BREAKING: [Fill in the blank] falls to his death in New Zealand!

No, don't worry, Jeff Goldblum didn't die along with Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett yesterday—and as it turns out, he's not the only actor to have supposedly plunged off a cliff in New Zealand. Blame it on a user-generated fake news site.

Once again, we turn to Snopes.com, one of the most reliable hoax and urban legend directories on the Web.

Snopes had little trouble sniffing out the truth about Goldblum, who was rumored to have fallen "more than 60 feet to his death on the Kauri Cliffs while on-set" in New Zealand. The fake story spread like wildfire on Twitter yesterday, along with phony reports that Harrison Ford had gone missing off the coast of St. Tropez.

Scary story, right? Trouble is, Goldblum's alive—as are Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise, two other actors who've supposedly fallen to their deaths in New Zealand.

Snopes.com has the original "Tom Hanks Falls to His Death in New Zealand" e-mail from 2006, which reads almost exactly like the news flashes about Goldblum: "Preliminary reports from New Zealand Police officials indicate that the actor fell more than 60 feet to his death on the Kauri Cliffs while on-set. Specific details are not yet available."

Even the supposed time of the accident is the same: 4:30 a.m.

About two years later, the same hoax surfaced again—this time with Tom Cruise's name slapped into the story, according to Snopes.

So, what's the deal? Snopes found the source right here: A site called "Fake a Wish," which lets you plug in any name you want into a variety of fake news templates.

I typed in my own name, and within seconds I learned that I, too, had plunged to my death in New Zealand. I also disappeared off the coast of St. Tropez in a luxury yacht (no, I didn't see Harrison Ford on board), but not before I was presumed dead in a private plane crash.

Anyway, the next time someone Twitters about an actor dying tragically on-set at the Kauri Cliffs (who thinks of these details, anyway?), you'll be prepared.

Related:
Cliff Death Hoax [Snopes.com]