The Internet in general, and Twitter in particular, have given rise to a bunch of really bizarre celebrity communiques. Jim Carrey went all BOING-crazy, gave the world a view at one of the more interesting celebrity psychodramas in recent memory, and abruptly stopped using Twitter in May. Scott Baio too suffered a meltdown, only where Carrey’s was crazy and hilarious, Baio’s was nasty and vile. Those are just a couple examples; there are many more out there in the Twittersphere.

And then there’s something like the scenario that’s been playing out this morning, which, battling insomnia, I have been following almost from the beginning. You can find a handy collection of all the relevant tweets here, but the rundown is: Two days ago, Simon Pegg woke up to discover his attic door hanging open. Yesterday morning, he woke up to discover it closed. This morning, he was woken by his dog barking at the attic door, which was again open. Five hours ago, he said he was going to go check it out. He hasn’t been heard from since. His close friend and frequent collaborator Nick Frost then asked Simon’s sister Katy to “pop round” to see if everything was all right. That was four hours ago. She hasn’t been heard from since. Nick then tried to call Simon’s home phone, his mobile phone, and Katy’s mobile. He received no answer. When he finished work an hour ago, Nick went around to Simon’s house. He said the front door was open, that it was cold, that he was nervous. Then he said he could hear his mum. If you are not aware, Nick Frost’s mum is dead. He hasn’t been heard from since, not even when Edgar Wright tweeted him.

So either this is a really well-played publicity stunt, or Simon Pegg, Katy Pegg, and Nick Frost are all dead or missing or being held hostage or experiencing some sort of ungodly terrifying supernatural occurrence. Simon and Nick do have a film coming out, the Greg Mottola-helmed sci-fi comedy Paul, but, um…as far as I can tell, that doesn’t involve soul-raping attic demons. As one of my friends posited, they could be part of viral marketing for Paranormal Activity 2, despite none of them being involved. Simon and Nick–and Edgar–have had some pretty memorable Twitter interactions before, such as that time they created Hot Fuzz slashfic. So again, this could all be an elaborate prank. But I don’t know. I’m kind of alarmed. Maybe it’s because I haven’t slept all night.

In any case, I felt this was weird enough to merit a blog post. Updates (hopefully happy ones) sure to come…

UPDATE: As I suspected after the “I can hear my mum” tweet, it was all a joke. Well, I should’ve suspected so all along, but don’t blame my insomnia-riddled brain for taking it too seriously pre-otherworldly contact. So there you go.