11 Celebrity Hoaxes We Still Can’t Believe Happened

Take a look back at some of the biggest celeb pranks!

By Bruna Nessif, Alana Moskowitz Feb 04, 2017 12:00 PMTags

Gone Girl fans, get ready - on February 7th at 10p.m., Bravo is unveiling their new "OMG - what just happened!?!" dramaImposters is centered on a beautiful, smart, charming young woman named Maddie (Inbar Lavi), with just one tragic flaw: no one knows who she is. All anyone, her former spouses/victims included, have figured out about their con-artist bride, is that she has developed a pattern of marrying people and stealing everything they have. And you thought your ex was bad.

Crazy as it seems, this kind of thing does happen IRL. Turns out, not even celebrities are safe from the hoaxes. Here are eleven times Hollywood was totally trolled:

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1. PSY Look-Alike: Denis Carré, a 34-year-old business consultant from Ireland, pulled a fast one during the Cannes Film Festival, when he pretended to be the Korean rapper and managed to finagle his way into numerous star-studded events in France. It was only a matter of time before the fraudster's hijacks drew the attention of the real PSY, however, who tweeted: "Seems like there's another ME at cannes…say Hi to him."

2. Kyle Massey's Cancer Diagnosis: Death hoaxes are probably one of the most common in Hollywood, but the former Dancing With the Stars competitor was recently faced with numerous rumors claiming he was diagnosed with cancer. That wasn't the case at all, and the actor spoke out on the matter, calling the hoax "classless" and "insensitive."

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3. Kate Middleton's Prank Call: Unfortunately, some hoaxes have really tragic endings. The staff at a London hospital—where a pregnant Kate Middleton was being treated for an acute form of morning sickness—was fooled into releasing private information about Kate's condition to a prank caller impersonating Queen Elizabeth II.

The tricksters, 2Day Australian radio hosts Mel Greig and Michael Christian, apologized for their actions, but that couldn't stop what happened next. The nurse who unwittingly transferred the prank call from the Australian radio hosts was found dead.

Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

4. Manti Te'o's "Girlfriend": This one was a doozy! The Notre Dame linebacker spent much of last fall talking about how his grandmother and girlfriend both died on Sept. 11, 2012, a story that generated plenty of weepy headlines in the lead-up to the National Championship Game. Problem was, an investigation by Deadspin.com revealed Manti's gal-pal, Lennay Kekua, never existed.

"This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online," Te'o said in a statement to media outlets.

"We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her. To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating."

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5. Fifty Shades of Bomer? Fans were extra-excited after seeing an Entertainment Weekly cover showcasing Matt Bomer's beautiful blue eyes and flawless face above the headline "Fifty Shades of Grey: The Wait Is Over" which allegedly leaked to the Internet, but it turned out the cover was simply a convincing hoax.

"Matt Bomer talks about changing the white collar for a grey tie," the fan-Photoshopped cover read, implying that the White Collar star locked down the role of Christian Grey, the mysterious millionaire and male lead in E.L. James' best-seller.

However, as we all know by now, that role was given to Jamie Dornan.

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6. Bieber's Publicity Stunt: Justin Bieber took promoting a new single to the next level. After two days of anonymous Twitter threats from an alleged backstage thief who stole the singer's laptop and threatened to release a nude picture of the celeb, fans found out that the entire set up was to release his music video for "Beauty and a Beat."

7. Brad Paisley and his wife Kimberly Williams-Paisley were victims of a horrible hoax.

The famous couple opened up about forming a fake online relationship with a mother in need, who said that her daughter was dying of cancer. However, as time went on (and more emotions became invested), the Nashville crooner and the actress found out that there was never a dying daughter - they were just pulling the country couple's heartstrings.

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8. 9021-Ohhh: Naturally, there are also times Hollywood gets back at all of us. Jessica Lowndes, the 90210 actress, revealed via Instagram that she and The Stepford Wives actor, Jon Lovitz, were engaged! Given Lovitz is literally more than twice her age and the couple had never been seen together, this came as quite a shock. 

Lowndes would later take to Instagram again, explaining that the engagement ring was part of an elaborate early April Fool's joke to promote the new video for her single, "Deja Vu."

9. Twerking Gone Wrong Right: Jimmy Kimmel was the prank war champion after this one. A viral video titled "Worst Twerk Fail Ever," which snagged more than 9 million views and generated interest from the media, showed a young woman whose ill-fated attempt at twerking resulted in setting herself on fire. Viewers were shocked as to what they saw, but apparently, it was all fake. During Kimmel's late-night TV show, the host interviewed the Kansas City native who stars in the clip, Caitlin Heller, and revealed that he set the whole thing up.

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10. Blake Lively Was Bitter Over Twitter: The Shallows star was victim to some pretty scary internet trolling. Blake Lively had a Twitter account long before she actually signed up for Twitter - in fact, according to the site, she had two verified accounts! Both accounts, which surfaced in 2013, were Twitter verified with over 87,000 followers a piece. There was just one problem: neither of them was actually owned by Blake. As the former Gossip Girl star revealed, "I have fake Twitters and Instagrams. None of them are me." Thankfully, everything was cleared up and Blake has since made her own social media accounts (which are full of adorbs pics and behind-the-scenes of her and hubby Ryan Reynolds).

11. Of course, it's hard to make a list about celebrity hoaxes without acknowledging the efforts of Joaquin Phoenix.

In potentially the most extra prank of all time, Phoenix, with the help of Manchester by the Sea star Casey Affleck, released I'm Still Here, a mockumentary in which the Oscar-winning actor gives everything up to pursue a half-baked rap career. The film received terrible reviews - probably because no one knew it was a joke.

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Imposters, which joins Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce and Odd Mom Out on Bravo's roster of scripted TV, premieres Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 10 p.m. on Bravo. 

(E! and Bravo are both part of the NBC Universal family.) 

(Originally published on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013, at 2:47 p.m. PT)