Lady Gaga, We Hardly Knew Ye

It has been reported that the musical artist, Lady Gaga, is dead at only twenty- three years old. She was both killed by a bomb and a narcotic overdose, according to the latest rumors. She also is promoting her latest album, "The Fame Monster", which will hit stores November 23rd, just in time for Thanksgiving. Lady Gaga exploded onto the music scene when she changed her musical style and her looks with her debut album, "Fame". This album produced four number one hits, including "Poker Face" and "Dance". She is the latest celebrity to fall "victim" to the death rumor mill, following a hodgepodge of celebrities such as; Paul McCartney, Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, George Clooney, Jeff Goldblum, Eminem, Jaclyn Smith, Brittany Spears, and Miley Cyrus, among others. The rumor mill continues to churn them out.

Lady Gaga was born to an Italian family in 1986 as Stefani Germanotta. She learned to play piano by ear at age four and started hitting the clubs at age fourteen. She released her debut album in August of 2008, and to date she has sold over four million copies. She is set to go out on her "Monster Ball" Tour beginning the end of this month. It wasn't until she changed her appearance and style that her career started to take off. She claims that she was destined to make music and it appears that she may have been right. Her name, Lady Gaga, is a play on the Queen song, "Radio Gaga", and she says that Queen and David Bowie were big influences on her as well as Madonna.

The fake celebrity death phenomenon is nothing new. In 1966, it was reported that rock legend Paul McCartney died to the sorrow of millions of teenage girls.The cause of false reports of celebrity deaths can happen for various reasons. First, the emergence of blogs and micro blogs(Twitter) allows any news to travel so much faster than in the past. If there happens to be a brush with death, the rumors can start immediately. In addition, false reports can be caused by name confusion, pseudocide, and pushing the wrong button and releasing a prewritten obituary prematurely. Also, some believe that the artists themselves perpetuate the rumors in order to boost record sales. At any rate, Lady Gaga is not dead, at least not yet. Now we have something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving.