Eddie Murphy is the latest name to trend on Twitter as part of the celebrity death hoax phenomenon. Lots of celebrities have been shocked to receive phone calls from friends, family, and co-workers to find out if they are still alive and kicking or if rumors are true they met an untimely demise. Murphy is just one of the folks a website called Media Fletcher has attacked recently. The celebrity gossip website likes to target star celebs who are well-known but whose names have not been in the press much lately. Oddly enough, most of the people they targeted lately have one thing in common; they are all famous humanitarians.
A new celebrity death hoax hit the internet the first week of February 2012 claiming actor and comedian Eddie Murphy is dead. How funny (not). The Beverly Hills Cop movie series star says he’s very much alive (even if he is not hosting the Oscars). [The rumors are true that he was supposed to replace James Franco and Anne Hathaway but quit and has now been replaced by funny host Billy Crystal.] According to TMZ, “The frenzy [of fake Eddie Murphy rumors were] triggered by MediaFetcher.com.”
TMZ revealed, “The site has been spinning bogus stories about other celebs they claim are dead but are not — including Jon Bon Jovi, Charlie Sheen, Adam Sandler, TooShort, Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Bacon, Luke Perry, Jack Black, Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Tom Green, Mac Miller, Tiger Woods, George Clooney, and others.” That’s quite a large list of star celebs who are still alive — not dead like the media outlet is claiming.
What have they been doing lately with their spare time that’s been keeping them all busy but out of the media spotlight? Helping charities.
Here’s what just a few of these charitable star celebs have been doing lately with all their surplus of life force energy:
- Eddie Murphy supports the Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Nonviolent Social Change and a variety of humanitarian charities that work to cure medical illnesses like cancer.
- Jon Bon Jovi runs the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation.
- Charlie Sheen set up his own foundation called Sheen’s Korner in 2011, donating money to help the family of a man killed in a tragic fall at a baseball stadium, he helped raise money to help the victims of the Japan tsunami, and has used his spoken word tour to help promote bi-polar awareness (although the warlock has not admitted to being manic-depressive).
- Adam Sandler helps out the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
- Dwayne Johnson also volunteers for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
- Kevin Bacon still runs his charity benefit foundation called Six Degrees.
- Jack Black uses his star power to support Children in Need, Stand Up To Cancer, and Room to Read.
- Will Smith and his wife Jada are both alive and well, still married (not divorced or separated) and run the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation.
- Jaden Smith donated his birthday money last year to Charity Water.
- George Clooney is still advocating to help the earthquake victims of Haiti and to end genocide on Darfur.
Thanks to all these famous humanitarians for continuing to do good deeds in their internet afterlife. As for the source of the fake news reports claiming all these people left the world early? Seriously, guys… y’all are not funny.