Will Ferrell NOT dead

[U2Girl1978]

Some jerk decided to be funny and say that Will Ferrell died in a paragliding accident. People really need to get a life!

http://www.defamer.com/hollywood/wi...l-not-dead-in-paragliding-accident-160492.php

http://www.thesuperficial.com/archives/2006/03/14/will_ferrell_probably_not_dead.html#comment

http://www.regrettheerror.com/2006/03/will_ferrell_is.html


Los Angeles -- Actor Will Ferrell accidentally died in a freak para-gliding accident yesterday in Torey Pines, Southern California. The accident apparently happened somewhere near the famed paragliding site after a freak wind gush basically blew Ferrell and his companion towards a wooded area where they lost control before crashing into the dense foilage.
Ferrell and his professional guide, Horacio Gomez of Airtek Paragliding Center attempted the jump at around 2 in the afternoon. According to witnesses, the conditions were basically ideal for para-gliding and the weather did'nt pose a problem at all.
The jump started normally as Ferrell and Gomez glided carefully across the vast area and were seemed headed into the righ direction just before what witnesses said a freak wind somehow blew them off course, causing the paragliding professional Gomez to somehow lose control.
As horrified witnesses looked on, the duo headed straight for the dense woods near the jump off point and crashed at an estimated 60 mph hitting the trees as they hurtled to the ground.
Some friends of the actor who witnessed the accident immediately called up 911. The paramedics vainly attempted to revive the two on their way to the nearby UCSD Thornton Hospital in nearby La Jolla.
The duo suffered major injuries to the head and broken bones that caused the death of the two.
In an interview with Will's parents who was John W. Ferrell in real life, Mary and Hubert Ferrell said their sonn died while doing one of the things he loved the most.
Will was a graduate of the University of California where he finished his Sports Information Degree. Will was born on July 16, 1968. He was 36.

 

[Carek1230]

WTF is wrong with people?

Thanks, U2Girl for setting the record straight. News on yet ANOTHER celebrity on my list of favorites

 

[Sevikins]

That was also in the Gothamist blog today... it's a shame, how bored people can be.
Everyone knows that Ron Burgandy, the Anchorman cannot die!

 

[DeadMansParty]

I saw that stupid thing today too on another site. Just plain stupid. I wonder what Will thinks about it, I cant wait to hear his reaction, he'll make it funny.

 

[randhail]

Opie and Anthony (when they were in Boston) years ago pulled a similiar stunt saying that the mayor of Boston had died in a car accident as am April fool's prank. I thought it was clever and originally, but I'm an idiot.

 

[Doozer61]

Our local news guys were talking about a Tom Hanks rumor this weekend too. Said he died in a plane crash. Who really starts this crap?

 

[She Is Raging]

Opie and Anthony (when they were in Boston) years ago pulled a similiar stunt saying that the mayor of Boston had died in a car accident as am April fool's prank. I thought it was clever and originally, but I'm an idiot.

I remember hearing that too. While they were convincing - imagine being his poor family hearing it and not knowing it was fake. That was awful - taking it too far. Joking about someone dying just isnt funny.

I'm not taking a shot at your post or opinion, I just felt really bad for them.

 

[U2Girl1978]

Ahhh that Opie and Anthony stunt. I like them but I thought the prank was tasteless.

They pulled a stunt where they had a couple have sex in a church. They got in so much trouble. Last I heard about the couple is that they died!

 

[Hewson]

Things like "wind gush", "righ" direction and "sonn" should be dead giveaways that this is a fake story.

 

[randhail]

Ahhh that Opie and Anthony stunt. I like them but I thought the prank was tasteless.

They pulled a stunt where they had a couple have sex in a church. They got in so much trouble. Last I heard about the couple is that they died!

Either Opie or Anthony had a heart attack or some heart related issue after that incident. Makes you wonder...

 

[She Is Raging]

Ahhh that Opie and Anthony stunt. I like them but I thought the prank was tasteless.

They pulled a stunt where they had a couple have sex in a church. They got in so much trouble. Last I heard about the couple is that they died!

Yeah... it was a sam adam's sponsored stunt where a couple had sex in St. Patrick's cathedral while on air. Completely tasteless- and disrespectful. One of my local bars still won't supply sam adam's products because of that stunt.

 

[U2Girl1978]

Either Opie or Anthony had a heart attack or some heart related issue after that incident. Makes you wonder...

That was Anthony.

 

[angel_of_L.A.]

Stupid people. I Will Ferrell...Dance Party With Janet Reno will always make me laugh and BOC's "Don't Fear The Reaper" skit, that one is a classic.

Stay classy Will Ferrell.

 

[U2Girl1978]

Saw this on eonline.com


Will Ferrell Still Kicking

by Joal Ryan
Mar 14, 2006, 5:55 PM PT


Will Ferrell is not a graduate of the "University of California." He is not the "sonn" of Hubert and Mary Ferrell. He was not born in July 1968, and if he had been, he wouldn't be 36 years old.

And, no, he is not dead.

As hoaxes go, Tuesday's press release which purported to announce a fatal paragliding accident involving Ferrell wasn't a terribly convincing one. The item, posted on iNewswire.com, was filled with glaring errors of the spelling, mathematical and factual kind.

"Not much to say other than we heard and read about it this morning and reacted accordingly," Ferrell's publicist Matthew Labov said in an email. "There was no point in trying to track [the source] down as it was obviously a hoax."

Obvious or no, the bogus press release--a step up from the way such so-and-so-is-dead stories are typically spread (i.e., email, radio, word of mouth)--did prompt calls to Labov's office from news organizations. The standard response: Ferrell, 38, son of Kay and Lee Ferrell, graduate of the University of Southern California, is "alive and well, and filming a movie in Montreal."

To put a finer point on it, Labov told E! News that, no, the Anchorman star wasn't paragliding Monday in the San Diego area, as claimed in the release. In fact, according to the rep, Ferrell "never has" paraglided anywhere at anytime.

Josh Meyers could vouch for the actor's lack of paragliding skill. He runs the paragliding company, Airtek, that supposedly employed Ferrell's guide and fellow fatality, Horacio Gomez.

"I have no knowledge of Will Ferrell paragliding," Meyers deadpanned Tuesday.

Likewise, Meyers has no knowledge of a Horacio Gomez, or, for that matter, a paraglider who would perish, Will Ferrell-style, in a crash in the "dense woods."

"If we hit trees, we're just fine," Meyers said. "We never die in trees."

Meyers was struck by the number of inaccuracies in the release. Mostly, though, he was struck by the number of phone calls he fielded from Ferrell-curious reporters, starting with one from the New York Times.

"Imagine checking your voice mail, and not being able to get through them as fast as they're coming in," Meyers said.

Meyers theorized that he was dragged into the drama because if one is going to write about paragliding in San Diego, one is probably going to find his company in a Google search. (Drilling down further, Defamer.com theorized that paragliding was selected as the cause of death because of a Ferrell-spoken line in Wedding Crashers about a deadly hang-gliding accident. Not that paragliding and hang gliding are the same thing. They're not, Meyers said.)

More than once, Meyers referred to himself as "amazed"--amazed that a person, demonstrating "an 8th grade level of literacy," could post a "phony little thing" killing off a well-known actor, and implicating a real-life company.

Perhaps what happened, however, wasn't so much amazing, as human--iNewswire, an online press release service that posts items from both paying and non-paying customers, admittedly let one get by.

"The editor thought it sounded like a real press release," said Eric Borgos, president of Impulse Communications, the parent company of iNewswire. "Maybe the person didn't know who Will Ferrell was, which didn't help."

The Ferrell release went up on iNewswire at about 12 or 1 p.m. (ET), Borgos said. After being asked about it a couple of hours later by inquiring reporters, he said, it was removed from the site.

"The problem is we never really had serious news stories like this before," Borgos said. "In cases like this in the future, we'll definitely check it out."

iNewswire tried, but failed to find the source of the bogus Ferrell story. The trickster, a non-paying customer, used a proxy server--the ISP address can't be traced, Borgos explained. All that's known about the anonymous user is that he or she tried, but failed to post about 10-15 other press releases on the site Tuesday, he said, including one that clarified that "Will Ferrell is not really dead."

"Obviously, I understand how bad it is for everyone on [Ferrell's] end," Borgos said.

Actually, as the followup release correctly pointed out, Ferrell is fine.