Brad Pitt Did Not Die in a Snowboarding Accident

Brad Pitt is the flavor of the day in a recurring celebrity death hoax that will never die. Today Twitter lit up with rumors that Brad Pitt died in a snowboarding accident. The rumor is false.

This rumor can be traced back to the same website that has been responsible for Eddie Murphy’s death reports a few weeks ago. Twitter lit up with the rumor today, and a news-like link was included to give it credibility. The link reported the following story:

Actor Brad Pitt is reported to have died shortly after a snowboard accident earlier today – July 29, 2012.

The actor & novice snowboarder was vacationing at the Zermatt ski resort in Zermatt, Switzerland with family and friends. Witnesses indicate that Brad Pitt lost control of his snowboard and struck a tree at a high rate of speed.

The issue here is that this is a fake website, though few tend to read that far down on the page. Even their disclaimer at the bottom of the pages states:

THIS STORY IS 100% FAKE! this is an entertainment website, and this is a totally fake article based on zero truth and is a complete work of fiction for entertainment purposes! this story was dynamically generated using a generic ‘template’ and is not factual.

This website can automatically generate fake celebrity death stories, typically using the same photos and verbiage. That exact same story and photo are used by the same site to report that Jaden Smith and Eddie Murphy had died. The same photo was also used for Jim Carrey death rumors in 2010, which were obviously false as well.

Here are some other recent Twitter celebrity death rumors:

• Eddie Murphy Did Not Die in a Snowboarding Accident
• Hoax: Is Robin Williams Dead?
• Trending on Twitter: RIP Justin Bieber. NOT True!
• Rumor: Is Mikhail Gorbachev Dead? No!