Celebrity Death Hoaxes

News of the deaths of pop legend Michael Jackson and Charlie’s Angels star Farrah Fawcett broke within hours of each other, sending fans and gossip site readers into a spin. In Jackson’s case, many initially believed the story to be fake – the superstar was just 50 years old and on the cusp of a comeback at the O2 Arena.

 

Millions worldwide, fans and non-fans alike, were stunned by the news. Then, just when people's defences were down, reports of several other celebrity deaths spread quickly. Well, if the king of pop could die unexpectedly, so could anyone else, surely?

 

Just hours after Michael’s death was confirmed on June 25, a rumour spread that Jurassic Park actor Jeff Goldblum had died in a cliff accident while shooting his new film in New Zealand. The story spread so fast that the phrase ‘Jeff Goldblum dead’ became one of the top five most searched for terms on the internet.

 

Michael Jackson tribute

The actor’s publicist was forced to release a statement rubbishing the story. “Reports that Jeff Goldblum has passed away are completely untrue. He is fine and in Los Angeles,” it read.

 

Shortly after, a post on Britney Spears’ official Twitter page – which had been hacked – announced: “Britney has passed today. It is a sad day for everyone. More news to come.” The post was quickly removed by the star’s managers and replaced with a message reassuring worried fans that Britney was in fact enjoying a day relaxing at home.

 

But that wasn’t the end of it. As fans were reeling from Jacko’s death, and apparent near-misses for Goldblum and Spears, George Clooney was pronounced dead in a number of web reports, prompting journalists and worried friends to bombard the star’s publicist with phone messages. Again, the actor was fine.

 

Eighties pop icon Rick Astley, meanwhile, was reported on Twitter to have been found dead in a Berlin hotel room on June 26 until, several hours later, he rose from the dead to post on his website that he was in perfect health and available for gig bookings.

Unbelievably, there were more to come: Natalie Portman was reportedly killed in an accident on the set of her latest movie Swan Song, Harrison Ford was said to have been on board a yacht which sank in the French Riviera, a spoof news report claimed Matt Damon had died in a plane crash and Miley Cyrus – who was also a victim of a death hoax less than a year ago – was reported to have been in a car accident. P Diddy, Bruce Willis and TV host Ellen DeGeneres were also said to have passed away. All reports were untrue.

 

So who was starting the rumours? Some came from spoof news sites, others from attention seekers wishing to take advantage of the media frenzy surrounding the death of someone famous. Thanks to the internet, rumours can spread worldwide almost instantaneously as fans, bloggers and even some news agencies spread stories without getting verification, to the extent that a star must release an official statement to set the record straight. The ease of watching a rumour you started spread across websites such as Twitter proves irresistible to some.

 

Social networking commentator Axel Bruns said internet hoaxes often increase after celebrity deaths because the timing makes them appear more feasible. “People have heard about some genuine cases where celebrities have died and it makes other shocking news seem somehow more credible,” Dr Bruns explained. People have always been good at spreading rumours, the internet has just “sped up the process and amplified it”.

 

The old adage rings true: don’t believe everything you read! Unless you see it on MSN, of course...

 

Michael Jackson tribute

 

The views in this column are those of the author alone and not of MSN/Microsoft