Have you ever heard of Ivone Weldon? No? That’s perhaps a bit weird, considering that her striking face has been exposed to millions of people over the years.
Back in 2012, Ivone became famous overnight when she showed up on the red carpet when Sylvester Stallone’s latest movie premiered. Like everyone else at the event, she posed in front of the cameras, and she definitely had a connection to the film.
Ivone’s face was familiar, and many could not help but be captivated by her – but the truth was that she would soon be in the middle of one of Hollywood’s strangest mix-ups.
And when her real identity was revealed, people were left flabbergasted….
The story of Ivone Weldon begins on August 15, 2012. On that very day, The Expendables 2 premiered in Los Angeles, and expectations were high.
Directed by Simon West and written by Sylvester Stallone, the film was undeniably star-studded. The cast included almost every tough guy in Hollywood; Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
On August 15, no one had any idea how the film would be received. But with an estimated $100 million budget, The Expendables 2 grossed over $310 million worldwide and became a commercial success. Particularly outside North America, people loved the movie.
The movie was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first one after leaving office as Governor of California. Another iconic actor, Chuck Norris, agreed to come out of his retirement to appear in the film. He was 71.
“I like using people that had a moment and then maybe have fallen on some hard times and give them another shot. I like those kinds of guys. Someone did it for me and I like to see if I can do it for them,” Sylvester Stallone said.
But let’s head back to the premiere at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on August 15, 2012, in Hollywood, California. Usually, people who attend movie premieres are there because they are part of the cast, crew, production company, or the studio that made the film. Family members of the cast or the production team are also often invited.
The Expendables 2 was no exception. On the red carpet, legendary actors and their families gathered in front of the cameras, smiling. Chuck Norris showed up with his family, and Arnold Schwarzenegger came with his sons. The two ultimate action movie stars, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren were seen laughing and chitchatting.
Of course, the writer Sylvester Stallone was also present. The mega-star came with his wife Jennifer Flavin, and posed for photos with his daughters Scarlet, Sophia, and Sistine.
“Sly’s” famous 91-year-old mother also came to see the movie – or at least that was what everyone thought…
When pictures of the premiere emerged, there was one face that stood out got people’s attention. Many couldn’t believe that Sylvester Stallone’s famous old mother, Jackie Stallone, looked so well and beautiful.
Sure, it was obvious that she had some cosmetic help, but she did not look like your average 91-year-old woman. Of course, some tabloids and magazines couldn’t resist publishing images.
A huge personality and a mother of show business, Jackie Stallone was known for many things. She rose to fame after publishing a series of astrology books in the 1990s. For a while, it felt like Jackie was everywhere. She criticized her son’s girlfriends, scolded her ex-husband on TV shows, and launched lines of face masks and other beauty products.
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
But above all, Jackie Stallone became most famous for a somewhat less flattering reason: Her love affair with plastic surgery.
Over the decades, she changed her appearance drastically – thanks to countless lip injections and facelifts.
So when photographers saw the elderly woman with a large trout pout and slim figure on The Expendables 2 premiere, they just thought it was Jackie.
But soon, the truth came out.
It turned out the woman in the pictures wasn’t Sylvester Stallone’s mother. As you might have guessed by now, the woman was actually a lady named Ivone Weldon.
Ivone Weldon arrives at the premiere of Expendables 2 held at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. (Photo by Frank Trapper/Corbis via Getty Images)
There probably never would have been a misunderstanding if Jackie Stallone had been at the premiere. But on that particular August day in 2012, she stayed home to take care of her daughter, who was ill.
”I’d actually been on the phone to the paramedics that night because she was so bad. There was no question of me ever going to that premiere. I’d told Sylvester that I wasn’t going to be able to make it because I had to be with his sister,” Jackie Stallone told Daily Mail.
It also became a rather uncomfortable situation for Sylvester Stallone.
”He got the shock of his life when he got told that his mother was up ahead of him, making a spectacle of herself. That’s the last place I would have been,” Jackie said.
After a while, the photo agency that originally credited the photos realized their mistake. They did send out an apologetic email, but the damage was already done – the images of “Jackie” were sent out to the world’s media the same night the movie premiered.
In fact, almost every celebrity site had published striking photos and the pictures would haunt Jackie Stallone for a long time to come.
The flamboyant mother of Sylvester Stallone wasn’t flattered when the pictures were made public. Jackie, known for her eccentric way and fearlessness, had no higher thoughts of her lookalike.
“What an ugly woman. Fat arms. Trout pout. Horse face. I thought a face like that went out with the Ice Age. And those bandy legs! If I had a kid with those legs, I would break them and have them put in braces,” she told Daily Mail in 2012 and continued: ‘
“If I had a face like that I wouldn’t leave the house — or at least not without a paper bag over my head. In fact, if I had a face like that I’d probably shoot myself. To be honest, in the end — after I got over the shock — I found it funny. I haven’t had a lot to laugh about recently.”
As you can see, Jackie Stallone wasn’t afraid to share her opinions on Ivone Weldon, but for many, her ranting seemed a little strange considering that she also had put herself under the knife to look younger.
Back in 2012, Jackie claimed that her looks were all-natural, but ultimately, Jackie herself realized that she had crossed a line. Towards the end of her long life, she confessed that she regretted her plastic surgeries.
“I do and actually I’ve got too much, I look like I’ve got a mouth full of nuts, it’s Juvederm (a cosmetic filler), too much of it. I feel as though I look like a chipmunk,” she said.
Jackie, who was born on November 29, 1921, in Washington DC, and lived through all manner of things, including the prohibition, the Great Depression, and World War II, died in her sleep at her home in Los Angeles on September 21, 2020.
But even today, she’s getting mixed up with Ivone Weldon, and the wrong pictures of Jackie are still getting published from time to time.
The story of her lookalike may have been forgotten and some might not know that they are entirely different people, even though most photo agencies have corrected their mistakes. When Jackie passed away in 2020, photos of Ivone surfaced once again.
Ivone Weldon today
One wonders how this could happen and how one of the world’s largest image agencies could mix up two people in this way. To answer that question, we probably need to go back to the real person, Mrs. Weldon.
To begin with, she is a relatively unknown person and no celebrity in that sense. But what we do know is that there was a legitimate reason for her to be at the premiere of The Expendables 2. In fact, she was the mother of one of the producers of the action film, Les Weldon.
Les Weldon is a successful person in Hollywood, and his writing and producing credits includes more than 70 films. Over the years, he has worked with stars such as Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Bruce Willis, and Gerard Butler.
If you look closely at all the pictures where Ivone Weldon first appeared in the spotlight, you can see that she comes hand in hand with a young man that has nothing to do with the Stallone family. Although none of the photographers seemed to notice.
According to a Facebook comment from Ivone, the paparazzi first thought she was the award-winning actress Joan Collins.
“First they yelled Joan Collins and then next morning it changed hahah…that’s what happens when you take photos and they have to have a story behind it…..the press was there to photograph the movie stars in the movie…not me,” she wrote.
She also appeared on the red carpet a few years later, at the premiere of The Expendables 3, held at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Her son Les was a producer of that sequel as well.
Today, Ivone Weldon runs an Instagram account and has a Facebook page, with 1,489 followers but other than that she doesn’t have any kind of online presence.
According to Huffington Post, Ivone has been living in Los Angeles all her life and but we do not know so much more about this woman, who became a famous face overnight and continues to appear on news sites worldwide – most often as a mistake.
Sometimes mistakes happen, and it is inevitable. However, in the case of Ivone Weldon and Jackie Stallone, Ivone seems to take it with easy anyway. Her Facebook page is filled with pictures of her from the movie premieres, and fortunately, she seems to like her images.
We hope that we have straightened out some question marks, so you know next time you see a picture of the beautiful Ivone!
