George Clooney is Not Dead

George Clooney has been forced to deny reports that he died.

The Ocean's Thirteen hunk, 48, became the latest star to fall victim to Internet pranksters who spread rumors of his death.

Clooney's publicist Stan Rosenfield was reportedly "bombarded" with calls from media outlets after claims of his passing began to surface. He complained to TMZ that "some of Clooney's friends… were genuinely shaken by [the] reports."

A surge of fake deaths have emerged in the last week, following the genuine deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.

Jeff Goldblum (Law and Order: Criminal Intent) was also a victim of tricksters after an online stunt insisted he had fallen to his death while filming in New Zealand. And Britney Spears had to confirm that she was alive and well after a hacker broke into her Twitter account and sent a message to her two million followers claiming she had died. It was also wrongly rumored that Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder had passed away.

This is so not funny! We hope someone identifies the pranksters and sends similar tweets to their moms! (Not really. Sorry, moms.)
 
 —Gavin Wilson, Splash News