Celebrity death hoaxes -- are they funny?

With all of the shocking deaths out there in Celebrity Land of late you might be forgiven for believing any ridiculous rumour you read online.

Shockingly, however, it turns out the Internet isn't a very reliable source of information.

Who knew?

In the last 48 hours a whole busload of stars have been outed as deceased by the Internet, before later being proven well and truly alive.

Earlier this week Jeff Goldblum fell off a cliff in New Zealand according to Twitter users, and an Australian news outlet even reported the story as fact. Suddenly "jeff goldblum dead" became a top-5 search term on Google, forcing the New Zealand police to issue an official denial. Goldblum had turned up on American TV to prove that he was alive all along. Oops.

It doesn't end there. Britney Spears, Harrison Ford, Miley Cyrus and George Clooney have also been through the false-death wringer in the last few days.

Most recently of all Rick Astley 'died' while on tour in Berlin, and was mourned by millions of Internet users only to be found alive and confused somewhere completely different.

Sadly there is nothing we can do about these death hoaxes. Our strategy? Just don't believe everything you read...

Wait -- hold on -- the news has just come in! David Bowie has been eaten by a shark! OMG!!!11!