Eric Charbonneau/WireImage.comNo need to take off your cowboy hats to pay your respects: Reba McEntire is doing just fine, thank you very much.
The hit-making country singer is the latest celeb to literally fall prey to a death hoax that circulated online today, claiming McEntire plunged to her death in a mountainous region of Austria while filming a movie.
So what did she say to set the record straight?
McEntire took to Twitter to reassure fans that she is very much alive and well.
"There is a rumor going around that I died after falling off a mountain in Austria yesterday while shooting a movie," she wrote. "While I would love to be shooting a movie in Austria, I definitely did not fall off a mountain! Nor am I dead! I am alive and kicking!!!"
There you go. At least the singer had a sense of humor about it all: "Oh well," she added. "Have a great day."
So who's the culprit? Looks like it all sprang from celebrity hoaxer extraordinaire Global Associated News, which went so far as to cite sources ("preliminary reports from Austrian Police") and semi-grisly specifics ("the actress fell more than 100 feet to her death").
Ummm…right.
The infamous enterprise has also been responsible for a slew of other notorious death hoaxes, including those involving Owen Wilson and Jeff Goldblum. The "news" site is actually a bogus cover for Fake a Wish, which allows users to create a fake celebrity news report by plugging information into a hoax generator.
"It started off as a practical joke machine seven years ago," the site's founder, Rich Hoover, told us back in 2010. "But people don't read the fine print, and sure enough, it spreads like mad."
Yep, just like the McEntire rumor. At least her fans will be happy to know that she's still doing the singing, and not the fat lady.