(Page 3 of 4)

The report of Ferrell's death — a clear hoax — represents a different matter. It was a deliberate attempt to deceive the public with a false press release. As devious as it was, however, it wasn't unprecedented.

Last January John Basedow, famous for his "Fitness Made Simple" infomercials, had reportedly died in Thailand, where he was vacationing during the tsunami. The story, published on PRWeb, was quickly retracted, and he's still pumping iron.

The annals of dead wrong death rumors are indeed thick, but here are a few of the strangest:

1. Paul McCartney — Conspiracy theorists ran wild in the late 1960s, chasing rumors that Paul McCartney had died and the surviving Beatles were covering it up to keep the band together. According to one rumor, John Lennon is whispering, "I buried Paul," at the end of "Strawberry Fields Forever." To others, it sounded as if Lennon was saying "I'm very bored," although Lennon later claimed it might have been "cranberry sauce."

The Paul is Dead rumor led many fans to play the song, "Revolution #9" backward. Some claimed they could hear a mysterious chilling voice muttering, "Turn me on, dead man." Others simply damaged their record players.

McCartney finally felt compelled to let people know he was alive. "Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated," he told Life magazine in November 1969, paraphrasing Mark Twain. "However, if I was dead, I'm sure I'd be the last to know."

2. Bobby McFerrin — If you haven't heard a lot of the man who sang "Don't Worry, Be Happy," it isn't because he committed suicide. According to rumors spread by e-mail in the early '90s, the one-hit wonder took his own life. Perhaps it was all started by people who just assumed that no one could really be that happy.

3. Scott Baio — The headline could have been "Joanie Mourns Chachi," but thankfully, the Internet rumor never got that far. But it wasn't so funny in 1999 when a misleading e-mail reached his family. "My parents called me, crying," Baio told The New York Times Magazine. "They heard it from my brother, who heard it on the radio. And they're crying, and I'm thinking, 'Someone died in my family!' Little did I know it was me."