Love them, hate them, read them, believe them — it cannot be denied that conspiracy theories have their place in the pop culture zeitgeist. Experts point out that conspiracy theories tend to flourish during times of unrest, when society is looking for explanations. “We're drawn to conspiracy theories because the amorphous, sinister nature of the conspiracy is far more palatable than the material, sinister nature of power,” Shana Redmond, an English professor at Columbia University who studies the intersection of race, culture, and power, tells Teen Vogue via email. “To grapple with those real things is often harder than developing elaborate stories about how they happen and who is to blame.”
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve surely heard about some of the popular theories in this story. “Even off-the-wall conspiracy theories gain some traction because, one, Hollywood is opaque and we've been taught to imagine that almost anything is possible there given the eccentricities, influence, and income of celebrities," Redmond explains. "Some of [these theories] are grounded in an attempt to explain things that are indisputable (for example, the CIA-assassination rumor of Bob Marley is based in knowledge that the CIA participated in many global assassinations) or things that are politically convenient (like Obama "birthers" who were looking to further weaponize US xenophobia in order to thwart Obama's presidential campaign and fortify Trump's).”
One thing is for sure, though: Conspiracy theories will always be around. (The Illuminati, anyone?) Here are eight of the most popular conspiracy theories in pop culture history:
1. Avril Lavigne was replaced by a doppelgänger.
In the eyes of the public, pop stars can sometimes seem less like actual people and more like personas, which is why some of us may be more inclined to jump to outlandish conclusions about them. (Does anyone remember the “Paul is dead” theory?)
One victim of such thinking: Avril Lavigne. In 2011, a Brazilian fan blog gathered various rumors that had swirled for years about the Canadian singer and published a post called “Avril Is Dead.” This theory alleged the singer was battling depression that ultimately led her to die by suicide shortly after the release of her debut album, Let Go.
A version of the theory asserted that a body double, a woman named Melissa Vandella, was hired to replace Lavigne after her demise, allegedly so the singer's record company might still turn a profit (at least, that is what the theory’s creator implied). Avril Rangers, the nickname for Lavigne’s most die-hard fans, apparently found clues everywhere: what they saw as a different nose; Vandella's apparently shorter height; a mysterious photo featuring “Melissa” written on Lavigne’s hand.
Lavigne has shot down these rumors, but the theory persists, regaining traction every few years.
2. Marilyn Monroe was killed by the government because she knew state secrets.
Cultural icon Marilyn Monroe’s death seems to have sparked a thousand conspiracy theories. The FBI monitored the actor for suspected communist ties, due largely to her romantic relationship with playwright Arthur Miller. And rumors have long swirled that she was John F. Kennedy’s lover, his brother Bobby’s, or both, and that this is the reason she was murdered. Conspiracy theorists have claimed her supposedly close ties to the then president and/or the US attorney general made her privy to sensitive information, making her a liability in the eyes of the national security government.
In 2021, British author Nick Redfern, who writes about Bigfoot, UFOs, aliens, and conspiracy theories, took the Monroe theories a step further when he published his book Diary of Secrets: UFO Conspiracies and the Mysterious Death of Marilyn Monroe. In it he proposed that Monroe was exposed to information that proved the existence of extraterrestrials, though the author does not seem to have believed the claim.
There is little evidence to prove Monroe met with President Kennedy more than twice, much less that he or his brother shared state secrets — about aliens or anything else — with the actor.
3. Lea Michele can’t read.
Glee's Lea Michele is having a professional renaissance after taking up the mantle of Fanny Brice, a role made legendary by Barbra Streisand, in the Broadway revival of Funny Girl. You know what else is experiencing a renaissance? The conspiracy theory that Michele can’t read, which began on the pop culture podcast One More Thang.
During a 2017 episode, the hosts Jaye Hunt and Robert Ackerman were discussing Glee costar Naya Rivera’s memoir Sorry, Not Sorry, which included much behind-the-scenes drama about the cultural phenomenon that was the TV show. One host mentioned a passage about Michele’s refusal to improvise, according to NBC News, and the pair joked that perhaps it was because she couldn’t read. From there, a conspiracy star was born.
After the hosts realized their commentary had gained some internet traction, they hosted a — since deleted — Facebook live that expanded on their joke, turning it into a full-fledged theory. According to Hunt and Ackerman, Michele never learned to read because she had made her Broadway debut at the tender age of eight; since her career had taken off when she was so young, they claimed, Michele never had the time to learn and, after a while, simply didn’t need to.
For her part, Michele has hit back on the conspiracy, stating: “I went to Glee every single day; I knew my lines every single day. And then there's a rumor online that I can't read or write? It's sad. It really is. I think often if I were a man, a lot of this wouldn't be the case.”
4. Taylor Swift is a clone.
The origins of this conspiracy theory are a little murky and the evidence, as usual, is quite lacking. But it possibly began with a satirical piece published by BuzzFeed in 2013. Images related to the piece are no longer available, but they showed performer Zeena Schreck, at the time known as Zeena LaVey, a high priestess of the Church of Satan (founded by her father, Anton LaVey), appearing on Sally Jessy Raphael's daytime talk show, Sally, in 1989.
Schreck soon left the Church of Satan, going on to join the Temple of Set, an ancient Egyptian god, and then formed the Sethian Liberation Movement. Eventually, she began practicing and teaching Tibetan Buddhism.
Basically, the only similarities between Schreck and Taylor Swift are that they both make music and share facial features similar enough to fuel a conspiracy theory. And as Montreal-based photographer François Brunelle’s project “I Am Not A Look-Alike” shows, sharing facial structures with complete strangers isn’t all that rare.
Regardless, the theory that Swift isn’t who she says she is has persisted. Some claim she is a reincarnation of Schreck, despite the fact that Schreck is still alive and well, while others insist Swift is Schreck’s clone — and not the only one. (But if we could clone people, why Schreck?)
This cloning conspiracy is still well-fed due in large part to the corner of YouTube that is exclusively dedicated to finding hidden Satanic messages within mainstream media. After Swift's hiatus from the public eye, conspiracy theorists had a field day upon her return. (But even if she is a clone, I don’t care. I pledge myself to the Church of Swift[ies]!)
5. No one really went to the moon.
The conspiracy theory that says the United States government faked the moon landing — as old as it is baseless — began with the book We Never Went to the Moon: America's Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle, written and self-published in 1976 by Bill Kaysing, a former US Navy officer. Kaysing’s allegations are still referenced today: “unexplained” optical anomalies in the photographs taken on the moon; that the American flag seems to be waving in the wind; and the absence of stars seen from the moon.
Beyond that, the president of the International Flat Earth Research Society has accused NASA of conspiring with Hollywood to produce a fake landing video — directed by Stanley Kubrick and scripted by science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke.
Scholars have posited that the Watergate scandal also played a role in cultivating a moon landing conspiracy theory. Kaysing’s book was published two years after Richard Nixon resigned from the US presidency in disgrace. During Nixon’s time in the White House, trust in the government dropped precipitously. Although it's true that governments do lie to citizens, it’s highly unlikely the US lied about this.
6. Princess Diana was murdered.
Whether you’re an avid watcher of The Crown on Netflix or of the decline of the House of Windsor in real life, you have to admit, there is something deliciously voyeuristic about keeping up with the British royal family. The royals inspire scrutiny and awe, none more so than the late (great) Princess Diana.
The world watched with fascination as kindergarten-teacher Diana Spencer stepped into the limelight to be courted by Charles, the most eligible bachelor-prince in all of Europe (now King Charles III). We celebrated Diana's triumphs, despaired at her humiliations, and we were devastated when she died, in Paris, in the summer of 1997. The tragedy of her death became a critical moment in the cultural zeitgeist, the kind people reference to mark the times.
Conspiracy theories surrounding Diana’s death took off almost immediately, due in part to comments made by Mohammad Al Fayed, the father of the princess's then-boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, who died alongside her. Mohammad alleged that Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, had British security services kill the couple so that Charles, Prince of Wales, could remarry. Mohammad also claimed the royals wanted to prevent Diana and her boyfriend from getting married and having a Muslim child.
The conspiracies morphed from there. Some said it was Charles, not his father, who had plotted Diana’s death. No, no — it was the Queen. Why else would she have been so callous toward Princess Diana? Among the many other conspiracies that circulated, according to the New York Times: Diana was murdered by the Freemasons or Scientologists — or she staged her own death to escape to an island with Dodi.
In total, Mohammad Al Fayed theorized some 175 conspiracies on the motive behind the death of his eldest son, feverishly searching for an answer to his sudden loss. The British government launched Operation Paget to look into the cause of the crash and claims of foul play. When the investigation closed, in 2006, the leader of the inquiry told reporters, “On the evidence available at this time, there was no conspiracy to murder any of the occupants of the car. This was a tragic accident.”
7. JonBenét Ramsey is actually Katy Perry.
JonBenét Ramsey has haunted America’s collective consciousness since her gruesome murder in the winter of 1996, when she was just six years old. The circumstances surrounding the death of the child beauty queen raised eyebrows, including the draft of a ransom note, allegations that the Boulder, Colorado, police bungled the investigation, and most of all, a lack of motive. Why would anyone want to murder a six-year-old girl?
There are many online forums populated by hundreds if not thousands of internet sleuths who are dedicated to answering that question. Many theories allege that one of JonBenét’s family members was responsible. But in 2014, a YouTuber named Dave Johnson published a video proposing an alternative theory: JonBenét became pop star Katy Perry. In Johnson's video, he claimed Ramsey was “sacrificed; that sacrifice was in name only, and that sacrifice was to get something, and that something was to become a star."
This conspiracy theory was a mess from its inception, starting with the fact that Perry is six years older than JonBenét; it is highly unlikely someone could pass off a 12-year-old for a six-year-old. Regardless, Johnson’s video — depicting a slow merge of JonBenét’s features into Perry’s — was popular enough that Perry was asked to address the conspiracy while hosting the MTV VMAs in 2017.
Despite this theory’s eccentricity, Johnson's reasoning does speak to a core motivator for conspiracies: “JonBenét Ramsey did not die, nobody died, nobody got hurt,” he said, encapsulating the reason some among us lend our minds to believing something bizarre and fantastical instead of the terrible truth that a little girl was murdered in cold blood.
8. Author Lewis Carroll was Jack the Ripper.
The real identity of Jack the Ripper has eluded sleuths for more than a century, including after an inconclusive breakthrough. The list of possible suspects even has its own Wikipedia page, ranging from those most likely to be named to the downright outlandish. Perhaps the most left-field suspect is Lewis Carroll, the beloved children's author who wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
In 1996, child psychotherapist and Carroll aficionado Richard Wallace published the novel Jack the Ripper, Light-Hearted Friend, which alleged that Charles L. Dodgson, known by his nom de plume Lewis Carroll, was responsible for one of the most famous killing sprees in history. This theory rested largely on Carroll’s love of anagrams and Wallace's claims that he had decoded hidden confessions of the Ripper murders in two of Carroll’s works, The Nursery “Alice” and Sylvie and Bruno. Wallace pointed to Carroll’s widely known fondness for anagrams and the fact that the author lived and wrote in an area near where the Ripper murders occurred.
Though this conspiracy theory gained enough traction to place Carroll on the list of suspects, its viability was short-lived. After Harper’s magazine published an excerpt of Jack the Ripper, Light-Hearted Friend, two anagram enthusiasts, Francis Heaney and Guy Jacobson, debunked Wallace’s theory in a letter to the editor. They managed to rearrange the letters in the first three sentences of Wallace’s article to show a phony “confession” by Wallace to the murder of Nicole Brown and subsequent setup of O.J. Simpson, while also taking credit for Shakespeare’s sonnets and a lot of Francis Bacon’s work.
In short, it’s true what they say, folks: You can’t believe everything you read.
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