FAMEFLYNETAshton Kutcher would be proud!
Punk'd cohort Justin Bieber proved to be quite the deceiver of Beliebers when he fooled everyone into thinking that his laptop and camera had been stolen, leading to an alleged nude-photo leak.
Now it seems like it was, at least in part, an elaborate publicity stunt to hype his new music video with Nicki Minaj. (Sneaky there, Biebs.)
Brilliant or boneheaded? The jury's still out, but he's certainly not the first celeb prankster to pull off an elaborate stunt. Here are some other (in)famous celeb hoaxes.
Zach Galifianakis Throws Paps Off Wedding Trail With Fake Invitations: You are all cordially invited…to a wild goose chase! As rumors began to ramp up in August that The Hangover star was getting ready to tie the knot with fiancée Quinn Lundberg, the star threw the paps for a loop when he slyly leaked bogus wedding invitations trumping a rehearsal dinner being held at a tea house in Vancouver, Canada, followed by a ceremony at a Greek Orthodox church two days later. The truth? The star and his ladylove were discreetly exchanging vows—and laughs, no doubt—at a farm about eight miles away.
Joaquin Phoenix's I'm Still Here Meltdown: Desperate cry for help or brazen performance art? That was the question on everyone's minds when, in 2008, the star seemed to go into a tailspin after announcing that he was ditching acting to become a rapper. Cue some bizarro antics, which included a spaced-out guest spot on David Letterman's show and culminated in the trainwreck documentary I'm Still Here, in which he appeared to poop on a member of his entourage. It was all later revealed to have been an elaborate hoax that, inarguably, produced the oddest performance of Phoenix's career.
Tracy Morgan "Faints" Onstage at the Emmys: Talk about getting floored by a prank. During the Emmys last month, host Jimmy Kimmel—in an attempt to drum up talk of the show on social media—asked the 30 Rock star to lie onstage and urged viewers to tell Facebook friends and Twitter followers, "OMG Tracy Morgan just passed out on stage at the Emmys. Turn ABC on now." The ploy worked marvelously: "OMG Tracy Morgan" racked up 54,000 tweets shortly afterward, and mentions of Morgan on Facebook went up by 127,300 percent around the same time.