No need to light the candles and hold a "Shrek" vigil, the rumors of funny man Eddie Murphy's untimely demise are greatly exaggerated. Despite what you might have read on Wednesday about the comedian and "Tower Heist" star dying in a tragic snowboarding accident in Zermatt, Switzerland (hats off to you, creative Internet jokesters), Murphy is simply the latest victim of a celebrity online death hoax.
Murphy, 51, who has allegedly died a number of times before, including several incidents involving snowboards, is just fine according to reports. He once again fell victim to a rumor spread by the rogue site MediaFetcher, which has been behind bogus stories about the alleged recent deaths of everyone from Jon Bon Jovi to Too $hort, Tiger Woods, Vanilla Ice, Jeff Goldblum, Mac Miller and Charlie Sheen.
According to E! Online, Murphy is just fine, despite the story spreading like wildfire on Wednesday. Murphy recently walked the carpet with his new girlfriend, "106 & Park" star Rocsi Diaz, at a pre-BET awards party on July 2.
Murphy's extreme sport death hoax has bubbled up a number of times over the past few months and E! said they can be tied to Internet pranksters at Global Associated News, who have falsely claimed that Goldblum died after falling off a cliff in New Zealand, Adam Sandler bit it during his own snowboarding mishap in Switzerland and Ryan Gosling fell 50 feet to his death from a mountain in the Swiss Alps. It's not just actors who are being falsely bumped off. Fans of Gotye feared the "Somebody That I Used to Know" had taken his own life with a 9 mm shot to the head earlier this month after a comment on CNN's iReport claimed as much. The singer quickly took to Twitter to deny the report, writing "I'm not dead."