Starsuckers celebrity hoax dupes tabloids

[Ian David]

Starsuckers celebrity hoax dupes tabloids
From 'flamey' Amy Winehouse to Russell Brand the banker, documentary team's fake celebrity stories fooled editors

The plan to subvert the pages of some of Fleet Street's bestselling newspapers was hatched in a windowless office in east London. For months, a team of documentary makers had sat in the Brick Lane film studio they called "the cell", trawling through tabloid clippings in search of stories they could prove were untrue.

They decided to concoct an experiment to test their theory that tabloid editors sometimes publish celebrity stories with scant regard for the truth.

<snip>

Atkins and his producers decided the answer was to pose as members of the public and offer completely fictitious stories to the tabloid press about well-known figures. Their first call, on 18 March, concerned a fictional sighting of the Canadian singer Avril Lavigne asleep at the nightclub Bungalow 8.

<snip>

Using aliases such as "Gigi" and "Neve O'Looney" that, Atkins claims, should have rung alarm bells, the filmmakers called the "Got a story?" telephone numbers advertised in newspapers.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/14/starsuckers-tabloids-hoax-celebrities