Fan Fare

Kanye West death hoax hits the Web

Kanye West is alive and well, despite an Internet hoax suggesting that the rap star died in a Los Angeles car crash on Tuesday.

A fake story was circulated via e-mail and on social networking websites saying that West was killed in a collision that left a second person injured, a third arrested for  manslaughter and a fourth person detained by police.

None of it was true. The rap star’s girlfriend, Amber Rose, posted a message on Twitter denying the story. “This ‘RIP Kanye West’ topic is not funny and it’s NOT TRUE!” she wrote, according to news website MTV.com. Her Twitter post has since been taken down.

By Wednesday afternoon, the Kanye death hoax was replaced on Twitter by the following popular wisecrack, repeated by several posters, “Whoever started the RIP Kanye West hoax, Imma let you finish, but Balloon Boy had the best hoax of all time!”

“Balloon Boy” and the drive for reality TV fame

Now that authorities say last week’s balloon boy incident was just a hoax, the public is getting re-acquainted with the underside of reality television. Richard and Mayumi Heene, parents of the 6 year-old boy thought to be trapped in a balloon before he was found in an attic, are expected to be charged this week with making up the whole scenario.

If what authorities are saying about the Heenes is true, they may have been hungering for fame, and saw the hoax as a great way to get a reality TV show. As everyone knows by know, the Heenes already starred in a past episode of the reality show “Wife Swap.”

Michael Jackson “alive” hoax video came from German TV station

German television station RTL has admitted to producing that video that emerged last month and appeared to show Michael Jackson alive and getting out of a Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office van, which spread quickly after it was posted on the Internet.

The station told U.S. news outlet CNN on Tuesday that the video was produced to show how easily rumors can spread online, such as the rumor that Jackson faked his death, used a coroner’s van as his private, incognito “taxi” service and then emerged in the bowels of a building, where he no doubt is hard at work cutting another album for later sale, Tupac-style.