No one knows better than EW that this week that, as Jon Stewart said on last night's Daily Show, anyone who ever meant anything to anyone is dead. Or at least it seems that way. The inevitable effect in the Internet age? Crazy death hoaxes! The most recent: Rick Astley, who, for the record, is alive and well.
Are people always trying to start these rumors, but simply succeeding thanks to this celebrity-death-filled week? I don't know, but that makes sense: Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays...like any truly random combination of celebrities, their juxtaposition makes it feel all that more surreal. The combination of true legend and pitchman, of beauty icon and early-TV fixture, of tragic tabloid targets (Fawcett and Jackson) and onetime punchlines (Jackson and Mays)...it all seems like a crazy celebrity Mad Lib and makes it feel like hey, if those four people can go in the same week, anything's possible. If you'd showed us, say, this week's forthcoming issue of EW two weeks ago, we'd have thought it was some sick joke. So naturally, this has all made fertile ground for, well, sick jokes.
Presumably born of people's dark musings as they watch endless hours of Fawcett/Jackson coverage -- can you imagine if George Clooney died now, too? could Natalie Portman be dead? -- and the rumor power of the blogosphere, the death hoaxes have been coming fast and furious this week. The first, from what I can tell, was Jeff Goldblum -- whose rumored death hit while news outlets were only just reporting Jackson's shocking demise. That choice of celebrity seemed almost eerily well-planned: He's just the right level of fame (Madonna or Britney Spears at that moment would've seemed too big to be true). And because we don't follow his every move so religiously in the gossip pages, anything happening to him without much warning seemed plausible, from a movie-set accident to an unforeseen illness. For the record, we are thrilled and relieved and grateful to report that all of these talented, rumored-dead folks are still with us.
What do you think, PopWatchers? Why so many rumored deaths to go along with our devastatingly real ones this week? Have any of the rumors upset you more than the others? Will we ever figure out a way to control the Internet's growing rumor mill?
Because I needed a break from the current news cycle, I decided to go to my happy place, which is currently The Hangover's Bradley Cooper. While the answer to Best Week Ever's Michelle Collins' NSFW query remains a mystery, Cooper did recently comment on two other burning questions: What was he doing having dinner with Jennifer Aniston (don't even pretend like you didn't send that link to friends with a frowny face) and what hair product does he use?
As for Aniston, he told People, in French, apparently, since he was at a Louis Vuitton menswear event in Paris, "She's a friend of mine. Simply, simply, just a friend....In America, it's not like it is here. She's someone who is super, super known. Famous. If someone says 'hello' to her, it's given that he's fallen in love with her. So, no. No. She's a very, very interesting woman, but she's simply a friend." (Point for saying that Aniston isn't A-list in France; point taken away for referring to her as "very, very interesting." Pretty sure she's one "very" -- tops.)
Moving on to "the hair," we go to Allure's Daily Beauty Reporter blog. They cornered him at the Whitney Art Party in NYC, and asked how he creates that "perfectly messy lion's mane." Cooper told them it's a two-step process: Redken Rewind 06 Pliable Styling Paste and "the other is this product I discovered years ago on a set -- you can only buy it online, but I can't say what it is because it's a secret." (Point for how color-coordinated our bathroom sink would be since I'm a Redken Rough Paste 12 Working Material girl; point taken away for him using more product than me.)
Thank you, MTV, for shattering my faith in reality (television). While promoting her new book, L.A. Candy, former Hills star Lauren Conrad visited The View -- and revealed the truth behind Spencer's on-screen apology for that whole sex-tape-rumor situation. When Elisabeth Hasselback asked the aspiring novelist whether she thought Mr. Pratt's mea culpa was sincere, Conrad responded: "Umm... I mean..." (Spit it out, girl!) "To be perfectly honest, I wasn't on the other line of that call... So no, I didn't get an apology." Lauren went on to explain that she went to the unholy Speidi wedding because "I might some day regret not doing it." I can't tell you how shocked -- shocked! -- we here at EW are to learn that The Hills might take creative license with... Oh, forget it. I can't even muster up enough energy to finish that sentence.
This hilarious but totally bogus story -- about a mutant zombie strain of the swine flu and designed to look like a legit BBC News story -- is making quite the splash on Twitter. The link to the story has been retweeted (in other words, shared on user's Twitter feeds), at last check, 720 times, according to Tweetmeme, a website designed to aggregate which links are getting the most play on Twitter at any given moment. Even more interesting is that the story -- which is undoubtedly a complete fake as it makes claims like a Netherlands boy dying and then rising from the dead and lunging at his mother, among other crazy things -- is listed on Tweetmeme's homepage with this very misleading and official-looking moniker: BBC NEWS | Europe | EU quarantines London in swine flu panic. And it's right alongside actually legit BBC News stories, like this: BBC News | Health | What scientists know about swine flu, which is also being retweeted but not nearly as much. Shouldn't someone at Tweetmeme catch the potential panic such a legit-but-bogus link could incite?
If you look at what the Twitter community is saying when posting the fake link, it's a mixed bag. Everything from tongue-in-cheek takes -- "OMG! Swine flu virus has mutation...and it's now creating zombies!" says user redrisker -- to the dismissive: "Great example about trust and checking sources," Tweeted user MeManders.
Another interesting dimension to this story is the URL that's used for the hoax. Just look at it: http://bouncewith.me.uk/europe/8027043.htm. Clearly, you're not being directed to the BBC News website. But it's important to remember that, on Twitter at least, a good portion of the URLs posted are turned into "short links," which save space. So users rarely look at what they're clicking on anymore -- until they get to the destination. Checking the URL, and whether it redirected to a legit website, may or may not happen.
In this case, thankfully, most users seem to get the fact that the story is a joke, but we do seem to have the ideal forum for a potential War of the Worlds-like event. And how could this affect entertainment news? (For instance, could the Jaleel White suicide rumor from a few years back have gone nuts on Twitter? Hehe.) Does this silly little, yet entertaining, communication application have the potential to spread panic? I surely think so, especially since it's so unpoliced. But what say you, PopWatchers?
Everyone's a-buzz today about the lousy focus-group results for Parks and Recreation, the new Amy Poehler-led Office-style mockumentary, which according to an apparently leaked report, didn't test well. NBC honcho Ben Silverman tells EW that "all of the research we do around initial rough cuts is negative," and that it's common for successful shows to have crummy focus group results. (No joke.) Silverman confidence or no -- I mean, the guy greenlit Knight Rider -- I'm still really looking forward to Parks and feel largely able to dismiss the concerns raised in this focus group report. Behold, y'all:
Complaint: It's too much like The Office First, that's like complaining that your boyfriend looks too much like Brad Pitt. But I'll bite: When The Office first premiered, I hated how closely it hewed to the UK's original -- it seemed derivative and redundant. Over the course of its first season, and particularly through its second, however, the US version really found its own unique voice. It's possible that Parks does feel too much like its progenitor, but that's far from an unsolvable or surprising problem.
Complaint: "[A]ll the men in the show were seen as 'sleazy' in one way or another...there are no 'datable' [male characters.]" I guess that means more Aziz Ansari and Chris Pratt for me? (Just kidding, Anna Faris, I hope you guys are really happy togeths.) Sleaze has a way of growing on you: Barney on How I Met Your Mother, Jack on 30 Rock, Chuck on Gossip Girl, Sawyer on the early seasons of Lost, and House on House could all be considered sleazy in some contexts, but that's hardly limited their appeal. Not worried. Plus...not every show has to be about boning. I can handle 22 minutes without sexual tension.
Complaint: The pacing is too slow, and "many were confused as to the reasons and motivations behind the 'documentary.'" If the pacing actually is too slow, or the show actually is confusing, those are both common issues for pilots. But they're also issues that people had with The Office, and that show's pacing doesn't bother me at all, nor do I want an explanation of the documentary format. I like the mystery of it all!
Okay, PopWatchers, how are you feeling about Parks and Recreation? Excited? Cautiously so? Or totally tuned out?
When director Bruce Hendricks told MTV that he'd like to follow up his 3-D Miley Cyrus and Jonas Brothers concert films with a similar Bruce Springsteen flick, he was just thinking out loud -- working on a dream, if you will. For the record, Springsteen's camp declined to comment when I asked if he would ever be interested in such a project. But hey, that's no reason not to think about how cool this hypothetical movie would be!
If the Boss ever did decide to make a 3-D concert film, I would be buying my tickets faster than you can say Nebraska. As most anyone who's seen the E Street Band in person, or even on TV at the Super Bowl, can attest, they put on a show like no other. It's practically a religious experience. I don't think there's any way a strip of projected celluloid could do justice to the experience of witnessing Bruce play without using all three dimensions -- hell, they might have to look into manufacturing some 4-D or 5-D glasses to truly capture the magic.
In all seriousness, Bruce has enough dedicated fans out there that I bet this theoretical movie could bring in some serious box office coin. Maybe it would even be enough to single-handedly revive the concert-film genre...or not, considering how that JoBros movie did. You tell me: If the Boss showed up on a 3-D screen near you, would you not be tempted to put those special specs back on? How about if the movie was guaranteed to re-create his infamous crotch-into-camera slam from the Super Bowl (embedded below to refresh your memory) in lifelike 3-D?
Kanye West is nothing if not a man of strong opinions, so it's not too huge a shock to hear (via a Reuters report) that he might have shared some controversial thoughts with the studio audience while taping his episode of VH1's Storytellers, which airs tomorrow night. According to Reuters, Kanye lashed out at Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke for somehow snubbing him backstage at the Grammys, which raises the question of whether Kanye has ever seen an interview with Thom. (Blindingly awesome creative genius, yes; enthusiastic green-room schmoozer, possibly not.) Reuters also says that Kanye went on a tirade against those who are quick to judge Michael Phelps (word) -- as well as defending Chris Brown, Michael Jackson, and O.J. Simpson. "Can't we give Chris a break?... O.J. Simpson, amazing. Is he not? What he did, when he did, what he did. Was he not amazing though?" Uh, no comment on that one, Yeezy.
Reuters says many of these remarks got cut from the final VH1 broadcast, so it'll be hard for anyone to tell whether those quotes made more sense in context. (VH1 has issued a statement saying that "Every show/concert performance that's taped for television goes through an editing process and this episode of Storytellers is not unique to that"; Kanye's reps haven't replied to my e-mail asking for comment on this.) So given that all this should probably be taken with a grain of salt, what do you think? Does this make you more or less interested in watching Kanye's Storytellers? And if you do watch it, what do you think are the chances that you'll ignore whatever he says in between songs and end up saying, "Was he not amazing though?"
Radiohead's publicist assures me that rumors of frontman Thom Yorke contributing music to McG's movie Terminator Salvation are, yep, just rumors -- something that everyone who's at all familiar with the respective oeuvres of Thom Yorke and McG already knew. (Let's just say Thom has never struck me as an action-packed popcorn flick kinda guy.) Now that that's cleared up, though, can I play devil's advocate for a second?
Some of Radiohead's best work over the years has been tied to movies. They wrote the immortal "Exit Music (for a Film)" for the closing credits of 1996's Romeo + Juliet, which also prominently featured their excellent B-side "Talk Show Host" (below). Ten years later, Yorke gave his new solo song "Black Swan" to A Scanner Darkly. And guitarist Jonny Greenwood penned the score for 2007's There Will Be Blood -- by far my favorite part of that film. Meanwhile, Yorke and Greenwood both participated in a handful of awesome Roxy Music covers for 1998's Velvet Goldmine, while Greenwood and drummer Phil Selway played a song in a Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire outtake. I could go on like this for days!
McG's Terminator reboot isn't the most obvious next step for Yorke in that (mostly) arty procession, sure. But I'm a reasonably committed fan of the sci-fi franchise -- even liked T3 -- so I'll probably end up seeing Salvation in theaters. It would sure make my day if my favorite avant-garde auteur had something to do with it. Never gonna happen, I know. And this pairing could have turned out to be totally weird and jarring. But am I the only one who thinks that it could, maybe, have been potentially kind of cool if this were more than just a rumor (which it's not)?
More on Radiohead and the Terminator movies: Terminator Salvation is in our Comic-Con Gallery The first two Terminators are on our Sci-Fi 25 Radiohead's marching-band-assisted Grammys performance took top honors in our gallery Radiohead won a choice spot in our Indie Rock 25
Hey, they're making a movie about the Doors with a soulful rebel-type actor who was born about 40-plus years ago! No, not that one. I'm talking about When You're Strange, the upcoming Doors documentary that Johnny Depp is reportedly going to narrate. Now, it arguably would have been way cooler if Val Kilmer had reprised his famous Jim Morrison portrayal as this movie's narrator -- but old Val is rumored to be contemplating a run for governor of New
Mexico, so you've gotta assume he was just too busy. Oh well. Anyway, as someone who's honestly never been the world's biggest Doors fan but does think Johnny Depp is a very hip guy, I'm somewhat more interested in seeing this documentary now. How about you? Does this make you more or less likely to seek out When You're Strange?
"Led Zeppelin are over!" Jimmy Page's manager is telling reporters today. "If you didn't see them in 2007, you missed them. It's done. I can't be any clearer than that." That sure does sound like a final death knell for the long-brewing rumors that Page, John Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham (son of late drummer John Bonham) would get back together for a tour or even an album without reunion-shy frontman Robert Plant. Of course, just a couple days ago this same manager was eagerly stirring up those very rumors in interviews. So who's really to say whether any or all surviving band members might change their minds again tomorrow?
Even as a pretty big Zeppelin fan, though, I can't say I'm too disappointed at this news. I'm still kicking myself for missing that lone '07 reunion show, where Plant joined the Page/Jones/son-of-Bonham lineup. But with Plant busy recording awesome bluegrass albums or riding unicorns or whatever it is that he likes to do with his free time, a repeat of that event has likely been out of the question for a while now. And what would even be the point of going to see a "Led Zeppelin" show that didn't feature his inimitable wail?
But you tell me. Are you sorry that you won't get to see this chimerical Plant-less pseudo-Zep, or are you happy to let sleeping dogs lie and just jam out to Led Zeppelin IV in the comfort of your own home?
Everyone's 
Kanye West is nothing if not a man of strong opinions, so it's not too huge a shock to hear (via 
Hey, they're making a movie about the Doors with a soulful rebel-type actor who was born about 40-plus years ago! No, not 
"Led Zeppelin are over!" Jimmy Page's manager is 
