LonelyGirl15, the screen name behind a set of viral videos about a 16-year-old home schooled girl that has captivated YouTube users for quite some time now, has been ousted. Her real name is Jessica Rose, a 19-year-old actress from New Zealand. The publicity stunt has been linked to a professional team of producers who created the video-blog entries for an as yet unknown purpose. Jessica was discovered when one determined web sleuth linked a comment from an article about LonelyGirl15 to a private MySpace page that was then viewed through a Google cache, linked to the name Jessica Rose, and then linked to pictures found by searching Google Images for Jessica Rose. Just remember kids, the moral of this story is, NOTHING disappears once it hits the web.
[LG15.com]
[Via: Boing Boing]
[Via: TMZ.com]
[Via: Silicon Valley Watcher]
Update: The gig is up (and she isn’t even that lonely). Both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times (how’s that for around the globe coverage) have posted stories about the creators of LonelyGirl15. Turns out it was two aspiring filmmakers who intend to continue the story on a separate website (though probably with a much smaller audience now that everyone knows it’s a farce). Guess we’ll just have to wait for another viral video series to come out to take LonelyGirl’s place in our hearts and YouTubes.
[LA Times]
[NY Times]
Update: Here it is, the fruits of all the creators’ labor: The LonelyGirl15 website.
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