Dead Wrong: 15 Memorable Celebrity Death Hoaxes
CNNMorgan Freeman
the 15 best celebrity death hoaxes
By Tanya Ghahremani
Morgan Freeman
MORGAN FREEMAN, R.I.P.
Year: 2010
How he did NOT die: Last week, as a joke amongst friends, Twitter user @originalcjizzle created a fake retweet from CNN reporting that Freeman had died: “RT @CNN: Breaking News: actor Morgan Freeman has passed away in his Burbank home<< wow legendary actor #RIPmorganfreeman.” CNN vehemently denied reporting the hoax story, but the fact that we fully believed they would misreport something says a lot about the state of journalism in 2010. Good night, and good luck.
Miley Cyrus
MILEY CYRUS, R.I.P.
Year: 2009
How she did NOT die: Like most death hoaxes, this one originated and spread on Twitter. Hannah Montana was believed to be dead for a whole ten minutes when pseudo-celebrity Peaches Geldof tweeted it out. According to her, “industry insider friends” gave her the top-secret scoop that Miley had passed away. Of course, this was tweetle-deed and tweetle-dummed all over the web. Peaches deleted the post after the rumor was quickly proven untrue. At the time, Miley was performing at a concert, very much alive, if annoying enough that many wished her dead.
Paris Hilton
PARIS HILTON, R.I.P.
Year: 2007
How she did NOT die: Remember when Paris Hilton went to jail in 2007? Ah, good times. When the heiress was kickin’ back in the slammer, a few rumors spread around that she’d been found dead—one said a fellow inmate shanked her, another said she committed suicide. Yeah, who cares about consistency? Still, it’s totally believable that Princess Paris would be shanked or that, without being able to nourish her brain by bleaching her roots, that she would go insane and take her fabulous life.
Eminem
EMINEM, R.I.P.
Year: 2000, 2008, 2009
How he did NOT die: The story that now recovering addict Eminem had died in a car crash while high and drunk surfaced in 2000, but it came back with a vengeance in 2008 and 2009. It’s not really the most creative, but it was in the realm of possibility and there was even a fake CNN page. The hoaxers were pretty dedicated, so points for effort.
Britney Spears
BRITNEY SPEARS, R.I.P.
Year: 2001
How she did NOT die: Britney was announced dead several times in 2001, so either someone really had it out for her or they were trying to prep everyone for a future rumor that she’d turned into a zombie or something. Anyway, two of the rumors involved grizzly car crashes—the other car was a pretzel van!—and one involved a drug overdose (typical). They were all debunked quickly, and we’re pretty fucking thankful for that. If they had been true, we would've never witnessed the K-Fed marriage/divorce, Brit going apeshit on a car with a crowbar, or her shaving her hair off.
Lindsay Lohan
LINDSAY LOHAN, R.I.P.
Year:
How she did NOT die:must
Bill Cosby
BILL COSBY, R.I.P.
Year:
How he did NOT die:Larry King Livedo
Will Smith
WILL SMITH, R.I.P.
Year: 2009
How he did NOT die: In 2009, a story popped up that the Fresh Prince had crashed his car in the Hollywood Hills. We’d have believed it more if it was set in Bel Air instead of the Hills, but whatever.
Kanye West
KANYE WEST, R.I.P.
Year: 2009
How he did NOT die: Not long after the famous VMA “I’mma let you finish” debacle, reports began arising that the rapper had been involved in a fatal car crash. It would have been better if they'd said Taylor Swift was behind the wheel of the other car, but hey, not everybody's as perfect Kanye is.
Paul McCartney
PAUL MCCARTNEY, R.I.P.
Year:
How he did NOT die:Abbey Roadmust meanLife
Johnny Knoxville
JOHNNY KNOXVILLE, R.I.P.
Year:
How he did NOT die:Jackass
Tom Hanks
TOM HANKS, R.I.P.
Year:
How he did NOT die:in
Tom Cruise
TOM CRUISE, R.I.P.
Year: 2008
How he did NOT die: The Maverick also wasn’t even in New Zealand when reports started circulating the web saying he’d fallen off a cliff while there. THE SAME CLIFF AS TOM HANKS. Fuck, you guys, be a little more creative. The people who made up that rumor about Johnny Knoxville are carrying this shit.
Jeff Goldblum
JEFF GOLDBLUM, R.I.P.
Year: 2009
How he did NOT die: Yeah, another "fell of a cliff in New Zealand" rumor. It’s because of all the sheep, isn’t it? Do you have nothing else better to do, New Zealand?
Natalie Portman
NATALIE PORTMAN, R.I.P.
Year: 2009
How she did NOT die: So, at this point, we pretty much won’t ever believe it if a celeb is said to have died after falling off a cliff in New Zealand. Seriously, what the fuck is going on over there, is the gravitational pull possessed or something?