When an exciting story breaks as a rumor, with no official studio confirmation or publicists on board, the denial machine tends to kick in quickly. That goes double when the story is broken by online sites like this one, which--sadly-- still aren't considered in the same league as more typical trades like Variety, Hollywood Reporter and Deadline. So even when online reporters have incredibly reliable information and good track records, their stories will be denied up and down-- even if there's potentially some truth there.
That said, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's publicist gave an unusually strong denial when asked by Hollywood.com about the recent rumor that he would step in to play Batman in the upcoming Justice League movie. They're not sharing more details beyond that, but you have to consider that it would have been easy for the publicist to give a standard "no comment" or a flat "it's not true" denial, leaving room for something to change in the future. They seem to believe it's not happening at all, no matter what. Should we believe them?
Maybe, maybe not-- it depends on how much you like to engage in rumors that may not ever happen. Do you like thinking about possibilities even if what you're hoping for doesn't come true? Or do you get frustrated when all kinds of names are tossed out for a project, only to have something totally different happen in the end? I personally enjoy the game of it, and even when you see the final product it can be fun to think "Hey, what would have happened if Jeremy Renner had been in The Master instead of Joaquin Phoenix?" A rumor like this about Justice League obviously has the power to rile up fans, but I still think it's fun to speculate, even if we're now being told that Gordon-Levitt's tenure as Batman won't actually be happening.
