Charles Porter Posthumously Split Into Twenty-Six Separate People by Streaming Database
A metadata system ruled that Charles Porter's NASCAR, horror and faith-film credits could not belong to one person, so it created twenty-six entries under his name.
On Wednesday, twenty-six separate sympathy cards arrived at the Porter family home, each addressed to a different Charles Porter.
The sender was not confused. A streaming service's content database had split the late Charles Porter into twenty-six distinct people after concluding that no single individual could have played a NASCAR phenom, led a horror thriller, and tended bar in a faith film.
The platform, used by several studios to manage talent records, flagged the credits as incompatible and generated a new entity ID for each. A representative said the system does not decide who a person was. "The graph does," she said. "It found twenty-six."
Porter, who died Monday at 47, also played defensive end at Duke before a back injury sent him toward acting. A separate entry for the Duke defensive end who lost 65 pounds before appearing on House remains under review.
The family's lawyer spent Wednesday morning on hold trying to merge the entries back together. The platform has asked for a notarized statement confirming that was also him.
