Is it Bill Murray or Tom Hanks? It’s a tougher question than you might think

WASHINGTON – Last year, it was the question of whether the dress was white and gold or blue and black. Now, the perceptional question is: Bill Murray or Tom Hanks?

Laura DiMichele-Ross posted a picture of her son, Alexander, in mid-bawl on Facebook’s Reasons My Son is Crying page in 2013, after a vacation at the St. Andrews golf course, in Scotland. The photo of mother and child included a famous actor mimicking Alexander’s scrunched-up face.

Almost immediately the questions went up: Is that Bill Murray or Tom Hanks? DiMichele-Ross said in the original post that it was Murray; it took only 10 minutes for a commenter to opine that it looked a lot like Hanks.

DiMichele-Ross maintained that it was Murray, adding that he signed the photo when she and her husband ran into him again in 2014. She told the BBC that Alexander, now 4 1/2 years old, likes “Ghostbusters” doesn’t know about his viral fame, that the controversy flares up again every few months, and that her favorite comment on the photo is “It’s definitely Tom Hanks because that’s his wife in the photo.”

The real question is: Did you ever think Bill Murray and Tom Hanks looked alike?

Now, let’s get on to the important stuff: Are these legs shiny, or do they have streaks of paint or cream on them?

(P.S.: The dress was white and gold. Don’t let anyone tell you different.)