These Celebs Had To Make Announcements They Weren't Dead

Publish date: 2024-05-06

On the internet, a lie spreads faster than the truth. Jeff Goldblum learned that the hard way in 2009 when a website reported that he died in New Zealand. According to that fake report, the actor fell off a cliff while filming a new movie. Despite Goldblum being alive and nowhere near a cliff in New Zealand, many of his close friends and family were left heartbroken and shocked by the reports. "Before we got the word out and I could call everybody, yes, my mom. She called and was like, 'Jeffrey, are you alright? Are you alright?' And then a friend of mine [who] very tearfully and hysterically left a message," the actor recalled on "Watch What Happens Live" (via AP).

His family weren't the only ones who believed the hoax — the entire internet did too. In an effort to get the word out that he was still alive, the actor appeared on "The Colbert Report" to jokingly deliver a tribute to himself. "No-one will miss Jeff Goldblum more than me," he told the crowd. "He was not only a friend and mentor, but he was also me." 

Despite the hoax being years in the past, Goldblum jokingly told The New Zealand Herald in 2016 that he's never been to the country and is now too scared to visit. "Could you imagine if that's the way I go? Wow. Could you imagine? 'They foretold the future, he actually did fall off a cliff in New Zealand,'" he joked.

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