14 DAY TRIAL // For almost a month now, a series of pictures has been making the rounds on the Internet but, until not long ago, no one has been able to confirm whether it was the real deal or not. They were supposedly new artwork for Janet Jackson’s 2010 album and had been leaked online by someone on the singer’s camp. Just recently, Wendy Williams revealed on her show that the images in question had actually been doctored by the “Beyonce Hoaxer.”
The “Hoaxer” is a 26-year-old computer-arts student whom the world met when he slipped Howard Stern a doctored recording of Beyonce performing “If I Were a Boy” on the Today Show. Stern did not bother to check if the audio clip he’d been served was genuine and played it as such, claiming the horrible screeches and howls on the tape were actually what came out of Beyonce’s mouth. Williams did not make the same mistake, she says on the show.
According to the television star, Matthew Zeghibe, also known as the “Beyonce Hoaxer,” is also responsible for the fake Jackson photos available online. Williams knows it because she checked with the Jackson camp and has learned they are yet to release any promo material for the album that will drop in 2010. The only thing Janet’s released so far is the song “Make Me” that will not be her upcoming single but is included on the album, still qualified as a work in progress.
We’ve contacted Matthew for a comment on the photos and Williams’ claim that he doctored them, but he is yet to respond. As fans must already know, the so-called promo shots show a statuesque, eerie, thinner version of the singer, bearing a very strong resemblance to late brother Michael, frozen in mid-pose on a chair and with the eyes fixed somewhere outside the range of the camera. One common theory circulated before Wendy Williams’ show was that the pics were fan-made, with no malicious intent.
Not that Matthew would have altered them for malicious purposes, granted he is indeed behind this. As he was also telling Softpedia a while back, whatever parody work he did had no other purpose than showing the world that we must never forget to smile and, most importantly, that we should never take celebrity culture too seriously.
“I simply wanted to give YouTubers a bit of comedic relief. I feel an immense amount of pressure from our struggling economy, and I’m sure the rest of America agrees. We need to change the vibe of our nation! If anything, this simple 4-minute video is a nice departure from our everyday lives. Now, my video serves as a testament to the misinformation on the Internet, the power of pitch-correction, and the emphasis of perfection, placed on performers. This could have been detrimental to Beyonce’s talent... and I would never want that to happen to mine [sic]. Yes, this video could be perceived as me mocking Beyonce’s hard work, but I’m sure if it was done to a rival of Beyonce, her fans would be the first to venerate it, and spread it to the ends of the Internet.” Matthew was saying a while ago, speaking strictly of the altered version of Beyonce’s “If I Were a Boy” performance.