Despite what you probably think, Will Smith isn't a Nazi. And he certainly doesn't have an Adolf Hitler poster on his bedroom wall that he strokes before he goes to sleep.

That's a stone cold fact. Will Smith legally doesn't have an embarrassing schoolboy infatuation with Adolf Hitler, and if you say he does he'll sue you. And win.

Will Smith has won damages after a news agency ran an article called Smith: Hitler Was A Good Person last year. Great news – by suing, Will Smith has not only fixed a weird misapprehension about his beliefs, but he's also effectively ruled out the rumoured Will Smith Adolf Hitler biopic. Thank god – we're pretty sure the world can live without a rap-lite movie theme-tune containing the phrase 'Indomitable Fuhrer' repeated several times in the chorus.

Some say that Will Smith is the biggest movie star in the world. That's probably true, because his movies always break records and top box offices no matter how brain-damagingly dreadful they are. But even though there are tens of up-and-coming actors waiting to take his place – like Shia LaBeouf and, um, look, let's just pretend that others exist, OK? – Will Smith has decided to use now to speak out on a range on crackpot subjects.

Will Smith giving an endorsement to Scientology and then following it up by handing out Scientology audit passes as wrap gifts on his newest movie set off a few alarms. But then again, if alarms don't go off when a man chronically compelled to only make films about himself saving the world decides to align himself with a faith that believes humans were created when a monster dropped an atom bomb into a volcano. And, clearly, once you've let Scientology into your life, the next logical step is Nazism.

Tom Cruise has done it – his next movie is all about the Nazis. John Travolta is doing it – his next movie is called Look Who's Talking About Exterminating All The Jews – and we heard unsubstantiated rumours about Kirstie Alley eating a colossal swastika burrito formation once, too. But Will Smith? Nazis? Surely he wouldn't be so foolish.

Well, yes and no. In an interview for a Scottish newspaper last year, Will Smith vaguely touched on the subject that Adolf Hitler probably didn't see himself as the most evil man in history all the time, which was regurgitated around the world as headlines like Will Smith Thinks Hitler Is Brilliant, Will Smith Wishes That His Own Father Was More Like Hitler and Will Smith Wants To Exhume Hitler's Corpse, Dress Him Up All Pretty And Kiss Him On The Mouth. Or, more accurately, WENN's Smith: Hitler Was A Good Person.

And Will Smith, alarmed at the deliberate misrepresentation, sued WENN. And now he's won, as The Telegraph reports:

The Hollywood actor Will Smith has received a public apology and damages in the High Court in London over allegations he thought Adolf Hitler was "a good person". Smith, one of the film industry's highest paid stars, was "deeply distressed" after World Entertainment News Network (WENN) published an article last year under the headline "Smith: Hitler was a good person", the High Court heard. Smith's solicitor, Rachel Atkins, said the Men In Black star was wholly misrepresented in his comments and, contrary to the report, "believes that Adolf Hitler was a vile and heinous man".

This ordeal over, Will Smith can now relax in the knowledge that nobody really thinks he has a secret fondness for berserkoid dictators with unlimited power and dangerously unstable egos who are hell-bent on making the world a living misery for all of its inhabitants.

So he'll probably need to get out of the movie business, then.

Read more:

Will Smith wins damages over 'Hitler was good' slur - Telegraph