Faces of the News: Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson

What moviegoers see on the big screen doesn’t always reflect reality. How else explain why Tom Hanks, whose movies have portrayed him as invincible — prevailing over all sorts of strife and trial from polio to pirates to a plane landing on water — got COVID-19?

Hollywood’s A-lister announced on Wednesday that he and his wife, Rita Wilson, had contracted the dreaded coronavirus while shooting an Elvis Presley biopic in Australia.

Hanks, 63, made the announcement on Twitter. It was a revelation that signaled to his fans how much they needed to take the virus seriously.

As late-night TV host Trevor Noah declared: “It’s almost like coronavirus chose Tom Hanks just to send a message to the rest of us. You know, like ‘If I can get Hanks, I can get to anyone.’”

Indeed, the virulent reach of COVID-19 cuts across race and social status and spares no one.

Hanks calm announcement, however, helps.

The couple is in isolation at a hospital in the state of Queensland in Australia.