Ewan McGregor has a Twitter-happy imposter

There’s a fake Ewan McGregor out there. Fake Ewan has been updating his MySpace page and Twittering like mad. Fake Ewan concludes his updates with jaunty little expressions like “Cheers, mate!” But Real Ewan wants you to know, that’s not him, mate.

Nearly 20,000 people subscribed to the Fake Ewan’s Twitter feed. They got to know this Fake Ewan, who told fans that his Fake Nephew called him “Obi-Wan”. This has been going on for four months, and I guess Real Ewan has just figured out that there was an imposter around. The Guardian has more:

Spare a thought for the 19,639 subscribers to Ewan McGregor‘s Twitter feed. For the past four months they have been treated to regular updates of the actor’s daily routine. When McGregor was “about to enjoy banana pancakes”, they were kept informed. When he “needed some Tylenol extra strength”, they were told about that too.

Now comes the most alarming revelation of all: representatives of the actor claim that the Twitter site and its related MySpace profile are actually run by impostors. “Ewan McGregor does not have a Twitter site or one on MySpace either,” insisted a spokesperson for the Trainspotting star. “Someone is just making it all up.”

Launched last November, the false website purported to offer fans a window into McGregor’s life. In one update, the phoney McGregor reported that he had just “worked with actress Uma Thurman, for Unicef”, while another confessed that “my little nephew calls me Obi-Wan” – a reference to his role in George Lucas’s Star Wars prequels. Most of these missives concluded with a breezy, “Cheers, mate!”

“People monitor his movements and then copy them down,” the spokesperson explained. “We are looking into taking action to have the Twitter site removed.”

For good measure, the phoney Twitter site offers a link to a phoney MySpace profile. “I love motorbikes, my home Scotland, doing charity work for Unicef. Of coarse [sic] my wife and my wee little girls,” enthuses the false McGregor. “If offered I’d be quite happy to make Moulin Rouge Two.”

Ironically, it then signs off with a stern note of warning. “I am very particular about my children being photographed or seen on television,” it reads. “I believe that just because I am famous that does not mean you may invade my privacy.”

McGregor is only the latest in a slew of celebrities to find themselves dogged by an online impostor. Recent months have seen a rash of counterfeit profiles purporting to represent an eclectic range of household names, from David Tennant and Eddie Izzard to Keith Chegwin and Leonard Nimoy. Earlier this month, Harry Potter star Emma Watson was forced to deny rumours posted on a phoney Twitter site that she was about to enroll at Yale University.

From The Guardian

A lot of those posts could totally be real. But here’s the clue that they’re not: Ewan McGregor is too cool to Twitter about Tylenol. Ewan McGregor is too busy actually riding his motorcycle around the world to blog about riding his motorcycle. I do admire the Fake Ewan’s attempt at credibility, though. You can tell the guy did his research. I’d imagine most imposters would mess up with something completely out of character, but Fake Ewan kept it pretty simple. I feel bad for the fans, though. All this time, they thought the Real Ewan was updating them about his life!

Ewan McGregor is shown on the set the film adaptation of Robert Harris’ book ‘The Ghost’ in Sylt, Germany on 2/23/09. Credit: WENN

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