK 12:54, 26 January 2014 (UTC)
The page is deleted.
3) An IP sock creates the page “Lyndsey Turner (director)” and starts adding it to related pages. The page is deleted that day.
27 January 2014
4) The new sock StinkyRock creates the page “Lindsay Turner” and adds the tag to other pages. It is deleted the same day.
5) The new sock TheGlassMenagerie recreates the page “Lyndsey Turner (theatre director) and adds it to other pages. It is deleted that day.
31 January 2014
6) The new sock SinusQueen creates the page “Lyndsey Turner (British director) and starts adding tags. It is deleted that day.
7) 15 minutes later, the new sock IndianSuburb goes to an administrator’s talk page and asks for their help, as she was not able to create a new Lyndsey Turner page. The admin doesn’t seem to react.
Hello! I've been a great admirer of British theatre and a greater admirer of this theatre director named Lyndsey Turner. I signed up to create a wikipedia page for her but I can't seem to because of some block and only an administrator like you can unblock it. Would you mind helping me with this? She has directed more than a dozen plays in the West End and the Royal Shakespeare Company and she is currently getting great reviews for her Broadway debut with Rebecca Hall. I just think a wikipedia page is long overdue. Thank you!
15 Febrary 2014
Fairyspit is banned indefinitely.
20 March 2014
Baz Bamigboye confirms in the Daily Mail that Benedict will play Hamlet at the Barbican Centre.
8) The sock AkiraKinomoto asks for permission to create a page for Lyndsey Turner. The request is declined.
22 March 2014
AkiraKinomoto protests.
9) New sock Amanda Tanner creates he page “Lyndsey Turner (stage director)” that day and adds a link to Gate Theatre (London). It is deleted right away.
10) The new sock Whatsonstageforum (then renamed to NaomiNaomiNaomi) request a page for Lyndsey Turner.
this may be an odd request because i just read this page a few hours ago and then all of a sudden it was gone. it's about lyndsey turner, the theatre director. i would have re-made the article myself but as a lowly editor i can't seem to so may i ask a favor? can you please create it? she's notable and there are a dozen of references available on the web. i can help you improve the article. just drop a message on my page :D Whatsonstageforum (talk) 19:41, 22 March 2014 (UTC)
Peripatetic (not a sock), the editor who originally created a stub Lyndsey Turner page that was then deleted on 17 January 2013, asks for the article “Lyndsey Turner (stage director) to be reinstated.
The deletion review created by the same editor gives you an idea of what is going on behind the scenes. (My guess is that Fairyspit is not actually behind the real world issues mentioned, but it’s clear that the constant recreation of Wikipedia pages against the expressed wishes of the the subject is making the situation worse.) This comment is interesting:
I am no longer on OTRS so can't read the correspondence but from reading the current AN discussion and looking through the article history we appear to have a gap in our BLP policy concerning what to do about living people feeling harassed by the multiple creation of a wikipedia article as part of a sustained on-line campaign by an obsessed fan.
23 March 2014
Three new socks attempt to get around the page protection by setting up userpages as fake article pages.
11) TheatreDirectorBiography creates a fake Lyndsey Turner page on their userpage
13) IP sock adds sock LyndseyTurnerDirector as fake Lyndsey Turner page to Posh (play), Chimerica (Play), Gate Theatre (London), 2014 Laurence Olivier Award winners,
25 March 2014
An IP sock goes to the talk page of the editor who created the very first Lyndsey Turner page.
I hope that when the time comes and the administrators blocking the page creation of Lyndsey Turner change their minds about the page, this draft of Turner's profile helps. At least, I've already collected the available references for you.
She adds a draft of what the page could look like.
She does the same thing at another editor’s talk page who requested the article be reinstated on 22 March.
26 March 2014
14) After all attempts to create a Wikipedia page for Lyndesy Turner, Fairyspit creates an external fan site on the WIX platform. She then uses her twitter persona @000BCF (now @Benedict_Tweets) to promote the site. Like here:
15) The sock Gun Control Babe adds external links to the WIX page to Posh (play), Rebecca Hall, Machinal, Chimerica (play) and 2014 Laurence Olivier winners.
16) An IP sock also adds links to the WIX page (Chimerica (play), Rebecca Hall, Machinal,
17) Another IP sock adds WIX link to 2014 Laurence Olivier Award winners
In April 2014, the decision is still to keep the article deleted.
These sections in the sockpuppet investigation mention the Lyndsey Turner page,
20 December 2013
25 January 2014
As mentioned above, Fairyspit and all socks are banned on 15 February 2014. They admit to having used multiple accounts and promise not to do it again.
“Okay, I did it. I had multiple accounts. I'll not be doing again. I'll have a break from Wiki for a long while. Some final requests though for the improvement of Wiki as a whole. Please review Cumberbatch's lead paragraph because it's goddamn awful. Who the hell cares if his actors are parents? A lot of actors have way more famous parents and that detail isn't even in their leads. They're reserved in their background sections. He's not known to the world by being the son of Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham. He is known for his work in theatre, film, television and radio. And a big FYI, his parents are still alive and still acting so the use of "were" is not only grammatically incorrect and a violation of biography rule but it's also completely offending! And please don't be ethnocentric and cater only to American audience and disregard his theatre and radio/voice work credits. He works equally in all those mediums. If you check his profiles, they always mention his work in four mediums because he said himself that he likes all four. And his schooling, in the lead paragraphs? Come on! And him being interested in drama at an early age thus pursuing an acting career is off the mark. He wanted to study Law in university because his parents dissuaded him to go into acting. He didn't always wanted that path. Seriously, even they're administrators you should check their edits. The previous lead was completely more appropriate and comprehensive. And please, please be consistent and put dates on every actor's credits!!! Lyndsey Turner needs a wiki page. Anyone literate in British theatre knows her because she's well-regarded and has directed major productions in the RSC and West End. There are more undeserved articles here and you can't give her one? You're depriving the people information! Lastly, James McAvoy's lead needs a complete re-write. Fairyspit (talk) 18:13, 15 February 2014 (UTC)”
The ban has not stopped them from editing Wikipedia. They have created over a 100 confirmed sockpuppets to date. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_sockpuppets_of_Fairyspit2
Part 5: Sockpuppets and Sophie Hunter
Back to SHC/Senyortia/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit Masterpost
Back to SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit Masterpost
On 22 July 2013, UK gossip media publishes pictures of Benedict and Katia in Ibiza. Fairyspit (SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily) edits Elizarova’s Wikipedia page that day to add favourable information and the relationship rumour (clearly assuming Katia is Benedict’s girlfriend).
When it turns out a week later that Elizarova already has a boyfriend, Fairyspit turns on her and tries to get rid of her own edits. She gets into and edit war and is blocked for a week (for edit warring and sockpuppetry).
Over the next months, Fairyspit and her first two named sockpuppets Pinakulo and 030891posts continue to edit her page, deleting favourable information she added herself in July and any mention of the relationship rumour (that she added in the first place). She gets involved in another edit war on Elizarova’s page that results in her being blocked indefinitely on 27 December 2013.
She also uses her twitter handles to correct people who post about Benedict and Katia and the tumblr account 030891posts to post this “clarification” over and over again.
Detailed timeline under the cut
Fairyspit/Senyorita/SHC begins editing Wikipedia in July 2012 under the name Aikatastrophe. She focuses on Benedict and pages related to him (which is her right of course).
Aikatastrophe/Fairyspit contributions
The first year of editing is relatively uneventful. She sometimes tries to upload un-free images (here, here, here, here), but no obvious edit warring or sockpuppeting.
When pictures of Benedict and Katia Elizarova are first published in the media on 22 July 2013, Aikatastrophe starts editing Eilzarova’s Wikipedia page (assuming that Katia is Benedict’s girlfriend). She adds the relationship info and links to the Daily Mail and Telegraph articles . She also adds various positive info to Elizarova’s page (e.g. details about her education, prestigious Bolshoi Ballet, charity details).
About a week a later, when it becomes clear that that Elizarova actually has a longterm boyfriend, Aikatastrophe turns on her. She deletes the Daily Mail and Telegraph link (the edit now shows her new name Fairyspit). This is what gets her involved in her first edit war and use of sockpuppetry. Aikatastrophe and her sockpuppet (an IP from the Philippines which is logged when she signs out to continue her argument ) fight with another editor to get the Daily Mail and relationship info removed. She claims it is too gossipy - even though she is the person who added the link and info in the first place. Here’s an example of such an edit.
“(completely gossip and tabloid material that is completely unecessary to the subject’s biography.)”
On 3 August 2013, Fairyspit and the IP sock are blocked for a week because of edit warring and sock puppetry on the Elizaorva page.
.___
On twitter, she uses the account @pinakulo (which will later be renamed to @030891posts) to correct people about the relationship. The tweets no longer exist, but the OP’s tweets and responses provide enough context.
On tumbr she uses the account 03089posts (which will later become @senyorita24601, @bensophupdates and then @benophiedaily) to repeat the same “clarification” over and over again, starting 2 August 2013:
(This July 2014 anon eggsbenedish quotes the same clarification.)
She creates her first named Wikipedia sockpuppet Pinakulo on 16 August 2013 and 030891posts on 25 September. She renames her main account Aikatastrophe to Fairyspit in October. She uses all three accounts to delete various information that she originally added from Katia’s Wikipedia page (claiming things like that her education is “insignificant for a model, unfortunately”, deleting “prestigious” Bolshoi Ballet, deleting charity info ). One of her frequent edits is adding Elizarova’s boyfriend to her page and deleting the relationship rumour with Benedict.
This comment on a YT video shows where she is coming from (from YT user aikatastrophe “Skylar Jean”;
DO NOT BELIEVE THIS BULLSHIT
Katia Elizarova has a boyfriend named Blair Metcalfe who is in public relations business. They have been together since 2009. She currently lives with him in Chelsea. This model keeps on name dropping Benedict Cumberbatch to promote herself and her tacky and classless shows. Yes, they were once photographed together on a vacation with friends. But take note that they were not invited together. It's all angles that the paparazzi employ to attract controversy. That was a platonic greeting you see. There were also reports that Elizarova and her team set that up to attract attention to herself (her BF is in PR, that's basicaly what they do). She then said that everything about the photographs were innocent. End of story? No! She obviously wants to milk the association and when it's time to promote her shows, she talked about Cumberbatch again and again and about how nice he is (thus making people mistakenly think they're dating). This is attention-seeking behavior. And isn't it obviously one-way? Parasitism.
To all the fans out there of Cumberbatch, do you want Cumberbatch to be used like this? To be associated with such icky programming? With such an opportunistic individual? She's doing this to attract headlines. Call her out. Spread the word about what she's doing. He has never acknowledged her because he knows that any mention of her will just give this model unwarranted and undeserved attention which she desperately craves. Let's be real, no one will pay attention to her if she doesn't mention him every damn time. That's what gives her airtime. This is misinformation. Cumberbatch has been admittedly single since early 2012 (his last GF was Anna James) and they were never seen together since last summer. Let this be known to all. Nobody deserves this kind of treatment.
Sherlock clips/music and manipulative editing for this bullshit? This is like the video version of the Daily Fail.
The Wikipedia editors 030891posts and pinakulo are confirmed to be sockpuppets of the user Fairyspit on 27 December 2013, and all three are blocked indefinitely for abusive sockpuppeting and edit warring. The first two sections of the sockpuppet investigation give you an idea of her behaviour on the Katia Elizarova page.
Fairyspit/Senyorita/SHC has since created over a 100 further sockpuppets and continues to edit articles that have to do with Benedict, people and projects with him in some way, (Katia Elizarova, Lyndsey Turner, Sophie Hunter).
The link between @000BCF/@cumbertweets/@Benedict_Tweets and @senyorita2461/@BenophieDaily as well as the Fairyspit socks on Wikipedia is quite straightforward. (Part 2a: Sockpuppet Evidence 1)
I think the @indiansuburb account (later renamed to @mauritiomojo/ @ethiopiansun/ @bae90210/ @auroralrambles) is the same person as well. It is not as easy to prove, but there is enough evidence pointing in that direction.
Continued under the cut
IndianSuburb and EthiopianSun are early Wikipedia sockpuppets of Fairyspit.
On twitter, @000BCF (now @Benedict_Tweets) uses links to @indiansuburb research to prove a point.
The @ethiopiansun version of the same account retweets @senyorita24601′s post about Benedict and Sophie at Quaglino’s (where they were papped).
http://twicsy.com/i/3EyLUg
I assume she’s saying Simon Boyle is laughing in the next tweet because he was the first publish the relationship rumour on 13 September. And his source back then was none other than @cruzdanny100.
http://twicsy.com/i/4C7Aah
@ethiopiansun apparently tweets at least one journalist about these pap pictures. She tries to tweet Hannah Flint from the Daily Mail but gets the wrong account at first (@hannaflint_). She then tweets the correct one when informed of her mistake (@HannaInes, now @HannaFlint). The original tweets are gone, but I think you can tell from the responses what is going on (read from bottom to top).
@ethiopiansun is also one of the people asking questions when someone sees Benedict and Sophie on a plane from Edinburgh (@senyorita24601 was the one who questioned the person that saw Benedict on the plane to Edinburgh and who started posting about it. More on that here.
It seems to me that @000BCF and @indiansuburb are the same person - especially since @000BF deleted all the tweets where she asks Meike about the experience.
The @bae90210 version of the account tweets the sneaky pictures of Benedict and Sophie at church at Christmas to Kaiser at Celebitchy and LaineyGossip.
http://twicsy.com/i/4uVsrh
http://twicsy.com/i/JA2srh
According to this anon on SoGo from 4 January 2015, @bae90210 tweets #notpregnant to Kaiser at Celebitchy and others and then deletes the tweets. Another anon on SoGo claims that @BenophieDaily was towing the “not pregnant” line after the Palm Springs pictures as well. @cumbertweets was convinced she wasn’t pregnant in December.
On Wikipedia, the Fairyspit sock Lady Greenland (then FemministAtHeart) tries to move the baby announcement after the weeding, presumably to disguise the fact that Sophie became pregnant before the wedding.
Part 3: Sockpuppets and Katia Elizarova
Back to SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit Masterpost
Back to SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit Masterpost
In this post I will provide evidence why I think the following twitter, tumblr and Wikipedia accounts are all run by the same person. I will also show the methods for linking current twitter and tumblr account to their previous names. In this post will focus on showing that @senyorita24601/@benophiedaily, @cumbertweets/@Bendict_Tweets and the Wikipedia sockpuppet master Fairyspit are all the same person.
I used some of @choppedcreationcheesecake‘s and Messy’s posts to start out from and continued from there.
Using methods described below, it is possible establish that the following twitter accounts have been renamed as follows, though names may be missing in between. (Addional screencaps proof at the bottom of the post).
These are only a few examples of the over 100 sockpuppets: Aikatastrophe, Pinakulo, 030891posts, Skylar Jean, Fairyspit (sockpuppet “master”, renamed from Aikatastrophe), BeachPasty, IndianSuburb, EthiopianSun, 000BCF.
List of confirmed Fairyspit sockpuppets
Fairyspit sockpuppet investigation
FORUMS and COMMENT SECTIONS
Several of these names appear on forums/YouTube etc, often with similar behaviour - protecting Benedict and correcting/reprimanding people that criticise him in some way:
Skylar Jean http://www.savebydiy.com/EXQHLHowToXXlaM9/comments.html
Fairyspit http://fairyspit.famousfix.com/contributions/ - Focus on Benedict, his exes and their new partners as well as rumoured girlfriends and other women connected to him
Details after the cut
Ways of linking current accounts to previous names
TWITTER
It is possible to find out if an inactive twitter handle links to to an active account with a different name. There are two ways of doing that:
Option 1: Lets say @senyorita24601 tweets on 10 October 2014 and somebody replies that day. She then changes the name to @BenophieDaily but doesn’t delete the old tweets. The tweet from 10 October will now show up under the new user name, but the old reply will still show the original name @senyorita24601. Here is an example:
Option 2: If you use the twitter app for iPad or iPhone, there’s another way of finding out if an old user name is linked to an active account. The user name @ladymagsacay and its tweets no longer exist, but replies to the account do. When you tap on one it expands to fullscreen, and for a short moment you can see the name of the active account it is linked to. Like here:
There are also ways of seeing (some) previous names of tumblr accounts
Option 1: The account 030891posts asks cumberbatchweb a question, and she answers the ask and posts a link on twitter. The account is then renamed to benophiedaily. The post on the cumberbatchweb tumblr will show the current name, but the tweet will still show the original one.
Option 2: 030891posts makes a post (with text) on tumblr, and it is reblogged by another user. The name is then changed to senyorita24601, and somebody reblogs the post. Finally she changes the name to benophiedaily, and someone reblogs it. All three reblogs will show a different OP name in the main post, depending on what the account was called at the time. The name at the bottom of the notes will always show you the current name (e.g. “benophiedaily posted this”), but the name in the post will be different. There is actually a post that contains all three names mentioned above. If you compare the URL numbers in the links you can see that it is in fact the same original post.
http://pinkgurl85.tumblr.com/post/98639770478/030891posts-benedict-cumberbatch-and-his links to
http://johnlockdivision.tumblr.com/post/99676261317/senyorita24601-benedict-cumberbatch-and-his links to
http://senyorita24601.tumblr.com/post/98638487582/benedict-cumberbatch-and-his-girlfriend-sophie
and ironically from benophiedaily herself:
http://benophiedaily.tumblr.com/post/110080148127/benophiedaily-benedict-cumberbatch-and-his links to
http://benophiedaily.tumblr.com/post/98638487582/benedict-cumberbatch-and-his-girlfriend-sophie
@00BCF/@cumbertweets/@Benedict_Tweets = Fairyspit on Wikipedia
This connection is quite clear. Three early names of the twitter handle @Benedict_Tweets are all confirmed sockpuppets on Wikipedia: @pinakulo, @BeachPasty and @000BCF. Pinakulo is actually the very first named sockpuppet created by Fairyspit in August 2013 to edit the Katia Elizarova article. Beachpasty is made on 25 January 2014 to recreate the deleted Lyndsey Turner, and 000BCF writes the page for the play “Benedict Cumberbatch Must Die” (now deleted).
@000BCF/@cumbertweets/@Benedict_Tweets frequently mentions being a seasoned editor on Wikipedia and has tweeted specifically about creating pages that were started by confirmed Fairyspit sockpuppets:
I’m essentially sure that the @seyorita24601/@benophiedaily and the @cumbertweets/@Benedict_Tweets account are the same person because of how the names Pinakulo and 030891posts are linked to a) eachother and b) benophiedaily and Benedict_Tweets respectively.
The twitter account @pinakulo was apparently created on 31 July 2013 in order to correct people on twitter about the Cumberbatch/Elizarova relationship (informing people that they are not together).
The tumblr account 030891post posts the same Katia Elizarova “clarification” over and over from 2 August 2013 onwards. This is the tumblr blog that will be renamed senyorita24601, bensophupdates and finally benophiedaily one year later.
On Wikipedia, Fairyspit (at that point still called Aikatastrophe) creates the first two named sockpuppets after her first edit war (and block) on the Katia Elizarova page: Pinakulo on 16 August 2013 and 030891posts on 25 September 2013. Both socks also edit the Katia Elizarova article and delete favourable information as well as the relationship rumour (which Aikatastrophe/Fairyspit added herself on 22 July 2013 when she first saw reports about them in the media and assumed she was the new girlfriend. More on that here: Part 4: Sockpuppets and Katia Elizarova.
In September 2013 the twitter account @pinakulo now shows up under a new name, @030891posts. That account is suspended sometime after 5 December 2013. (No idea why.) Here’s a screen cap that shows the name change:
A new @pinakulo Twitter account is created around 17 December 2013 , and it is the exact account that will eventually become @Benedict_Tweets (via @BeachPasty, @000BCF and @cumbertweets). Here’s a screencap of the “new” @pinakulo account.
Senyorita24601, the twitter and tumblr account that repeatedly contacted the gossip media in the attempt to out Benedict and Sophie’s relationship from early September 2014 onwards, is BenophieDaily.
Pinakulo is Aikatastrophe/Fairyspit’s first sockpuppet account on Wikipedia. She uses the name @pinakulo on twitter as well and then changes it to @030891posts (which is later suspended). 030891posts is also a sockpuppet on Wikipedia. So the names Fairyspit, Pinakulo and 030891posts are clearly linked.
After @030891posts is suspended, she creates a new @pinakulo twitter account (which will eventually become @Benedict_Tweets). Various versions of that account describe editing Benedict’s Wikipedia page and mention editing and creating specific pages that are edited and created by confirmed Fairyspit sockpuppets. This links Pinakulo and all the versions of the @Benedict_Tweets account.
The name 030891posts is also used on tumblr. This is the account that posts the pictures of Sophie at James Rhodes’ wedding, is renamed to senyorita24601 and eventually to benophiedaily. So 030891posts is linked to senyorita24601 and benophiedaily as well.
@cruzdanny100 = almost certainly @ladymagsacay/ @senyorita24601/ @benophiedaily
@senyorita24601 (previously called @ladymagsacay and @8888eunice) is the twitter account that keeps tweeting relationship info and sneaky pics to the gossip media in September and October 2014. @cruzdanny100 is not the same account, but going by the fact that it was the first to tweet gossip journalists in early September 2014 and included the Wikipedia link to Sophie Hunter’s page (which was written by a sockpuppet and first tweeted about by @ladymagsacay the day is was created), I think it’s very likely that it is the same person. This post on eggsbenedish also seems to back that up.
Since Aikatastrophe/Fairyspit has been on Wikipedia since 2012 and 030891posts (tumblr) and @pinakulo/@030891posts (twitter) have been active since August/September 2013, I think it’s virtually impossible that SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit is connected to Sophie in any way. She has shown that she is obsessed with women connected to Benedict. She got into edit wars over Katia Elisarova and repeatedly tried to create a page for Lyndsey Turner (she first created one the day it was mentioned that she would likely be directing Benedict in Hamlet). More here:
Part 3: Sockpuppets and Katia Elizarova
Part 4: Sockpuppets and Lyndsey Turner
Going by the IP addresses in the early Wikipedia sockpuppet investigation it is also likely that she is the Philippines.
Back to SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit Masterpost
This is a list of all the twitter and tumblr names that I have linked to SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit in some way. I will also mention a few of the 100 Wikipedia sockpuppets. (I have read that Fairyspit was active on the IMDB boards as well, but I don’t know anything about that so I won’t be posting about it).
I will provide details and evidence why I believe all mentioned twitter and tumblr names as well as Fairyspit (+ sockpuppets) on Wikipedia are the same person here:
Part 2a: Sockpuppet Evidence 1
Part 2b: Sockpuppet Evidence 2
List of accounts and their previous names
TWITTER
Using methods described here, it is possible establish that the following twitter accounts have been renamed as follows (names may be missing in between):
most likely @cruzdanny100 (first account that tweeted gossip media, account then deleted, then @ladymagsacay/@8888eunice/@senyorita24601 account took over)
possibly @LynTurnWeb as well (speculation based on Wikipedia activity of Wikipedia sockpuppets - more details here)
TUMBLR
These tumblr accounts have been renamed as follows:
Many of the names above show up as early sockpuppets of the main Wikipedia user Aikatastrophe who started editing in July 2012, was first blocked for sockpupetting and edit warring in August 2013 and changed their name to Fairyspit in October 2013. Here’s a link to the sockpuppet investigation:
Fairyspit Sockpuppet Investigation
Fairyspit has created over 100 sockpuppets so far. They were blocked indefinitely in December 2013 banned from Wikipedia in February 2014, but that hasn’t stopped them. New sockpuppet accounts are constantly being created (sometimes using other people’s user names from twitter and tumblr), and they started adding sophiehunter.net links to Sophie’s Wikipedia page and many other articles in June 2015.
List of confirmed sockpuppets
These names are all sockpuppets: Aikatastrophe, Pinakulo, 030891posts,Skylar Jean, Fairyspit (sockpuppet “master”, renamed from Aikatastrophe), BeachPasty, IndianSuburb, EthiopianSun, 000BFC and many many more.
Part 2a: Sockpuppet Evidence 1
Back to SHC/Senyorita/Benophiedaily/Fairyspit Masterpost
I have seen several theories about Sophie Hunter Central (sophiehunter.net) recently - that it is run by Sophie, by somebody connected to her or by PR pretending to be a fan. I do not believe this is the case - I am virtually certain it is run by the fan known as Fairyspit who has been active on Wikipedia since at least 2012 and has created over 100 sockpuppets to edit Benedict’s page and articles connected to him. Fairyspit also has a number of fandom accounts on twitter and tumblr.
I believe it is the same person who tweeted gossip journalists as @senyorita24601 (previously called @ladymagsacay and @8888eunice, now @BenophieDaily), sending them sneaky pictures/pap shots of Benedict and Sophie in September and October 2014. I also think the @cumbertweets /@Benedict_Tweets and a few other accounts are the same person.
While I will be talking a close look at many fandom related twitter and tumblr accounts as well as the editing history of the Wikipedia sockpuppets, I will not be posting any personal details.
Part 1: The Sockpuppets
Part 2a: Sockpuppet Evidence 1
Part 2b: Sockpuppet Evidence 2
Part 3: Sockpuppets and Katia Elizarova
Part 4: Sockpuppets and Lyndsey Turner
Part 5: Sockpuppets and Sophie Hunter
Part 6: The Infamous Senyorita
Part 7: Sophie Hunter Central/ sophiehunter.net
Part 8: sophiehunter.net and reverse WHOIS searches
Part 9: Why Sophie Hunter Central isn’t PR in disguise
Disclaimer: I’m not trying to tell anybody how to behave online or who to support. I only think that it’s a good idea to have as much information as possible to make these decisions, especially with all these rumours going around.
This is the actual quote from the Daily Mail the day the engagement was announced:
Now, it seems, he is ready for marriage. Last night, his PR, Karon Maskill, told me: ‘Ben and Sophie are old friends — they have worked together in the past and they just share many of the same friends.’
The incorrect version - that Karon said Benedict and Sophie were “just old friends” - has been making the rounds for a long time. (Thought the post above only mentions the “just have a lot of friends in common” bit.)
Just saw the original of last night’s pic and it also looks like once again TFOE did one of her shitty photoshop jobs to enhance the pigmentation on Benedict’s face.
