Top 10 Nutty Conspiracy Theories Involving Celebrities

Did you know that Paul McCartney is actually dead, Elvis is alive, and almost all celebrities work for the Illuminati? None of these are true, probably, but you surely heard of them over the years as they are some of the most pervasive conspiracy theories involving celebs. However, there are plenty more where those came from.

10 Andy Kaufman Faked His Death

There is a long list of celebrities who allegedly faked their deaths, such as Elvis, Tupac, and Jim Morrison. Most of these seem nothing more than wishful thinking on behalf of their fans. In Andy Kaufman’s case, there is, at least, some credibility thanks to his friends and family keeping the idea alive.

Comedian Andy Kaufman—known for his roles in Taxi and Saturday Night Live, his offbeat comedic routines, and his bizarre wrestling feud with Jerry Lawler—died of lung cancer in 1984. That was 33 years ago. So even if Kaufman successfully faked his death, he could have died in the meantime of something unrelated.

Kaufman’s fans believe that faking his death is exactly the kind of thing the comedian would do. His friend and frequent collaborator, Bob Zmuda, released his book The Truth, Finally in 2015.

In it, the comedian states his belief that Andy is alive, claiming the two talked about this idea often. However, Zmuda also said Kaufman intended to return after 30 years, which didn’t happen. Other frequently mentioned deadlines included 1999, at the premiere of Man on the Moon, or 2015, during SNL’s 40th anniversary special.

A bizarre, Kaufman-esque episode came in 2013 courtesy of Andy’s brother, Michael.^[1] During the Andy Kaufman Award held at the Gotham Comedy Club, Michael brought a 24-year-old woman onstage and claimed that she was Andy’s daughter. Moreover, he also said that he had received a letter from Andy in 1999 stating that Andy is alive, happy, and in love. A few days later, Michael backtracked, claiming to be the victim of a hoax.

9 Megan Fox Is A Series Of Clones

Actress Megan Fox’s career has had its fair share of controversies, primarily involving her dismissal from the Transformers franchise following a public feud with director Michael Bay. However, some people contend that she is trying to hide a much darker secret—the fact that she is a clone of the original Megan Fox.

In fact, she might not even be the first fake Megan. According to the people who believe this “theory,” a new Megan Fox is brought out every few years or so as this is the only plausible explanation for why she looks a little different in pictures taken years apart.^[2]

It couldn’t possibly be due to her aging, getting plastic surgery, or just wearing different makeup or hairstyles. As to the perpetrators behind this elaborate conspiracy, people seem to pick their preferred boogeyman—Hollywood, the government, or the Illuminati.

Whether intentional or not, Fox gave a little nod to the conspiracy theory in 2012 when she starred in a commercial (shown above) for Brazilian language school CCAA. In it, two men wash ashore on an island filled with Megan Fox clones but are unable to interact with the clones because the men don’t speak English.

8 Everybody In Hollywood Is Immortal

In 2011, antiques dealer Jack Mord made headlines when he tried to sell a 140-year-old photograph of a man from the Civil War who looked a lot like actor Nicolas Cage. Mord took things one step further and proclaimed that the man was, in fact, Nicolas Cage, and the photo was proof that the actor was an immortal vampire.

The dealer tried to sell his photograph for $1 million. Surprisingly, nobody bought it, but all the attention opened up the floodgates of immortal celebrities.^[3] Soon afterward, a collector from Ontario presented a photo of John Travolta from 1860.

Dozens of other examples followed. Justin Timberlake resembled an unnamed criminal in a 100-year-old photo. Rupert Grint looked like Scottish painter Sir David Wilkie in his self-portrait. Sir Anthony Hopkins looked like a bust of Socrates.

Most rational people see these simply as mild resemblances which are bound to happen given how many people there are in the world. However, if it involves someone famous, then clearly there has to be something more sinister going on.

As far as “explanations” go, not all Hollywood celebrities are thought to be undead vampires because that would be ludicrous. Some are time travelers, others are aliens, and a few are reincarnations.

7 Disney Assassinated Miley Cyrus

You don’t screw around with Disney. That’s a lesson that singer Miley Cyrus allegedly learned the hard way around 2010–2011 when she decided to cast off the kid-friendly persona of Hannah Montana. Apparently, Disney was none too pleased with her new antics involving nudity and drugs and, eventually, made the call to have Miley Cyrus assassinated.^[4]

There is still a debate going on over the specifics of her death. But the “likeliest” scenario involves her getting buried in the desert and replaced with a clone or a look-alike.

Miley Cyrus is no stranger to real controversy. She has also been the target of several other conspiracies, such as the Illuminati using her as a recruitment tool for Satanism or the government relying on Miley to distract the nation whenever Obama did something bad.

However, there is a small flaw in logic with the Disney assassination angle. If the real Miley Cyrus was murdered because she was making the company look bad or disparaging the family name, why would her replacement continue to act the same way?

6 Marisa Tomei Never Won An Oscar

Nowadays, there are numerous movie award shows throughout the year that often have the same winners. So by the time the Academy Awards come, there are few surprises to be had. That wasn’t the case back in 1993 when the award for Best Supporting Actress gave people a genuine shock and also spawned a long-lasting conspiracy theory.

Four of the five nominees were classically trained actresses starring in serious dramas. Most people called Judy Davis in Husbands and Wives or Vanessa Redgrave in Howard’s End the favorite to win. And yet the Oscar went to a relatively unknown Marisa Tomei for her role in the offbeat comedy My Cousin Vinny.

People were not only surprised, but they also thought a mistake had been made. Some believed that the award presenter Jack Palance had read the wrong name and the show organizers were too embarrassed to correct him and just went along with it.

Allegedly, this rumor was given credence by the former son-in-law of an Oscar winner. Some publications, such as The Hollywood Reporter and Entertainment Weekly, covered the story and acknowledged the rumor but never said it was true.

The whole premise of the conspiracy is that the Academy would never want to create such a scene on live television. Except that’s exactly what happened at this year’s awards show when La La Land was mistakenly announced as the winner for Best Picture instead of Moonlight.^[5]

5 Michael Jackson Was Chemically Castrated When He Was Young

To be fair, this list probably could have consisted only of Michael Jackson entries. His entire life was filled with crazy stories, wild conspiracy theories, and disturbing allegations. They continued even after his death. In recent years, rumors sprang up that Jackson’s high-pitched, falsetto voice was the result of chemical castration.

This supposedly happened when Michael was around 12 years old and was faced with a bad case of acne. He underwent a treatment using a hormone called cyproterone acetate which works by blocking male sex hormone receptors. For this reason, the drug is only prescribed to women but is also used to chemically castrate sex offenders.

If this was the case, it would suggest that the castration was accidental. However, some have suggested that the procedure was purposely done on orders from Michael’s father, Joe Jackson, to maintain his singing voice.

The idea of chemical castration came from a French vascular surgeon named Alain Branchereau.^[6] He wrote a book opining that Michael’s voice sounded like that of a castrato and then alleged that the singer underwent the procedure when he was young.

There is one major issue with his hypothesis. By Branchereau’s own admission, taking cyproterone acetate as a child would have stunted the development of Jackson’s larynx for life. Michael’s leaked autopsy revealed that he had an “unremarkable” larynx.

4 Randy Quaid Is Being Hunted By Star Whackers

This conspiracy theory is unique in the sense that the targeted celebrity is the one who circulated it. Randy Quaid is best known for his role in Independence Day as well as minor roles in National Lampoon’s Vacation movies.

His career has mostly faded away over the last decade, thanks mainly to his erratic behavior and a host of scuffles with the law. However, according to Quaid, the real reason for his career’s downward spiral is that he was targeted by the Star Whackers.^[7]

The Star Whackers are a secret Hollywood cabal who scheme to embezzle royalties from stars and make them “disappear” if they become a problem. They were the ones responsible for the deaths of Heath Ledger, Chris Penn, and David Carradine.

Sometimes, the Star Whackers just arrange a scandal like they did with Robert Blake and Mel Gibson. According to Quaid when he first unveiled his “Star Whackers” conspiracy, their new targets were Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and him.

Over the last decade, Quaid and his wife, Evi, have been on the run. Whether or not the Star Whackers were on their trail is hard to say, but the Quaids were dogged by multiple fraud and burglary charges for squatting in homes and skipping on hotel bills.

The Quaids lived in Canada for a while but were denied permanent residency status due to their outstanding warrants. Eventually, they moved back to America and settled in Vermont after dealing with most of their legal issues.

3 Stevie Wonder Can See

For decades, there has been a pervasive rumor that Stevie Wonder, arguably the most successful blind artist of all time, might not be so blind. This stems from the fact that Wonder engages in activities that, apparently, should be off-limits to blind people, such as attending basketball games, wearing watches, and owning television sets. The only solid argument that “truthers” have is a live performance where Stevie catches a falling mic stand.

There are several celebrities who believe this conspiracy theory, chief among them ESPN journalist Bomani Jones. Rapper Diddy and actor Anthony Anderson also said in interviews that Wonder can see, although it’s hard to tell how serious they were.^[8]

As for Stevie, he is taking the rumor in stride and has made several joking references to it over the years. Most recently, Stevie Wonder told a TMZ reporter at the beginning of 2017 that he will, finally, reveal the truth about his eyesight later this year. So maybe, the conspiracy theorists will be proven right on this one.

2 The CIA Killed Bob Marley, Marilyn Monroe, And John Lennon

The CIA is standing at the ready to protect America. Should the need arise, they are not above assassinating beloved entertainers to best serve the country’s interests. At least, that’s what many people believe who blame the Central Intelligence Agency for the deaths of multiple celebrities.

For starters, we have John Lennon. He was shot in 1980 by obsessed fan Mark David Chapman. However, conspiracy theorists opined that Chapman was actually a trained CIA assassin sent to kill Lennon because he was radicalizing America’s youth with leftist politics.

Marilyn Monroe allegedly became a target of the CIA because of an affair with Fidel Castro. Since she was already close with President John F. Kennedy, the agency feared that she might reveal sensitive information to the communist regime.

The story appeared a couple of years ago following the deathbed confession of an alleged CIA operative who carried out 37 assassinations, including that of Monroe.^[9] The story was later proven false, originating on a fake news/satire website.

Finally, there was Bob Marley, who died in 1981 of melanoma originating in his toe. Marley was genuinely the target of an assassination attempt in 1976. Some people came to believe it was orchestrated by the CIA due to the singer’s growing influence in Jamaica. The agency subsequently switched tactics and got Marley to wear some kind of radioactive boot to give him the fatal melanoma.

1 Stanley Kubrick Faked The Moon Landing

Faking the Moon landing is still one of the most popular conspiracy theories out there, decades after the fact. NASA actually made significant effort to debunk the idea again and again, yet new “theories,” books, and documentaries keep cropping up, alleging to have key pieces of evidence which prove, once and for all, that it was faked.

If the Moon landing was, indeed, a hoax, then it has to be one of the most successful hoaxes of all time. And according to some “truthers,” there is one man we have to thank—Stanley Kubrick. His 1968 sci-fi epic, 2001: A Space Odyssey, was nothing short of iconic.

The visuals, in particular, were so groundbreaking that they still hold up decades later. If the government had wanted to fake the Moon landing, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to believe that it would rely on the talents of a visionary such as Kubrick.

The idea of the director’s involvement with the Moon landing came from an interview shortly before Kubrick’s death in 1999 where he allegedly confessed to his role in the hoax. The video has since been dismissed as a fake, and Kubrick’s daughter called the conspiracy a “grotesque lie.”^[10]