Who sparked the bizarre conspiracy theory that Avril Lavigne was replaced by a clone named Melissa, and why does it still persist? Snopes reporter Nur Ibrahim unravels the allure of celebrity death hoaxes, political body double rumors and how to sort the fakes from the facts. Cristen also connects the dots between Avril Lavigne, the Beatles’ Paul McCartney and conspiracy satire gone wrong.

Chapters:

(00:00) Avril Lavigne's Death Hoax: An Introduction

(01:50) The Origins of the Avril Lavigne Replacement Theory

(03:51) Avril's Rise to Fame

(04:30) The Alleged Clone: Melissa Vandella

(05:26) 'Paul Is Dead' All Over Again

(07:11) The Satirical Blog That Started It All

(11:41) The Conspiracy Accidentally Goes Global

(15:29) The Role of Health Scares in Celebrity Death Hoaxes

(17:39) Celebrity Death Hoaxes: A Broader Look

(26:42) Political Figures and Body Double Rumors

(30:20) Fact-Checking in the Age of the Internet

Episode 7 sources and transcript.

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Website: conspiracyshewrote.com

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Conspiracy, She Wrote is an Unladylike Media production, created, hosted and written by Cristen Conger. It's produced by Lushik Lotus-Lee and engineered by Marcus Hahm.

Sound credit: The Hunter by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

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