Today, the internet has ascribed an inspiring bit of heroism to Paul Rudd, after video surfaced this weekend of a man who almost, kind of looks like Paul Rudd helping to prevent an alleged hate crime at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport (as shown in the video above). Alas, @TheRealPaulRudd was actually thousands of miles away, likely doing nothing, while real American heroes got their hands dirty.

Here, via the Rihanna fan site Jezebel, is an image of the man people on the internet really wanted to be Paul Rudd:

I mean, maybe? That looks like Paul Rudd as remembered from a weeks-old dream. Anyway, we emailed Paul Rudd's publicist about this and she said:

It isn't him. Thanks for checking.

That sounds suspiciously like the statement of a PR person whose client was happy to not be involved in the prevention of a homophobic beating, eh? What is Paul Rudd hiding?

Vanity Fair, by the way, heard the same thing from Rudd's publicist. Neither of us heard confirmation that Paul Rudd would have stopped this attack if given the opportunity.

Makes you think.